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When you're a new webmaster or just getting into online business, it is easy to feel overwhelmed.
You can read a million diffrent articles, scour every search engine for information, and still be
left with lingering questions.
One of the best (and free) ways to get individual help from experienced individuals is by
participating in online forums, also called "discussion boards". On a good forum you will find
people willing to answer some of your questions, or at least get you going in the right direction.
When you arrive at a forum that looks helpful with a specific question, first use their search function
to see if anyone else has asked your question, you might find that your problem wasn't so unique
after all, and the solution is already there.
If you don't find the answer to your question, see if you can find a page with the forum rules on it.
Some places won't let you post a link to your site, post a link to an adult-related site, or want
certain kinds of questions asked in a certain area. Following their rules will help your question
to be better received by the forum administrators and members.
Eventually you'll find that you are able to answer a few questions, too. Aside from the sense
of community, participating in forums is a great way to build business relationships, find
potential clients, and establish yourself as a leader in your industry.
Below are a few forums that I have found to be especially good for webmasters.
WebProWorld is the webmaster-related forum I participate in most. You will find a large community of webmasters and other
eBusiness professionals who discuss a wide variety of issues. This site has a focus on search
engine optimization topics, and is friendly to new webmasters. The site is owned by iEntry, Inc.
WebDevCom.net is a fairly new
Web Development and Design Community.
You'll find a wide range of web development and design-related topics being discussed. They have
a "Website Review" forum where you can post your site and have members post suggestions (nicely)
on ways to improve your site. This forum is also very welcoming to those new to this industry.
The site admins, "Seven" and "cyanide" provide development, design, and hosting services
through their other respective sites; but it truly is a community effort with support being
provided by several forum members.
WebmasterWorld is pretty much the webmaster forum. This is a great resource to find out the
latest news in the online industry. If there is something going on in the "webmaster world",
you'll likely see it being discussed here. It has more members than any other webmaster forum,
so it is easy to lose that sense of community, but it also makes it a great resource. A lot of
advanced topics get discussed here, and I don't think they are as friendly to new webmasters.
Make sure you read their rules before you post; they have had to tighten things up because of
rampant spamming. The site is run by Brett Tabke, who is recognised as one of the leaders
of the greater webmaster community.
I don't really participate in this forum, but I do occasionally find myself "lurking" around, so I
can't really give a proper review. I have found some great discussion here, and wanted to add it
to the list. This site seems to be owned by Kim, and is part of the Cre8pc.com network of sites.
There are, of course, countless other discussion forums out there that provide an excellent
resource for their members and the webmaster community as a whole, but this is just a short
list of my favorites. If you are a member of a webmaster or e-business forum and think it
deserves to be listed here, please send me an email
with an unbiased review of the site with a link to where I can find it, and I'll check it out.
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