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- 1). Determine your website's focus. To create a community, you want visitors to your website to have something in common. Examples include single mothers, video game enthusiasts, freelance writers, iPhone users, people with disabilities, dog owners, etc.
- 2). Build your website. If you have never built one before, you can look for a host that offers a website builder, such as Bravenet or Webs. These sites offer features that will walk you through each step of the website-building process. When designing your pages, choose a theme, a layout, colors and graphics that will help set the tone for your community. For example, a website for single mothers should look feminine and include images of single mothers.
- 3). Add content related to your website's focus. Ideas include embedded videos, games, quizzes, articles, poetry, quotes, book lists, etc. Although this will not be the focus of your website--the community will--content is necessary for any website and helps define your focus.
- 4). Add social features. It is imperative that a website community has features that enable community members to communicate with each other and build relationships. Ideas include chat rooms, forums, comment boxes, email groups, public polls and personal profiles. With the exception of personal profiles, all of these features can be added for free through websites such as Bravenet, Widgetbox and Google Desktop Gadgets. If you want to add personal profiles and other advanced community features, you will need to purchase or download a community-building software such as Dolphin by Boonex or Ramius by CommunityZero.
- 5). Ask community members to email you their own content. You can do this by adding a banner that is seen on every page or putting your request in a common area, such as the forum. Community members will feel more connected to your website if their own content can be found throughout.
- 6). Promote your website constantly. If you want to create a community, you need to attract visitors. You can promote your website by posting your link on website directories, submitting your link to search engines, posting on message boards related to your website's focus, and paying website owners or search engines to advertise on their pages. You can also promote your website off the Internet--in newspaper classifieds, community bulletin boards (in grocery stores, libraries, laundry mats, etc.) and through word of mouth.
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