When starting a blog, the task of writing great content day after day can seem almost overwhelming, much less having to worry about posting in forums as well. But forums and blogs are the perfect pair, and when used together in the correct way, can be an unstoppable force of traffic and idea generation.
What Is A Forum?
The simplistic definition of a forum is a place where people have the ability to start communication (in the form of threads) and reply to other people’s threads. A member of the community in the forum posts a message, which is visible to everyone in that community. Once read, there is the option to post a reply, which can also be visible to the community. Thus, a discussion can build up without all users having to be online at the same time.
So we see that a forum isn’t that much different from a blog at all.
Benefits of Forum Participation
Being an active member of forum related to your niche is vital and can bring you more benefits than you could ever imagine for your blog.
All of the top name bloggers are active members of at least one forum, and it’s helped them to get where they are today.
Some benefits of being a member of a forum include but are not limited to the following:
- It helps build a community of friends
- It helps to gain readers for your blog
- It helps to find guest posters, or even find opportunities to guest post
- It helps build your brand by fostering positive awareness
- It gives you ideas for posts
Another benefit of being an active forum member is the opportunity to build a “blog pack“.
A “blog pack” is a group of friends that are all at the same place with their blogs and blogging skills. They can team up together to help each other become more successful.
If you notice the top bloggers all hang out together and on occasion promote one another’s contests, or blogs.
There is a reason they work together. They understand the importance of the “blog pack“. And use it to continue to grow with their success in blogging.
8 Forums For Better Blogging
There are many forums you can choose to participate all covering the millions of different niches that exist.
Here are 8 forums that exist to help you become a better blogger. I challenge you join at least 3 of them and become involved. You’ll be surprised at the increase in visitors and participation to your blog.
- Authority Blogger Forum – Created by Chris Garrett
- Blog Traffic School Forum – Created by Yaro Starak. The is for students of his amazing Blog Mastermind Program. If you’re not a part of this great program, I encourage you to join. It’s a little pricey, but well worth the cost.
- The Blog Experiment Forum – This is an extension of the Blog Experiment, but geared towards the community.
- Bloggeries Blog Forum – Participants of this forum can earn 50% of adsense revenue generated from their threads.
- Blogger Forum – This is one of the most active forums. New bloggers can participate in the Newbie section to help get better tips on running their own blog.
- Bloggst Forum – You can submit your blog’s feed to this forum and they’ll publish it, which increases traffic to your blog.
- Blogging Tips Blogging Discussion Forum – This is a fairly new forum, so if you join now, you have the potential to be a leading authority as it gains ground.
- Digital Point Forum – This forum is highly geared towards those trying or succeeding at making money online. If you’re interested in making money, you really need to be a member of this forum.
In Summary
Joining and being an active member in at least 3-4 forums is the way to go if you’re interested in being a successful blogger. It seems like a lot of work, and it may get a little boring trying to build up momentum, but once you have, you better hold on because you’ll be in for the ride of your life.
Are you a part of any forums related to your niche? If so, what are your expriences with them? I’d like to hear from you.
Current Articles in the Building A More Successful Blog In 30 Days series
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My name is Steven Sanders and I'm a Professional Blogger, Izea Insider, Web Designer, Social Media Enthusiast, Dad, Husband, and Friend.
Haven’t heard of most of those forums. Seems I got to get on them more then, eh?
Another great post, Steven.
Forums = success….I’m on it. Thanks Steve
I have been member of the DP forum you listed at #8. But I wasn’t very active there. I didn’t realize the importance of forum participation until recently when I started checking statistics for my blogs ( http://makeitf.blogspot.com ).
Of course this involves a lot of work on our part. That is what concerns me most. How am I going to manage time, participating on forums, commenting on others’ blogs and writing to my own blog?
You need to also write an article on the typical day a simple blogger. Thanks for this article.
To successfuly promote your site on forums you need to spend a lot of time on there. If you go anywhere and start your career with advertising yourself you won’t last long before getting banned/all your posts deleted.
@Dieta You’re correct. When I mentioned joining forums, I didn’t mean do it to simply advertise your blog. I meant that you need to participate, without expecting it to generate traffic for you. The best thing to do is include a simple text link in your signature that links back to your blog and leave it at that.
If someone you’re talking with or helping in some way likes you enough to want to visit your blog, they will have a way in your signature. Should they choose. Choose being the key word.
I spend as much time on forums as I do on my blog. Not only do I get to learn more for myself, I get to help others. Oh, all while building links back to my blog with my signature.
You can use the signature in forum to build backlinks and get traffic.