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Starting Virtual Communities
One of the more exciting recent developments has been the
development of
businesses that will host both free mailing lists and web-based discussion
groups. Here is a sample:
 | eGroups.com is a wonderful place to set up virtual communities. Mailing lists and other features are, but advertising supported. |
| Listbot -- List hosting; owned by Microsoft |
| Topica -- Yet another list host. |
Making It Work
The
most difficult aspects of a successful virtual community are not the technical
problems of finding a host and getting it set up. That part is easy. The hard
part is attracting and retaining a base of users with the desired
characteristics. Poor Richard's E-mail Publishing
is an excellent book with many useful tips.
A standard promotional technique is to include a sign up page at your web site. Here are some examples. The first three are all from the same site, Greg Siskind's Visalaw.com:
| Siskind's Immigration Bulletin -- A one way "announcement" list with tens of thousands of subscribers. | |||||
| Siskind's Visalaw Discussion Board -- A web-based discussion list. | |||||
| Siskind's Immigration Professional -- A discussion group for lawyers and other professionals working in immigration law. | |||||
Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP
-- Hosts 25 one way mailing lists, oriented toward business clients.
| The Northern Virginia Law Page
-- hosts The Virginia Legal News, a one-way quarterly newsletter.
| Hilborn
& Hilborn, P.C. -- Small Michigan firm sponsors two interactive discussion groups, on product defects and Internet law, both hosted by Listbot.com.
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One technique that can help is including information to help new users in all messages sent by a list. Here is an example.