Community: My Secret Ingredient
March 17, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz
I’ll admit, I did reinstall World of Warcraft a few days ago, but I’ve also been pretty good at keeping my promise of working hard on PublisherSpot.
My programmers are still working on batch #2 (actually, they haven’t started yet. I just finished answering all of the project manager’s questions regarding the finer details, and so they should be starting soon). It’s hard to estimate how long it will take them, but I’m going to estimate two weeks.
While I just finished giving them a whole new batch of tasks to work on, I’ve already began compiling a list for batch #3!
As you’ve probably heard me say a million times by now, I’ve been eager to start advertising and market the site. My plan was to do so once batch #2 was finished, but I’m going to have to wait even longer now, because it would be silly to launch an advertising campaign before batch #3.
That’s because batch #3 is all about community. PublisherSpot is already a great site and resource, and will only be better in a couple weeks once the second batch has been completed. But if there’s one thing that blogging and the recent social networking trend has taught me, it’s that nothing can grow and explode a site like a strong community.
Therefore, batch 3 will focus solely on building community integration into PublisherSpot.
Member System
First, a member system will be created. Visitors can sign up for an account, which (for now) will allow them to vote and comment on reviews. Currently, visitors can rate networks, and security measures are in place to prevent the same C-Class IP range from voting on a review more than once every three weeks. However, this is not a fool-proof system, and thus reviews are still open to… manipulation. A member system would reduce any cheating attempts to about as much as possible.
The commenting of reviews will be a major improvement. All of the reviews on PublisherSpot are written in as much an objective, journalistic manner as possible, and so comments allow the more personal feedback and experiences to be shared, whether negative or positive.
Forum
A forum will be added to PublisherSpot. Currently, the site is referring discussion to PublisherForums.com, but it makes more sense to create a forum dedicated to the site. This will greatly help to build community, and allow visitors to pose and ask questions.
It will allow for network representatives to come and answer questions to help promote their company.
Blog
I’ve been hand-updating an HTML file each time there is an update to PublisherSpot, which appears on the front page. There is no archive, no commenting system, or anything other than a static display of the most recent updates, so naturally a blog is badly needed.
And, of course, a blog will go a long way to building the community, especially with commenting enabled. RSS integration and E-mail subscriptions are a bonus.
Complete Integration
Best of all, though, is that all three of these systems: the custom Members Section, the Forum, and the Blog will all be completely integrated. Therefore, only one account is needed on the site. Each account will have access to all the separate areas of the site. For example, if you sign up an account to the site, when you visit the forum you will automatically be logged in. The same goes with the blog.
This seamless integration throughout the site makes interacting the community as simple and hassle-free as possible.
The Road Ahead
All of this will take a lot of work, as well as lot more cash on my part. But I’m going full-steam ahead with this project. PublisherSpot is a valuable resource, and once batch-2 and batch-3 are complete, I think it will be difficult to ignore the site as the best place to go if you are seeking information on an ad network.
Again, I’ve put a lot of time and money into PublisherSpot, and will putting a lot more in. Sure, the site may never take off, but I’m an entrepreneur and I have to try. The rewards are simply too great not to.
I like this idea of a community spirit behind publisher spot great work!
Great work Tyler, I can’t wait to see the finished result. It really will be a great resource for webmasters.
I can’t wait to see the final outcome
-Mike
Hey Tyler,
IMO you should not build a forum for publisherspot. You should work on growing publisherforums, which is already so closely related anyways. Just direct visitors over there.
Have to say I agree with mike, why do another forum?
because thats all he knows how to do. and he probably doesnt even install it himself haha
Joe, the king tyler-hater lol. Of course he doesn’t install them.
Def agree with the points above, you already have a publisher focused forum. Bulding another on top of PS is useless. But i doubt you’ll listen.
I think that’s a great idea Tyler. It’ll definitely help PS.
I agree in part with Mike’s comment. What makes you think you will be able to build a successful community from Publisher Spot when Publisher Forums is just languishing - it seems like such a waste. Have you not considered merging the two sites together, then building a community?
I don’t need to tell you that building a successful online community requires a huge amount of work. Why would you start building a new community when your existing one at Publisher Forums is crying out for your attention?
- Martin Reed
I agree with the above comment….great idea, but merging publisher forums with publisher spot is the route I would take
Unfortunately most of the “review sites” are filled with affiliate links and they don’t provide any useful info other than 2-3 lines on infos about the ad network. I’m really happy that your site will be different, than the average “review sites”.
Thats a good idea to expand on ps
Checked out Publisherspot, looks like a great resource, Thanks for all the hard work.
Just make sure you keep the spammers and scammers away from the forum.
I think it will be good to have some fresh blood in the Advertising Forums Community. If you can keep it clean, success will follow.
[...] outlined in my Community - My Secret Ingredient post, I’ve been busy integrating new features to facilitate community. I’m currently [...]