Get out and make connections.
This article is part of my 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.
Today, take fifteen minutes to participate in a forum related to your niche — then repeat tomorrow, and the following day, and so on. Participating in a forum can be great for drawing traffic and building relationships with other writers and experts in your niche.
Posting regularly in a related forum can draw dozens of new, active, readers to your blog. Choosing an environment that focuses on your area of interest guarantees that the people who are seeing your links and your name are people who are interested in your topic. This makes it much more likely that they’ll click on the links, as well as take a lasting interest in your blog.
Participating in forums can also help you to build your brand as a writer and blogger. Create relationships with others in your niche by sharing useful information and displaying an interest in what they are sharing as well. You will be able to use these conversations to not only promote your blog, but also to shape the image of you that you want others in your niche to have.
WordPress has great forums on an array of topics for their users. Just one post in a WordPress forum this week has already increased my hits, comments, and subscribers. It’s also connected me to other blogs I’m interested in following. Now, I’m going to venture out and find some forums based on the areas that interest me — beyond blogging, to freelance writing, journalism, and creative writing — and watch those numbers grow ever higher.
What forums have you found most interesting and useful in your niche?
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