Blog's with forum on site

[noahnsam]

Hi All,
curious to know how I can add a forum to a blog? I've seen numerous blogs and really like the ones where there's a forum attached so anything relative to the blog itself can be completely focused on without taking away from the initial blog itself. Using the blog as a firestarter so to speak. please advise as I'm starting a blog and definitely need a forum attached as a tool to sort my demographic and overall findings. Thanks!!

[cailean]

Are you asking how to add a forum, technically?

You need software to power the forums. There are a few good forum software packages out there, including:

• vBulletin, which powers this site
• phpBB, which is free
• SMF, also free

There's an SMF plugin for Wordpress, so that you can more easily manage your forums and your blog together. I'm not sure about the other two. But they are seperate software, so you'll need to set up themes with them so they integrate into your site.

[PaulR]

If your using wordpress, there is a plugin that incorporates a forum with your blog.

Simple:Press Forum | Stuff at Yellow Swordfish

[Bloggeries]

Since the technical side has been covered; is it worth it?

The thing with forums is that the more categories you have the more activity you need so they don't look like ghost towns. Regardless of how busy your blog is if you have a dead forum attached it looks poorly on your traffic / blog activity.

Unless there is a tonne to talk about most could be covered in commenting.

If you want to get active in a forum often times the best idea is to join one that is active in your niche and introduce others to your blog through posting instead of hosting one yourself.

If I made a blog on anything health related I'd be posting in health forums 100%.

Hope that helps,

[noahnsam]

Originally Posted by Bloggeries

Since the technical side has been covered; is it worth it?

The thing with forums is that the more categories you have the more activity you need so they don't look like ghost towns. Regardless of how busy your blog is if you have a dead forum attached it looks poorly on your traffic / blog activity.

Unless there is a tonne to talk about most could be covered in commenting.

If you want to get active in a forum often times the best idea is to join one that is active in your niche and introduce others to your blog through posting instead of hosting one yourself.

If I made a blog on anything health related I'd be posting in health forums 100%.

Hope that helps,

thanks for the help mate!!! That really helps alot, especially peoples perception regardless how busy the blog portion is. It's just that I've seen it done on a few blogs with high traffic and active forums and business wise it just seems like such an awesome tool, especially since you can pool your leads so to speak. thanks for the heads up.

[moneyman]

I've added forums to my new blogs so at the moment they do look light on visitors. As I generate more traffic to the blogs, I hope some of those people will kick around and join the forums. It won't be easy though.

[noahnsam]

awesome... just the type of optimism I was hoping to see as well. please keep us informed as this can definitely help all businesses as a whole.

[Bloggeries]

Building a new forum definitely takes time and patience. The thing is forms are not the most popular hangout all the Web these days. Therefore in order to get one going it's more difficult now than it was in 2000 or so. The hardest part is getting a group of dedicated people who enjoy coming to the forum. Without dedicated members a forum cannot exist.

if you are starting a forum my advice to you is be ready to do a lot of posting.

Best of luck,

Originally Posted by moneyman

I've added forums to my new blogs so at the moment they do look light on visitors. As I generate more traffic to the blogs, I hope some of those people will kick around and join the forums. It won't be easy though.

[moneyman]

Absolutely right Bloggeries. I'm still doing most of the posting myself, although a few friends will be helping out soon which will boost the number of posts and the activity.

I'm allowing footer links, so I might just get some posters who are there to advertise their own site, but as long as the posts are relevant then they're welcome to stay.

So noahnsam, are you going to add a forum or will you stick with your visitors post comments?

[F8soldier]

Originally Posted by Bloggeries

Since the technical side has been covered; is it worth it?

The thing with forums is that the more categories you have the more activity you need so they don't look like ghost towns. Regardless of how busy your blog is if you have a dead forum attached it looks poorly on your traffic / blog activity.

Unless there is a tonne to talk about most could be covered in commenting.

If you want to get active in a forum often times the best idea is to join one that is active in your niche and introduce others to your blog through posting instead of hosting one yourself.

If I made a blog on anything health related I'd be posting in health forums 100%.

Hope that helps,

I've experienced this when I first started out Rob. It is incredibly hard to get traffic to your forum unless your blog is well known and even then its gonna take some work. I never knew about the Wordpress plugin though.