Not only does web content increase relevance and therefore search engine rankings and results, “static” content – here, defined as articles, tutorials and other text-based information – reinforces the community’s central mission. In other words, it is valuable information that serves to interest and enrich the reader with utility and meaning.

Members of an affinity audience want to anchor their presence and participation. For example, locals want a place to call their online home. Followers and fans of a band choose their favorite “space” and invest their time there, adding songs, photos and more to their page. Digital video professionals congregate where FAQ and reference material is available 24/7. Good content makes this possible: When these same users also find useful articles, news, links and reviews, their attachment to their chosen site is strengthened.

Therefore, the more relevant, topical content that web publishers add to reinforce the uniqueness & value of their site/community, then the better it is for everybody – for users, advertisers and owners. Content creates value over time (so don’t unpublish anything!). The challenge is to find out how to create & present your special content in a special way that truly adds lasting value.

Why integrate a calendar in your online community? I highly recommend that publishers, especially those that serve a geographically local area, add an events list or calendar to their site. In addition to giving users yet another reason to return to your site, Calendar Hub lays out the user benefits quite clearly:

Stay Organized – reminders and deadlines for social, business and special events, including editorial & advertising closing dates.

Coordinate Your Team – to-do lists, tasks, milestones and to see what everyone else is doing and coordinate better.

Promote Yourself – special offers, limited-time sales & discounts and announcements, from groups & businesses.

Inform Your Audience – school dates, federal & commemorative holidays, meetings, festivals and more!

Stay in Touch – RSS, iCal and vCard standards can help you get reminders or import events into your own, private calendar , cel or iPhone.

There are many choices to add a calendar to your site – too many in fact – but I do have some requirements for any calendar that is to be integrated into a community before selecting among the many available options.

Any calendar must be affordable, flexible, easy-to-use, unbranded (preferably open-source or white-label) and user-friendly (preferably, with user submissions) plus allow for automated review/approval functions by the publisher. Not really a lot to ask, but most of these characteristics are – and I cannot emphasize this enough – vital if you want to maintain your sanity productivity.

Software – requires separate databse and/or site integration

jCal Pro – aka “the Joomla calendar” because, well, it integrates with Joomla *
EventList - supports multiple venues, categories, and details; especially useful for networking & affinity-based communities with diverse groups and genres *
http://www.planscalendar.com *
Jevents – an up-and-coming Joomla calendaring system
Thyme (Out of business May 2009) *
Localendar *
Webcal NG
Webcalendar
Vcalendar

Web-based - SaaS or outsourced solutions

EventsLink Network
Cozi
http://www.helioscalendar.com *
http://www.instantcal.com
famundo.com *
Jotlet *
Calendar Wiz
Connect Daily
30boxes
Matchbox
Trumba *(…ouch! $99.95 per month!?!)
HuntCal

The links marked with an asterisk are my favorites and recommendations – keep your eyes on Famundo and Jotlet in particular. Of course, you can search Google for “calendar” and you’ll find many commercial options, with many different prices – but not much more in the way of quality or functionality. (Believe me. Save your time. I looked.)

I’ve put together a quick, non-inclusive list of five questions to ask myself when adding a feature to a web community.

Are you sure that this is needed? “Need” is questionable in sooo many cases, and frequently a matter of taste or desire – and fatal attraction is sometimes what results from an unleashed desire to have any fun, new and hot gizmo. Does the question sound too sexual? Perhaps the “need” is what needs to be discussed, negotiated or balanced before “doing it” to users.

Once it’s installed and published, who’s going to maintain/moderate/supervise? Just like electronic toys, you gotta know who’s going to teach who how to use it, take care of it and -Moms know this- control it …because if you don’t lay down the rules of the game at the beginning, users can get lost, confused or out of control. I’ve been in several unmoderated online forums, for example, to see how a lack of moderation results in insults, confusion or those messy pop-up error messages.

Is the feature free or for-profit? If there is a commercial element to a feature, then testing both the backend functionality as well as the user feedback is vital for acceptance – and eventual revenue. Easier said than done – particularly if you are integrating third-party dependencies such as PayPal, Skype or Disqus.

Does it require a tutorial? Many extensions, including e-commerce shops, come with little documentation yet are complex. Just having a “working” extension isn’t enough; it may be as simple as adding a FAQ page, sensible & clear 2-line description, video tutorial or quick 1-2-3 how-to page. Any one of these can really help users to play or use the new functionality.

Are we there yet? I’ve found myslef struggling and obsessed with “getting things right” when more often I would have been better served by accepting my own ignorance (I’m no codehack) and/or misunderstanding (client expectations) and/or timetable (all of us involved in a project). Time & talent limits are actually very useful – you need to know when “done” is done, and simply move on. This doesn’t mean leaving things unfinished, but rather looking for another way to serve the user with a similar feature …and that’s what this is all about, right?

Perhaps you have your own questions that you ask yourself, but these help me keep my sanity perspective!

The most obvious: no traffic. If your site is not generating “sufficient” traffic by “core” users in your target audience – all terms that are subjective and that have been defined at the outset of your project – then you either need to work to generate traffic & use, or to stop investing your time, money & sweat.

Another not-so-obvious reason, and one that even I resist admitting: some has built a better mousetrap. Yes, it’s possible that a similar site exists, and if you cannot compete or cannot develop a unique selling propositin that distinguishes your site from others, then admit defeat and move on.

The web and technology render many sites, domains, business models and pricing obsolete. Although it’s essential to constantly update, redesign and/or evolve your site, it may be untenable or just plain exhausting to maintain competitive.

In the case of rozzo.org, it’s been a case of all three: only a dozen family members registered, no one (me included) desired to create and maintain an online genealogy, online services are free and really good (!), and although I considered re-inventing the site for anyone with the family surname (quite a bit bigger, international, multi-lingual responsibility), in the end I decided to pull the plug on this project. The domain expires next January.

I think it’s good to do a post-mortem: try to comprehend the causes that do and don’t make your site work, take the lessons that you’ve learned, and move on.