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Here are some thoughts about forums and online communities after my first few weeks of belonging to the Problogger Forum.  This new Problogger.com Community website, an outgrowth of Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net blog, is only a few weeks old, so I’m in on the ground floor on this new community.  The tagline that describes the Problogger Forum is “where bloggers work together” and so far it’s an accurate reflection of the experience.  It’s a helpful community full of interesting ideas.

EDIT:  here’s a link to more specific information about this community.

Some Problogger.com stats to date:

  • This community has over 1800 members  (note:  this is a paid membership community which requires a monthly fee for membership).
  • There are at least 110 members who have posted more than 20 times and over 200 who have posted at least 10 times.
  • Ten members have posted at least 100 times since the forums started.  (I’m not there yet, but I will be in a few days…  EDIT:  I hit 100 today (Oct. 13/09))

I’d say that’s pretty decent activity for a forum that’s less than one month old.

I was a few days late in becoming active in the forums but I’ve been working steadily at it of late:  about an hour a day.

How to make the most of the experience

I’m making some interesting new contacts, learning some new things, and getting some additional exposure to my work in the process even though I’m not a problogger (i.e. blogging isn’t my job or primary source of income).  It’s not a huge increase of traffic or anything at this point in time, but it’s fine for a few weeks of effort.

Here are some important tips for doing well in these forums that I’ve been using so far:

1.  Be active - I’m on the Problogger.com website daily and I try to post several times.  This shows that you have some level of commitment to what’s happening in the forum.

2.  Be social - Most forum software has the ability to add friends or contacts, as well as messaging.  I’ve added a few people to my Friends lists and commented on the conversation threads that they’ve started.  If you don’t speak and don’t reach out to people, you lose an important benefit to forums:  networking.  I would also add that being social should include being respectful and considerate.  Follow the Golden Rule:  treat others the way that you would like to be treated.

3.  Be curious – put simply, ask questions.  As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a stupid question.  If you can pose a question in a clear, thoughtful way, there’s usually someone who has an answer for you.

4.  Be thinking – knowledge is not very valuable unless you use it.  In conjunction with tip 3 (be curious), sometimes answers spawn additional questions.  You find stepping stones from one piece of knowledge to another.  Use them.

5.  Be helpful - This could be the most important tip of all.  I’ve commented on a number of threads, adding my opinion and experience to date on people’s questions related to blogging.  I’ve tended to focus on three areas where I feel I can give decent feedback:

  • (Blog) Critiques
  • Writing Content
  • Blog Promotion/Finding Readers

These are the areas that I feel I can add value to.  By contrast, I haven’t been active in the sections on:

  • Blog Design
  • Making Money With Your Blog
  • Technical Issues

I don’t consider these to be my strong points, so I’m more of a lurker in these areas.

I try to keep an eye out for questions that haven’t been answered yet, even if they’re over a day old.  Someone always appreciates a response!

Positive results to date (summarized)

  • Several new contacts who seem like good people.
  • Free recommendations and advice on how to improve my blog template (yes, I know it could use more work, but I’ve received several simple tips that have made a noticeable improvement to my blog template).
  • Traffic back to my blog (not a huge amount, but enough to make me think it’s significant).
  • Additional, high quality Twitter followers – again, not a huge number, but I like the quality.

In conclusion

These five tips have made my experience useful and enjoyable.  I’m definitely getting value for my money by following these tips and I know they’ll work elsewhere.  I know they’ll work for you, too.

EDIT:  Do you have any ideas or suggestions to share?  What has worked for you?  What hasn’t?

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