What Do You Think About The Forums: Are They Right For Your Blog?

Forums are a great place to discuss on various topics. If you have been part of a forum before, you know that it is one of the best ways to get answers for your questions, discover new tools and websites and network with other people.
Unlike blogs, where the content is generated by one or a few authors, forums take time to build up as they depend on the participation of the users. On the other hand, once the forum is established and rolling, the content would be self generated and the owner can take a backseat.
Building a forum around your blog can be a challenging but worthy task. The important question here is: why do you want a forum?
1. Because it is an easy way to build a community.
2. I want more visitors and more money.
3. I want to share my thoughts and interact with my visitors, beyond what I wrote on the blog.
4. I am passionate about my niche and I could write about it endlessly.
If you sincerely went for 1 or 2, stop right there. Chances are your forum might never take off. If you went for 3 and 4, chances are your forum may succeed, but of course after putting in hard work.
Before making the decision, though, let’s evaluate the pros and cons:
Pros:
1. Forums are a great source of user generated content. If you have taken care of the SEO aspects of your forum, it may rank well for some really competitive keywords. Also, like blogs, forums are updated very regularly and hence spiders index the content quite often.
2. As a blogger you will post on a certain topic everyday. Suppose you just wrote something on social networks. Your readers will be able to discuss about it in the comment section. But what if the readers want to talk about some other topic that you haven’t covered? What if they have unrelated questions? If you have a forum they can discuss it there, post questions and so on.
3. If your community is quite active, there are good chances that topics will appear in the forums naturally, and you may get ideas for new posts. So instead of visiting other blogs and sources to get new information, you can find some inspiration for your content in your own forum, and this is a very efficient way to discover what your readers want to read about.
4. If the forum takes off, not only would you be able to build a bigger community around the blog, but your site would now have two sources of traffic: your blog readers and the forum members. Chances are most of them would be common, but some might not, which increases the scope of traffic even more.
The picture does seem rosy here, but before you start finalizing which forum software you should install, take a look at the cons of having forums. (Oh yes, its not all rosy.)
Cons:
1. Building a online community like a forum is hard work. I’ll say it again – building a community is hard work. Are you prepared for this? It may take months, or sometimes a year, before you can actually take a backseat, and see the content being generated on its own. Until that time you will have to be very active in the forums; moderating, participating in the conversation and whatnot.
2. If you don’t receive enough comments on your blog, then a forum would be a no-no. In this case you should focus on increasing the number of comments on your blog first. Ask questions in posts, make it obvious that feedback and opinions are always welcome, provide rewards for those that comment, and tell people you want to hear their thoughts. Once you master the art of drawing comments from you readers, chances are that it can culminate into a better discussion in the forum.
3. A successful blog doesn’t imply a successful forum. Even if your blog is getting a lot of attention from visitors and social media, don’t be amazed, if you see only one sign up in your forum per week. There are plenty of examples around the blogosphere with forums that have a couple of dozen members and where most threads are filled with spam.
4. A dead forum can harm the credibility of your blog as well. Before starting one, therefore, make sure that you have all the requirements in place, otherwise your efforts might just backfire.
What factors do you think influence the success or failure of forums inside blogs? When is a forum the right choice for a blog?