The Most Common Mistakes in Online Community Development

Developing your online community takes a lot of hard work. You’ll make mistakes and learn lessons, but hopefully have a blast bringing it all together and watching it grow. But to help you avoid a few common stumbling blocks, we’ve put together this quick-fire list of mistakes and pitfalls we’ve seen through years of building successful online communities. We hope it helps!

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Product Communities VS Support Communities—What’s the Difference?

At first glance, it’s natural to believe that there is no difference between support and product communities—after all, aren’t all communities built around product discussions and supporting members? The distinction is a subtle one: while service communities are about creating a great place to be, product communities are more about creating a great resource for members.

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How User-Generated Content Can Help Grow Your Community

Handled correctly, user-generated content is one of the holy grails of online communities. With the community manager putting out fires almost 24-7, imagine having your extremely qualified, expert members creating posts and content on their own, and generating huge engagement in the process? The strategy can be hugely powerful and has worked for major brands across the world.

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Understanding the “90-9-1″ Rule and How to Optimize It

It is generally accepted that there are 3 categories of users within online communities: 

  1. The 1%—Extremely active users who contribute the vast majority of content, answers, and activity. 
  2. The 9%—All other casual or occasional contributors. 
  3. The 90%—The ‘lurkers’ who only consume content (or don’t log in at all) and never contribute directly. 
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The Benefits and Drawbacks of Closed Online Communities

On the surface, having a closed online community might seem the obvious route. You get to vet and filter new members and don’t have to deal with trolls and Karens slamming your content every day. However, there are serious risks associated with growth and sustainability of closed groups, so we encourage you to weigh up the pros and cons before making your decision. 

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Monetizing Your Community Without Selling Your Soul

Like most business ventures, the answer to generating profit from your community doesn’t lie in some lazy hack. It’s easy to start spamming your community with ads, merch, and membership fees…but it needs to be handled professionally. Do it wrong, and you might not have a community left to monetize.

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