There’s a rule of thumb that 1% of the members of an online community create new posts, 10% make comments and the rest only consume.

If you are one of the few creators, thank you. Your content is what makes the internet such an interesting place. When you do post a new discussion, here are 10 quick tips on how to make it a great one.

The first thing that most members are encouraged to do when they join a new community is to check out their community guidelines. Most community managers and/ or moderators will point new members in this direction so that they get a feel for the community before they dive in.

This is because community guidelines are essentially the template for how your community acts and behaves—these will (or, rather, should) tell your members what type of conduct is acceptable and what isn't. Ensuring that your community guidelines are clear well-written should be a high priority for any community manager.

When you think of search engine optimization (SEO), chances are that your mind automatically thinks about tactics to increase the rank of your website and web pages. What you might not think of, however, is applying these practices to your community forum. 

Yes, SEO tactics can also be applied to your forum and increase traffic just like any other web page. This blog will give you some of the best tips when applying SEO to forums. 

Launching a new online community forum can be daunting, especially if you don’t know where to start. Throughout our years of building and launching hundreds of long-term, effective online communities, we’ve learned a lot — and we want to share our knowledge with you.

Do you like to read? I'd personally prefer to grab a video game—but there are some things that I'll make an exception for. If the topic is interesting and it draws my eye, I'll scan the first page. From there, you can quickly tell if it's a quality read or not.