Comments on: How Do You Build an Online Community

By: Hiba

Hiba — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:34:24 +0000

Hi, will you please visit our community and take a look there

http://www.mepeace.org
http://www.mepeace.org/profile/Hiba

By: jj2000

jj2000 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:17:44 +0000

how do u create 1 of those on ning plz help?thanks!gr8ly!!

By: francine hardaway

francine hardaway — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:15:55 +0000

Never too late. I have heard the woman from Daily Strength speak, but MDJunction is new to me. If you like online support, also try http://www.empowher.com. It’s for women.

By: Darla

Darla — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:51:33 +0000

Great Post – I know i got to it a little late… ;-)

I also go to two great sites that have online support groups. It’s http://www.dailystregnth.org and http://www.mdjunction.com, both are helping me with my health problems.

Check them out!

By: Eric Moore

Eric Moore — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:50:58 +0000

As Executive VP and Co-Founder of a fairly new and innovative online community website, WheresYourWorld.com, I can only tell you from my personal experience how to build an online community website. First, you have to examine what the other mainstream community websites are doing, who they are marketing to, study their demographics, and understand their niche. You have to look at all of the features and benefits they offer to their members, then come up with your own niche and lay out your plan on who, what, when, where, how and why you want to start an online community website.

In the case of WheresYourWorld.com, we chose to focus on specific recreations and hobbies. We also chose to make the site simple enough for users to pick a recreation or hobby “world” and have all of the features dynamically change to give a consistent feel to the end user, no matter what “world” they are in. Features, benefits, and content are the keys, and giving people multiple outlets to express themselves, meet others who share in their passions, find resources, and giving them the ability to express themselves will keep them coming back and word of your community website will spread.

By: John Clark

John Clark — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 12:20:13 +0000

I think that a niche community is something definitely worth pursuing. Deciding how to narrow your focus without getting too narrow takes a lot of thought. My first foray into community sites is:

http://www.intimateasian.com

Prior to attempting IntimateAsian.com I have only operated e-commerce sites. They have been successful for me but I wanted to try something a little more personal.

By: francine hardaway

francine hardaway — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:06:17 +0000

Lloyd, your comment reminded me that Ed and I have been creating a community of our customers for the entire time we’ve been in business — it’s the Stealthmode Roundtables! I just never thought of those dinners that way until you wrote me. THanks.

By: Lloyd Duggan

Lloyd Duggan — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:13:07 +0000

Francine,
Great advice. I work with small businesses and have suggested creating online communities of customers as a way to provide a forum for word of mouth. It’s also a way for them to provide a “value add” to their customers as well as get input and feedback on trends. The information you’ve shared here will enable me to give them more tangible “to do’s. I’m going to spread the word about your blog, bookmark your site and visit often for more insights. Thanks for being such an effective resource!

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:25:49 +0000

Thanks for mentioning RealSelf.com. In the limited circles I travel (like William, busy these days wearing nearly every hat) I find it helpful to explain the difference I see between a user-generated site that’s focused on accomplishing a specific task (for us: important, occasional, beauty purchases) vs. one designed to connect people around common interests. That is, interests where it’s not about making a decision and then moving onto the next important thing in life.

Knowing what’s most important to your target customer –getting something done or getting connected– is often the difference between success and becoming just-another-website. This should guide the decision on which single feature a community builder concentrates on getting right (your point well taken).

That’s the secret to the very under reported success story of TripAdvisor. The early TripAdvisor team was focused solely on helping people report their satisfaction with hotels. They didn’t randomize themselves with an aimless mission of being a travel interest community. They made their hotel review feature work, and then leveraged the user content into one of the most-SEO wired sites on the web.

TA made a tough, but smart decision and left the general travel interest space open to community sites like lonelyplanet thorntree and igougo (ever hear of them? didn’t think so) which have a role on the web, but a much much smaller one.

By: eric : Real World Green

eric : Real World Green — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:21:38 +0000

after being overwhelmed by emails from viewers of Gardenfork.tv and RealWorldGreen.com, I created The Greenhouse, a community site for viewers of the web video shows.

http://thegreenhouse.gardenfork.tv

Its been great fun to see viewers take this idea and run with it. There are several people who post something almost every day.