THE DREAM IN ACTION

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Why THE DREAM IN ACTION Has A Forum

I’ve decided to add a forum to THE DREAM IN ACTION because I want the site to be more than one to many communication. Simply put, I think putting your dreams into action on a daily basis is as much a group thing as an individual thing. I truly believe that the inspiration you can get from other peoples change is powerful and can serve as a catalyst for change and action in your life.

Also, I think that the readers of this blog are powerfully intelligent and it would be foolish of me to not provide an outlet for other readers to benefit from that collective insight. With a forum anyone can ask a question and anyone can provide an answer.

Why Forums Are Beneficial

Forums are very beneficial for collecting and filtering he wisdom of crowds. Blogs like Zenhabits and 4-Hour Work Week that center around ideas that can change your life are perfect examples of how a solid forum can provide great benefit to readers looking for a little more than on author/blogger can provide. Here are a few more reasons why Forums work.

• Forums encourage a wide variety of contributors. Many popular forums with large audiences have members who are experienced and enjoy helping other people solve problems or get inspired.
• Forums drive discussion. Blog comments are great but it’s still difficult for one commenter to speak directly to another. Disqus commenting system helps but I still see value for group discussion in a forum environment. Discussions get people thinking and challenged, and more discussion is never a bad thing.
• Forums allow YOU to participate. The forum will be moderately moderated. Most discussion will be open and free within reason so the least experienced entrepreneur can dialog with VC’s or corporate CEO’s, anyone can join, no go out and recruit!
• Forums allow branding/promotion. Our forum will allow you have a signature — which is like a form of advertisement. Intelligent comments will drive traffic to your blog or website, this is a reward for valuable participation.

10 Steps To Dominating Your Forum

Now that the forums are setup, how are you supposed to use theme. This 10 Step Guide To Forums will help you use the forum effectively and participate in a more direct conversation with other readers.

1. Use The Forum With Purpose - While forums are an excellent resource for deeper discussions, they can also be a huge time-consuming activity if you aren’t careful. Be intentional with why you are joining the forum at any specific time. Are you getting a question answered? Or, are you helping out other readers? Either is a legitimate use but make sure your careful because time flies when you’re having fun.

2. Be A Resource. This is the best way to get your questions answered quickly and thoroughly, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Make sure to ask your own questions from time to time though (be human), by focusing on helping out other readers you will quickly increase your value to them and drive traffic to your site.

3. Use An Avatar. On this blog we have Gravatar enable so you’ll be able to post  message and have your personal avatar show who you are. If you don’t have this setup through Gravatar it’s very simple, go hear to sign-up.

4. Use A Signature. You will have a signature on each post and we encourage you to include a link to your blog! Write a short blurb that will tell the forum participants of who you are, be honest to gain credibility.

5. Focus On The People Not The Traffic. In order to be effective using the forum, focus on building relationship with other bloggers. Build your network before you need it! Although you can drive traffic to your site if you become valuable to the forum it is a much more effective tool for meeting people. Forums may not be a huge source of traffic but relationships with blogger can prove to be extremely valuable when trying to get the word out. This is when forums really become valuable and what you should focus your efforts.

These 2 tips below are from Tim Ferriss, author of The 4 Hour Work Week on how he reached out to bloggers to promote his NY Times #1 Best Selling book. Both of these strategies are perfect for implementing when you start using the forums.

Start Before You Need Something

“I reached out to certain bloggers as far as a year in advance of the book being published,” Tim told me. By building his connections ahead of time, he never had to start a relationship with a blogger by asking for a favor.

Don’t Be A Promoter

Nobody wants to get to know a guy who does nothing but promote himself. “Your job is to convince them of the messenger, not the message,” he told me. “Don’t try to push your message until you establish yourself as someone they’re willing to listen to.”

6. Take Your Contacts Outta Here. Follow up with people via email or Twitter when you chat with them in the forum. Although it’s a great method of communication we don’t ant it to be your only method. The name of the game, relationship building.

7. Be Respectful. This one is obvious, but sometimes you still have to say it. We will not ban but we don’t encourage anonymity. Be real, authentic, and nice and you’re good to go. If you goal is to help or be helped then be cool, otherwise peace.

8. Ask For Feedback. Our forum has a category ‘misc’- for general Q’s & A’s . Feel free to ask for feedback on your blog or startup by providing a link. Be careful to solicit this feedback with the right attitude and in a respectful manor. Also, although we are accepting some forums are not friendly towards this type of communication.

9. Focus On Your Core Competencies. This forum will cover a wide variety of topics. If you are looking to network by helping folks out, you’ll be most effective by focusing on what you know. The forum ranges from Marketing to Economics to Entrepreneurship to Travel, you may be an expert at all of them (in which case I look forward to chatting, but if you’re not, help where you can and learn where you can.

10. Find Win-Win Opportunities. One of the keys to effective networking is finding win-win situations. If you meet other bloggers that write on the same topics as you, try to find areas where you can help each other. Maybe you can write a guest post for another blogger and a particular topic that you know well. This would be good exposure for you and it would provide valuable content for the other blogger. Link exchanges are also common.

Send Off

I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes of this community. I hope that the 4-5 thousand readers a month of this blog take the time to sign up for the forum and give it a whirl. But, in the end I’d much rather have a passionate community of 30 or 40 than a passive community of 400. If you find value from this community or even see potential value I would ask and encourage you to share it and promote it with me! See you there.