[Ted S]

No book is going to give you all the secrets to making a successful community, teach you everything about how to manage yours or make up for years of experience but there is a lot to be said for good information. Most admins turn to forums like this one, blogs and articles for ideas on modifications, tips on dealing with certain issues, strategies to drive revenue and a thousand other topics. A book, while a static item, simply provides an aggregate of that information in a format that can be marked up and glanced through offline.

I'm not advocating everyone rushes out to buy this or any other book but don't discount something simply because it's on paper. We all rely on information sources to help augment our own understanding... I've spent years helping businesses including many forums optimize their registration funnel and drive revenue & activity not because the owners and managers of those businesses couldn't do it but because they hadn't learned how. An article I wrote years ago on how to successfully add merchandise to a forum was a huge hit -- not because people couldn't figure it out themselves but because it jump started ideas, listed tools, vendors, product types and prices and made things easier. Whether you read a blog, discuss in a forum or buy a book the idea is the same -- getting outside ideas to drive you to think about what you are already doing and improve it.

And frankly while we all may make mistakes and have great experiences to build off of in the future, few forum owners ever develop large enough sites to know how to create the success that many want.

In the interest of full disclosure I know the author of this book and am named in it but regardless affiliations, everyone should find the information sources they like. For me most of the books I own on internet marketing & optimization serve as casual references and interesting reads during downtime while conferences, networking discussions and blogs are my source of actionable information but I wouldn't stop buying books -- both give me value, both have their place in my world.