Should You Add a Forum to Your Author Website?

I was chatting online with another author this weekend (you know, during that time when I was supposed to be editing my manuscript), and we got to talking about forums and whether or not an author should add one to his or her site.

I have a little experience with forums (I added one to the first website I ever built with the intention of making money, and it actually grew quite popular), so I thought I’d post some of the some pros and cons. Instead of putting this over on my self-publishing blog, I’ll write it up here, in case any readers want to chime in (I’m not ready to add a forum to my own site, but I could see doing it at some future date). So, without further introductory rambling…

Should Authors Add Forums to Their Websites?

First off, on the chance you haven’t participated in any forums, and you’re not quite sure how they work, let me answer the question….

What is a forum?

Perhaps the earliest form of social media, forums or message boards are websites (or features on a larger website) that people can join to interact with each other, usually on a certain topic. For example, if you’re into ebook readers, you might want to hang out at the MobileRead Forum. It’s an opportunity to have your say and communicate with people who share a common interest.

As far as author forums go, the first one I remember visiting (this was ten years ago, and I even ended up meeting some of the regulars at a local Olive Garden) was the R.A. Salvatore forum. He used to have the message board on his own website (which is what I’d do if I were starting one), but it looks like it’s on a free forum site now.

How does one start a forum?

If you have your own domain name and web host (I talk about how to get the heck off Blogger and start a professional website here and also in this podcast), it may be less work than you’d think. There are lots of web hosts, including the one I mention in that article, that have one-click-installation forum software that’s included for free with your plan. So, adding a forum needn’t be an added expense, and it’s something that can probably be set up in an evening.

Buuut, before you get overly eager and rush to do this, let’s talk about some of the pros and cons. As I mentioned, I’ve run forums before, and there are some downsides. In fact, I’ll talk about those first, lest you get too excited by this idea and forget to read the rest of the post.

Disadvantages of Adding a Forum to Your Site

• Forums are hard to get started unless your site is already popular — Having an empty forum that nobody visits can be a bad thing for your site. If your fans pop in but don’t see anybody else participating, they probably won’t join and post either. In fact, an empty forum could even work against you. If a potential reader visits your site and sees that nobody’s posting in your forum, they might think you’re not a very popular author and that nobody is buying your books. If you don’t have many (or any!) reviews on Amazon yet either, that could reinforce the feeling, and they might feel they should stay away. Social proof is a bitch when it works against you!
• Maintaining a forum is a lot of work — Let’s say you do get your forum rolling, and it’s getting popular, with dozens or even hundreds of people visiting each day. With that popularity comes a need for moderation — spam, blatant promotion, off-topic messages, etc. may all need to be deleted or modified. Are you going to do that task yourself? (It is often possible to find a faithful member of the community to become a moderator, but you’ll still want to check in regularly, and there’s a limit to how much you can ask someone to do for free.)
• Popular forums use a lot of bandwidth — If you keep your forum focused on your books, then you probably don’t need to worry about this, but if it grows and expands (as forums sometimes do) and covers multiple subjects in your genre (as a fantasy author, maybe I’d end up with a section for SF/F movies and steampunk and epic fantasy and who knows what else), it might get to the point where all your visitors are loading dozens of pages a day. You might then receive a note from your web host, stating that you need to buy a more expensive hosting plan, or you’ll just try to load your site one day and find that it’s down for the rest of the month with a “bandwidth exceeded” notice. Doh!

Advantages of Adding a Forum to Your Site

Okay, now that we’ve talked about the downsides to having a forum, let’s talk about some of the perks.

• Creating a community for your fans — As I said, people like to meet and chat with those who share their interests. It’s amazing how many self-proclaimed introverts (as many readers are) you can find chatting it up online. By turning your site into a destination people visit daily (to check for new posts and to contribute their opinions), you’ll more easily keep your name in readers’ minds. They’ll be talking about your work in between books, and, because they’re visiting your site often, they’ll know exactly when your next book is due out, and they’ll be ready to grab it on release day (compare this to people who might just forget about you between one book and the next).
• Loads of free, original content for your site (content you don’t have to write!) — If you’ve read any of my posts on search engine optimization, you know that Google loves big, authority sites and also that each unique page on your site is a chance for someone to stumble upon you via the search engines. If you’re a prolific blogger, you might get three to five new pages up on your site each week. Even a slightly popular forum could give you three to five new threads (pages) a day, each with lots of responses — i.e. lots of content that could come up on someone’s Google search. Once a forum gets rolling, you’ll see a big increase in the number of visitors that find your site via the search engines.
• The possibility of selling more books — This goes hand-in-hand with my last bullet point. More people finding your site through the search engines means more chances to expose new readers to your work. You can set up your forum so your free short stories and sample chapters show up in the menu for each page, and you could have the cover art for one of your books as the header.

As you can see, adding a forum to your site can be a big responsibility, but it comes with some perks too.

If you have any experience with forums or have an opinion on whether authors should have them, let us know in the comments.