From Concept to Community: How I Built An Online Community And Took It Viral In 25 Days With Little Money And No SEO

4 Comments

1. Yassah says:

   October 23, 2009 at 1:10 am

   For anyone interested in getting into the website game, this is a great read. There is some excellent advice for people who are courageous enough to buck the system and not accept anything less than success in their endeavors.
2. Zurina says:

   October 23, 2009 at 1:36 am

   Empowerment Engine

   Review of From Concept to Community, By April Hamilton

   Review by Jabez L. Van Cleef, http://www.sustainyourspirit.com ;

   This is a short book, actually more like what we used to call a “white paper,” on the subject of how an individual person might go about the process of “building” and hosting their own on-line interest community using freely available software. In general, I highly approve of the theory behind the book, and the admirably straightforward execution, both in terms of form and content. I have a few quibbles which I will get to, but rather than looking for random faults, I think you would make better use of your time by stopping here to buy and read the book. However, if you insist…

   Who is April? I met her online as the author of a very informative guide to the ins and outs of Publishing On Demand. I can safely say she knows a lot about it, and I know more about it after reading that book, too. But now I have to say she also seems to know a lot about the psychology of people who want to join communities, and the hand-to-mouth philosophy of the “Indie” movement, wherever it may be manifesting itself, especially in the world of self-published books.

   We “Indie” writers are resentful at being scorned for so many years by agents and publishers (if they deigned to notice us, it was with scorn) and pitied by everyone else who knew about the manuscript(s) in the file cabinet, at work or elsewhere. We are also astonished and grateful that the fertile world of “new technology” has suddenly, in the past year or so, made it possible for us to publish our own books for next to nothing, and sell them on amazon.com for a royalty of five bucks a copy. I am still shocked about this, but the dreamworld of possibilities has apparently not ended, because here comes April telling me that I can essentially start an equivalent to Facebook for my own area of interest (poetic reinterpretation of all the world’s religious texts).

   I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The same “new technology” that enables this purposive community building is characterized by satisfaction of three essential needs: the individual wants to be empowered; wants to have power without upfront cost; and wants to communicate the essentials of his/her individuality to the whole world, but especially to those people who would really understand.

   My first quibble is that April doesn’t really give us much background on why she wants to write this book and help us out. And, in keeping with the high value she places on the “human touch,” I found myself craving just a little more back story. Back in the middle ages they called this the captatio benovolentiae, and it was essentially a short confession of ignorance and humility by the author meant to mollify the reader in advance.

   Another quibble is that April doesn’t cut us much slack on what we don’t know. I realize this is a subject fraught with ambiguities, and people vary widely in their degree of nerdiness, but I started to gasp for air on page 35 when she told me to install my newfound CMS software on my host server. This indie guy thinks that at this point the book ought to digress into an explanation of what a host server is and how to find one, general review of requirements, pros and cons, etc.

   Enough of quibbling. In general I love the way that April lets her humanity govern simple choices. On page 37 she counsels the reader to “Make the users of the site feel at home.” This is the type of attitude I often encounter in “Indie” oriented websites (the main one I use is http://www.garageband.com) and April’s homespun counsel is beautifully elaborated in Chapter 7 and thereafter. For instance, she mentions the needless obsession with security and passwords often encountered on heavily corporate sites, and tells us to apply a kind of guideline asking ourselves–if there is a security feature–what is it really for?

   And yet, behind the friendliness, she shows a toughness too, by including some very canny advice in the last chapter on “monetizing” our sites, which is definitely worth the price of the book.

   So, I am a poet, not very techy, and I live in New Jersey, where I have self published 42 titles and counting on Createspace. I advise you, if you want to build an online community, to buy April’s book, because like Occham’s razor it will yield the simplest solution to your problem. Thank you, April. If my arms were three thousand miles long, I would attempt to hug you.
3. Odell says:

   October 23, 2009 at 2:07 am

   With the proliferation of sites like Facebook and Twitter, social networking has become standard Internet practice. Static, one-way information websites are far less appealing and far less effective than community-based sites. The future of the Internet is all about building community.

   Do you have a great idea for an online community but no idea how to begin creating one? Do you want to add more community interaction to an existing website or web-based business? From Concept to Community gives a succinct look at online community building, packing a whole lot of information into a neat little package.

   April Hamilton walks the reader step-by-step through her own process in creating Publetariat.com, a thriving online community for indie authors. The book includes strategies for branding, recruiting allies, designing your website, and launching your community as well as an overview and evaluation of some of the Content Management Systems you might choose to create and maintain your web community.

   This quick read got my mind jumping with ideas and gave me a valuable introduction to online community building.