I belong to several forums.

Most are related to my work; most specifically to my profession of database adminstrator as it’s in forums that I find answers to many of my questions.

Forums that are for and about blogging are plentiful and as many other things about the internet, some are better than others when it comes to certain things.

Some, like the Batcave are more social in aspect; you vent your frustrations and tease your forum mates about different things. There are boards to list posts you would like to have stumbled or dug, but the main focus of it is the social aspect. Although the forum is pretty much as-it-comes, the stumble/digg boards are treated very seriously. The reciprocity of the requests in that board is pretty strictly monitored and adhered to by the participants as not reciprocationg will get you banned.

Others like Firestorm Forum and Shelter For a Rainy Day are more about blogging and getting  readers, rankings, making the inner workings of your blog better and networking with other like-minded individuals. There’s a little bit of social stuff going on, but its pretty clear what the focus of those forums are.

EntreCard’s forum is a mixed bag of support for EntreCard, social gatherings and some promotion. The promotions aspect of it has lost some respect among those who attempted it because of a lack of honest participation on the part of those who worked the threads. While there isn’t much EntreCard admins can do to police that, it’s just a shame that human nature had to turn so soon and so thoroughly.

The $24,000 question is does forum participation help drive you traffic?

I’ve been the benificiary of some increase in traffic especially on Travelin’ Show, my photo blog. My new book review blog, My Reading Nook hasn’t gotten much, but it’s only two days old, so I really don’t expect it to take off like a private jet charter although I certainly won’t complain if it does

It’s not enough to belong to a forum though, you have to participate and interact with the other forum members in order to get any benefit from a forum. Like everything else about driving traffic to your site, that takes time, work and thought. It is however a concentration of your efforts because you are addressing a wider audience than you are when you respond to a post on a blog for example. People visiting forums tend to read the entire thread if the subject is of interest to them. You really get a chance to put yourself in front of a wide and varied audience by participating in forum conversations. Of course this in no way should take the place of leaving comments as those tend to become breadcrumbs for the bots to track back to your website. Forums are not nearly so well indexed as are individual blogs.

Do you belong to any forums? Are they mostly work or social ones? If you belong to any blogging related forums, which ones and are they helping get traffic to your blog? How much traffic and what quality is it? If you don’t participate in a forum now, after reading this article, will you seek any out?

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