Blog Vs Forums

[Rogerferrer 0]

Blog: Blog seem to be the next big hype out there, yet there is still some confusion as to what exactly blogs are. Blog is short for web log, which is essentially an on-line journal or newsletter that is frequently updated and intended for the general public. A Blog can have either one author, coined blogger, or several.

 

Forums: Forums are different from blogs because they are authored by numerous individuals, and are more like open discussions then individual diary entries. Forums provide a place for those with similar interests to share their thoughts, questions, etc. Users generally log in to read and post to current subjects being discussed. Forums also come with special features such as personal profiles, calendars, and email notification systems.

[Harlot 2]

In my personal opinion, forums are going out and blogs are coming in. The fact is that blogs are much more profitable and have the potential to be more profitable. In a blog, unlike a forum, you have full control over the content your post, and you can define a niche and market a business around that niche. In a forum, it is completely different. Even in niche forums, there is usually not consistency, and other topics outside of the niche will eventually be discussed. So not only is it easier to market a business around a blog, but it is also more appealing to advertisers. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people making good money from their forum. Nevertheless, I see popular forums begging for domains in order to pay for operation cost on a daily basis. The blogs that have equivalent traffic do not have a reason to beg. Now, the thing I dislike about blogs is that although they can be money makers, you really lose the sense of community. It feels good to be the admin of a growing forum community, and there is a lot of excitement and joy involved. With a blog, you really don't know your readers and who they are. Its not easy to keep traffic of active readers and visitors on a blog. You could have a person who has been visiting your website and reading your articles for years, and you may not even know who they are. This becomes even more true as blogs grow. I currently abandoned my forum, and I intend on starting a blog soon. I usually blog on politics, but I am tired of the stale ole political blogs. I want to blog about something that I enjoy, and I want to blog about something that makes me feel as if I am helping people solve their problems. So I have a new blog idea, and I am going to implement it as soon as I earn enough money to purchase a new domain and hosting. Hopefully my new blog can earn enough revenue to fund itself. If I can create a blog that brings in $30/month, I would be satisfied.

[Iniyila 2]

i don't think that blogs will take out forums because forums have some features that blogs never can have. one of them is moderation just see blogs and you will find millions of spams in comments and you have only two options one is to let those spams be in you blog other choice is to pend them into admin permission but in forum you have moderators, warning system, report system and many other things to prevent your forum from spamming. another thing is question and answer in forum every one who has a question can make a topic for it but in a blog what should he do ? some blogs have a question and answer like platform but actually most of them are not working as a forum can do. but anyway i think future is for social networks and they will first take out blogs (because everyone can have one in them) and then they will take out forums (because of their best Q&A system).

[kleong 0]

A blog is usually a online diary whereby the author will share his/her thoughts. As for a forum, it will be more of a community kind of website. So unless the author of the former is a celebrity or someone who can write pretty well, the latter will usually be more active.

[Illustrious 0]

Blogs and forums in my opinion to compare to each other since each of them are pretty different. Blogs are more for writing articles about niches for people blogging about their personal lives with like three people for their audience. A forum is more for discussion about different topics such as monetizing, gaming, computer programming, etc. People both use blogs and forums to seek knowledge but forums allow more conversation about them.

[Xivio 0]

Social media has evolved to a point that companies need to put some thought into selection of the right social media format rather than picking a medium just because everyone is using it. Take blogs as an example. I've touched upon this before in my blog post ?To Blog or Not to Blog?, where I've discussed that blog is a means to an end but the end has to be clearly defined before picking the format. It's very easy to misuse any given medium, as we've all seen plenty of examples where blogs are (ab)used as just another means of passing on corporate spin.Bottom line is that it's not about the medium, the key is to identify your objective/goal first and pick the format/medium last. Although, I have to admit in the social media crazy age, the objective seems to be an afterthought in many cases.This month, I came across an old(er) format that we're all familiar with and seems to have made a resurgence lately. I am referring to good ol' fashioned forums, that had taken a backseat to their more glitzier cousins, the blogs and rarely ever featured in social media plans.According to entrepreneurs like Vincent (Vinnie) Lauria forums are ready to rock the social media world. I rarely discuss specific products/services on my blog. When Lauria's startup Lefora.com recently announced Tal.ki , an ?embeddable forum? or (forum) software as a service, which can be deployed anywhere on your site, it sure got my attention. Tal.ki is a 2nd Generation forum product, based off of Lefora.com platform which has over 100,000 forums worldwide.Here's the thing, if social is all about community, crowd sourcing, and exchange of information, then forums are the original social media and yet, they rarely get featured in any social media planning or strategy conversations. Forums have traditionally been associated with customer support in the enterprise space or hobbyists/fans on the consumer side with text-based discussion threads. Forums have come a long way from the text-based discussions and now offer ability to embed videos, files into the conversation. However, the newer versions have much more potential and full of social features such as a Twitter, Facebook (likes), etc.Lauria says, Tal.ki forums allow members to sign-in with their social networking profiles, such as Facebook and Twitter. So a member does not need to create a new account in order to participate, instead they use their existing social network profile.So you're probably asking yourself at this point, does this mean I should start a blog or a forum?The answer isn't one or the other because each format has its own purpose and benefits. Blogs are a powerful way for companies to share information and have conversations with stakeholders but they require the conversation to be driven from the company (blogger). There is an expectation that the company/blogger will respond to the user's comments.However, forums require a more hands-off approach with minimal company ?intervention?. If your objective is to foster conversations and nurture a community then forums are the best way to help get discussions rolling between customers. A forum provides a great online place where customers can help each other but there?s a great deal of value in getting insights from the customer exchanges. You can use forums to uncover customer pain points, get product feedback, and also, channel top-of-mind issues to generate blog topics.According to Google search, there are over 100million monthly global searches for ?forum?.The challenge for any company today is that social content is growing exponentially and companies are caught up in this tsunami of social data. So the question for enterprises is around data security and storage. Amazon has addressed this need by allowing that allows startups like LeFora, offering software as a service, to be hosted on Amazon EC2 platform that offers secure storage and access to data walled off within Amazon on a private firewall with a private VPN tunnel to the organization. So with SaaS offerings like Tal.ki, a company doesn't need to install new servers, new software, nor worry about maintaining the security of the system, so that also allows them to scale easily as their community grows.I think forums should be integrated into every social media practitioner and marketer's plan. Forums are a treasure trove of invaluable insights direct from your customers. So the question that begs to be asked and answered is why do companies pay for market research when they could be mining data that's available through their own forums for free?

[Quatrux 4]

Well, forums are there for a lot of years now and usually people comeback posting, it depends on the forum, but I see a lot of blogs, where some blog author or several blog authors write a blog, for example an article of some kind and it's the same as first post, the comments allows to discuss that article, same as forum posts, just it's a different style..There are plenty of useless blogs, same as plenty useless forums out there, so I don't think that forums will be taken away by blogs, it seems that for years personal sites has vanished, there are not much personal sites left, which works on a custom CMS or custom design style, a lot of whom just install a blog or something like that :DAt least I think so, sometimes it's much more interesting to look at an original site rather the same blog with little bit different content.

[darko100 1]

There are more blogs then forums , but anyway the both should have success. They are different things and you can't compare them. But anyway , the both forums and blogs are social models and have the target: everyone should express theirself. Forums are more like portal-friends , for communities of different sites and organizations. Blogs are usually 1 man-in-the-middle >) >) >) Blogs don't have that kind of features like forums , and they are to express the opinion of the author , while the forum is driven by the users , so if the forum has only the admin as poster , it is more like a blog instead of community.So forums could be used , for example if there is online site for nature , and the forum might be used to discuss about nature , to post photos , send polls etc. While blog could be used to talk about yourself , or as a brand blog for writing news and promotions.The both are needed and they are good dynamic systems. Anyway , i think blogs are more needed then forums. Every brand or site should have a blog or custom small CMS like a blog , while a forum is not needed that much. There are too much general forums with all categories like this one , Xisto.The form of forum could be used for Q&A of products , but sometimes it can't solve the case , and stupid plugins are installed. In that case , i would suggest using custom system for Q&A.And with Web2.0 i think the number of blogs will increase too much.

[web_designer 7]

in my own point of view i think both of them have its own cons and pros, and each one has its own special place in the web. blogs are used to show a personal opinion or a specific kind of information, as the writer wants without boundaries. in the other hand, forums are used to make a discussion, conversation between many members and sharing opinions about specific subjects that are determined by the owner of the forum.also, blogs require more work on them, like buying a domain, find a hosting, choose a design or a theme..ect. all those should be done before start posting in your own blog, where posting in a forum needs nothing but registering in a forum.therefor i think each one has its own place in the internet.

[carrotinvestment 0]

Blogs are generally used for conveying idea about a particular topic by one to show its interests and services but rather than forums are like discussion rooms where different peoples can argue or discuss about the related topic

[Quatrux 4]

To add more, I think that some blogs may act as forums, because a blog post can be the first post on a forum and the comments in that article can be like replies in a forum, depends on the design, but a forum in my opinion is like a better discussion about some topic.Also, articles can be categorized similar like a forum, just a forum has much more features than a simple Blog. So as I said and some of you said, I think both will be active in the future or maybe something better will emerge? :DA moderator can control the content of a forum where comments sometimes are useless, even though you can moderate comments too, but it's not the same as a reply.