How to Build a Community Web Site
A community-based website offers interactive forum elements beyond traditional static content pages, allowing visitors to interact with the website owner and fellow visitors. Such community websites can be a successful venture for online marketers and website developers, and might be a valuable resource for individuals browsing for information. Such community features also increase a site's "stickiness," a term used to note the ability of a site to retain repeat visitors.
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Instructions
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Register for a web host account that can support the high-traffic and data demands of a community- and forum-based website. Examples include LunarPages and Blue Host, the latter of which is recommended by community software developers phpBB. Both offer low-cost hosting that includes a free domain name.
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Download a community management system such as vBulletin or phpBB (see Resources). The former is a paid software and the latter is a free system. Download the zipped installation file. Double-click it to extract the contents. Upload the entire unzipped folder to your website's hosting server. In your web browser, navigate to the installation folder and follow the on-screen prompts to finish the automated installation.
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Visit your website to view the installed community software. Log in to the administration panel for your respective community software. This can typically be accessed by clicking the "Admin" or "Mod" link at the bottom of your new forum.
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Create new message boards within the forum. Each board should be about a distinct topic about which your website is focused. For example, a dog care website might have a message board about dog breeds, dog illnesses and dog shows. Limit your community to three to six boards until each board has significant user activity, otherwise your community site will appear to be a wide, open expanse of empty cyberspace.
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Jump-start the community's activity to encourage new users to join and take part in the conversations and discussions in your forum. Post one or more new messages in each board daily to make it appear as though your community is a busy and talkative place. As members begin to join and take part in the forum, you can slow your own activity.
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Tips & Warnings
Boost discussions by posting thought-provoking or slightly controversial topics to get conversations going. Large communities that have grown beyond your ability to moderate may require you to find volunteer moderators to ensure everyone is posting according to your rules.
Creating too many boards in your community before having a sufficient amount of activity will make your community seem empty and boring.
