Now here is my last final blog. As mentioned before I joined the community psd-tutorials because of my interest in designing and digital painting. Before I joined psd-tutorials I was pretty sceptical, because I never thought much about joining a community. Although I am a member of several communities I would never have joined psd-tutorials without our community building lessons. But now, at the end of the module I will not delete my account because I find this community very useful.
So as you know now, I like psd-tutorials. But what I learned during analyzing communities is not what I experienced self. I can find useful information and inspiration but I do not feel like building up relationships to other member. My sister`s feelings and experiences I described before I cannot understand. Maybe this is because I am not long time enough a member or I did not participate actively enough. Psd-tutorials is a very big community and maybe it needs to take more time to become truly involved with other members.
To become a member on psd-tutorials was very easy. I just needed to fill in my nickname and password, got activation link and the registration was done. The participation was not that easy because after I signed in I could see that there are many members joining very actively. So I did not have a special question and most of the threats were already answered. Most of the questions are answered only a few minutes (mostly less than five) after asking them.
So in my last blog I can say I enjoyed becoming a member of psd-tutorials and I made some very interesting experiences during analyzing psd-tutorials. Because of my reflection, my talks to other people and reading blogs and texts about this topic I could learn a lot about communities and their meaning in the social web.
Montag, 23. November 2009
Freitag, 20. November 2009
Development of communities
While talking about motivation of community members I already told you about my sister who is an active community user and my own experience about good behavior online.
As I met my sister yesterday she told me about her community. Now, a few weeks before Christmas they are organizing an action, in Germany we call it “wichteln”. Everybody who wants to join can answer a questionnaire about his/hers preferences, interests and hobbies. This is sent to another member who filled in this questionnaire and for this user one has to buy a small present.
“Wichteln” is a tradition that many people in Germany do. This shows how behavior on online communities is adapted from behavior in the physical world.
As I met my sister yesterday she told me about her community. Now, a few weeks before Christmas they are organizing an action, in Germany we call it “wichteln”. Everybody who wants to join can answer a questionnaire about his/hers preferences, interests and hobbies. This is sent to another member who filled in this questionnaire and for this user one has to buy a small present.
“Wichteln” is a tradition that many people in Germany do. This shows how behavior on online communities is adapted from behavior in the physical world.
Dienstag, 17. November 2009
Social Media
As we all learned during the lesson we know that communities consist of social media elements. I found an interesting link about the evolution of social media, maybe it gives you some useful background information.
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/the-history-and-evolution-of-social-media/
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/the-history-and-evolution-of-social-media/
Samstag, 14. November 2009
Usability on psd-tutorials
The usability on psd- tutorials definitively could be better. After joining I felt a bit lost, because there is no welcome, with an explanation of tools or other things you can do.
Because psd-tutorials is a pretty big community with many subcategories a explanation at the beginning would be pretty helpful.
The first things you see on the startpage of the community are buttons with actual contests. I will come later back to the point contest. Although I think this is a funny and interesting aspect of the community I would not put it on the front page.
Because psd-tutorials is a pretty big community with many subcategories a explanation at the beginning would be pretty helpful.
The first things you see on the startpage of the community are buttons with actual contests. I will come later back to the point contest. Although I think this is a funny and interesting aspect of the community I would not put it on the front page.
Dienstag, 10. November 2009
Meaning of a Community
While participating in a community I recognize that many people adapt the “rules” of the physical world also to the online world.
So one example: I read today a new thread where a member asked a question about how he can reach a special result with Photoshop. This user signed in yesterday and from his status we can see that this was his first posts. He did not get immediately an answer. Another community member rebuked him for not introducing himself and greeting the other members.
As I read this it became clear to me that the online world is not as anonymous and impersonal as it often seems. People who are participating in a community do well appreciate a bland and respectful behavior.
So one example: I read today a new thread where a member asked a question about how he can reach a special result with Photoshop. This user signed in yesterday and from his status we can see that this was his first posts. He did not get immediately an answer. Another community member rebuked him for not introducing himself and greeting the other members.
As I read this it became clear to me that the online world is not as anonymous and impersonal as it often seems. People who are participating in a community do well appreciate a bland and respectful behavior.
Freitag, 6. November 2009
One more link….
I already posted this blog in general, but here is one more interesting link you may profit from while building your own community.
http://www.communityspark.com/95-things-i-have-learnt-in-9-years-of-community-building/
http://www.communityspark.com/95-things-i-have-learnt-in-9-years-of-community-building/
Dienstag, 3. November 2009
What do people like on online communities?
As mentioned before I never thought much about online communities. Now while I´m participating for a while in the community psd- tutorials I start enjoying it. I already found many interesting information that were really useful for me and my design work.
While we were discussing in our team about how we could motivate people to participate I recognized a difference. On psd- tutorials people talk about their hobbies, their common interests. This is a big difference to our communities, where we want people to talk about their own problems and very personal subjects. While my sister were busy with organizing her wedding she joined a community weddix.de to find tips about a perfectly organized day. Now more than two months after the wedding she still participates in the community daily. Now she sometimes gives tips to futural brides, but most of the time she posts in off-topic threads.
I asked her why and she gave me the following answers:
- In your own environment not everybody has the same interests at the same time (wedding). This was the reason why she signed in in the community.
- She is still a member, because she met there people she is regularly in contact with
- The Community growed and has now many subcommunities. It startet only about weddings but now there are also topics like honeymoon, building houses, children, holidays, cooking, swine flue…
- It is another sphere talking with other members than meeting with real friends
I hope this information can be useful to you all, when you think about motivating people to become users in your community.
While we were discussing in our team about how we could motivate people to participate I recognized a difference. On psd- tutorials people talk about their hobbies, their common interests. This is a big difference to our communities, where we want people to talk about their own problems and very personal subjects. While my sister were busy with organizing her wedding she joined a community weddix.de to find tips about a perfectly organized day. Now more than two months after the wedding she still participates in the community daily. Now she sometimes gives tips to futural brides, but most of the time she posts in off-topic threads.
I asked her why and she gave me the following answers:
- In your own environment not everybody has the same interests at the same time (wedding). This was the reason why she signed in in the community.
- She is still a member, because she met there people she is regularly in contact with
- The Community growed and has now many subcommunities. It startet only about weddings but now there are also topics like honeymoon, building houses, children, holidays, cooking, swine flue…
- It is another sphere talking with other members than meeting with real friends
I hope this information can be useful to you all, when you think about motivating people to become users in your community.
Donnerstag, 29. Oktober 2009
Trust on the Internet
Trust on the internet is a topic, where everybody of us already thought about. Before buying something in an online store or on ebay people want to be sure that their data Is not given away for commercial purposes or anything else.
Here are two interesting links about trust on the internet. I hope you enjoy reading it and it can help you by creating trust in your own community.
http://www.communityspark.com/the-importance-of-trust/
http://www.communityspark.com/how-to-build-and-maintain-trust-in-online-communities/
Here are two interesting links about trust on the internet. I hope you enjoy reading it and it can help you by creating trust in your own community.
http://www.communityspark.com/the-importance-of-trust/
http://www.communityspark.com/how-to-build-and-maintain-trust-in-online-communities/
Freitag, 23. Oktober 2009
The rating system
Every time am member visits psd tutorials he gains 5 points. Also making posts, leaving comments and loading up own tutorials is rewarded with points. With this points the founders of psd – tutorials support the activities of members. One reason to collect points is that you have to “pay” downloads you want to do with your points. The psd-tutorials-community offers actions, styles, textures and others features for download. Of course the upload of these features by the users is also rewarded with points. There are also status – descriptions of the users. You start as a newbie. These statuses you can reach do not function as motivation, because you as a user can change your own status. You can well see when the user signed up and how many posts a member already did. You can use this as a guide how active a user is.
Mittwoch, 21. Oktober 2009
Leadership at psd-turorials
After reading about leadership in online communities in our book and thinking how we could manage this in our own community I analyzied how this is managed on psd-tutorials.
There are two administrators on psd turorials. They release tutorials or downloads, support members when they have questions about their accounts and have basically all functions for conception and programming of the community.
Beside the administrators there are also moderators. The moderators are responsible for the different subject areas in the forums. They have special knowledge and skills in the different sector and have a look, that the threats are posted in the right forums and topics and sometimes there give also advise and help.
Before you become a member of psd tutorials you have to agree on certain terms of conditions. One of this terms is a good spelling with capitals and lower case letters. I recognized, that when people use a wrong spelling or use only capitals/lower cases in their posts the moderators point it out. If someone does not stick to the rules, posts or also memberships got deleted and blocked.
There are two administrators on psd turorials. They release tutorials or downloads, support members when they have questions about their accounts and have basically all functions for conception and programming of the community.
Beside the administrators there are also moderators. The moderators are responsible for the different subject areas in the forums. They have special knowledge and skills in the different sector and have a look, that the threats are posted in the right forums and topics and sometimes there give also advise and help.
Before you become a member of psd tutorials you have to agree on certain terms of conditions. One of this terms is a good spelling with capitals and lower case letters. I recognized, that when people use a wrong spelling or use only capitals/lower cases in their posts the moderators point it out. If someone does not stick to the rules, posts or also memberships got deleted and blocked.
Freitag, 16. Oktober 2009
Interesting…
While searching on Internet I came across a very informative text. It is not only about communities, but I think you can find very interesting information you can also use for starting a successful community.
9 Marketing Tips from a Six-Year Old’s Lemonade Stand
The other day my daughter, Sophia, announced that she wanted to set up a lemonade stand.
Seeing as how I didn’t really want to spend the better part of my weekend selling lemonade, I tried to talk her out of it by showing her how much she’d need to spend to buy the lemonade mix, get the cups, that sort of thing. Regardless of my best efforts, there was no changing her mind. She wanted to go into business and there wasn’t anything I was going to do to stop her. So as I succumbed to my role as venture capitalist in her first business startup. I decided that at the very least, this would be a great chance to teach my daughter about counting money, basic business principals, that sort of thing. We sat down with a pad of paper and started writing the business plan. It didn’t take long before Sophia, becoming completely exasperated with my efforts to teach her about price structure and ROI, looked up at me and said: “But Daddy, I just want to give it away. Our neighbors are so nice, I just want to give them the lemonade.”
Wow! What do you say to that? She hit me with a complete game changer that I didn’t expect. Suddenly, the lemonade stand had taken on an entirely different meaning.
So we put away the business plan, she drew up a sign and my wife helped her mix a pitcher of lemonade. Just as we were about to open for business, Sophia came in from the back porch with a sprig of mint she had cut from a pot. “Can we put mint in the lemonade?” she asked. “I want to make it extra special.” And with that, on a Sunday afternoon in a quiet neighborhood, she was open for business.
Within a few minutes, one of our neighbors who had heard about the project came over with 50 cents to buy a glass of lemonade. Twice the price my daughter was originally planning to charge. “But it’s free” Sophia told her. “That’s OK. I want to pay you for the lemonade”, she replied. Not knowing what to do with the money, Sophia put it in a cup and set the cup on the table (where everyone could see it). Before long, more neighbors came by, each one giving her at least 50 cents. When a car would pass, she would jump up and down and scream, “Free lemonade” hoping they would stop.
For the most part they didn’t. However, at one point, one did and the driver handed her three dollars for his glass of lemonade – 1,100 percent more then if she’d gone with her father’s suggestion of 25 cents per cup. By the end of the day, Sophia had made a whopping eight dollars at her “free” lemonade stand. When it was all said and done, I realized that although my original business lessons didn’t stick with my daughter, I learned a lot about marketing. Here are nine lemonade stand tips that you can use to market your services:
1. Give people something for free and they will feel obligated to return the favor
When you help someone, it creates a natural desire to return the favor. As a web designer, provide helpful tips on your blog, participate in forums offering advice and helping non-designers, share ideas on Twitter. In doing so, you’ll not only build trust, but also develop relationships with potential clients.
2. Give potential customers a taste of your offerings
Offer free themes or templates with an easy upgrade to “pro” versions. Provide free stock graphics that hint at potential identity or branding packages while demonstrating your creativity. Just be sure to make it good. When users are excited about the base product, they are much more likely to upgrade.
3. Make it “Extra Special”
Don’t just offer lemonade. Put in that extra sprig of mint. Make everything you do something “extra special” and clients will take notice. Not only will they come back for more, they’ll tell their friends.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Your “Neighbors” (Network!)
One of the first things my daughter did when she opened her stand was run next door and tell the neighbor. After getting his lemonade, he called two other neighbors to tell them about the lemonade stand – both of whom came right over with “donations”. Don’t be afraid to tell friends and colleagues about your services. You never know, they may talk to your next big client later that day.
5. Do What You Need to Do to Be Seen
It wasn’t enough to just put up a sign. My daughter’s advertising consisted of jumping up and down screaming “free lemonade” at passing cars. While it might seem extreme, it worked. How are you “screaming” about your business?
6. Be Persistent
Even though most of the cars passed by, my daughter didn’t give up. Finally, after many failed attempts, one of them did stop—doubling her income for the day.
7. Build Anticipation
My daughter’s first customer knew about her project and was there as soon as it opened. Don’t just launch your new web site, let people know it’s coming. Drop hints, show them screen shots, make them look forward to the big day.
8. Find Good Partners
My daughter’s little brother kept drinking the lemonade – not the best partner. However, her friend from down the street was out there with her jumping up and down screaming, doubling their advertising efforts.
9. Advertise Your Popularity
Once my daughter’s cup started filling with coins, people were more likely to “donate”. Don’t be afraid to advertise your popularity. Place download counters, comment counts and subscriber numbers in prominent places. Just make sure the stats are high enough to warrant a little bragging.
9 Marketing Tips from a Six-Year Old’s Lemonade Stand
The other day my daughter, Sophia, announced that she wanted to set up a lemonade stand.
Seeing as how I didn’t really want to spend the better part of my weekend selling lemonade, I tried to talk her out of it by showing her how much she’d need to spend to buy the lemonade mix, get the cups, that sort of thing. Regardless of my best efforts, there was no changing her mind. She wanted to go into business and there wasn’t anything I was going to do to stop her. So as I succumbed to my role as venture capitalist in her first business startup. I decided that at the very least, this would be a great chance to teach my daughter about counting money, basic business principals, that sort of thing. We sat down with a pad of paper and started writing the business plan. It didn’t take long before Sophia, becoming completely exasperated with my efforts to teach her about price structure and ROI, looked up at me and said: “But Daddy, I just want to give it away. Our neighbors are so nice, I just want to give them the lemonade.”
Wow! What do you say to that? She hit me with a complete game changer that I didn’t expect. Suddenly, the lemonade stand had taken on an entirely different meaning.
So we put away the business plan, she drew up a sign and my wife helped her mix a pitcher of lemonade. Just as we were about to open for business, Sophia came in from the back porch with a sprig of mint she had cut from a pot. “Can we put mint in the lemonade?” she asked. “I want to make it extra special.” And with that, on a Sunday afternoon in a quiet neighborhood, she was open for business.
Within a few minutes, one of our neighbors who had heard about the project came over with 50 cents to buy a glass of lemonade. Twice the price my daughter was originally planning to charge. “But it’s free” Sophia told her. “That’s OK. I want to pay you for the lemonade”, she replied. Not knowing what to do with the money, Sophia put it in a cup and set the cup on the table (where everyone could see it). Before long, more neighbors came by, each one giving her at least 50 cents. When a car would pass, she would jump up and down and scream, “Free lemonade” hoping they would stop.
For the most part they didn’t. However, at one point, one did and the driver handed her three dollars for his glass of lemonade – 1,100 percent more then if she’d gone with her father’s suggestion of 25 cents per cup. By the end of the day, Sophia had made a whopping eight dollars at her “free” lemonade stand. When it was all said and done, I realized that although my original business lessons didn’t stick with my daughter, I learned a lot about marketing. Here are nine lemonade stand tips that you can use to market your services:
1. Give people something for free and they will feel obligated to return the favor
When you help someone, it creates a natural desire to return the favor. As a web designer, provide helpful tips on your blog, participate in forums offering advice and helping non-designers, share ideas on Twitter. In doing so, you’ll not only build trust, but also develop relationships with potential clients.
2. Give potential customers a taste of your offerings
Offer free themes or templates with an easy upgrade to “pro” versions. Provide free stock graphics that hint at potential identity or branding packages while demonstrating your creativity. Just be sure to make it good. When users are excited about the base product, they are much more likely to upgrade.
3. Make it “Extra Special”
Don’t just offer lemonade. Put in that extra sprig of mint. Make everything you do something “extra special” and clients will take notice. Not only will they come back for more, they’ll tell their friends.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Tell Your “Neighbors” (Network!)
One of the first things my daughter did when she opened her stand was run next door and tell the neighbor. After getting his lemonade, he called two other neighbors to tell them about the lemonade stand – both of whom came right over with “donations”. Don’t be afraid to tell friends and colleagues about your services. You never know, they may talk to your next big client later that day.
5. Do What You Need to Do to Be Seen
It wasn’t enough to just put up a sign. My daughter’s advertising consisted of jumping up and down screaming “free lemonade” at passing cars. While it might seem extreme, it worked. How are you “screaming” about your business?
6. Be Persistent
Even though most of the cars passed by, my daughter didn’t give up. Finally, after many failed attempts, one of them did stop—doubling her income for the day.
7. Build Anticipation
My daughter’s first customer knew about her project and was there as soon as it opened. Don’t just launch your new web site, let people know it’s coming. Drop hints, show them screen shots, make them look forward to the big day.
8. Find Good Partners
My daughter’s little brother kept drinking the lemonade – not the best partner. However, her friend from down the street was out there with her jumping up and down screaming, doubling their advertising efforts.
9. Advertise Your Popularity
Once my daughter’s cup started filling with coins, people were more likely to “donate”. Don’t be afraid to advertise your popularity. Place download counters, comment counts and subscriber numbers in prominent places. Just make sure the stats are high enough to warrant a little bragging.
Donnerstag, 15. Oktober 2009
Interesting Blog
I found a blog about communitybuilding on the web:
http://www.communityspark.com/category/community-management/
I think it is pretty interesting. Maybe you guys can find some tips for your community assignment!
http://www.communityspark.com/category/community-management/
I think it is pretty interesting. Maybe you guys can find some tips for your community assignment!
Montag, 12. Oktober 2009
Why psd – tutorials?
Why did I join the community psd tutorials? I signed up in this community, because I already knew this webportal and found on this site many tips about graphics, photography and design. I also own a psd- tutorials dvd, with many presets. Now, while thinking about it I don´t understand why I did not join earlier. As a guest you can read the posts in the forum and see tutorials only limited. As a member you can download tutorials and watch them with supporting images and videos.
Mittwoch, 7. Oktober 2009
Me and Communities
Until know I never thought much about the meaning of communities, especially not about communities on the web. I chose this module, because I came into contact with this topic and the increasing importance in my job. I work in a marketing company in Aachen.
Now, while reading the list we got for our community building module, I’m pretty astonished about on how many communities I am a member.
Of course, the most obvious, I am a member at StudiVZ, the German version of facebook. Why? Some friends of mine invited me to join – so why not? I also have accounts on amazon and ebay, and before we started discussing about what a community is I really was not aware that these are websites also are communities.
But while we were discussing in class when you are a member of a community I started thinking about it. I recognized that I visit pages regularly to get information I am interested in without signing up. I do not feel like being member of a community, I just read this information for fun but none of this community offers me something that would convince me to become a member. I think this will be a big challenge by starting up our own community, to attract people to become a member.
Now, while reading the list we got for our community building module, I’m pretty astonished about on how many communities I am a member.
Of course, the most obvious, I am a member at StudiVZ, the German version of facebook. Why? Some friends of mine invited me to join – so why not? I also have accounts on amazon and ebay, and before we started discussing about what a community is I really was not aware that these are websites also are communities.
But while we were discussing in class when you are a member of a community I started thinking about it. I recognized that I visit pages regularly to get information I am interested in without signing up. I do not feel like being member of a community, I just read this information for fun but none of this community offers me something that would convince me to become a member. I think this will be a big challenge by starting up our own community, to attract people to become a member.
Samstag, 3. Oktober 2009
Posts in psd-tutorials
During my first days on psd tutorials I had a look on the different features this community offers. In the forums the users can ask for information or help they need. They are sorted in different topics and according to the programmes about which the users want to find advice.
While participating the different forums I find it quite difficult to post reactions, because it is a very fast changing community. The users answer on the question within a few minutes, sometimes it takes less than one minute. So, I had to be very fast to give my reactions or otherwise my reactions are needless. Of course we users can also profit from this very fast reactions, because you get very quick answers.
While participating the different forums I find it quite difficult to post reactions, because it is a very fast changing community. The users answer on the question within a few minutes, sometimes it takes less than one minute. So, I had to be very fast to give my reactions or otherwise my reactions are needless. Of course we users can also profit from this very fast reactions, because you get very quick answers.
Dienstag, 29. September 2009
My first impressions
As a newbie on psd-tutorials I find the main page is a bit overloaded.
There are different menus,the topics, forums, contests, news and advertisements. So I needed my time to orientate myself. I had my first look on the main menu, with the different topics and I have to say I find them pretty interesting.
The community offers tutorials, downloads, galleries, forums and a shop. I think in my firsts steps I will have a closer look on this topics.
There are different menus,the topics, forums, contests, news and advertisements. So I needed my time to orientate myself. I had my first look on the main menu, with the different topics and I have to say I find them pretty interesting.
The community offers tutorials, downloads, galleries, forums and a shop. I think in my firsts steps I will have a closer look on this topics.
Freitag, 25. September 2009
Hello!
Hello everybody,
Welcome to my blog. This is my first post for our module Community Building. I am very interested in Graphic Design, so I decided to participate in the community, psd- tutorials.
I hope to find information and inspration from other designers.
Welcome to my blog. This is my first post for our module Community Building. I am very interested in Graphic Design, so I decided to participate in the community, psd- tutorials.
I hope to find information and inspration from other designers.
Abonnieren
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