Are you looking for an extensive guide on how to launch an online community and establish an online presence? Then, look no further than Managing Online Forums, a comprehensive book by Patrick O’Keefe on “everything you need to know to create and run successful community discussion boards.” I was privileged to receive an advanced copy of the book from Patrick and as I started reading I was immediately impressed. It wasn’t just Patrick’s ability to relay his experiences as a forum administrator and how he dealt with certain problems that could arise in an online community, but the way in which he had organized the material in the book would even make the For Dummies series head back to the drawing board.

Right there in the introduction Patrick flat-out asks the reader, “Is This Book for You?” And how can this book not be for you if you are an inspiring community manager? Even so, you don’t even have to be someone who is just starting out creating communities because even if you are an expert manager this book applies to you as well. You are informed of the appropriate methods in which to deal with all sorts of characters on your forum ranging from the “higher-level staff member” to the “persistent idiots.” Yes, Patrick does use the word “idiot” in the book. Take that, Dummies.

Are you the kind of person who doesn’t know what to do with a lot of power? No need to worry. With his question-answer model between himself and yourself he gives you options on how to consolidate the power within the community between staff members. He even fills you in on how to have yourself appear on the same level as the regular users while simultaneously establishing the hierarchy within the forum. Not only that, but Patrick embeds example user and forum guidelines within his general guidelines of actually manging the forum. In addition, in the sections “Managing Your Staff” and “Banning Users and Dealing with Chaos”, Patrick presents actual live conversations you could have with your users so all the thinking is thought out for you already. Did you ever write the email where you were wondering “Now, how in the world am I going to word this?” Well, Patrick gives you all the options on the best way to explain to the users why you are planning to do this or that without being offensive, yet getting the point across at the same time.

Money, Money, Money, Mmmmmoooney! We know you were waiting for that part. Indeed, Patrick puts on a Donald Trump thinking cap and fills you on just about every possibly way you can generate revenue for your online communities. However, let that not be the reason why you head to Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Amazon.com to buy Managing Online Forums. Let it be Patrick’s proclamation that “You don’t want to try to be everything to everyone. You want to do what you do-and do it well,” be the underlying statement which gets you interested. Patrick is very quick to admit that running a successful online community is not always easy but going by the success Patrick has had by creating forums such as the likes of PhotoshopForums.com, KarateForums.com, SportsForums.net and numerous others within the iFroggy Network, you know that the methods and concepts relayed in this book are not only workable ones, but proven methods as well.

Ethan Kwassman, CEO of myEDI Media