Are you wondering how to start a forum on your blog but don't know what steps to take? In this article, we'll teach you the process so it's easy to set up on your own.

If you’ve just started a blog, online forums are a great way to develop a community and have discussions on relevant topics. Plus, they can help you drive traffic to your blog to build your readership and boost engagement. But with so many forum tools available, it might be difficult to narrow it down to the best one. And how do you add a forum in WordPress anyways? In this article, we’re going to show you step-by-step how to add a forum to your blog.

A forum is an online discussion board where users can share their thoughts, content, media, questions, and more. It gives communities a way to easily interact and share their ideas, usually on specific topics. Here’s an example of a forum on a popular wedding blog called WeddingBee:

Users can ask questions about wedding-related issues and get helpful advice from other community members. In another example, a health and food blog called The Blood Sugar Diet uses its forum so users can submit topics, questions, and feedback on topics like diet, exercise, and mindfulness.

You can create a forum on your blog about any topic you want to discuss with your readers. But, we recommend that your forum relates to your blog niche, this will make it easier to attract your target audience. Why Add a Forum to Your Blog? Forums give everyone an outlet to speak their minds and connect with others who have similar interests and pain points. And it’s important that you build a community around your blog to develop a loyal readership that keeps coming back. Without a sense of belonging, many will turn to the next blog. But, with an active forum on your blog, you can stand out from the competition and keep users coming back again and again.

Check out this tutorial if you need help installing WordPress on Bluehost. Now that you have everything you need, let’s get started on how to create a forum in WordPress… How to Create a Forum with bbPress (Step-by-Step) For this step-by-step tutorial, we’re going to show you how to add a forum to your website using bbPress.

Why Add a Forum to Your Blog? Forums give everyone an outlet to speak their minds and connect with others who have similar interests and pain points. And it’s important that you build a community around your blog to develop a loyal readership that keeps coming back. Without a sense of belonging, many will turn to the next blog. But, with an active forum on your blog, you can stand out from the competition and keep users coming back again and again. Aside from building a community, here’s what else a forum can do for your blog:

Improve SEO & Boost Traffic Your public forums will be filled with keywords and fresh content which can actually help you improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your blog. Collect Feedback & Data You can get to know your target audience better by starting an online discussion around topics in your industry. This helps you come up with future blog post ideas and campaigns that are likely to convert.

Because they’re centered around conversations, forums are the perfect way to boost engagement on your blog. You can use your discussion posts to answer questions, link to relevant blog content, promote campaigns, build an email list, and much more. Now that we know the benefits of adding a forum to your blog, here is a step-by-step tutorial to help you get started. Before we get started though, let’s make sure you have everything you need.

What You Need to Create an Online Forum The easiest way to start a forum is with a WordPress website. If you already have a WordPress blog, you can skip this section and move on to the next. If you don’t have a WordPress website yet, here’s what you’ll need: A domain name – This is your website address URL, like www.example.com, that users type into their browser’s address bar to get to your site. A web hosting account – A web hosting account is where your website files are stored. For a domain name and web hosting, we recommend Bluehost.

Bluehost is officially recommended by WordPress and it’s one of the best blog hosting services on the market. It’s reliable, easy to set up, and you can install WordPress with 1-click. The best part? Blog Tyrant readers get a special deal that includes a free domain name!