Blogs on your Forum Sites

Hi All,

I have noticed in posts that some of you reference having a blog attached to your forum sites. Could you ellaborate on this? Do you find that the blog is useful to your members, encourages meaningful posts, etc? Also, what type of restrictions (if any) do you have on your blogs? Can anybody comment/read or just your registered members?

Thanks!!
RR

 

Umm, well on Setsou Design we have a blog to showcase our designs and just to be "us". Just like uhh... adding sugar to coffee, you enjoy it and some others think it's not that good of an idea.

Pretty much it also depends on your niche and how'd you want to expose it.

Example:
On my anime site I won't be having a blog, the news can be updated right on the forum and everything can be handled in the forum, a blog won't do good, but it wouldn't hurt, just that it really wouldn't make sense. Anime releases? The forum has a calendar, that's a way to put that "useless" thing to work.

On Setsou Design [Design site, duh] the blog is a place in which we put graphic tutorials, articles, our portfolio, announcements that we feel should get more noticeable, tips-and-tricks, hopefully it will be a resourceful site for graphic designers, the forum we'd like to leave it for more exposure and fun for the members; they will be able to SHARE their own tips and tutorials, and also get the members to see their creation for commenting and feedback.

 

FMB! That is helpful!

Do people respond to your blog posts and ask questions? Or, do they start conversations in the forum? Since the forum is "for more exposure and fun for the members" is it actually secondary to your blog - which is the primary focus of that site, the forum or the blog?

THANKS!!
RR

 

I would think if they ask questions like "What program did you use?" or "What were the hex codes of the colors used?" are things that can be asked on the actual blog and I have no problem with that since sooner or later quality and interest is what makes the user come back, so eventually a user that reads your post, they have potential to go on the forum and register, alternatively , some users might go to the forum to ask the question instead of commenting on the blog post.

Either way, the chances of a member signing up for a forum dedicated to web design after reading a tutorial is high, they would like to get critiques on the work they made following the tutorial or general critique on their work. Not only do some of these individuals looks to get better, but they want opinions.

You can always set up a discussion thread on your forum and at the end say "If you would like to discuss more in depth you can visit our forum"

I wouldn't say that the forum is secondary, but I can't deny the fact that the blog is pretty much our "intro" and contains our portfolio. We design forum templates, our "main goal" is pretty much to satisfy the members bringing them the best of the best, a combination of great tutorials and articles[blog] and a place to hang out and showcase your stuff[forum].

Looking at THAT perspective, then, yes, the forum is secondary.

 

In addition to what FMB just said, I'm experimenting with a Wordpress-MyBB bridge plugin. It's working pretty well so far. Basically, we'll still have our comments on the blog, but just in case someone only checks the forum or misses the comments on the blog (which will have an automatic cut-off date), each blog post is automatically published to a pre-determined section on the forum, depending on the category that it's published in from WP.

I'm hoping that it'll prove useful, although I am a bit worried about possible SEO side-effects from having the same content in both locations. I'm not too knowledgeable in good SEO practices yet.


BTW, the primary focus is both. The tutorials/blog, and the forum. If I had to say which is more important than the other, I'd be inclined to say the blog.

 

You said it so much better than I did, but this is what I meant to say.

 

Blog to Forum SEO and Plugins

I don't think you have much to worry about in terms of SEO side-effects from posting the blog in two places. Based on some of the things that I have been reading about SEO lately it falls into the "natural human element" of the web. What I mean is Google flags things that seem unnatural with a lower rating because they see it as fake. Repurposing content in two places, especially in two different sections, is acceptable from what I understand.

I think I am going to impliment this practice on one of my forums. Do you like the plug in that you use? Is it for the WP side or the MyBB side?

Thanks!!
RR

 

I myself would only ever add a wordpress blog to a forum if one I could create content at least 3 times weekly for it and 2 the content would be beneficial for the users and also the search engines. If I added a blog to one of our forums it would not be the homepage but a link to it would be available on the forums navigation. We did have one once but it was very hard to maintain and we would also rather have someone land on our forum for a long tail search term than land on a blog which isnt as likely to drive new members to us, as they would have to visit the forums via a link somewhere on the blog.

 

I'm loving the plugin. Everything that I need, nothing that I don't. Hardly bug-free, too. It's a WP-side plugin.

WordPress › WordBB WordPress Plugins

You set the database and userid of whom you want it to attribute the post to on the main option screen, save to make sure that it connects, then you're ready to go. They can be on separate databases. After that, you go to the WordBB Categories settings, and tell it which categories go to which forum. You can even handle the threads created by the plugin on a separate page.

Does what it promises, and does it well.