Managing Online Forums by Patrick O’Keefe

One of the books I’ve been reading lately is “Managing Online Forums” by Patrick O’Keefe.

Patrick O’Keefe is the founder and force behind the iFroggy Network, which is a network of almost 20 websites and resources you can find online across a variety of topics. Given the topic of his book you can guess that many of these websites are forums for topics ranging from  Karate to Photoshop.

At first I started reading the book from a mind set of forums and discussion boards themselves. I have a client or two that have either used a forum in the past or have talked about the potential need for one in the future.

However, after reading on I found myself taking some of the tips and suggestions he’s written about and apply them to almost any of my websites. Perhaps even more keyed in on how to apply the strategies to improving how I manage and promote my various blogs.

The book has nine chapters that focus on the following topics:

• Chapter 1 - Laying the Groundwork
• Chapter 2 - Developing Your Community
• Chapter 3 - Developing Guidelines
• Chapter 4 - Promoting Your Community
• Chapter 5 - Managing Your Staff
• Chapter 6 - Banning Users and Dealing with Chaos
• Chapter 7 - Creating a Good Environment
• Chapter 8 - Keeping It Interesting
• Chapter 9 - Making Money

As you can see from those titles, it wouldn’t take much to think about how you could apply some of the strategies to any business venture you may have.

Managing Online Forums is way more useful than for just managing forums!

Patrick has setup the Managing Online Forums website to compliment the book and give you more information if you’re curious about the topic, the book or the author.

The chapters I keyed in on specifically were how to lay the groundwork for your sites, promoting your community, keeping it interesting and making money (who doesn’t want to know how to do that better?). Just about everything I read could be immediately applied to my topics at hand or goals for clients. Excellent!

I highly recommend picking up a copy of Patrick’s book. If you don’t think forums are your thing, grab it anyway, I’m sure there’s information you’ll be glad you read.

If forums are your thing here’s some links to my personal favorites:

• FishGeeks.com
• Apolyton Forums