Part 7 - A Delicate Flower

These guidelines should give you some good ideas to consider as you decide how you're going to implement community on your site. And remember, this article (long as it is) only scratches the surface - I didn't talk at all about using focused chats, polls, or any other features that would contribute to the growth of habitual community users.

Think of your fledgling community as a delicate orchid. You've got to give it plenty of sunshine (exposure), keep it at the right temperature, water and feed it frequently (stimulation), but be careful not to over-water (tamper or oppress).

It may take a while to get real user to user interaction happening, so don't get discouraged if growth is slow. Keep funneling traffic in, and always be looking for new ways to capture your readers' attention. As reluctant as they sometimes are to get involved, people love the opportunity to participate - to put in their two cents' worth.

Whether you're more excited by the power that community can bring to your content site and the subject it covers, the idea of creating a helpful support area, or the thought of maximizing your traffic, an engaged set of regular visitors and participants can turn your site into a self-generating content machine.