Your task today in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge is to join a forum that relates to the topic of your blog (or, if you’ve already joined one to spend 10-15 minutes participating in it).
One of the questions I always get new bloggers to ask when it comes to finding readers for their blog is ‘where are your potential readers already gathering online?‘ One of the places I encourage them to go looking for those potential readers is on forums on related topics to your blog.
Forums are fantastic places for bloggers to participate for a number of reasons:
1. Profile Building – put consistent time into a large forum on your topic and you can build a significant profile in your niche. I’ve seen it happen in my own photography forum numerous times where people have produced such value and shown off their expertise that they’ve actually developed fans among other forum users.
2. Driving Traffic – create value and become a useful resource in a forum and people will want to know more about who you are and what you do via your signature and or profile page. You’ll also sometimes have opportunity to share some relevant links to things you’ve written.
3. Understanding Your Niche – the hidden benefit of joining a forum that many don’t talk about is that for a new blogger a forum can actually be a fertile ground for gathering ideas and understanding the needs of potential blog readers. Go to any forum and you’ll begin to see the same questions being asked over and over again. The questions actually annoy some regular forum members but you as a blogger should be taking note of such questions and writing posts that answer them because they are usually signals of problems and needs that people have on those topics. I know if I’m ever in need of a topic to write about on my blogs that forums are one of the first places that I go looking for topics.
Spend some time today searching for forums in your niche. Once you find them, join up and start participating. The key is to spend time being as useful as possible to the forum. Your main activity should NOT be leaving links to your blog but answering questions, making connections and generally being as useful as you can to other members of the forum.
Here are two posts on building a blog with Forum Traffic that you Should Read:
I could say a lot more about building your blog up by participating in forums – but we’ve covered the topic a few times on ProBlogger previously. Check out these two posts:
- Build Your Blog With Forum Traffic – a post where Skellie suggests 4 strategies on this topic.
- How to Use Forums to Drive Hundreds of Thousands of Readers to Your Blog – a story from an anonymous reader who built a successful blog using this technique.
Note: if you can’t find a forum on your exact topic look for them on related topics. If you can’t find any at all, perhaps it is a signal that you should start one at some point. Forums can actually be great additions to blogs.
Update: Day 9 – Promote Your Blog by Finding a Forum to Participate In – People are sharing and exploring this task together over at the forum… you could start there!
Want More?This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs. Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today. |
A lot of forums don’t let you post links (or even have) in your signature after a certain number of posts. This encourages users to actually be a part of the community. Lots of my traffic comes from signature links.
Darren, This is a great series. I’ve joined the forums and posted this there also but want to get to those who don’t join forums too!
I’m inspired and want to suggest to bloggers in my sphere that we get together. This way we could link to each other more often and also use twitter etc to promote each others posts.
So if you blog about Leadership and/or Productivity could you please leave your blog and email addresses and twitter name in a comment on this post and I’ll sort a way for us to help each other.
Cheers
Paul
Great post Darren,
Forums provide a great arena to do what bloggers must do best: provide value to other people. Forums are full of questions, a bloggers greatest resource (since they are willing to go out and find the answers, and write about them well).
Darren hit the nail on the head; this is not the time to paste links everywhere in sight. You need to establish a reputation as a generous, knowledgeable member of the community before any self-promotion. A link to your blog in your signature is both appropriate and sufficient at this point.
I recommend you register with a name as similar to your blog’s name or your actual name as possible. The more coherent your overall digital identity is, the better for SEO and organic search traffic.
We’ll get to see a lot of this in action today and in the coming weeks as the Problogger forums launch, won’t we?
– Barry
Well, joined the problogger forum and already am marketing my blog in all the signatures on all the forums I use…
And yes, it results in more traffic.
Also started working on the other social networking mediums..
I can tell you, this really is helping to generate more and more traffic every day. And that all for a simple blog on “beginning” well, what a beginning this is!
Forums may be getting overlooked thanks to things like Twitter and Facebook. However, I do see quite a value there in being a thought leader and also being able to answer specific questions.
You point out that people will visit your blog via your signature links AND your about page. I often neglect filling out the About page fully, but this seems to be key.
The Elevator Pitch seems like it would be a great fit for forum About Pages.
Participating in forums is one thing I find it difficult to stick to. I have joined a few in my niche, but always end up leaving forum participation in favour of doing something else. I’m not sure what the answer is.
I actually found that you get a lot more benefits by being a contributing member of a forum and using your expertise knowledge to help others, instead of just trying to get some backlinks through the signature.
Forum participation is a great way to build and enhance your branding work, by being recognize within your community, the links come on their own after that.
Just joined the forum and look forward to participating in it.
I still plan on writing a post every day for the 31 days to a better blog.
Let me see… How can I write a blog post about the forum?
Oh.. this one’s going to be easy.
Greg
I have already joined the #31DBBB forum and did my intro.
I have been a member of forums for years and think they can be one of the best places to learn and meet new people.
Forums do take a good bit of time if you want to earn trust and be an asset to the community but, it is all worth it.
We have just started our 3rd forum. We decided to go with a membership so, we keep the spam out. I also wanted to use it for a Blog Co-Op so people could post perma links (with a mini description) to each article they have and be categorized.
Our other boards are free and just take to long to monitor. Many of the free boards are so filled with spam that you can hardly find anything useful or they have shut down.
I am sure I will see you all on the boards!
I’ve found many great sites sifting through forums. It helps even more being at the top of the list. I’m always looking for some new dining/travel forums to participate in, but have found chowhound.com to be extremely useful.
If you have an interest in, or blog about, Japan be sure to check out the JapanSoc forum: http://forums.japansoc.org/
It’s a great source of information on the niche and even offers participants a chance to take part in group projects, find guest blogging opportunities, etc. The group is fun and friendly as well.
Totally great advice. But can you add a few more hours in the day? There just don’t seem to be enough. Thanks. :)
I have just joined the forum. Next thing I am going to do is to allocate some time for it.
At the same time, I must concentrate on creating some valued content for my site too and readers would have something useful and interesting to read when they come to my site.
When I was writing my bride blog (adayinthelifeofarockstarbride.blogspot.com) I was already a member of frugalbride.com. Sadly I didn’t promote my blog as much as I should of as I ended up being a top poster and could have picked up some fellow readers to this new blog.
I just joined i-wed.org for my wedding planning biz as a way to promote http://www.ahotpinkpetticoat.blogspot.com as well as network in a huge way. There are many boards I can join as a wedding vendor, but in all honestly, while in start up mode, getting clients via referrals has been working out great!
The one forum where I’m actually quite active in is frugal living. Many of these women were on frugal bride and share the Canadian thing with me :) And it’s amazing how some of them actually do follow my blogs.
Great idea. Look forward to building on my participation in the wedding planner forum as well as see about finding some more forums to join. Like maybe a 31DBBB forum?? Oh wait, already joined :)
Another good daily task. Thank you.
I’ve been having some trouble finding many forums in my niche, college parents, but I’m going to give it some renewed effort today because I know it will pay off. I’ll take your advice and try casting a wider net.
I especially appreciate your reminder that the purpose is not necessarily to be leaving numerous links, but to become known and respected in the field.
Your homework assignments are already paying off. Thanks.
I’ve joined digitalpoint forum last week, but I didn’t know why I get suspended for a week, they didn’t state any reason too. I didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve just insert a link that point to my blog in my signature, and joined the discussion. =.=”
Btw, I’ve joined another forum in my local for a year, quite enjoy posting there even though the traffic is not that ideal. But, as long as we enjoy posting, we don’t care about traffic. :)
I think posting in forums could improve our one-way backlink too, isn’t it?
Regards,
Lee
@Vicki- I don’t think you need to limit your “niche” to just “college parents.” Based on what I read on your blog yesterday, you’d almost certainly have valuable information to contribute to any college admissions forum. I haven’t looked into this mainly because it doesn’t apply to me so much anymore, but there have to be tons of them around.
Heck, you’d probably even get some good material for future posts.
@Lee
Many forums do not allow new members to post links until they have a certain number of posts to their name. That’s probably why you were banned.
very cool, I have found a lot of referrals because of this aspect.
I have always been involved in Forums. From the old BBS, to IRC, to news groups. I usually first join to get answers, but later as I learned I started answering questions.
Similarly, and SN group like LinkedIn has helped and also driven traffic to my website. LinkedIn is a professional SN, where you answer questions and pose questions. Its not about advertising your blog, but about helping others and building your network.
I don’t advertise my blog, but I do leave links and URL to posts that I think will help and better clarify the answer to a particular question.
THe biggest problem I have, is time. Spending time on newsgroups, forums, SN is well worth it, but still time consuming. It does not have a financial benefit straight up, but will do in the future
My linked in profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/integralwebsolutions if anyone is interested.
BTW, I waited specifically for an email for todays challenge, and went to post a reply straight away. Can you believe it that I am still not first. Well done to all those who beat me here.
Thank you darren, more excellent advice.
There is a saying that goes along the lines of ‘you have to lay a sprat to catch a mackerel’. I think of that whenever I put my energy into forums, because you’re right, it DOES create a small following of people onto your own site.
I found that launching a competition and promoting it on other forums was a good way to drive traffic in.
I’ll spend some time today going around a few forums I haven’t posted on for a while to see if I can find any possible post fodder or get a few more visitors.
Thanks again!
This is something I really need to work on. There are at least 3 great forums in my niche that I should be taking advantage of.
Thanks for the motivation as I think I will create accounts on them today and get started!
Bloggers can get traffic through forums ,I have laready joined copule of forums and sharing my knoeledge.
Hi everyone – do any of you folks know of a good forum in the Information Technology industry niche?
If not, I’ll have to start one!
Thanks for the tip.
I’m going to guess that you’re talking about forums other than the ones you’ve launched for the 31 Day Challenge, although it’s interesting that this challenge and those forums launched on the same day.
I’m sure we can drive lots of readers in with those forums too though.
I am getting addicted to problogger these days!!
I’ve never thought to using forums to drive traffic to a blog!!
Thanks darren!!
Yay – I can say that I already do this. I already participate (and am a moderator) in the Aussie bloggers forum (aussiebloggers.com.au). It’s a great spot to find out who other Australian bloggers are and I’ve made some good online friendships that way.
Hey any artists out there looking for a forum to join… there’s a growing community over at Duey’s Drawings: http://dueysdrawings.com/phpBB2/
The forum is a little buggy at times but the community is great! :)
Thanks Darren
I am really a fan of your blog
This one really reminds me how important to be involved in a forum of my own genre
Thanks for this helpful post
Just a word of caution –
It’s already mentioned in the anonymous post Darren linked to, but worth mentioning again – When I started this I posted about 4-5 answers one after the other on a high-traffic forum. Even though I crafted each and every answer there carefully, they considered it spam (maybe because of my signature? I have no idea) and banned me after a few minutes.
If you want to make sure you get the most out of a forum, check their rules first! That way, you can’t be tripped up and have your reputation tarnished by accidentially breaking rules and guidelines.
Be careful with links too, as many forums don’t allow direct self promotion. Also don’t use affiliate links in your signatures alongside your blog links- It’s common sense, but worth stating!
Hi Darren,
I had a long discussion on this topic with my friend once. I have two blogs one of which is personal and the other is where I post tips.
What I personally like about forums is:
1. Regional forums can get you targeted traffic
2. Most users from forums are likely to subscribe to your blog because they know your content and knowledge
However, if one’s niche is technology in general, and helpful tips for lifestyle as well, how to select the best forum or good forums even?
Again as rightly pointed out by Robert, is spending time on forums worth the effort? when I can attract more readers from other sources.
But I think that participating in forums regularly, at intervals to suite one’s blogging needs, can assure you a lot of visitors and subscribers.
Best.
Shantanu
http://www.threetipsaday.com
@threetips(twitter)
P.S.: I joined the Problogger forum today, thanks for the invitation.
That may help .. but it depends on that impression your comments will leave at that forum
I just got on board the 31DBBB forum. Cool place to interact with like minded people :)
I love this idea!
I used to spend all my time on a private parenting board, and since I felt it wasn’t bringing that much value to my day I started frequenting other forums based on my other passion-personal finance. There are plenty of great forums with some of the top PF people like Flexo, JD Roth, Trent from The Simple Dollar, etc.
I am learning so much from belonging to those forums it is well worth the time and effort.
So far I haven’t had much traffic from them, but I haven’t been around that long either. :)
I also joined the 31Day Forums, I think it will be a GREAT resource. Thanks so much for creating them Darren, they seem to be a unique place on the web.
I participate in a couple of forums already and it’s painfully clear who are the people participating purely to get traffic. Most forum users are savvy enough to spot them a mile away and avoid them.
Also consider whether you want sign up as yourself or as an alter ego. Personally I’m more drawn to check out real people than made up characters.
I would emphasise Darren’s point about adding value. That should be your primary objective. You will be more successful on forums of you enjoy it and are authentic. Forum posting gets to be a real downer if you don’t enjoy it!
Most of my traffic at the start of my blog was from forums. About six months in, my top two referrers are still forums.
One forum I post on is pretty strict about self promotion, but lets you put a website link (via a button below your avatar). Another is more loose and I can just post links to my blog in a signature.
It’s a tough line to tow, though. Sometimes posts in a forum can end up being very close to spam. You have to watch out to not fill every post on a forum with self links.
-CD
Glad you have the forum up and working today. I don’t generally participate in many forums, but I do need to work harder on that.
Thanks Darren — I have found one or two traditional style forum.
However with the Easter weakend slowing business down I spent the day cleaning up my linked-in, facebook and twitter profile.
Going through it i found some really cool networks on facebook. I know its not a “traditional” but I think it works.
@ Paul Gardner
I think that is a really good idea and would add value to all of us. I am in branding but look at brand culture and how you manage people (customers as well as staff) — so whilst we are not realted there will be good synergy.
I will pop over to you blog and drop my details there.
Cheers
My biggest competitors are forums, and they have never taken kindly to my participation.
(sigh)
I guess I’ll keep looking for a forum that wants my input.
What a coincidence that you’d post this today – I happen to have a forum and a blog and my new project is to try and use my forum to help promote bloggers, particularly bloggers in the same sort of niche as I am (humor/general assorted writings about life). I don’t want to spam this blog, but if anyone is interested they are more than welcome to contact me.
I think the key is to participate in the forums like a regular poster – people will respond to that and give your blog a look. Another thing, and I’m not sure how to accomplish this, is to try and get other people to link to your material on their forums. Again, I’m not sure how to do that, except by having kick ass stuff!
Does anybody have a massive list of forums?
I wanted to add that point number 3 is excellent and overlooked – it seems like so much of the time we’re talking with other bloggers about what we should write about, how we should promote, etc but ideally for most of us our audience will not be composed completely of other bloggers.
It’s important to know your audience and forums are one great way to do that.
As a forum owner I’d like to add that I welcome bloggers with open arms, don’t mind links in sigs, etc, but you have to give a little first. There is no point in a forum if it’s just a bunch of people dropping their own links!
So, introduce yourself and participate a bit before looking to promote yourself. Ideally, you won’t have to – people will be so intrigued by your wonderful, witty posts that they’ll click on the link in your sig.
It’s about making connections, adding value and establishing a reputation for yourself.
@Simon Stapleton
Have you tried Forums.DigitalPoint.com? Check that site out to see if it covers the tech topics that you cover. Actually even if it doesn’t cover your specific subject matter, it might still be beneficial.
You can check Technorati for their top 100 blogs, just in case you can’t find a forum on your blogs topic. This way you might find other blogs in your niche. http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/
Also try alexa.com for their top sites.
Forums are great but if you can’t find a forum that tackles the same topic as your blog then you’ll need to find other blogs and static websites in your niche.
Let us know how those options work out (or don’t work out) for you.
Yet another good post. I’ve already joined a number of forums, but I could still look for one more that is more specific to my niche. I’m very on and off when it comes to posting on forums…sometimes I’ll post everyday and then be gone for a few months. I’ll try to be more proactive about this.
Wow, I had never considered joining a forum, but this is excellent advice. I wasn’t sure where to begin, so I Googled “art forum” and found a few to join. I’ll also try other keywords and see what I can come up with.
For those of us who are new to forums, can some of you more experienced participants share some forum etiquette?
Good suggestion, I already was a member of a popular forum in my niche, but now I’m going to go back and dedicate 10-15 a day answering questions and reading questions.
I’m not sure if it was said already, but if the site doesn’t allow you to post a signature then you can usually put information in your CP (profile). There you can add a link to your site.
Often times users will take the time to check out the profile of the person answering their question. Just human nature.
joing me on twitter: sambuzin
This is a great idea. I will try this one out and see if I can get some free traffic. Thanks.!
Quick question – one of the forums I considered joining charges a fee, where many of them are free. Is that normal? Is it worth the investment?
Thanks!
@Dee Wilcox – I’d weigh the cost verse the benefits. Is there a large community of forum members in your niche or is it just 10 other people reading that particular forum? That choice would have to be your call.
@Shane- I would say start with google. Any particular forum list service would be so topic-broad that you would still end up wittling down to your Niche topic.
I personally think a good signature file with a link back in your forum profile is key to driving traffic back to your site. I belong to a few forums and I actually custom design a signature graphic for each forum I am on. Marry something about that forum with your website in your graphic.