Hi, Can someone explain to me the advantages of Blog and Forums. I want to start an site but I don't know which to use. Which takes more time, which is more profitable etc... I have a bit of experience in each but I cant decide... Thanks, Adam
I think forums are better, as more people can get intrested some people don't even know what blogs are for, and marketing forums is easier then blog in my opinion. I think forum is more profitable as people [like me ] always run away from blogs! That's just my opinion, and i hope it helps you be successfull
Blog is the best option. Forums takes a lot more time and dedication however once set it runs without any active involvement(except the hosting) hence a kind of more profitable.
I think it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. There are advantages to blogs and to forums. I think starting a blog is a lot easier then a forum but after it is established I think it can be more profitable. I think it also depends on the niche.
In simple terms, you have to write posts and publish them on your blog, while on forums other users can contribute (and you get unique content free of charge).
Definately start with a blog. Forums require a fair amount of money and a lot of effort to get started up, and even then only the minority actually become active and successful. Blogs, however, are much easier to start off with, and have a higher chance of being successful. I know of a case where someone started a blog and made it extremely successful, where they were getting around 100 comments per post. They then started a forum on the domain as well as the blog, and disabled comments, telling people to post their comments in the forum. Now they run a very successful blog and a very successful forum
I have both forum and blogs. Blogs are easy. Forum takes a lot out of you. Yes you get user generated content in forums but then still blogs are easy and for a good blog 200 articles are good, while 200 threads are not good for a forum.
In my experience, forums are harder to maintain, but give you the most rewards in the end. You just have to make it through the hard times, and your golden. Just look at DigitalPoint
For me both Forum and Blog have worked well. At the beginning its a little difficult but then as it gets old it gets easy but you need to be active or else it will die soon.
I think using DP as an example is a bit wrong to be honest. I bet less than 0.01% of forums make even half of what DP does, but, sure, if you can get your forum big enough then becoming as big as DP is definately a possibility, but that will take a lot of money and an extreme amount of time and effort.
Definitely go with a blog. Forums are great but you need a large membership base and one of the biggest problems is that forums are free, how would you monetize it?
The same way you monetize any site, Adsense and similar programs, selling links, that sort of thing. Also, some successful forums have a VIP section that you have to pay a fee to be able to enter (usually something like $5 per month), while the rest of the forum is free to browse, although with this method you need a fairly substantial userbase to start off with.
Why not do both? Here's what you do: Create a blog and a related forum. Post interesting articles on your blog that give people good information for free. Use the blog to drive them to the forum. If you give good solid information on the blog then you can charge access to the forum for a nominal one time or monthly fee. If you don't believe that a forum can be monetized check out the Rhodes Brothers imsimple.com website. They do exactly what I mentioned above. The have a free blog, but charge a monthly fee for access to their member forum. The Rhodes Brothers also charge access to a members only blog too. Another example is to create a $7 report on a topic related to your niche. Give membership to your forum to your customers. Once you have customers in the forum continue to provide information and resources not available on your blog or in your free reports. Another idea is to provide a paid "Coaching" program. Students pay a monthly fee to access a private forum and you can teach them and provide resources via the forum. Josh Spaulding uses this with his coaching program as well as some Warrior Forum members. If you have HostGator account it is easy to set up a forum and password protect it through the cpanel and fantastico.
As a newbie, I would probably start with a blog. There are easier to set up, the search engine loves them and they are way easier to maintain.
As mentioned in this thread, blogs are loved by search engines so I would go with them. Gain the experience of being a webmaster and than you can lunch into forums!
Forums gain more money in the long-run. Blogs gain more money, faster. Forums and blogs both take amount the same amount of effort. Forums usually cost-more.
Blogs are easy to prepare. You need extra effort and time for forums.. In the long run,you'll earn almost the same amounf of money.