Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities [Paperback]

I'm very impressed with this book. I got a great idea for my site from it the first day I read it, which is to create a "Welcome Wagon" page for the site. It seems so obvious now, but somehow I had never thought of it. I put a page up on my site for new people, and it's one of the most highly trafficked pages on the site.

Community Building on the Web is full of useful ideas that you can apply to your community. The writing is clear and straightforward, and the thinking behind the suggestions is thoroughly explained. Ms. Kim also addresses much of the psychology behind what makes a community work, which I found very helpful in generating new ideas of my own. This is one of the most valuable books I've bought in my career as a website creator.

We have all heard how Content is King! but Ms. Kim brings out clearly the integral component of any website - social or commercial is Community. Without visitors coming back to see your content, it remains useless and there are enough of high profile portals with huge content and few eyeballs! Moreover, Thanks to the numerous content providers, Website Content can be duplicated within a reasonable timeframe and if flushed with funds (?) then within an even more shorter time period. However what cannot be duplicated and hence is truly an Entry Barrier is an Existing Community around a particular website.

Ms.Kim presents a well written, structured and comprehensive guide to online community building. Her simple-to-follow design principles are excellently presented and reinforce the fact that the Internet is an extension of the real world with the twin technology-based benefits of interactivity and reach. Social dynamics do not change online, strategies and tatics do!

I have found the examples and references invaluable for understanding the enviable success-stories and inexplicable failures. Finally Message boards and Chat-rooms have been designed as a feature (Coz every site has it!) by many an experienced and so called knowledgeable web solution company. However "Community buiding on the Web" clearly brings out the fact that these need to be incorporated seamlessly into websites and used as community-building tools for longterm benefits and sticky eyeballs.

Once again, Thank You Ms.Kim, I might have gone chasing Content spending needless time, effort and hard-to-come-by-these-days money!

Amy Jo Kim's book is a strategy book written with a little humor and a great understanding of what people crave in a community (note "community" and not "transaction") - to belong, to interact and to be empowered. She gives many practical tips on how to attract and engage people in cyberspace.

At no time did Ms Kim give the impression that this book is supposed to be a step-by-step instructional manual.