Forum-Sites.com

Most successful forum sites that you know of are setup primarily as message boards right from the homepage. While this is one of the best ways to organize a community, it is not the only way to run an online forum. Many companies have and will experience a certain amount of success by integrating an online forum into part of the structure of their web presence.

A retail company can use an online forum as a way to stay in touch with their customers. This is a great idea for a number of reasons, including that these are already people interested in their products so you might as well cultivate relationships with them and the fact that by establishing a community for these customers you can continually hit them with advertising and special offers.

A news company (example) can use an online forum to get feedback from its readers. This also encourages new readers to visit as they feel their opinions and views are being treated respectfully and wanted.

The same can be true for a blog or other type of online news source. Installing a forum can turn your website into a community and encourage repeat visitors. Once people participate just a couple of times in an online discussion they will continue to come back to see if anyone has responded to their questions or remarks. A successfully run online forum then starts to feed off itself and can grow rather quickly.