As I've realized the value of time, I try to look for ways to save time in my blogging.
One of the ways to increase blogging productivity is to do something that covers more than one necessary blogging activity.
Here is a way to create linkbait, or linkworthy content, with other people in your niche while at the same time buiding relationships with them.
A couple months ago, Distilled published a great article about creating user generated linkbait through forums. Read the rest of this entry
In Part 2 of this interview, I tap into Patrick's knowledge to determine how to deal with the bad members of your community as well as community monetization. Enjoy.
Jeff - Chapter 6. Banning Users and Dealing with Chaos based on what I heard from others was an enjoyable chapter dealing with a touchy subject. How do you deal with those bad members without your forum imploding or falling under a sheath of scrutiny from your own community? Read the rest of this entry
Here at Performancing, we've highlighted various forum software to use in conjunction with your blog. Ahmed Bilal also published an article back in 2007 which explained how to launch a forum on your blog. Once you have the blog up and running, it's time to manage it. Thats where the expertise of Patrick O' Keefe comes into play, author of the book Managing Online Forums. The book covers all aspects of managing an online forum but it doesn't stop at forums. Many of the topics discussed within this book could be used in managing online communities in general.
In Part 1 of this interview, I tap into Patrick's knowledge regarding what to do before the first forum post is published and developing your community. Part 2 will be published tomorrow. Read the rest of this entry
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN - there are many 'new' platforms through which we can now 'network' with our peers and colleagues. In theory, you can never have enough social networks, but there has to be some limiting criteria lest we get overwhelmed and end up 'networking' 24/7 with the work piling on our virtual desks.
If a platform:
then it's worth adopting.
There are very few platforms that check all 3 boxes. Instant messaging (IM) has it's place (how would you get your business done without Skype?) but it's neither time-saving (you could argue that it cuts down on the lag that emails introduce but IM doesn't 'encourage' time-saving) nor does it give you instant access to a group of people (one-to-one communication).
Facebook and similar social apps have a similar problem with time. As bloggers and generally as people who have non-traditional jobs, time management is especially important. If you're going to spend 2 hours playing with facebook apps, that time's not coming back (and depending on how much you charge per hour, that's anywhere between $50 to $1000 of consulting fees lost).
Don't get me wrong - social apps are excellent networking (and marketing) tools, however if I had to drop something from my list in order to get work done those would be the first I'd drop.
I like LinkedIN a lot primarily because it keeps things simple and doesn't require too much time to keep updated or network with others. I hired the designer for Soccerlens through LinkedIN and for that alone I'm grateful because he's done an excellent job in the past year or so. I've also hired programmers and writers this way. Everyone's experiences are different but if you're getting work done in less time, why not?
Forums offer a balanced blend of all three options. You meet like-minded people, it's easier to 'switch off' and spend less time than you would IMing or Facebooking, and they're extremely simple to use.
Earlier this week I talked about 'giving more to get more' - and while that approach works great on blogs (you reach a much greater audience), the opportunity to build lasting professional relationships is a lot higher in forums. With fewer people involved, you can give each person more attention that you would be able to through a blog.
What do you think? Are forums better for networking than the newer breed of tools available to us?
Forums (or community-style content blogs based on Drupal - think ThreadWatch) are a natural extension of blogs. Once your blog has a regular following and traction in your niche, forums (reader-generated content) offer the best solution for growing your brand and the community around it.
So how do you add a forum to your blog?
There are several parts of the process that you need to take care of:
Can your blog support a forum?
Forums are notoriously hard to launch and even harder to sustain. The Internet is littered with failed forums. Having a blog's community be part of the initial forum community can make the launch much easier and significantly raise your forum's chances of survival. Read the rest of this entry
I've been thinking about adding forums to a couple of my more successful blogs. The thought is that while blogs allow for commenting, they aren't ideal for reader-generated content.
My worries about introducing forums are:
1. Too much moderation work
2. I've had too much experience with forums that get overridden with spam
3. Unlike with choosing a blog software, I don't know the killer app for forums
So let me ask you the following questions:
1. What forum software do you recommend for both its ease of use and its rock-solid security?
2. How do you handle moderation?
3. Do you think that discussion forums can compliment a blog and help create a larger regular readership? Or do the blog comments suffice? Is there too much overlap in functionality?
4. Do you think that adding a forum is worth the effort for bloggers? Some of the time? All of the time?
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