London Blogger’s Meet Up Club — Talking Forums

Carl Phillips
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

“The first rule of Blog Club is that you do talk about Blog Club”

It was my first visit to the long running London Blogger’s Meetup this week. It was a positive experience all round and good to meet a diverse mix of people all passionate about blogging. We talked forums this week and I promised a post about some of my thoughts.

The Best Forums for Bloggers

We started with a roundtable of suggestions about which forums offered the best return on investment for each blogger. As you would expect, there were differing views on which forums were favoured most.

There was no real singular standout forum from our discussions. Each of us had our own preferences and reasons for using them, so we also seek something in a slightly different flavour.

Quora and Reddit came out with mostly favourable comments from all that had used them. There seems to be a good pool of positive responses and seriously minded individuals wanting to help others on these sites, for the most part. Reddit comes with some fairly strict rules of use to keep everyone participating in the right way. Both these forums offer the opportunity to cast your net wide and also to dig into real detail on particular subjects as well.

Why Use Forums?

Forums offer many potential benefits. They are a place for us to meet like-minded people, who share a passion for a subject. They can be a place to pick up tips and build our knowledge base. They can be a place we get feedback from our own readers or fellow bloggers. They can be a place to debate ideas. Or they can just be a place to chat and chew the fat a little.

Many ways work and there are no real rules with so many potential forums we can make use of and try for ourselves. The London Blogger’s Meetup is a forum itself.

Blog Comments — Different Strokes

News that I made a purposeful decision to remove comments from my own blog years ago was met with some mixed responses. Some felt this blew a hole in the whole idea of what a blog is and reduced the potential for the site to act as a forum for my readers.

My reasoning, too much spam and too much time spent sorting it left less time for what I enjoy most about blogging, the actual writing. My blog is a forum for my writing (I also write books) and while there’s not much to beat the feeling of someone reaching out to say they got something positive from your writing, the writing itself has to come first and be my time priority.

Interestingly, I’ve found the conversation can still continue with this approach via direct email communication, Twitter or another forum. So the quantity of responses may be less but the quality of the responses seems higher.

Not having comments hasn’t stopped others reaching out and asking me to write posts for their sites. It hasn’t stopped me making some great connections online. Importantly, not a single reader has ever complained about me not having comments. It’s just part of the deal if you visit.

This approach suits me but it is definitely not for everyone. Much like life, that’s the great thing about blogging, we can follow the rules, break the rules or make our own.

The Takeaway on Forums

Try different forums. Try as many as you can over time. Find which ones resonate most for you and drop those that don’t fit your style. Find those that help your goals as a blogger and drop those that hinder or just become a distraction. Reach out and start a conversation, make connections and enjoy the ride.

Carl writes short books full of big ideas. He is also the proud owner of Frictionless Living which is focused on helping readers live simpler and find focus and clarity in distracted times.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade