After having reviewed more than 50 orkut communities which are rated among the best and having scanned more than 1000 other orkut and facebook groups. I decided to compile a list of 100 Tips For A Successful Online Community. This list, I am sure will help community owners/ managers get the best out of their online community forums and groups.

The following tips are complied mainly for online communities and groups created inside social networking websites and not for traditional message boards.

Though there is no shortcut for any successful online community but I am sure that if any passionate community owner takes the following points carefully he/she will get the positive results. Still, the main keys for successful online community are Patience and Passion.

1. Start a niche you think you can talk on and on and on.
2. You should have at least 10 good friends interested in same niche you love to discuss. That’s called a launch team.
3. Ask those 10 friends to start discussing every day on your community.
4. Join other same niche big communities and be active there.
5. Being active on other’s community means, make your credibility by providing useful contents.
6. Ask those 10 friends to invite their friends on your community.
7. Exchange related community links, be careful and don’t add communities with same niche or same name in related communities.
8. Don’t spam with new post everyday or many times in a day. Go slowly but effectively.
9. Be friendly and welcoming to new members. Your first impression will be last.
10. Don’t think your community is your community, be more like a member than an owner.
11. Try engaging community members in everything you do in your community.
12. Allow forum games but limited.
13. Arrange threads with [TAGS]
14. Don’t make many threads for same discussion.
15. Add the most active, most knowledgeable and trusted member as a moderator.
16. If your community reaches till 25 members then 1 moderator is enough. Even if you reach 100+ it’s enough to have one moderator.
17. Select moderator according to their activities; don’t make moderators just to win their hearts.
18. Make moderator logs thread.
19. Start small competitions.
20. Make announcements.
21. Don’t go away from your niche.
22. Read more about your niche.
23. Allow sharing third party links but make it limited.
24. Celebrate Birthdays of members. Be there in their happiest moments.
25. Make your community description short and meaningful.
26. Don’t waste time on selecting Display Picture of your community. Go for simple and meaningful picture.
27. Always ask for opinions.
28. Create Polls.
29. Say sorry if you did a mistake.
30. Be the most active member of your own community.
31. Arrange meet-ups if possible.
32. Try turning normal threads into debate threads.
33. Say I Object! It will create a buzz.
34. Keep inviting others. You need more members to join.
35. Think what your community is giving to others.
36. Promote your community. There are other 1000 ways to do that.
37. Be diplomatic.
38. Make your community a resourceful group talking on one particular subject, deeply.
39. Be honest.
40. Be patient, any online community needs at least 6 months to grow.
41. Respect your dedicated members.
42. Arrange live chat once in a week with members. Get close, get closer.
43. Try to give more without expecting return. Online community is all about giving.
44. Be focused. You should know what you are doing and where you have to take your online community.
45. Resolve member’s personal issues privately and not in the community.
46. Make your community open to others but keep it moderated.
47. Don’t use funny fonts and tags (@, #) to name your community; it won’t come in search easily.
48. Follow your rules.
49. Do as much as publicity you can of your online community. But not in a spamming way.
50. Show your community’s presence on twitter, Google buzz and other social networks.
51. Use simple but proper English.
52. Don’t be a racist. Don’t even let other community members to be racist.
53. Ask your female friends to join your community. Girls can do wonders.
54. Warn before banning any member.
55. Post or encourage others to post something new and interesting every day.
56. Lost any thread? Don’ panic, check your community spam box
57. Don’t feel lazy to comment on other’s topics.
58. Don’t get personal.
59. Fire spammers on the spot!
60. Keep your community clean by monthly deleting old or un-necessary posts.
61. Don’t say “I think” always be sure of what you are doing, saying or explaining.
62. How can I forget Introduction thread?
63. Remember 2Ps “Passion and Patience”
64. Add photographs in threads.
65. Add resource links in discussion threads.
66. Give credit to others.
67. Give at least 1hr completely devoted to your community activities every day. Posting, Promoting and Moderating.
68. Don’t leave your those first 10 friends ever. Make them feel always special.
69. Interview best and most active community members. It will generate rich resource.
70. Share sorrows of your members. Make them feel they are not alone.
71. Be funny sometimes.
72. Use smilies.
73. Keep writing good content even if nobody is replying.
74. Buzz those who went inactive. Ask their whereabouts.
75. Solve queries as fast as you can.
76. At least reply to the query post saying “sorry I don’t know” but don’t leave it unnoticed.
77. Add active members in your friend’s list.
78. Don’t make separate communities with same purpose in other social networks.
79. Inform members if you are going away from community for few days.
80. Give power to moderators but keep the master keys in your hands.
81. Don’t be rude with your community members.
82. Avoid competition with other community owners.
83. Respect privacy of everyone.
84. Your purpose of creating community is to learn from others and share your knowledge with others.
85. Don’t approve membership of someone with no friends and has joined many communities. For sure it’s a fake profile.
86. Listen to others.
87. Ask questions.
88. Don’t be a boss. It is not necessary that every time, everyone will listen to you and agree with you.
89. Follow successful community owners and their strategies.
90. Make list of most memorable and important threads.
91. Co-ordinate with moderators and divide their work to make it easy for them.
92. Make senior most moderators as a co-owner. It’s time for a promotion.
93. Don’t use the word “impossible”
94. Your community members are your responsibility, so be responsible.
95. Don’t think you are perfect.
96. If these tricks are not working then think where you went wrong.
97. Contact us to review your community.
98. Make your community a home.
99. Read all the above points carefully.
100. Sorry if I missed anything, don’t forget to add your points in the comment box below.
101. Bonus Point: Be creative!

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