Creating an Online Community

Creating an Online Community Without the Community?
By Tony Grijalva Jr

As a new forum administrator myself, I'm sure that my frustrations are shared among my forum comrades. You've gone through the trouble of registering a domain, picking a host, installing the software, tweaking the coding, and advertising your site. All these things cost money, and you attempt to make use of tasteful advertising in order to offset those inital costs. However, one thing is lacking: a community.

"Well," you reason, "I am advertising my site, after all. It's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing except for hoping that people visit my site and join my community." But still, the people do not come. You've read articles on the internet that suggest to offer contests, prizes, and other rewards to get people to join your community -- your baby. But still, the people do not come. In the back of your mind, you want people to participate in your community because they want to -- not for the prizes. In other words, you don't want "to buy" your community. You want a real community. You've created a myspace profile that advertises your site. You've told your friends, family, and classmates about your site. You're paying Google or Yahoo or MSN to display a link to your site according to the keywords that reflect your site's content. But still, the people do not come.

Are people trying to tell you something when they don't register? Is your site really that inferior?

It's easy to get frustrated. And in a certain way, you believe people are just not interested in your particular site. "People just don't care," you presume. People do have lives outside of the internet, right? Not everyone has access to a computer, and if they did, chances are that they are visiting busier sites, more established sites, than yours. "So why bother with it? Why go through the expense of attempting to provide people with the resource of your site when people do not take advantage of it in the first place?"