Getting the Most Out of Blog Comments, Forum Posts and Other Community Sites

There's no doubt that you already know how valuable it can be to leave comments on other blogs, forums and so on as a way to get people to your site. These are just a few methods for generating targeted traffic and demonstrating your expertise on a particular topic. In addition, despite what some people might think, blogs and forums can be great ways to get new ideas for your own content or to find solutions to challenges you're facing in your business. But there's a right and wrong way to go about it, and I'm not just talking about common sense stuff like "don't SPAM people". Here are three ways you can use these types of sites and some ideas to keep in mind to get the most out of them and not annoy people in the process.

There are basically three ways you can use blogs, forums and other types of community sites:

Getting Advice

If there's some sort of problem that's making you bang your head against a wall, it can be great to find a place where you can reach out to someone and get the help you need. I do this all the time, especially when I'm picking up a new skill.

But when you're asking for help, especially on forums, be sure to use a descriptive title so people know what you're looking for help on before reading the entire post. So don't just use something like "Wordpress 2.6 help needed" or whatever. Also be sure you leave enough info so people can quickly help you out without a lot of needless back and forth - what version of the software are you using, what type of dog do you have and how old, or whatever info is appropriate. Also, try to see if there's already a post covering that topic, but that should go without saying. Most sites have a search function for a reason.

Leaving Advice

When it comes to leaving advice, don't you find it annoying when someone leaves a comment that's just enough to be totally useless? Then don't be that person. If someone is asking how to install some piece of software or keep their dog from "going" on the carpet, give them enough detail to be helpful.

Otherwise, it's a good idea to follow the mantra that "If you don't have anything useful to say, don't say anything at all". I was on a site where someone asked a question about Camtasia. One reply was something like "Oh, just do x" while the other was a link to a YouTube video explaining "How to do x" and included a reference to a product the person sells that goes over things in more detail. Big difference!

Getting Content Ideas

You should be using forums and other sites to help you find content ideas. If you see people asking the same questions over and over again about how to do something, that's just BEGGING for an in-depth article to be written (at the very least). Even better if you can do a video on YouTube, a podcast or something that provides even more detail.

Of course, this is best if you have your own products to sell or have some other incentive in doing so. Each of these high-quality content items can be used to lead people back to your offer.

Site to You Might Want to Take a Look At: Yahoo Answers Google Groups Blogs in your market (use their RSS feed to keep up-to-date) Forums in your market (lots of forums also have RSS feeds too)

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts.

What do you do to get the most out of blogs, forums and other community sites? Just leave a comment below.

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