Internet Online Forums
Answer questions. Build community.
Find out what users of your website want to know.
Internet online forums allow website users to ask questions and get answers from both the website owner and other website users.
Many users have the same questions, and instead of asking them again, they can (and do) just read what's been asked and answered before. Efficient!
The questions and answers can stay online as a searchable database indefinitely, building a valuable "knowledge base" for your users, and valuable community loyalty for you.
Good news! Forum pages can also be searchable by search engines, bringing more users to your site; and forum pages can include ads to bring in more revenue.
More good news: there are lots of excellent free open-source online forum programs. In other words, you can add forums to your website for free, or nearly so. (For an example, see the TurkeyTravelPlanner.com Forums, which use excellent—free!—phpBB software.)
Installing the software is for Internet gearheads, but if you're not a gearhead there are companies, including web hosting companies, to help you.
Once the online forum software is installed, anyone not afraid of computers can learn the tasks of the System Administrator and Forum Moderator(s). And if you get enough eager participants, you can appoint volunteer Moderators for your various forums.
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