http://monetizingonlineforums.com/ Written by Patrick O'Keefe who wrote a book about online forum management that I enjoyed and found useful. There's an obvious tie-in/cross-promotion with Skimlinks on this one but some of you might find it interesting and be able to use some of the info. Cheers, Shaun
Thanks so much for sharing the book here at Admin Extra, Shaun. I appreciate all of your support. You are right to mention the association with Skimlinks. Since you did, I'd like to expand upon it a little bit because it was something I gave a lot of thought. I've had a great relationship with Skimlinks for a few years. I've talked to various members of the team many times and I like them a lot. When they contacted me with this idea, they brought with them an interesting pitch: they wanted their one and only competitor included in the book, mentioned right alongside them. That caught my attention. They told me they wanted an independent project that delivered value. They wanted a real book. We discussed how their association with it would make people question if it was biased. No matter what we do, some will have that thought. I think that is a fair thought to have, it only makes sense. In order to mitigate that, I said that I should have complete, unquestioned editorial control. I decide every word in the book and who can contribute those words. How it would work: they would pay me, I would go away and write. When it was finished, I would send it to them and they could change nothing and not offer feedback. They agreed and wanted the same thing. To summarize that: they paid for the work to be created, but agreed to have no say in the editorial content of it and the only requirement they put on me was that they wanted their only competitor mentioned right alongside them in it. That's crazy. I'm not sure how many companies would have wanted such a thing, but I doubt it is a large number. There is some definite integrity there. What Skimlinks received for paying for the work to be produced is promotional value by being associated with something of quality (we hope). If it is a piece of junk, it makes me look bad and it makes them look bad. So, my approach was to create a real book, something with the same diligence that went into my first book, which was for a big publisher. I don't want people to think "that was good - for a free book." I want them to think "I would have paid for that." Your time, as a reader, is valuable and I want people to hold it to that standard. They benefit from the exposure and associated press. They are able to say it is "Presented by Skimlinks" on the front and back cover and the website (I thought it was pretty tasteful). They were able to write the foreword. And that's about it. They even decided to forgo list generation. Many free business ebooks ask for a name and email address to download it. It's pretty standard. Skimlinks decided to not even require that, which is unusual. But, they wanted the work to speak for itself and to not place any barriers in front of it. So, it was an interesting and unique project. I hope that you find it useful and if anyone has any questions about the book or the topics it covers, I'd be happy to answer them here at Admin Extra. Thanks again, Patrick
I've given it a read and it gets a big thumbs up from me. But then I'm a big fan of your Forum Management book too
