I feel like I was hit over the head, had my brain shaken up, and am now thinking out of the box.
I always have know – and talked about – the need to develop a community on a website. I have written about the need to reply to comments on your website when readers leave a comment.
When I came across a post about using BuddyPress to create a community on an Author’s website, I immediately thought, “Of Course!! Why not? And why keep it to just Authors’ websites?
BuddyPress can help you put that infrastructure in place. With social network like features, you can have your own special network woven around common interest. Readers get to create their profile pages, which displays their activity in the group, location, interests and so on. You can create different groups and users can choose to join the groups of their interest. They can also connect with other members of the group and send them direct messages. Although it offers many features, it is scalable and you can have only what you want.Prasanna Bidkar
Regardless of what niche you are in, you can always create a community using BuddyPress.
I heard that Buddy Press is useful for establishing a community for a membership site.