EZ Neighborhood Websites

Why create a community or neighborhood website?

An online community is a great way to keep people coming back to your neighborhood Web site. The Community consists of forums, chat rooms, calendars, and other tools. Communities help your readers return to your site again and again. These tools and tips will help you build forums and chat rooms and help you decide what you need for your community.  

What is Community and Why Do You Want It for Your Site? 

You may think that building an online community is just a matter of setting up a Bulletin Board or a chat room and then sitting back and waiting for the people to come in, but there is a lot more to it than that.   You need the tools available to make the site interesting and useful to the residents that will be using it. 

What is an online community? 

According to the WWWebster Dictionary, a community is (one of several related definitions):a unified body of individuals: as ... a body of persons of common ... interests scattered through a larger society  For the purposes of the Internet, this is the best definition, as it does not require that the people live together, only that they have common interests. By that definition, anyone who visits your Web site is a part of the community of that Web site.  

Why build community? 

Once you have people coming to your Web site, you already have a community of sorts, so why spend time "building" one? The Internet is a cold place.  Most communities in history have been built around people who lived together, and so could get to know and work with the other members of their community. When you are part of a community on the Web, you often don't know the other people with whom you interact. You could walk right past them on the street and not say hello. Building a community on your Web site, gives your visitors the chance to interact and feel a part of something. These connections build a network between people and (hopefully) they will like interacting with people with similar interests and so will keep coming back.  Online communities give your readers reason to stay interested in your site, and give you more readers.  

How do you add community? 

There is no tried and true method to encourage community spirit and feeling on the Web, but there are some tools to help encourage community.  

Website digest or Newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to keep your readers informed about your site. You can use newsletters to talk about new features, explain exciting changes to the site, or just give good information that they might not have found otherwise. We use newsletters to provide information about changes to the website.  The digest is automatically sent out to all members who registed. 

Calendars

Often the most overlooked community builder is the online calendar. This can be as simple as a list of events and their dates and times, or as complex as you can imagine. They are an invaluable tool for building community, as they allow your readers to find out what's happening. You can and should list events like school events, upcoming community events, garage sales, park openings, new restaurant openings, etc.   If your readers find that they can get valuable information from your calendar, they will come back and be more motivated to use it for your other online services. 

Classified Ads

Have members place classified ads for free.  This encourages the interaction within neighborhood websites and keeps them coming back. 

Special Coupons

Have vendors sponsor the website and offer special discounts for community members.  These “online coupons” will allow residents to come back and save money.  This provides value for the residents of the community website.  Remember to update and change coupons often, as the coupons will appeal to a different group. 

These are the basics for creating a successful community.  At EZ Neighborhood Websites, we provide for these and other features that keep residents coming back to the site.  The more it is used, the better the site becomes.  Doesn’t it make sense to provide a site that residents use? 

If you are ready to check on whether your neighborhood is still available, fill out the quick and easy form on our website EZ Neighborhood Websites.