[maxjohan]

Any idea on a good community site that
seprate "me" from the crowd.

I'm kind of getting tired of myspace, mostly just kids
there and sites load so slowly (because they have all this kinds of graphics), sometimes my computer
even crashes. I want something
more simple but mysterious, you know something
exclusive, like the PM on a forum... so you
feel special, you know.

Give me your free ideas, once it starts to generate money
I give a good % cut to those that contributed!

Peace
Peace

If someone wants to partner with me I think I have
a good eye for what works and I have a few ideas myself.

[sheriw]

I believe the best community site to build, would be one that reflects your passion. Each of us has things that we love; that we pour time into, only it seems as if we spent only minutes at.

If you build your site around the topics/things you love most, you will attract like-minded folks. This is the basis for the strongest, and most unique, communities that I've seen online, from weight loss to life coaching, to marketing. Good luck as you create your site!

[maxjohan]

Originally Posted by sheriw

I believe the best community site to build, would be one that reflects your passion. Each of us has things that we love; that we pour time into, only it seems as if we spent only minutes at.

If you build your site around the topics/things you love most, you will attract like-minded folks. This is the basis for the strongest, and most unique, communities that I've seen online, from weight loss to life coaching, to marketing. Good luck as you create your site!

That's some good advice right there. I keep that in mind while I build my community. And if this ever become rock-star status you know
you got atleast a 3%-5% share of the community.

Thx a lot!

Anyone else??

[Bailey]

maxjohan,

I must be one of few people who doesn't "get" MySpace. I am actually embarrassed to admit this because I feel like something must be wrong with me. But I don't find it cute, attractive nor useful. The layouts people choose make me ill -- they are a serious turn-off for me. The overall page design/software that MySpace uses is counter-intuitive to me and I find it difficult to navigate. I hate the "Friends" thing. I feel like it is just a bunch of cliques, and I hated the cliquey crap in school. Every day that passes is another day farther away from high school and nothing makes me happier than that. Oh, I had lots of friends and was in tons of activities... but the clique thing just got under my skin. I am so glad those days are gone.

When someone says "community" to me I think immediately of Firehouse.com. The homepage is really busy, but the site is immense and they have a lot of pieces & parts to lay out there. The site is amazingly diverse and deep, and involves thousands and thousands of people from around the world, but especially the U.S. IMO they've done a super job of bringing people together. They've also done a super job keeping up with internet trends. For example their agency listing section has grown by leaps & bounds (and they use software to manage those listings that lays everything out cleanly and clearly -- something that Mambo/Joomla doesn't do well, IMO, for example). As blogs have become more popular, Firehouse.com accomodated that too. The forum just crazy-rocks.

What is the key to building that community? Just like Sheri said -- a common, compelling interest that brings everyone together. That's how Sitepoint.com was started and has flourished too: a common interest bringing people together to one place.

Once you have identified your niche, then it is a matter of identifying what features you want your community to have.

For example, in terms of personal pages (a la MySpace) I am old-school in that I don't find blogspace desirable at a community. But if you really want to offer it (or if you really believe your users want/need it) then go for it. My personal thinking on this is that there is so much available high-quality free blogspace available (Blogger, Wordpress.com, LiveJournal, etc.) that I would just as soon run my own blog independently and simply link to a community's blogroll. I'm not a big fan of putting my eggs in a community basket, per se. I prefer to do my own thing and link in.

Once you have identified the features that you feel are critical to your community's structure, and once you have developed all the content that you can prior to going live on a server, then it's a matter of picking out and installing your software. How you do this is entirely up to you. You can patch together something simple like an article manager and free forum software ... or if you want to build something more integrated and scalable you can go with something like vBulletin w/ a hack or two (middle of the road) ..... or WebSideStory Publish (high-end).

vBulletin, IMO, definitely deserves an extra look. There are tons of hacks/contributions which really extend the capability of a simple forum. For instance, if you want to do the MySpace thing, there is a plug-in for vBulletin called Zoints Local. Similarly, Groups Commune is another plug-in that's very MySpace-ish. Just visit vBulletin.org - The Ultimate vBulletin Resource!, the number of plug-ins and hacks is mind-boggling, I have spent entire days on that site and playing with my forums... LOL


But the key is, what is it that brings the people together? It's not enough to just install some software and put up an empty site. People have to have a reason to visit. For Firehouse.com, it's a place where firefighters and medical rescuers can come together and share information about firefighting. In the case of Sitepoint, web designers & developers come together to share their expertise and ask for advice on developing websites. Note in both of those cases the subject focus and the audience demographics are well identified. That's imperative.


Hope this helps a bit! Good luck with your new project. It is a lot of fun to build a new site and get a new community off the ground. A lot of work, but a LOT of fun too.

Bailey

[maxjohan]

Originally Posted by Bailey

maxjohan,

I must be one of few people who doesn't "get" MySpace. I am actually embarrassed to admit this because I feel like something must be wrong with me. But I don't find it cute, attractive nor useful. The layouts people choose make me ill -- they are a serious turn-off for me. The overall page design/software that MySpace uses is counter-intuitive to me and I find it difficult to navigate. I hate the "Friends" thing. I feel like it is just a bunch of cliques, and I hated the cliquey crap in school. Every day that passes is another day farther away from high school and nothing makes me happier than that. Oh, I had lots of friends and was in tons of activities... but the clique thing just got under my skin. I am so glad those days are gone.

When someone says "community" to me I think immediately of Firehouse.com. The homepage is really busy, but the site is immense and they have a lot of pieces & parts to lay out there. The site is amazingly diverse and deep, and involves thousands and thousands of people from around the world, but especially the U.S. IMO they've done a super job of bringing people together. They've also done a super job keeping up with internet trends. For example their agency listing section has grown by leaps & bounds (and they use software to manage those listings that lays everything out cleanly and clearly -- something that Mambo/Joomla doesn't do well, IMO, for example). As blogs have become more popular, Firehouse.com accomodated that too. The forum just crazy-rocks.

What is the key to building that community? Just like Sheri said -- a common, compelling interest that brings everyone together. That's how Sitepoint.com was started and has flourished too: a common interest bringing people together to one place.

Once you have identified your niche, then it is a matter of identifying what features you want your community to have.

For example, in terms of personal pages (a la MySpace) I am old-school in that I don't find blogspace desirable at a community. But if you really want to offer it (or if you really believe your users want/need it) then go for it. My personal thinking on this is that there is so much available high-quality free blogspace available (Blogger, Wordpress.com, LiveJournal, etc.) that I would just as soon run my own blog independently and simply link to a community's blogroll. I'm not a big fan of putting my eggs in a community basket, per se. I prefer to do my own thing and link in.

Once you have identified the features that you feel are critical to your community's structure, and once you have developed all the content that you can prior to going live on a server, then it's a matter of picking out and installing your software. How you do this is entirely up to you. You can patch together something simple like an article manager and free forum software ... or if you want to build something more integrated and scalable you can go with something like vBulletin w/ a hack or two (middle of the road) ..... or WebSideStory Publish (high-end).

vBulletin, IMO, definitely deserves an extra look. There are tons of hacks/contributions which really extend the capability of a simple forum. For instance, if you want to do the MySpace thing, there is a plug-in for vBulletin called Zoints Local. Similarly, Groups Commune is another plug-in that's very MySpace-ish. Just visit vBulletin.org - The Ultimate vBulletin Resource!, the number of plug-ins and hacks is mind-boggling, I have spent entire days on that site and playing with my forums... LOL


But the key is, what is it that brings the people together? It's not enough to just install some software and put up an empty site. People have to have a reason to visit. For Firehouse.com, it's a place where firefighters and medical rescuers can come together and share information about firefighting. In the case of Sitepoint, web designers & developers come together to share their expertise and ask for advice on developing websites. Note in both of those cases the subject focus and the audience demographics are well identified. That's imperative.


Hope this helps a bit! Good luck with your new project. It is a lot of fun to build a new site and get a new community off the ground. A lot of work, but a LOT of fun too.

Bailey

Yep, I also dislike myspace, the layouts is horrible and my computer sometimes crashes because of all the crap people put up on their sites. I think you made a good example for a good community site. FireHouse seems like a solid site. I will probably go with some sort of vBulletin though.

And finally, you have also earned 3%-5% of this community!!

Peace
Peace

[Ken_Calhoun]

I agree, Bailey - I don't care for the layout and approach at myspace either, though I suppose I need to learn how to leverage it (low priority) someday for traffic, in the "organic SEO" to-do list of activities. it reminds me of geocities.com for example, lots of amateurish home-made web pages of no interest to buyers...but the traffic makes it appealing, for linking and PR boosts etc

of better focus, is I need to learn more about rss and blogging effectively and using the little tags and creating ipod videos etc.. all stuff I don't want to learn, but realize I need to. and how to run solid affiliate programs, for that matter..

ken

[Michael Morgan]

Hang on folks, there's something incredible that's about to explode on the social networking scene.

That's all I can say for now.

Cheers,

Mike

[Stephen Davies]

Originally Posted by Michael Morgan

Hang on folks, there's something incredible that's about to explode on the social networking scene.

That's all I can say for now.

Cheers,

Mike

Sounds like another mega-marketer is about to get rich... again!

[John_gibson]

Oh and if your idea is a forum. Here's some pointers to get it going I pulled of the internet.

--------------------------
1. Take care when choosing the type of forum and forum script or software that will be used. The forum should be easy to access, easy to use, and come with "visitor- friendly" features. All visitors should be made to feel welcomed and find the navigability of the forum, user friendly. Forum scripts and software, especially "free" varieties, may be overburdened with ads from the parent company and lead to a poor experience for visitors.

2. The forum should have a good number of interesting and focused topics. The content should reflect the interests of the target audience, and every care should be made to have well-written and informative content that is updated regularly. This not only helps attract new members, it keeps older members from losing interest and defecting to other forums.

3. The forum should be Search Engine friendly. High activity forums, like popular blogs, provide a great reason for Search Engines to visit them frequently as they are brimming with fresh content all the while. Dynamic urls, session ids, etc. used by most forum software can be very detrimental to the forum health from Search Engine point of view.
When selecting a forum software, check if they are Search Engine friendly. Open source software like phpbb, have mods (modifications) developed by third party sources, to enhance the forum in many ways.
Here's a great mod for phpbb to make it Search Engine friendly: phpBB Search Engine Optimization - Sessions, static ( SEO )

4. The forum needs to have a clear list of rules, a disclaimer, and most of all, good solid moderation. Visitors will quickly become frustrated with forums that have no clear guidelines, or feature rude, obnoxious, or overbearing members. Good manners are required as much online as offline.

5. Promotion, especially in the early days, will take considerable time and effort. Forums can be difficult to start (members generally are "shy" when there are only a few present), and the more posts that take place, the more individuals will join. This is a "snowball" effect of forums, so marketing must be done consistently, day in and day out, until the forum becomes more self-sustaining.

6. The owner of the forum should take an active interest in the forum and SHOW this interest by contributing regularly. Above all else, people join forums where they feel they will learn from the owner of the forum, and if the owner is never present, they quickly lose interest in the forum.

7. The forum should be targeted, yet diverse, encouraging older members to contribute, without making newer members feel uncomfortable. Cliques can form in forums, and this type of behavior should be discouraged by the owner and moderators. Every effort should be made to answer questions or comments by all members as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

8. As with all other Internet related ventures, care needs to be given as to hosting and maintenance of the forum. A forum that is always experiencing "downtime", will lose members quickly, and a forum that has many coding mistakes will quickly frustrate visitors. As with Web sites, "cheap" providers of hosting and maintenance are not always "better".
All in all, online forums can be a great way to generate income, develop a good reputation among clients, and provide entertainment and instruction for many individuals. Like with everything else, however, they take marketing savvy, and a great deal of time and attention to detail. The old saying, "You only reap what you sow" really applies to the world of online forums.

--------------------------------------------
I got this from: ABC Articles - Forums

Good luck!

John

[Bailey]

To give credit where it is rightly due, as the article was pre-empted right at its author line

Vishal P. Rao is the owner of: http://www.work-at-home-forum.com/ An online community of people who work at home.

and everyone can find the full article 8 Tips for Starting and Maintaining a Successful Online Forum - Forums <== there

Bailey