Ng - Online Community Management For Dummies

Online Community Management For Dummies

by Deborah Ng

Online Community Management For Dummies

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

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Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011941692

ISBN 978-1-118-09917-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-18276-5 (ePDF); ISBN 978-1-118-18277-2 (eMobi); ISBN 978-1-118-18278-9 (ePub)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

In addition to working in the past as a community manager and professional blogger for several online brands, Deborah Ng also grew a small writing blog into the No. 1 online community for freelance writers before selling in 2010. Currently, Deb works for BlogWorld and New Media expo helping to find speakers and content for their events. When shes not oversharing on the social networks, Deb blogs at Kommein.com and enjoys time with her extremely handsome husband and brilliant son.

Dedication

Online Community Management For Dummies is dedicated to Linda Lindsay, who I miss every single day.

Authors Acknowledgments

Many, many years ago, probably before many of you were born, my family noticed my enjoyment of writing and encouraged me to go beyond school essays and research reports and consider a career as a writer. It took a while, but eventually it happened. Even before I saw it myself, my mother and father encouraged me to write, and Im so extremely grateful to them.

Im even more grateful to my husband Bert and son Timothy for putting up with all the days and nights spent parked in front of my laptop, instead of spending time with them. They not only encouraged my dream but put up with crankiness and my absence as I opted to meet deadlines over going on family hikes or spending time with them in the pool.

In addition to my family, four people deserve the bulk of my thanks because I can honestly say this book never would have happened if my BlogWorld bosses, and true friends Rick Calvert, Dave Cynkin and Patti Hoskings, along with my very dear blogging friend Chris Garrett, didnt take me to a John Wiley & Sons, Inc. party in Austin, Texas to introduce me to Ellen Gerstein. Ellen didnt dig my original idea, but the introduction led to several pitches, and my idea for Online Community Management For Dummies is the one that stuck.

Id also be remiss if I didnt thank the rest of my BlogWorld team, because they were so encouraging and supportive through the whole book writing process even if I was late with work stuff. Thank you for your kind words and friendship Allison Boyer, Lara Kulpa, Nikki Katz, Dani Goren, Chris Castro, and the rest of our growing team. I have the best job in the world, and its such an honor to work with the most amazing gosh-darned group of people ever. Ever.

My brothers and sisters are also a big part of who I am today. Perhaps we dont see eye to eye on everything, and, yeah, theres been some family drama, but theyre a wonderful support group and a heck of a lot of fun. Thank you for putting up with all my talking, singing, and Donny Osmond worship, Donald Dederick, Diana Hayes, Desiree Pacuk, Doug Dederick, and Dawn Vota. I love you all.

Before I start with the big list of thank yous, I also have to single out Andy Hayes. A girl couldnt ask for a better person to have on her side. Andy cracked the whip to make sure I was working on my book over wasting time fooling around and was always there whether to talk about serious stuff or just share a little gossip. Everyone needs an Andy Hayes in their corner.

There are so many more people to thank, it would take a much bigger book to tell you who and why. I hope the following people know what an impact theyve made in my life and how much their friendship means to me: Thank you for your friendship, kindness, and support Jodee Redmond, Aliza Sherman, Tereece Clarke my White Meadow friends especially Anne Sickles, Robbin Seidel and Sarah Brake, Mike Stelzner, Joe DeCarli, Celina Pellicane, Jennifer Hoffman, Amy Porterfield, Tommy & Julie Tilert, Joel Durham, Jr., Jonathan Fields, Jonathan Magrid, Deb Dorchak, Wendi Kelly, Wendy Piersall, Becky McCray, David Crawford, Yury Polnar, Eddie Vallee, Kurt & Kate Ernst, Kelby Carr, Heather Solos, John Hewitt, Vanessa VanSciver, Alex Manger, Renee Kaestner, the Ng family (including all the millions of cousins and spouses), and so many other people who I will probably regret not naming here. Also, a special thanks to Chris Cella for all his help with my book proposals.