Changes: Help:Building a community

Revision as of 11:19, 18 April 2014

Once you've built your wikia, you'll undoubtedly want to begin attracting contributors. After all, wikias are community projects, so you definitely want to make sure you get others involved whenever you can! Learning the art of promotion is one of the most important things to do as a founder if you want to create a successful community around your subject.

Why promote?

Why not promote? Wikias are at their best when they are collaborative, community-based projects. Unless you promote your wikia in some way, you will have very few visitors—including both readers and contributors. One or two people can construct a wikia by themselves, but most of a wikia's objectives are best achieved with more people. This is especially true when it comes to community building.

To do that, you want to make sure people can find your wikia. You will want to identify places where potential contributors could be attracted and then talk about it there. Founders and the early contributors will likely carry a lot of this weight themselves, but only at first. Once more users start to join the wikia, more people will be able to spread the word and help the wikia grow.

How to promote

Before you even begin promoting your wikia, you want to make sure there is something to promote. It’s not enough to go through the wikia creation process. You need to begin creating the content of the wikia. It's important to get your basic structure, help pages, and forums sorted out, as well as the most content you can. The more and better content you have, the more attractive your wikia will be to search engines.

Once all of that is done, there are any number of ways to promote your wikia. Just remember that there is no single “best way” to promote a wikia, so you should choose whatever seems appropriate to your topic and the community you wish to build. Having said that, here are a few ways you might be able to promote your wikia:

Use the promote tool to feature your wikia on Wikia.com.
Talk about the wikia on websites that have similar topics, and explain that the wikia can be a common effort for all fans of that topic.
Be welcoming to visitors and encourage them to become part of the wikia.
- Encourage the best contributors to contribute even more!
Once you have 200 pages, you can apply for a Wikia Spotlight to advertise your wikia on similar communities.
Create an awesome theme for your wikia so potential readers and contributors can see a great looking wikia when they arrive.

Create a Facebook fan page for your wikia so readers, contributors, and others can "Like" your page. Be sure to post about your wikia's Facebook page here.
Create a Twitter page for your wikia and spread the word to your followers in 160 characters or less! Be sure to post about your wikia's Twitter page here.
Make a YouTube account for your wikia so you can upload interesting but relevant videos, and create an appealing channel to invite users to subscribe to.
Post at Admin Central about how your wikia is looking for editors.

Next pages

Learn how to start a new wikia
Learn how to build a successful wikia
Learn how to raise your wikia's search ranking

Further Help & Feedback

Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{tocright}}
+Once you've built your wikia, you'll undoubtedly want to begin '''attracting contributors'''. After all, wikias are community projects, so you definitely want to make sure you get others involved whenever you can! Learning the art of promotion is one of the most important things to do as a [[Help:Founders|founder]] if you want to create a successful community around your subject.
-'''Promotion''' is the art of getting people interested in visiting and staying at your wiki. Learning this art is one of the most important things you must do as a [[Help:founders|founder]] (or leading contributor) if you are to create a successful community around your wiki.
-==Attracting Contributors==
-At the early stages of building a Wiki community, it is important to get your basic structure, help pages and forums sorted out.  After which, attracting contributors is the most important step.  We are not all lucky enough to have 10,000,000 fans who might contribute to our Wiki, so we need to consider how to attract those people who might contribute (the '''Interested''' and '''Confident''') and how to get people that are interested but who otherwise wouldn't contribute to take part (increasing '''Passion''').
 ==Why promote?==
-To many people, ''promotion'' is a dirty word - just one step away from the dreaded ''advertising''. However, the simple truth is that unless you promote your wiki in '''some''' way, it will have far fewer visitors; and will gain far less regular contributors than it otherwise could. While it is indeed possible for one or two dedicated people to construct a wiki by themselves - most founders will have to start with extensive [[Meatball:SeedPosting|seed posting]] - the objective of many wikis is to disseminate information, and virtually all are intended to be communities as well. Neither of these objectives can be attained without people.
+Why ''not'' promote? Wikias are at their best when they are collaborative, community-based projects. Unless you promote your wikia in some way, you will have very few visitors&mdash;including both readers and contributors. One or two people can construct a wikia by themselves, but most of a wikia's objectives are best achieved with more people. This is especially true when it comes to community building.
-These people do not magically appear - they are already out there, on other websites and in real life. Your mission is to make sure that they come to '''your''' website. To do this, you must identify places where the sort of people your project wishes to attract are common and talk about it there. If you are a member of the target group for your wiki, you are probably already familiar with these places, which makes things a lot easier - all you have to do is figure out what to say! This may take some time, and you should consider the audience and the sort of visitors you want to encourage when composing it.
+To do that, you want to make sure people can find your wikia. You will want to identify places where potential contributors could be attracted and then talk about it there. Founders and the early contributors will likely carry a lot of this weight themselves, but only at first. Once more users start to join the wikia, more people will be able to spread the word and help the wikia grow.
+==How to promote==
-It is important to note as a founder and official "voice of the project", '''''you''''' will be expected to perform virtually all the promotion for the wiki, especially in the beginning. As time goes on you may find that people talk about it elsewhere, especially if they have contributed something of note, but you will still have to take an active role in packaging together people's contributions into a substantial "press release" which you can then post on forums and submit as news to related websites. This may feel odd to start with, but you will soon get used to "speaking for the community" - just make sure that you really ''do'' speak for it!
+Before you even begin promoting your wikia, you want to make sure there is something to promote. It’s not enough to go through the wikia creation process. You need to begin creating the content of the wikia. It's important to get your basic structure, help pages, and forums sorted out, as well as the most content you can. The more and better content you have, the more attractive your wikia will be to search engines.
+Once all of that is done, there are any number of ways to promote your wikia. Just remember that there is no single “best way” to promote a wikia, so you should choose whatever seems appropriate to your topic and the community you wish to build. Having said that, here are a few ways you might be able to promote your wikia:
-==How to promote your wiki==
-It is important to remember that there is no one "best way" to promote a wiki. You should choose whatever methods seem appropriate to the topic and the community you wish to build. Having said that, here are a few ways you might want to consider when deciding how to promote your wiki:
+*Use the [[Help:Promote|promote tool]] to feature your wikia on [[w:c:www|Wikia.com]].
-* Explain to people who may be interested in the topic area that the wiki is a common effort
+*Talk about the wikia on websites that have similar topics, and explain that the wikia can be a common effort for all fans of that topic.
-* Be welcoming to visitors and encourage them to become part of the wiki
+*Be welcoming to visitors and encourage them to become part of the wikia.
-** Encourage significant individual contributors to contribute even more
+**Encourage the best contributors to contribute even more!
-* Once you have 200 pages, apply for a [[w:Wikia Spotlights|Wikia Spotlight]]!
+*Once you have 200 pages, you can apply for a [[Community Central:Spotlights|Wikia Spotlight]] to advertise your wikia on similar communities.
-* Advertise for new users on relevant mailing lists, and through your own contacts
+*Create an awesome [[Help:Theme Designer|theme]] for your wikia so potential readers and contributors can see a great looking wikia when they arrive.
-** Be careful that your messages do not come across as spam
+[[File:WikiaTwitter.png|thumb|right|300px|Wikia on Twitter.]]
-* For wikis about local areas you can make a press release or just a notice to your local newspapers - similarly, if your chosen topic has "trade magazines" or similar publications, consider letting them know
+*Create a Facebook fan page for your wikia so readers, contributors, and others can "Like" your page. Be sure to post about your wikia's Facebook page [[Community Central:Wikia wikis on Facebook|here]].
-* Post messages on related web forums and newsgroups announcing your wiki
+*Create a Twitter page for your wikia and spread the word to your followers in 160 characters or less! Be sure to post about your wikia's Twitter page [[Community Central:Twitter Wikis|here]].
-** Keep posting regular updates describing the general progress and specific advancements
+*Make a YouTube account for your wikia so you can upload interesting but relevant videos, and create an appealing channel to invite users to subscribe to.
-*** It is probably best to avoid attributing any of this to yourself; conversely, few people will complain about having their good deeds mentioned by the project founder
+*Post at [[Admin Central:Forum|Admin Central]] about how [[Admin Central:Main Page/Wikis that need editors|your wikia is looking for editors]].
-* Make your wiki graphically attractive to its target audience so that your promotion is not wasted when visitors see a boring page
-* Sign up for an account on [http://squidoo.com/ Squidoo] and [http://www.squidoo.com/group/create_lens/wiki?forward=true create a lens] relating to your wiki. See the existing [http://www.squidoo.com/groups/wiki/lenses wiki lenses] for some examples.
-* Create a [http://facebook.com Facebook] page about your wiki and link to it off other groups relating with the topic. Keep them updated on anything interesting on the topic or wiki. Be sure to post about your Facebook page [[w:Community Central:Wikia wikis on Facebook|here]]!
-* Create a [http://twitter.com Twitter] page about your wiki and spread the word in 160 characters or less! Keep followers updated on anything interesting on the topic or wiki. Be sure to post about your Twitter page [[w:Community Central:Twitter Wikis|here]].
-* Make a [http://www.youtube.com/ YouTube] account for your wiki. Upload interesting, but relative videos and create an appealing Channel, inviting users to subscribe and visit the wiki.
+==Next pages==
-* you can try [http://wikads.wikia.com/wiki/Wik_ads_Wiki Wik_ads_Wiki] a wiki dedicated to making ads for other wikis
+*Learn how to [[Help:Start a new wiki|start a new wikia]]
-* You can try contacting people that might be interested in contributing to your wiki in the following places:
+*Learn how to [[Help:Making a successful wiki|build a successful wikia]]
-** Forums
+*Learn how to [[Help:Raising your wiki's Google ranking|raise your wikia's search ranking]]
-** Blogs
-** Other Websites
-** "Real Life" venues such as any place that people who share your interest commonly meet
+==Further Help & Feedback==
-==Personal Email vs. Mass Communication (spam)==
+{{Help and feedback section}}
-People tend to prefer personalized invites rather than things along the lines of:
+== See also ==
-Hey '''<nowiki>{{Person Interested in SPAM!!!}}</nowiki>'''
+*[[w:Admin Central:Main Page/Wikis that need editors|List of wikias that need editors]] at [[w:|Community Central]]
-We are starting a wonderful new '''SPAM-WIKI''' and are looking for people to help us contribute!
-etc...
-Personal invites, including the reasons why you think that person or group of persons might want to contribute to your wiki - based on what they have already written online for example, are a much better way of marketing.  It may be slow and take more effort, but in the long run, it will help your community to feel more valued.
-==Caution: Wikipedia==
-Although Wikipedia may seem like a good source of contributors, you have to exercise caution when raising awareness of your wiki there.  Small, discreet invites in the correct places (discussion pages and user talk: pages) may be acceptable, but be aware that the community is very wary of attempts to spam Wikipedia.
-Adding intrusive adverts or spamming many articles, even those related to your wiki, will only earn you the wrath of the Wikipedians, who are not afraid to bite!
-When raising awareness of your wiki on Wikimedia projects, explain that your Wiki intends to be different from Wikipedia related articles about the subject in various ways.  See also [[Advice:Will Wikis Work%3F#Don.27t Compete with Wikipedia|Don't Compete with Wikipedia]].
-See the [[Wikia:Wikia copyrights#Attribution templates|attribution templates]] section of Wikia's copyright policy for additional cautions regarding the use of such templates.
-Please be aware that making multiple edits to user talk pages promoting any external site is very likely to lead to you being '''permanently blocked''' from Wikipedia.
-==Links on other wikis==
-Many wikis have links to related sites, so make sure your wiki is listed there. http://www.wikiindex.org/ allows a listing of all wikis. You can create a page for your wiki there, and even get it mentioned in the site's blog (see [http://www.wikiindex.org/Category:Draft_weblog_article Draft weblog article] for details).
-==Success stories==
-:''See [[Help:Attracting contributors/Success stories]]''
-==Further reading==
-*Learn how to [[Help:Start a new wiki|start a new wiki]]
-*Learn how to [[Help:Making a successful wiki|build a successful wiki]]
-*[[Advice:Raising your wiki's Google ranking|Advice on how to raise your wiki's Google ranking]].
-==More community resources==
-*Post at [[w:Admin_Central:Forum|Admin Central]] that [[w:Admin_Central:Main_Page/Wikis_that_need_editors|you're wiki is looking for editors]].
-==More help==
-*[[Help:Buttons and banners]]
-*[[Help:Common mistakes]]
-*[[Help:Improving your Wikia wiki]]
-==See also==
-*[[wikia:Why use Wikia?|Why use Wikia?]]
+[[eshelp:Ayuda:Atrayendo editores]]
+[[fi:Ohje:Muokkaajien houkuttelu]]
+[[fr:Aide:Attirer des contributeurs]]
+[[nlhelp:Help:Bijdragers aantrekken]]
+[[ruhelp:Справка:Продвижение Вики]]
+[[pl:Pomoc:Promocja]]
+[[Category:Advice]]
 [[Category:Help|{{PAGENAME}}]]
-[[de:Hilfe:Benutzer begeistern]]
-[[nl:Help:Bijdragers aantrekken]]
-[[ru:Справка:Продвижение Вики]]