All successful communities on the Internet have clear similarities that help them attract committed groups of active users. Understanding these similarities enables you to replicate their success in your own efforts to build a community. It does not matter if your site attracts millions of unique users every month- if you focus on building tools that bring people together around a common interest (be it a product, a service, an idea, whatever), the numbers will come with time.

A number of concepts have been presented in this article that should help spur your thought process on “Community 2.0” and inspire new ideas. As long as you keep the key concepts- sense of community, strong recognition, and simple tools- in front of you as you lay the foundations for your community, you will create a community of passionate users that are actively involved and provide your site with a long term competitive advantage over competitors.