How To Build An Online Community: The Ultimate List Of Resources

This is a collection of my favourite and most popular posts from the last two years. It should give you a great overview about both the strategy any the process of creating an online community from scratch.

Before You Begin

• The 11 Fundamental Laws Of Online Communities
• How Do You Build An Online Community?
• The Biggest Benefit Of Building Online Communities

Pre-Launch and Strategy

• A Simple Formula For A Successful Online Community
• 12 Ways To Doom Your Community Before You Launch
• A 3-month Pre-Launch Strategy
• 100 Online Community Ideas
• They Already Do It (Or Want To)
• 2 Short Cuts To A Successful Online Community
• Don’t Compete With Your Own Fans
• Base Your Online Community Around Real People
• 5 Important Lessons For Building An Online Community
• Don’t Target The Wrong People
• How To Make An Accurate Membership Projection

Building An Online Community Website

• How To Design Your Online Community
• Free Online Community Websites
• Test Before You Invest
• The Essential Element Of Your Homepage
• Building A Community For A New Website
• Developing Forum Communities
• The Best Online Community Building Tool On The Planet
• A Great Examples Of Game Mechanics In Online Communities

Launching An Online Community

• How To Find Your Community’s First Members
• Ideas For Launching Your Online Community
• 20 Ways To Start An Online Community
• Create An Easy Reason To Take A Small Step
• Community Building 100.5
• How Small Businesses can Launch Successful Online Communities
• Simple Steps To Creating An Online Community
• You Can Launch An Online Community In 10 Seconds
• Seeding Your Online Community

Growing Your Online Community

• Why People Aren’t Joining Your Online Community
• How To Get More People To Join Your Online Community
• Basic Tactics To Grow Your Online Community Without Any Promotion
• 3 Perfectly Acceptable Ways To Invite Someone To Join Your Online Community
• Using Hashtags To Grow Your Online Community
• Growing From A Social Media Following To Small Groups
• How To Persuade Your Employees To Join Your Online Community
• An Easy Way To Add A Few More Members
• The Problem With Asking Members To Invite Friends
• A Free Invite With Every Purchase

Increasing Participation

• Why People Join And Participate In Online Communities
• People Will Participate In This Community Because…
• 9 Ideas To Revive Your Stale Online Community
• 4 Types Of Contributions You Want Your Members To Make
• 7 Kinds Of Conversations That Always Stimulate Activity
• Fame, Money, Sex, Power
• 10 Excellent Rewards You Can Offer Members That Don’t Cost A Penny
• Why People Stay In Your Online Community
• The Only Way To Keep Everyone Active
• The Big Truth About Motivating Members
• Create A Guide To Be A Top Member
• The Secret To Awesome Content
• Trade Control For Participation
• Writing Content That Bonds Your Online Community
• Every Online Community Needs A Local Newspaper
• Create A Welcome Pack

Managing an Online Community

• A List Of Things A Community Builder Does
• The Unlimited Supply Of Important Work You Need To Do
• The Difference Between Good and Bad Moderators
• Why People Get Aggressive In Your Online Community
• Bonding A Community: The Final Step
• How To Handle Troublemakers
• Why Fights Are So Important
• When Should You Quit?
• Power And Influence
• Never Reward Your Volunteers
• Community Guidelines
• 6 Social Psychology Hacks For Online Community Managers
• 5 Features Of Really Strong Online Communities You Can Embrace

Measurement/ROI

• Community Health Index
• What Matters (and what doesn’t)
• This Wasn’t Part Of The Plan
• How To Check Your Community builder Is Doing As Promised
• A Faith Challenge
• Measuring DIY
• Proving Benefits Of Building A Community
• Me And You, Them And Us

Monetizing

• 10 Ideas To Make Money From Your Online Community
• Becoming A Community Intrapreneur
• 40 Ways To Make Money From Your Online Community
• The Pros And Cons Of Charging For Membership
• Community Souvenirs

Branded Online Communities

• A Requirement For Branded Online Communities
• Decide Between These 2 Types Of Communities
• 6 Huge Advantages Big Organizations Have Over Amateur Community Builders
• How Do Online Communities Make Your Business Money?
• Why Amateurs Build Better Online Communities Than Businesses
• The Usual Errors From The Big Brands
• Failed Corporate Communities
• Your Dream Online Community
• Never Let Your Company Start An Online Community

Resources

• 10 Examples Of Great Online Communities
• A Simple Example Of A Great Online Community
• 8 Brilliant Posts About Online Communities
• Essential Reading For Online Community Managers
• Perhaps The Best Online Community I’ve Seen

Misc

• Great Findings From Social Sciences Applied To Online Communities
• Creating A Community From Your Social Media Efforts
• The 7 Most Likely Ways Your Online Community Will End
• Struggling To Build An Online Community? Try This Easier Approach
• The Easiest Solutions To Your Community’s Biggest Problems
• 10 Steps To Building An Online Community In Your Spare Time

Comments

[Amiek]

Thanks for the great overview! Very usefull for the community plan I'm writing!

[Mike]

Awesome stuff..Thanks for sharing!

[Sebastian]

Really impressive Richard! I've sent this on to a friend of mine who's building a site. Thank you.

[Marcell Purham]

Great post! Very informative article :)

[lauren klein]

Agree - this is a great resource - excellent sharing!

[Ronald]

This is really really great dude !!

One of the best posts i have ever seen!
Great resource for my dutch community