How To Turn Your Online Business Into a Community
Guest Blogs by SBIers
A few years ago I came across two words that changed my view of my online business....
At the time, I was reading my visitors' feedback at the end of an article on one of my websites. One of the comments mentioned "Rena's community." What? I had a community? When did that happen?
Suddenly my entire perception of my websites shifted. I didn't have just subscribers, visitors, and commenters. Instead, I had a true community... people who were the heart and soul of my online business... folks who...
- subscribe to my newsletter and RSS feeds
- visit my sites regularly
- read nearly everything I publish
- post comments on my individual web pages
- submit their content and photos to my sites
- purchase my info-products
- link to and promote my websites
- interact with each other on my website pages.
Over the years, these people have indeed become a lovely community of kindred spirits revolving around my websites.
As soon as I grasped this new vision of "community," I began to revamp all of my sites into better social gathering places where people in my niche come to share, learn, connect, and inspire each other. You can do the same...
Tips for Growing Your Community
Before you start a community, your website should have at least a few hundred visitors per day, since only a fraction of them are likely to participate actively.
Also, provide a way for visitors to comment on your site's content, and to submit their own content for you to publish. If you have an SBI! site, the Content 2.0 feature is perfect for this.
It takes time for a new community to gain momentum. Get things rolling by enlisting people you know in your niche to start posting and participating.
All around your website and newsletter, place invitations and links encouraging people to share their comments and content.
When you receive visitor questions via email, post them on your site and turn them into discussions.
In your newsletter, feature your site's best new content created by your community, and invite subscribers to post comments.
Be an involved and proactive leader. Set an example for the content, tone, and style you want in your community. And that includes this piece of important advice...
Make Your Community a Two-Way Street
It's wonderful to have dedicated followers who post great content on your pages, promote your websites, buy your products, tweet or Facebook about you, etc. I highly recommend that you strengthen your relationships with these like-minded passionate folks by reciprocating whenever you can...
1) If the people in your community have blogs or websites or Facebook accounts, visit some of them. Leave comments there and offer to write guest posts via their contact address.
2) If possible, become a customer of people in your community. I budget a set amount of money each month for purchasing jewelry created by my loyal supporters. I don't just expect them to spend money on my stuff; I'm showing my support for what they do by buying their products too.
3) When someone from your community is doing something special, publicize it on your site, in your newsletter, on Twitter and/or Facebook, etc., even if there's no monetary benefit in it for you.
4) Find ways to promote your supporters. For example, a lady in my community posted an article on my site about how she used a software program to design a bracelet. So I got the software company to link to the home page of her website and also to her article on my site. She was thrilled when I emailed her the news about these links.
5) Connect your followers to relevant ideas, opportunities, resources... and to each other. The ripple effect will travel far and wide from there.
Once you've developed a community, you hold the attention of a targeted group of people. Use that power beneficially for giving and sharing. You'll be amazed at the generosity that flows naturally back to you.
Posted in Guest Blogs by SBIers
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