Generally speaking, one of the bare bones expenses when it comes to running your own online community is web hosting. Having your own web hosting where you have access to all of your website’s files, your databases and everything that goes into running your site allows you to have complete control over what you have online, to have the flexibility to do what you need and the ability to fully back it up.

Realizing this, more than seven and a half years ago I partnered with an establish web host to create iFroggy Hosting. Our goal wasn’t to be the cheapest, but to offer a good value for what you get with a high quality of service and excellent support.

I don’t just recommend these services, but also use them myself. The very same servers play host to my two most active communities in phpBBHacks.com and KarateForums.com. If I have an issue or a question, I talk to the very same support desk that all iFroggy Hosting clients do.

photo credit: Thomas Myhre

The holiday season is here and I wanted to take a moment to wish you Happy Holidays!

Thank you to everyone who has read, commented on and linked to my posts or otherwise supported me or ManagingCommunities.com in 2009. I really appreciate it.

I wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2010!

Thank you for visiting ManagingCommunities.com.

photo credit: Asbestos Bill

I apologize. I really didn’t plan to not post anything here for over a month. I guess one never really plans that sort of thing. But, everything just sorted of piled onto me at once. I attended three conferences in three weeks in three different states. IZEAFest, Blog World & New Media Expo and Social Media Business Forum. And there was plenty of preparation, packing and unpacking. And they all went well, which was awesome. Expect recaps for the last two at some point in December.

Being away so much, messages just piled up. E-mail messages, Bloglines subscriptions, forum posts and other things. Almost three weeks worth in some cases. In catching up with that, I just never found time to blog. And then I got sick. And then I had another trip tied to my birthday. And then we have Thanksgiving. And then I’ve been contemplating what 2010 holds for me. It just never ends. I apologize for the lack of new posts here. I can’t say I’ve had a lack of ideas, which I’ve been coming up with and noting for future posts.

Now, it is my hope that things will return to normal. It’s good to be back. Thank you for your patience.

Conferences, conferences, conferences! Well, after IZEAFest and Blog World Expo, this should be my last one for a while. Social Media Business Forum is today at the North Carolina Central University School of Education in Durham, North Carolina. I’m going to be on a pair panels during the first half of the day.

From 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM, I’ll be joined by Gregory Ng, the Creative Director at Brooks Bell Interactive and David Millsaps, Senior Web Architect at VisionPoint Marketing for the “Advertising and the Social Web: Can it Work?” session.

The next panel will be “Building and Managing an Online Community” with Angela Benton, the Publisher of BlackWeb20.com; Ryan Boyles, an Advisory Software Engineer for IBM and Laurie Smithwick, Founder and Creative Director of LEAP Design and Founder of Kirtsy.

Congratulations to conference organizers Kipp Bodnar of Howard, Merrell & Partners, Wayne Sutton of OurHashtag, Ryan Boyles of IBM and Jeff Cohen of OurHashtag on reaching this day!

I’m really looking forward to the event and I hope to see you there!

photo credit: Nick Bastian Tempe, AZ

Blog World & New Media Expo starts today at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you’re coming, I’d love to meet you. I’ll be around during all conference hours (here’s my BWE sched), but there are three scheduled events that I’ll be taking part in.

Friday, October 16, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM: Book Signing

At the Blog World Expo bookstore, powered by Barnes & Noble, I’ll be signing copies of “Managing Online Forums.” Brandon Eley will also be signing “Online Marketing Inside Out,” a book I served as an expert reviewer on.

Friday, October 16, 4:00 PM-5:00 PM: “Social Media: The Bad and The Ugly” Panel

I’ll be joined by Amber Naslund; Director of Community at Radian6 and blogger at Altitude Branding, Wayne Sutton; Partner at OurHashtag and blogger at SocialWayne.com and Robert Scoble; Managing Director at Building43.com at Rackspace and blogger at Scobleizer. We’ll talk about trends in social media that concern us and could harm the growth of the medium as a whole. These are also trends that could harm your brand, scare people away and damage your reputation. Note: you can only get into this panel if you have a full access pass. Please consider RSVPing on sched.

Saturday, October 17, 2:00 PM-2:20 PM: Forums Management and Monetization Q&A at Skimlinks Booth

In the exhibition hall at the Skimlinks booth, I’ll be participating in a 15-20 minute Q&A about forums management, cultivation and monetization. They’ll also be giving away 10 copies of my book during Friday and Saturday.

It should be a tremendous event. If you’re coming and would like to meet up, please drop me a note on Twitter @patrickokeefe. See you there!

On Sunday, I launched the “Social Media: The Bad and the Ugly” Blog World Expo 2009 conference pass giveaway, offering up a free full access pass to Blog World & New Media Expo (a $1,195 value). To win? You had to come up with the most interesting blog post about a trend in social media that concerned you, and could potentially harm the growth of the medium.

It was a short deadline – entries were due today at 12:00 PM ET – but it did get passed around on Twitter and I’m pleased to announce that the winner is Jason Keath (@jakrose on Twitter). He wrote about the “knee jerk attack responses” that are given by some when they see something silly or something that they disagree with. He did a great video blog accompanying the post, as well.

“Social Media: The Bad and The Ugly” from jason keath on Vimeo.

Totally on point and something I’m sure we’ll touch on in the panel. Congratulations to Jason and I look forward to seeing you at the conference and our panel (right? ha). Also, thank you to @BigBags for entering.

Thank you to Dave Cynkin and Blog World Expo for providing me with the pass to giveaway. If you’d like to come and still haven’t registered a pass, you can use coupon code IFROGGYVIP for 20% off when registering.

photo credit: Nick Bastian Tempe, AZ

Update 2: The giveaway is now closed! Winner to be announced shortly.

Update: The pass has now been upgraded to a Full Access pass!

On October 16 at 4 PM in Las Vegas, I’ll be speaking at Blog World & New Media Expo on the “Social Media: The Bad and The Ugly” panel. The focal point of the panel is trends in social media that concern us, in so much that they could hurt the growth of the medium as a whole. This includes things like unreasonable time expectations, the sense of entitlement some people have online and more. If you’re already planning on coming, please mark yourself as attending on the BWE calendar.

I’ll be joined by an awesome trio: Amber Naslund; Director of Community at Radian6 and blogger at Altitude Branding, Wayne Sutton; Partner at OurHashtag and blogger at SocialWayne.com and Robert Scoble; Managing Director at Building43.com at Rackspace and blogger at Scobleizer.

Blog World Expo is a great conference and if you are a journalist, blogger, online writer (those last 3 are often one in the same!), podcaster, video blogger, traditional media, community manager, forums administrator, marketer or simply a person in business that needs to take advantage of the opportunities offered online (and who doesn’t fit in that category?), I’d definitely recommend going if you have the opportunity. In the interest of disclosure, I’ve partnered with them this year to help promote the event.

From October 1-4, I attended the IZEAFest conference at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. It was somewhat of a last minute booking because I was lucky enough to win a pass from Table for Five and be able to share a room, for the first three nights, with my unbelievably gracious friend Wayne Sutton, who was a moderator at the event.

October 1

My flight in could not have been better. I hooked up with Wayne who had arrived shortly before and Jayson Flint (read his recap) was kind enough to pick us both up at the airport. It was Wayne’s first time in Orlando and guess where he wanted to go? The Apple Store. After that, we got some lunch at Chili’s and headed to the Renaissance Orlando Hotel at SeaWorld.

After checking in and getting situated (Wayne took a picture of my large quantity of luggage), we headed down to the hotel’s bar and met and/or hung out with Chris Brogan, Jeremy Wright, Amber Naslund, Liz Strauss, Aaron Brazell, Steve Hall, Joseph Jaffe, Zena Weist, Merlene Paynter and others. It was a good group.

The first event of the conference was heading over to Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens. But, with registration from 7-9 AM the next morning and the earliest possible return time being 12 midnight, Wayne, Jayson, Brandon Eley (who had just arrived) and I decided to go grab a quiet dinner over at Bahama Breeze. Once again, Jayson came through, providing the ride. Super awesome of him.  After that, we pretty much called it a night.

From October 1-4, I’ll be at IZEAFest in Orlando, Florida. The conference has a lot of great speakers, like Chris Brogan, Lucretia Pruitt, Wayne Sutton, Wendy Piersall and more. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and if you’re attending and would like to meet up, please drop me a note on Twitter.

On October 23 in Durham, North Carolina, I’ll be speaking at Social Media Business Forum. I’m featured on a pair of panels during the first half of the day’s programming.

From 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM, I’ll be participating in the “Advertising and the Social Web: Can it Work?” session with Gregory Ng, the Creative Director at Brooks Bell Interactive and other panelists to be determined. With my articles relating to the Sports Legends Challenge spam marketing practices, I’ve talked about how not to penetrate the social web, as an advertiser or a marketer. So, this should be a lot of fun.

The “Building and Managing an Online Community” panel will be my next stop, from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM. For this one, I’ll be joined by Angela Benton, the Publisher of BlackWeb20.com; Ryan Boyles, an Advisory Software Engineer for IBM and Laurie Smithwick, Founder and Creative Director of LEAP Design and Founder of Kirtsy.

Social Media Business Forum is shaping up to be quite an event with an excellent speaker lineup. If you are within 5 hours of Durham and you are involved or have an interest in business, social media, web development, marketing, online community or any related subjects, it is definitely worth checking out. You can register online. If you’re coming, please let me know!