In their e-book, “The Five Keys to Building Relationships Online”, David Teten, Donna Fisher and Scott Allen explore the massive business building potential of online communities and networks. All three authors are prominent and sought after speakers who have achieved notable success in the online environment. David Teten is a CEO for an independent research firm called Nitron Advisors and regularly speaks before audiences at Yale, Wharton and Columbia Business School. Donna Fisher is a certified speaking professional and the author of the highly popular “Networking For Dummies”. Scott Allen is regarded as the leading expert on building quality relationships online and is the entrepreneur’s guide on about.com, a website featuring numerous interest based forums.

To fully benefit from the “Five Keys”, you must have at least a nominal understanding of internet technology. There is little to no technical advice regarding how to create and maintain a website, configure the appearance of a blog or any of the other activities suggested for creating a strong online presence. However, if you have even the slightest bit of tech savvy and a basic understanding of building business relationships, you can use this publication to create a self perpetuating business machine.

The “Five Keys to Building Relationships Online” focuses on the applying the principles of face-to-face networking to the online environment. The authors detail the benefits of participating in the many online formats available to you such as communities of purpose (centered around a specific agenda or goal), communities of practice (centered around shared professional interests) and online platforms such as Ryze and Ecademy, where you can create your own community based on any interest you wish. What I valued most about this book, was the step-by-step explanation about how to transmute offline-networking skills to create and leverage my online network to concrete results.

The authors take a very hands on approach to translating the “Five Keys” (strength, credibility, diversity, relevance and number) into a practical plan of action. This publication shows you not only how to increase the quality and number of your connections, but also shows you how to develop an online presence that will bring connections to you.

Because online networking has come to prominence as a business building activity fairly recently, there is not a whole lot of material available on this topic. In this sense, the “Five Keys” is a trailblazer and the authors pioneers in a new and exciting arena. The only thing that I thought this e-book could use, since the publication is already so rich in practical examples, were some additional pointers and actual case comparisons about how to build a compelling profile online.

As a small business owner with limited time and budget, I have found online networking to be a significant asset to my company. “The Five Keys to Building Relationships Online” has helped me to create a powerful business model that is beginning to yield a tangible outcome.

If you are willing to invest the time and effort into the relationship building process and are looking for a way to tap into the enormous potential of online networking, the “Five Keys to Building Relationships Online” won’t disappoint you. I give it an unequivocal 9 out of 10. For more information about “The Five Keys to Building Business Relationships Online.” please visit www.allaboutsmallbiz.com/ebooks.html