do forums help?

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samjones

New Member
Hello!

I’ve added a forum to my website http://www.mymobilityscooter.co.uk but how can I get more people to post comments on it? Is a forum going to help me get more hits on the homepage where people can buy mobility scooters? Does anyone have any ideas how I can publicise my website and forum?
Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks
 

DLPerry

New Member
IMHO:

'Running' a forum may not be particularly effective at increasing traffic to your home page - at least not long-term. I have run a few forums in a past life, and in my case they were more of a time-consuming problem than an effective marketing tool - but again, that was just me - your mileage may vary ;)

Regarding forums - my general recommendation to my clients is -
Join and actively but intelligently participate in forums related to your Product/Service/Industry. Avoid submitting posts 'just to get your name on the board', but DO actively monitor a select few forums and submit useful, appropriate posts, responses, articles, etc. - carefully following individual forum rules.

fyi: entire 'boost traffic' document is posted here --> http://webdesignforum.com/showthread.php?t=1759

hth

--dlp
 

ian

Administrator
Staff member
I believe a forum can help a site, except if you are selling something, I would generally wait till your site gets popular before implementing any kind of forum, as a non busy forum can give visitors a low confidence in your ecommerce website. Also some ecommerce sites that I would recommend against having a forum at all.
 

teamgrowth

New Member
Forums help in getting traffic to your site. But it is important to develop your forum properly. Add informative threads in your forum so that people will come & join your forum. When regularly new topics are added in your forum then it helps in getting more traffic to your site.
 

JayT

New Member
Forums are especially effective at driving SPAMMERS to your site.

Unless you have a very popular website now, a forum will do you more harm than good. If you have a slow or dead site your forum will tell the tale.
 

ishie

New Member
Creating a forum will definitely drive traffic, but it boils down to promotion. Why not opt for PPC campaign to promote your forum? Or make an online contest to attract more users?
 

bluecollar01

New Member
I would also assume that since many companies target forums to find new clients you could in essence be allowing your competitors an opportunity to poach your clients. Just a thought.
 
You should first advertise your forum so that it may become popular and grab people's attention. Then try to make more and more accounts and make posts which are meaningful and looks interesting.
Check that no thread should be empty. Regularly check for spammers and take action on them.Also you Should post some interesting Threads
 

ishie

New Member
Yes, forum posting is an easy way to generate backlinks. You can also get tons of traffic from it, especially if you participate in relevant online communities.
 

jasontn

New Member
Forums can be a pain because they attract adult spam. There is so much adult spam on my forum that I have to moderate the posts. Of course, all spam is a problem but the adult spam might really turn off customers.
 
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