Comments on: Should you add a forum to your blog?

By: James Spinosa

James Spinosa — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:10:39 +0000

Heh guess you bring up a good point, originally my intent was to spend a bit of time on Google looking at posts stating why I should have a forum but in reality I put in too much time on my blog as it is, forums are notoriously difficult to deal with.

By: Stuart Noton

Stuart Noton — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:28:21 +0000

Typing as someone who’s built a community forum for a global corporate business, I can confirm that it takes A LOT of effort to get it to the point where it’s reasonably self sustaining. There are no short-cuts – people will not engage unless it’s seen as adding value, genuine, authentic and not just done “because” or to harvest contacts. Well worth it though – used data obtained from forum to help in defining new s/w releases, customer segmentation purposes and much more.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:34:55 +0000

I just don’t see this working with most topics. Maybe my idea of a blog is that it’s usually personal; not necessarily “Joe’s Blog” but certainly lacking a common thread that would bring a community together. A larger, topic-based blog – for example, The Consumerist – starts to transcend the blog idea entirely and become something else. That might just be my perception. ?

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Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:25:53 +0000

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Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:27:19 +0000

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By: Martin Reed - Blog Author

Martin Reed - Blog Author — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:22:46 +0000

Jack – Thanks for your kind words, I am glad you enjoy the blog.

Lance – Something must be wrong if you have been working hard for 4 months yet only have 5 active members. Are you creating engaging, quality content? Are you offering something unique?

splitcane – I think it can work, but you need to ensure people submit their ‘ads’ in a consistent way. Some slight modifications to a standard forum install could help.

Anon – Well, are you giving people a reason to interact? Are your posts on subjects that tend to encourage debate? What is your writing style? If it is too authoritarian, people may not be willing to discuss the subject further. Are you attracting targeted traffic and readers?

If you are struggling to engage your readers, then adding a forum won’t help – it will just make your site look even emptier. Concentrate on building a community around your blog.

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:08:11 +0000

One of other instead of creating a forum what about using a community such as myspace that has clubs that includes a forum for that club what if you create a club on myspace or any of the other networking sites & link from you blog to the myspace group and vice versa it would promote you blog to myspace user’s but I guess problem for those without myspace accounts but I think it might good a promo tool…

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:50:15 +0000

I have founded nearly impossible to get anyone to interact with my blog I have one comment which isn’t to bad since I launched this new blog of mine a week ago I upload videos & I am member of a social video site with a huge following which has really helped my traffic but my main issues is getting people interactive I even asked readers to vote for the next video for me to up load I have only two votes for videos I have an aim widget but I can not get away to really contact me on it I am going to add a chat but I really don’t know if they are even going to use it or just pass it up. Any suggestion to get readers interactive Nearly all my post ask questions I average about 90 page views daily with around 70 of them unique so traffic is def coming I need some activity.
provide rewards for those that comment (for example, remove the ‘nofollow’ tag from links contributors include, add a ‘Top Contributors’ list, etc) and tell people you want to hear their thoughts!

By: splitcane

splitcane — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:14:40 +0000

What do you think about using a forum as a logistics tool, say to organize carpooling to go to a conservation event? People who can carpool post their info, people who need a ride can see if anyone going is able to carpool.

Thanks!

By: lance

lance — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:35:17 +0000

make forums is very hard just to give some people a idear of how hard it can be i have been working on my site for about 4 months now and I still only have about 5 good members