Does Anyone Want a John Chow dot Com Forum?

I think a forum would be cool but I don't think that it is necessary the ability to reply in plugins is enough.

I don't think it would be a good idea. There are already plenty of good webmaster forums and it would just take attention away from your blog.

Yeah, moderating the forum would take out a huge chunk of your day.

I don't read comments above,
I just want to say,
there's only one john chow,
are u capable moderating many subforum?
if u hire someone else or delegate someone as yourself are they capable filling the content the same quality as you're?
if they or u capable doing it,
i agree with makin a forum!!
as long as it's free :D

John, I think a forum is a great medium to start if you're not getting many comments. But you don't have that problem. I think a forum would detract from your main attraction: www.johnchow.com. I have a technical HOWTO blog that gets about 3000-3500 uniques per week but it only gets 2 or 3 comments per week. Comments are tough to come by...

I reccomend dont change.keep just the blog.that its my 02 cents.if a team its winning..dont change players. :)

The blog and it's threaded discussions are already "the forum".

IMHO

Forum users and Blog Commentators are two distinct crowds. Opening a forum will only improve the John Chow community.

Of course most of the comments here will be people saying no to a forum. If you had a forum and you asked if you should start a blog with comments, most people would say no as well.

If you start a forum, it will attract its own crowd further adding to your earning potential. I'm sure you know this already.

StevePavlina's forums have been very good! there's not much overlap there, so it worked well, very well for him!

But John's model is different!

Kenneth

Yeah, seriously. Nice plug.

Another suggestion would be not to make it a JohnChow.com forum, but a earning money online forum partnered with johnchow.com

It is a great idea, but you many need to have moderators to control the forum.

don't people read the posts? I don't know if it's a bad idea, but I doubt I would visit the forums. I just like reading the posts and comments.

NO.

I agree with the majority here; a forum would not be johnchow.com, it would be anyoldforum.com. Forums are good when there are specific problems or projects to be solved. Your blog is much more open than that.

A question: what made you think you would want to open up a forum?

I wouldn't go to the trouble John. From my experience using forums with blogs, it's a helluva lot of trouble for little reward.

:arrow: Don

I'd say do it! Forums are good, but post different content there!

Kenneth :cool:

Man ... look at what your comments look like ... I can only imagine a Forum ... ha ha ha ... it would get crazy in there!

Go for it ... hey it can only help!

Darin

Personally, I say no to the forum idea. But if you do create one, I say run it as a separate site.

I think it is a definite possibility to give it a try...if it doesn't work, shut it down. However, with forums there comes moderation, spam, and trolls. So it's a bit more work to deal with.

Why not? I would go there. "How to monetize a forum" should be one of the first posts! Go for it JC! Add a chatroom too , please. I think you have enough fans to support it.

A good idea would be a poll section on the sidebar. The first poll could be about the forum.

No. A JohnChow.com forum isn't a good idea.There are TONS of other forums out there for interaction, tech talk, and help. Starting one would take comments/traffic away, and take time out.

Sorry folks, no offense but I come here to read what John has to say, not yours. If I think you are worthy of my time, I will come to your blog and read what you have to say.

Everyone that has been to a forum has experienced how a simple topics can go out of control because of one stupid post. A 5-minute you spend on the forum is a 5-minute less you spend in here.

I am a fairly new reader to your blog and I think it's an absolute masterpiece. I don't know how it would have been if the forum and the blog have co-existed the first time I visited this site.

I would have gotten sidetracked with so many information on the site that I think it would be an absolute shame to miss the work you have done here.

Oh yeah, not to mention, there bound to be a person or two (or even more) in a forum that try to steal all the attentions; and before you know it; it'll be a all-out-public-fight forum with the name-calling. :)

A Forum would be cool. But do what TechCrunch did, and kept it separate. So it didn't replace the commenting form.

This way, commenting will still happen on the Blog, and people can post about other, or related, topics on the Forums.

I think you should also use IPB, not VB. :P

Hi John

My vote would be no.

I read your blog to get your ideas and readers reactions to them. Thats what makes it special.

If you added a forum I'm not sure it would offer anything which was unique (i.e not covered by every other forum) and I probably wouldn't look at it on a regular basis.

What you have is great and it isn't broken

Regards
Brian

I don't think a forum would be a good idea because, like you said, it would take people away from the main blog. I've always loved forums, and they work with normal websites, but not blogs. If there are two places to leave comments people don't know where to go. I thought about having a forum for my blog before but then I realized it would really mess things up. So no, no forum!

Integrated forum gets my vote.

Steve Pavlina did it and his forums took off. he also was in debate about them for many months/years as well.

one thing that helped him is that he his a common forum for him and his wife's site.

I think having the forum is an awesome idea. For those who do not want to use it, you do not have too. Comments are made to comment on the post itself while a forum can act as a way for users (who want to) interact with each other. An integrated one is much nicer than trying to keep them separate. While there are those who want a forum and those who don't, if you do not want to use it, you don't have to. It won't hurt to add one for those that would like to use that feature. Just my opinion

Or do an open post where a subject is proposed by your 5-10 first commentators. You pick one at random and do a post about it. It could be the "open post of the month/week/day/99".

It's not a forum but it's not a subject determined by you either.

I was toying with this ideal for my blog but I don't have that many visitors like you.

Plus, your make it a free PR6 backlink to that person. (hint hint :D )

Try that and see how it goes.

Also no need to integrate comments into forum, it's better to keep them separate.

I think forum is a good idea, you could set specific topics (categories) and people would discuss many things there. Especially basic things like blogging, SEO, marketing, making money online. Also this would become like a starting point for the new readers of JohnChow.com, because it's difficult to scan all the archives for the newbies.

I am sure people will still be commenting on your posts, since each post is on different topic, people will still be voicing out their thoughts on that particular topic.

That's what i think.

Your audience is not the forum-type.
I would say No. For me for example, not commenting on the blog but on VB would be wrong. May not come for other's ideas.

I am reading john Chow because it's what John Chow thinks! I want him to start the articles, not others! For others I can read their blogs.

Good luck with either decision you choose!

This is blog and it doesn't need forum, you can create other site (forum only) for that purpose, nut not here.

Create a forum and make it about the subject of Making Money Online!...I'm surpise no one mentioned it...I think that could definitely work..that is what your blog is about anyway...let users discuss their opinion and share their ideas...your community would grow and I get traffic to my blog from my forum...steve pavlina has a forum and his blog still gets plenty of attention. :grin:

i think it would be a good idea it will only give you more impressions but intergrate it with the site and you have a killer combination. hey john im guessing but i take it you don't support dofollow movement?

I think that a forum would be a good idea because it will allow you to really see what your readers want to read about. And also, comments can get a bit unmanageable.