April Hamilton was in the right place at the right time when she attended the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference earlier this year. Online community building was the big buzz amongst the authors and conference attendees, and the conference itself was the the final A-ha! moment that April needed to get her own website going, www.publetariat.com.

In this Ebook, April basically tells you how she got the site up and running, what tips have made it successful in such an early stage, and how you can apply her methods to creating such a popular website of your own. I usually turn crosseyed at the technology section in the bookstore, much less anything that mentions RSS, HTML, SEO, and the like. And most of what I know about computers and the internet today was all learned through trial and error.

However, April’s 80 page guide was easy to follow and doesn’t assume you already know what such terms mean. After reading this book, I can honestly say I came away with a better knowledge of how I could improve my own website and online community. April begins with simple steps like coming up with a good name (“A visitor may remember the idea behind the name, but isn’t likely to remember the name itself.), branding your site, zoning in on the correct community, creating a mission and its focus, planning the launch, and managing content. Each step is written in a nice easy matter-of-fact flow which is simple to follow and divided up into small sections almost like an outline.

I found it easy to navigate throughout the book, and even easier to go back and find steps I wanted to highlight and remember for later use of my own. April uses her own site, www.publetariat.com, as the prime example throughout the book, but also gives good examples of how to adapt her methods to your own blog or online community.

Although I have previously visited Publetariat many times and I am a member, I went back to the site constantly to compare it to the steps in the book while reading it. Each step April has taken is right there on her site for you to see, and some content may seem like a given, but it’s these steps that some sites often forget but that web browsers like myself are always looking out for. One example is the “community forum.” I love the forum on Publetariat, I have participated in it, and I check it often for new updates. However, my own blog doesn’t contain a forum.

So, while reading April’s book, I kept asking myself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” And you’d probably be doing the same, but now you won’t have to. April has covered just about every detail that I can think of from advertising to merchandise to premium memberships. There’s even a section called “How To Get It Wrong.”

So, just as April mentions in the title…she did it all with very little monetary investment too. As she states in the book, she invested in some business cards to pass out at the conference. Her web address also appeared in an overhead slide presentation which led to a post on Twitter. The rest is history, and history that’s less than 3 months old because the site is brand new and still growing. I think I’ve visited it at least once a day since I signed up.

I commend April Hamilton on providing such a valuable tool for indie authors during a time when E-publishing and online prescence is growing at an even faster rate. She’s in the right place at the right time. And you can be too. Author or not, this guide is a top tool for anyone in need of tips on how to grow their own online community or following.