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Let me explain a little about my reasoning behind restarting the Forum in this format on the Blog.
When I first started the Working at Home on the Internet Blog way back in October of 2005, my main objective was to present good, workable, dependable and relevant information to people trying to run a Home Business on the Internet.
Since I was just starting out, the premise was a little different… take my readers on the journey with me. I read other Blogs that were all about blogging, business, entrepreneurship, whatever I could find on the subject of Working at Home. The problem was, even though I was getting Great Information, getting answers to questions I had about anything except the subject of that particular post was really difficult.
I had to keep searching for something, anything that related to my questions. I had questions about scams, spams, real job opportunities, fake job opportunities, SEO, Domains, advertising, and just about anything else involved in a Home Business. In order to get these answers for myself and my readers, I redoubled my efforts.
I kept surfing around in circles on the Internet until I landed on a site that offered what I was looking for at the time, The Work At Home Forum. I finally found a place that I could ask questions and get answers. (That’s why the Link has been in my Sidebar since the beginning.)
From then on, I thought that a Forum could fit well with the Working at Home on the Internet philosophy of presenting relevant information to questions people had about starting and running a Home Business. Ok, so now you know why I think that having a Forum for the Genre I am involved in is Important.
We all know about the fiasco with the phpBB forum I tried with the Webpage, so I won’t go into it now. Suffice it to say, I found something that I think could work well here. A compatible Forum plug-in that could be added to the Blog.
I came across RS Discuss by Rob Sargent. A nice lightweight Forum plug-in for WordPress. The download is what you would expect, a zip file. What was unexpected was I only had to upload 4 folders and 30 files. Total. After the last fiasco, I figured this was worth a 20 minute investment.
This Forum is not a real fancy type with all the bells and whistles. It is fairly basic and since it is based on the blog’s format, it will have some of the same features of navigation. But, it will also have some of the features you would expect of a php based Forum like viewing threads and conversations as well as commenting on the Forum. Registration is fairly easy, but I set it up for user verification through E-mail. Members will be assigned a password (which can be changed after sign-up). This was done to try to alleviate some of the Spam and bogus member sign-ups.
So, Welcome to the World Premier of the Working at Home on the Internet Forum (take 2)
I provided some Categories to start with. It’s up to you to Sign-Up, Ask Questions and Get or Give Answers. And for all my Blogging Friends that want to help out, please register and fill in some of the blanks, there is plenty of them.
[tags]Forum,Work at Home,Plugin,WordPress,RS-Discuss[/tags]
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4 Comments
Been thinking about the same problem lately. Here’s what I’ve decided to do. In your example you want people to present their problem, then provide a place to comment.
What would happen if you created an article on your blog called Submit a problem here. Write the article telling the user to just state the problem in the comment section. You remove the comment and write an article about that problem that everyone can comment on.
Hey Paul,
I have done that before many times with mixed success. That’s where the Series “Readers Questions” came from.
I think this may give an added dimention to the Blog and provide a way for people to ask questions any time without any prodding from me.
If someone comes up with a question that needs a long/detailed answer, I most likely would turn it into a post.
Joe
Joe,
When I see “readers questions” I am thinking if I put my question in there, YOU will give me an an answer. I want responses from everyone. I guess what I’m saying is I would change the “readers questions” to “Submit question to all readers”. I don’t see the forum working. You’re asking me to go to another place and learn that system.
Keep up the good work.
Paul,
The forum will probably take a little time to take off, that, I expected.
I think most people are familiar enough with forums that there shouldn’t be too much of a problem with readers using it. The biggest problem I think I’ll run into is that Blog readers don’t usually like having to register to make a comment and the registration process may put them off a little.
One advantage of using a forum in the way I imagine is that an individuals questions and the answers by me and others won’t “fall off” the front page. Enter the forum and it’s all there all the time.
One thing I DON’T want to happen is to lose readers commenting on individual posts.
Joe