How to Build a Wiki Community Easily

The first thing that many people think of when they hear the word “wiki” is Wikipedia. Even though Wikipedia has grown to become one of the largest websites on the internet, it actually started out being very tiny. It’s only through collaboration and teamwork that projects such as these can grow to become something awesome – maybe even a multi-million article resource! So how exactly can you grow something from a small one man project to a huge community of hardworking people?

Social bookmarking is a must to maintain backlinks and also to get more people to come to your website.

1. Step 1

   Begin adding content to the wiki you are building. It’s not possible to grow a community when there is no content there to grow upon. What would people edit if there is no content? Even though it may seem like you are all alone adding content, just keep it up. People will eventually join you in your venture.

2. Step 2

   Be open to allowing anonymous (anons) to edit your wiki. Some wikis choose to allow only registered users – people who have created an account – add content to their wiki. You will be turning many great people away by doing this, and possibly losing some great contributors.

3. Step 3

   Don’t “protect” too many pages from editing. Often times certain articles will fall victim to what is called vandalism – where people add content that is not appropriate for the article. Your first instinct may be just to protect the page so nobody else can edit it; however, this will again turn away many potentially great contributors.

4. Step 4

   Welcome people as soon as they have made their first edit on the wiki. If people begin editing a wiki and they see no sign of life, other activity, or any sign of a welcome or thank you message, they are going to lose interest. You need to make sure people are very welcome at the wiki.

5. Step 5

   Thank people all the time for the edits they are making. People who edit wikis are doing this on their own freewill. Nobody gets paid to write for a wiki, so people are basically donating their time and skills for the sake of the wiki. You can’t thank someone too much!

6. Step 6

   Be patient. Your wiki will not develop into something huge overnight. Everything takes time, and you will have to experiment and try out different techniques; see what works for you and your wiki.

Be sure to market your wiki in all the social groups and forums to gain even more exposure ^_^