A blog, short for the compound word weblog is a website that includes periodic entries, built in a system made to display the entries chronologically and archive them either according to date, thematically, or both. A blog may contain only text, or may include images, audio, and video as well and may or may not allow comments. It may be created as a personal record, extend a hobby, or serve a business function, and it may be a single page or part of a multi-page website, either one that is entirely built with blogging software or one where the blog is incorporated into another platform. A forum is an online meeting place for discussion of topics relevant to web users, and there are a number of reasons why a blogger might seek out a blog forum. Your reasons for seeking community are a helpful guide in determining how to find the best blog forum.
There are four main types of blog forum that a blogger might be well-served by. Some blog forums are designed to discuss blogging in general. These blog forums have topics like blogging basics, marketing your blog, search engine optimization for blogs, content creation for blogs, the merits of different blogging software, and other topics of interest to a wide variety of bloggers.
On the second type of blog forum, users meet to discuss a specific type of blogging. If you are a writer, and your blog is about writing, you may be best served by a blog forum specifically designed for writers. Such a blog would likely have sections focusing on different genres and topics of particular interest to writers, such as finding an agent and questions about grammar and syntax. On the other hand, if you’re a small business owner who wants to chat with others about using a blog to serve your business needs, a very different type of blog forum will serve you best.
The third type of blog forum is one on which users meet to discuss a specific blogging tool, like Blogger®, WordPress®, or Moveable Type®. The support on the blogging software site often offers a forum, along with a knowledgebase and other types of support. On this type of forum, you can ask about specific issues that arise with the blogging software you’ve chosen to use or help out other users with what you’ve learned.
Finally, there are blog forums that focus on using a particular blogging tool in a particular way, most often, with a particular plug-in. This plug-in could be a theme, or some type of add-on that increases functionality, and often the support forum on the add-on or plug-in site is best place to go to discuss problems, tips and tricks, or innovations you’ve made.