This is a collection of my favourite and most popular posts from the last three years. It should give you a great overview about both the strategy and the process of creating an online community from scratch.
The Online Community Basics
- A Primer About Successful Online Communities
- The 11 Fundamental Laws of Online Communities
- Building An Online Community: How You Start With 0 Members
- How Do You Build An Online Community?
- 7 Contrary Truths About Online Communities
- Don’t Start A Community For Any Of These Reasons
- Basics Community Building Principles
- What Is An Online Community?
- Different Types Of Communities
- The 4 Fundamental Things A Community Provides Its Members
Strategy & Planning
- How To Write A Practical Online Community Plan
- Setting Objectives For Your Online Community
- Settings Targets For Your Online Community
- How Big Should Your Community Be?
- Which Communities Tend To Succeed?
- Why Will People Participate In Your Online Community?
- Getting The Appeal Right
- A Simple Formula For A Successful Online Community
- They Already Do It (Or Want To)
- Base Your Online Community Around Real People
- Don’t Target The Wrong People
- How To Make An Accurate Membership Projection
- Naming Your Online Community
- 12 Ways To Doom Your Community Before You Launch
- A 3-month Pre-Launch Strategy
Building An Online Community Website
- Test Before You Invest
- How To Design Your Online Community
- 20 Things That Should Be Included In Every Online Community Website
- The Perfect Landing Page
- 8 Overlooked Elements Every Online Community Should Have
- Developing Forum Communities
- Easy Ways To Add Value To Your Online Community
- A Simple Reputation System
- Stopping Human Spammers
- 7 Things A Community Can Live Without
Launching An Online Community
- 5 Things Every New Online Community Should Focus On
- 20 Ways To Start An Online Community
- Never Wait For The Website To Be Ready
- Seeding Your Online Community
- Who Are You Trying To Reach?
- Who Do You Need At The Beginning?
- How To Find Your Community’s First Members
- The Founder Role In Starting A New Community
- Create An Easy Reason To Take A Small Step
- How Small Businesses can Launch Successful Online Communities
- Simple Steps To Creating An Online Community
Converting Newcomers Into Regulars
- The Ultimate Welcome For Your Online Community’s Newcomers
- How To Keep Newcomers Hooked For 21 days
- Awesome Questions To Ask New Members Of Your Online Community
- Which Visitors Are Most Likely To Become Regulars?
- Create A Welcome Pack
Growing Your Online Community
- Why People Aren’t Joining Your Online Community
- Create A Criteria
- How To Get More People To Join Your Online Community
- Basic Tactics To Grow Your Online Community Without Any Promotion
- Target Clusters Of People At A Time
- 3 Perfectly Acceptable Ways To Invite Someone To Join Your Online Community
- Growing From A Social Media Following To Small Groups
- How To Persuade Your Employees To Join Your Online Community
- How To Get The Best People To Join Your Online Community
- The Right And Wrong Way To Grow A Forum
- The Problem With Asking Members To Invite Friends
- A Free Invite With Every Purchase
Increasing Participation
- Why People Join And Participate In Online Communities
- A Brief Guide To Reaching Unbelievably High Levels Of Participation In Your Online Community
- Increasing Activity And Participation In A Community
- Creating A Sense Of Community
- The Basics Of Increasing Interactions In Any Online Community
- Why Members Participate: Fame, Money, Sex, Power
- 4 Types Of Contributions You Want Your Members To Make
- The Only Way To Keep Everyone Active
- 20 Questions which Will Stimulate Activity In Your Online Community
- 7 Kinds Of Conversations That Always Stimulate Activity
- Concentrate Activity
- Simple Tactics To Encourage Your Members To Talk More
- 9 Ideas To Revive Your Stale Online Community
- When You Have Lots Of Members But No Activity
- Epic Events
- Why People Stay In Your Online Community
- Create A Guide To Be A Top Member
- Trade Control For Participation
- What You Can Do To Make Your Community More Fun
- 8 Ways To Encourage Individual Contributions In Your Community
Managing an Online Community
- Building An Online Community Team: The 5 Roles You Must Fill
- Moderation Strategy
- Attaining Power And Influence
- Hierarchy Of Communicating With Your Members
- Uniting Your Online Community: Creating Strong Ties
- The Art Of Forging Strong Friendships
- How Many People Can You Really Look After?
- Creating Momentum
- 10 Excellent Rewards You Can Offer Members
- Creating Titles For Members
- The Unlimited Supply Of Important Work You Need To Do
- How To Handle Troublemakers
- Finding Inspiration In Other Communities
- Reorganizing Your Forum
- Gossip Is Good
- Resolving Problems
- Why Fights Are So Important
- Never Reward Your Volunteers
- Community Guidelines
- The 24-Hour Response Rule
Content
- The Secret To Awesome Content
- The Problem With Great Content
- Writing Content That Bonds Your Online Community
- 20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community
- The Power Of Exclusives
- Interviewing Members
- Every Online Community Needs A Local Newspaper
Measurement/ROI
- Measuring The ROI Of Online Communities
- 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
- How To Spot Your Community Is In Trouble: 8 Red Flags
Monetizing
- The Definitive Guide To Monetizing Your Community
- Becoming A Community Intrapreneur
- 40 Ways To Make Money From Your Online Community
- The Pros And Cons Of Charging For Membership
- Community Souvenirs
- How To Give Sponsors Access To Your Online Community
Branded Online Communities
- Never Let Your Company Start An Online Community
- Why Most Online Communities Shouldn’t Try To Create A Community
- Why Branded Communities Fail
- 6 Huge Advantages Big Organizations Have Over Amateur Community Builders
- A Requirement For Branded Online Communities
- Decide Between These 2 Types Of Communities
- How Do Online Communities Make Your Business Money?
- Why Amateurs Build Better Online Communities Than Businesses
- Failed Corporate Communities
- Your Dream Online Community
Non-profits and Online Communities
Examples
- 15 Examples Of Successful Online Communities
- 15 Ideas You Can Steal From The UK’s Best Community
- You Can Learn A Lot From This Wildly Successful Community
- The Best Online Community You Can Begin Today
- Perhaps The Best Online Community I’ve Seen
- 10 Examples Of Great Online Communities
- Never Hire A Marketing Agency To Build Your Online Community
- A Great Example Of An Online Community
- A Great Examples Of Game Mechanics In Online Communities
- The Usual Errors From The Big Brands
Resources
- A Simple Example Of A Great Online Community
- 8 Brilliant Posts About Online Communities
- Essential Reading For Online Community Managers
- Forrester Wave Report
Misc
- How To Improve Any Online Community Without Spending A Penny
- 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
- 8 Ways To Merge Your Online Community With The Real World
- How To Revive Your Local Community
- How To Create Exclusive Online Communities
- 6 Social Psychology Hacks For Online Community Managers
- 5 Features Of Really Strong Online Communities You Can Embrace
- Searching For Online Communities
- The One Book Every Community Manager Should Read
- Community Awards 2010
- Beyond Your Website
Blogs
- Alison Michalk
- Angela Connor
- Blaise Grimes-Viort
- Kirsten Wagenaar
- Community Roundtable
- Connie Benson
- Dawn Foster
- eModeration
- Holly Seddon
- Jake Mckee
- Jeremiah Owyang
- Jono Bacon
- Martin Reed
- Matt Rhodes
- Patrick O’Keefe
- Phil Wride
- Rachael Happe
- Sue on the web
- UX Booth
Are there areas of your community work missing from the above? Let me know and I’ll be sure to blog about it shortly.