Add Blog or Forum ?

[knowledge seeker 2014]

Some advise needed please, I have a website selling tools to mainly the trade industry. I'm thinking to add maybe a forum or a blog, I don't have much experience with social media but was thinking to add a forum to the site where people can come and talk and get help with issues within the industry this may also bring the public to my site by getting free advise and maybe purchasing the tools from me to carry out the job.

What are the pros and cons of this that you can think of.

 

[busybob]

forums are notoriously difficult to start, and will be incredibly hard work with no responses. e.g. you'll have to post questions / threads, then set up fake accounts to respond to them etc. from my own stats, about 80-90% of visitors to a forum don't post. and you'll have spam bots to contend with.

the one problem you have is the word 'maybe'. maybe they will come, maybe they will buy, maybe they won't. you want to convert that maybe to a 'they will'.

afaik, people in the trade industry are mainly trained with some sort of qualification so will already have most of the knowledge (?); then there's the cowboys - will they really care for additional knowledge by having to ask on your forum and then buy the tools?

tools are fairly generic and can be purchased anywhere so you might be kicking yourself in the foot with a forum.

work on a blog, post informative articles that you've written. write for the reader, not for the search engines. answer popular questions, simple how-to's etc. e.g. the trade industry equivalent of 'how to poach an egg'.

remember that unless you sell very specialised power tools, there's a big home diy sector. if you do sell specialised gear - are you in a position to rent it out?

in short, unless people can only buy the product from you, giving free advice is time consuming with no / little reward and a kick in the teeth when they call you up regularly for advice without buying anything. your time is better spent doing other things.

 

[busybob]

forgot to say, with each blog article you write, link into a specific section in your store. both search engines and people will like that

 

[Ian J]

tools are fairly generic and can be purchased anywhere so you might be kicking yourself in the foot with a forum.

Especially when your competitors register and start answering questions and directing potential customers to their own sites instead of yours

 

[fisicx]

Don't bother. People will come to your site to buy tools, they already know what they want so won't be interested in reading your blog or joining a forum.

 

[antropy]

As others have said, the hard part will be getting people to participate and you'll have to have a moderator with a lot of time to monitor it.

From a technical point of view it's not too tricky though: http://www.antropy.co.uk/blog/integrating-opencart-with-other-software/

 

[RepricerExpress]

If l had to choose, I would go with a blog. You can use the blog to answer new or common customer issues and show you have knowledge in your industry. This should also help drive traffic to your site (and potential customers) and improve your SEO. Good luck.

 

[Dan Izzard]

Take a think about where your customers are. Are they on forums researching tools? Do they even have a presence in the online space? What information would they be searching and when would they be doing so. Perhaps they are out on a job and need a replacement tool or part? Can you provide useful content on your site to help them out when they are furiously searching for a replacement jigsaw blade on their smartphone?!

 

[positivesparks]

Some great advice above! I would go with the blog too.
It allows you to promote specific things that you want to say or sell and it's far easier to promote a well written blogpost online than it is out and out product pages. There's also a very simple equation online that the more words you have on your site, the more searches you rank for. In the long run, a well maintained blog will bring in more traffic.

 

[Clairebearing]

Have to say that more and more information on the Internet confused us.Even though we have the advanced technology ,couldn't find the useful and helpful one in a short time.Therefore, it dosen't matter you use which way, you should be the special one to attract your customers.Of course, you should clarify who is your target ,what is your plan, why they willing to buy your products.

 

[StevePoster]

Some advise needed please, I have a website selling tools to mainly the trade industry. I'm thinking to add maybe a forum or a blog, I don't have much experience with social media but was thinking to add a forum to the site where people can come and talk and get help with issues within the industry this may also bring the public to my site by getting free advise and maybe purchasing the tools from me to carry out the job.

I would suggest blog sites and social media sites because forum site is hard to establish and prone to spammers. In blog and social sites, you will have the effective medium to reach your targeted audience as well as to interact with them to build relationship and trust.

 

[fisicx]

Who is going to read your blog? You may get great ranking but unless people are search for that info they won't even know you exist.

If you want to sell more tools put the info on the product page. Allow people to ask question on the product page. Answer those question on the product page.

This will help your ranking for the tool and demonstrate to potential buyers that you know your stuff.

The 'a blog will help your site' claim no longer holds true. It was in the wild old days of the blogsphere but things have moved on now that everyone and his dog has flooded the internet with blogs.

 

[Ideaswise]

IMO opinion blogs are still effective, especially if you link them with other activity such as social media, and post useful content. Forget forums for the reasons others have pointed out.

 

[ukbf0001]

Do a forum - but get people to login with their facebook account - helps stop auto posts etc - you may then have the problem of generating enough interest to get momentum - basically unless it's a lov eor passion - probably a waste of time

 

[DesignerNick]

Do a forum - but get people to login with their facebook account - helps stop auto posts etc - you may then have the problem of generating enough interest to get momentum - basically unless it's a lov eor passion - probably a waste of time

Not every one has Facebook though.

 

[fisicx]

Forget forums for the reasons others have pointed out.

Do a forum - but get people to login with their facebook account

One of you must be wrong...

 

[beasty]

We are on a forum, seems fairly useful...

 

[CubeSEO]

I run a couple of small forums and write a few blogs.

From a financial stand point the blogs work much better. The forums help but they are a real time suck.

I would strongly suggest at least starting off with a blog.

I worked with a client in your sector, tools to industry, and writing guidelines on which is the best tool to use in a particular situation, how to use it, why that one rather than another that might fit?

These types of blog posts can be lengthy and therefore hard work, however they are evergreen and as long as that tool is in use you have a chance of extra traffic - other factors are involved.

One of the problems I run into with tools sites is that the specifications are so technical that most of the content is often copied from the manufacturer. If this is the case I would start there before anything else and re-write. Duplicate content won't kill most sites but if your site is weak the dup content won't rank.

 

[Websitehandyman]

Well you've already had some good advice. I wouldn't try to start a forum on your site, I've seen plenty of people do it and even when they attract enough members those members don't covert into buyers. Even worse within the forum members recommend competitors sites.

A better option is to start a Facebook group. Discuss the issues as normal, remove links you don't want and drop in your marketing every now and then.

 

[busybob]

Take a think about where your customers are... Do they even have a presence in the online space?

Fantastic point which has been overlooked. They may not be on facebook, they may only view the internet via a phone / tablet, they may have dyslexia etc etc.

 

[Dan Izzard]

Why do you say that @jxhongfun?

 

[SabriM]

Blogs will help with your search engine rankings as long as you are producing regular fresh content. Remember, content is king nowadays.

 

[fisicx]

Blog posts may rank well but the days when a blog would help ranking are long gone. Great content on any page of the site can rank well. That content should be on the most relevant page of the site - this is usually not a blog post.