Benefits of Having a Forum on Your Site?

[DavidB]

Hi, everybody.

I have noticed that there are a lot of forums on the Internet. Many of them have the same themes and cover the same material that is covered on bigger sites (like DaniWeb). So now I am wondering if there is any benefit, in terms of marketing, to creating a forum on a web site. Why would a webmaster want to create a new forum from scratch when most if not all of the material is already covered on larger forums?

Or is it simply a matter of being a learning process, so that when the site admin applies to webmastering jobs he can say, "Yes, Potential Employer, I DO have experience running a forum on a web site."?

[cohen]

Well... a friend of mine said... that he got the forum advertised and that as soon as he had the forum.. things started to happen... the popularity of the website rose.... so i would think... have a forum on your website.. would increase it.. and i'm sure it helps daniweb as well....

Most BIG sites have forums, not mine... mine doesn't :P

Cohen

[diasnet]

You must have the proper audiance to run a forum.

Even you set it up, if you have no visitors to your page and your forum, its useless and loss of resources to run this forum.

[mackone]

By hosting a forum on your site, you may attain credibility as an expert in your field, even as you get much needed advice from tips posted by your visitors.

Other than that, stay active in your forum and keep the volume of content as high as possible. More content = more traffic. You will only need to dedicate time and effort to set up and maintain.

[cohen]

By hosting a forum on your site, you may attain credibility as an expert in your field, even as you get much needed advice from tips posted by your visitors.

Other than that, stay active in your forum and keep the volume of content as high as possible. More content = more traffic. You will only need to dedicate time and effort to set up and maintain.

I totally agree!!!

You need to keep the forum active....

I do, and i get keeps of guests.... in 24 hours.... it ranges from 0 to 20 each day!

[bobchrist]

Yes, it is better to have no forum than dead forum.

[Hafsoh]

Yes an active forum will provide lots of information and tips which visitors to your site can use. Forums are great for increasing your traffic and increasing the profits you make on your website but its requires effort and time.
Nobody likes to post on an empty forum so you've to actively promote it and create lots of interesting topics for discussion yourself, to attract a few replies to get the forum going.

[cohen]

I just got a new website, and added a forum, so hopefully, i can get the visitors - website is in sig ;)

[Jimmy88]

We can say an active forum generates more traffic and you can keep it active through traffic promotional campaigns. you can use social media,marketing and social book working websites.:)

[cscgal]

If you sell a product or service, having a forum can put you in touch with your customers at a more personal level. There is an instant feeling of brand loyalty and that there is amazing customer service when they feel that not only do they have an instant way of reaching you, but you have enough faith in what you deliver that you're willing to let your customers post what they think about you (the good, the bad, and the ugly) in a permanently placed post on your own site for all your future customers to read.

[sandypeter111]

yes david forum are very useful.
you can gain much of knowledge with the help of forum

[sandypeter111]

The CMS software I use for my web site have lot of inbuilt analytics tools, which were kinda useless for me because I am not having a business model for my site, it is just a casual web site. But after joining TechWyse I believe I have more reasons to look more into those tools.