A blog will rank in the search engines faster.

most forums stick a No-follow tag on your comments. If you start your own blog you have control of that, and control of the PR level by how interesting and how much you promote it. A forum you don't have much control.

even blogging at Active Rain you can build up a following.

Actually you can post your blog inside your forum!


Directory and Subdirectory



See how this forum has several main directories and subdirectories?

Like you will find this topic in the "computers and Technologies for real Estate" subdirectory under the "Successful Web Presence" directory along with the other subdirectory "Net Success".


How to blog


Well there is a way to create a Directory for your blog and make it Read Only. Your members can read the Topic but not reply.

OR

Start a Topic paste your Blog and then lock the Topic. you can even make it a sticky on top of your page



Want to make it interactive?


Make a directory called BLOGS

Make 3 sub directories

1)My Blog(Only you can post but everyone can read)

2)My Blog Feedback

3)Members Blogs

I have both blogs and a forum. I think the biggest differnce is it is easier to read about current doings-- with a blog. You have to look a little deeper in forums.

Q...

I recommend a blog. It is extremely difficult and time consuming to get a forum going. Besides, where's the advantage for you?

With a blog you are giving the info one way. If people are interested they will contact you.

Additionally, a forum is a hassle to install (not really, if you are technically inclined, but you will still need to pay for hosting etc...) You can get a blog for free (and even host it yourself if you are so inclined) by simply visiting http://blogger.com It will take you about 15 minutes to get it up and going.

If you aren't sure, just do both...

If you are looking to use both, a blog and a forum, one option could be to use WordPress, with a sharp looking theme and use vBulletin as your forum software.

At vBulletin.org they have a bridge that works with WordPress. I think one of the features allows you to set-up threads from a forum to be displayed in your WordPress blog.

WordPress is free - here ...
vBulletin is not free - here...
vBulletin.org - here ...

vbulletin is a great tool to answer questions

Even I prefer blogs to forum, an ideal real estate marketing tool. The number of leads that you generate through a blog is much higher than a forum. Also, a blog assists you in giving a better customer service. So it is blogs for me.

It's easy to blog using a discussion forum. Simply disable the reply feature when needed.

I've been using Snitz discussion forum to blog since 2001 and for responding to frequently asked questions from customers and agents. These days I also post the latest news and resources there. I've been noticing that blogs are becoming more like discussion forums.

Software capability plays a major role in what you can or cannot do. With snitz any registered member can blog, start new topics or create interactive dialogs using a conventional forum.

I wouldn't want to disable the reply feature - the idea of a blog i to communicate - one way communication soon leaves you talking to yourself. I was part of a forum once that had a "blog" forum, and you could not reply to anything. I eventually stopped reading them and never posting anything myself, either.

I think that the blog have only one advantage. It people like you their read your posts daily and if you keep the rate, they will always come back. But in a forum you can enter just because you saw an advertising, you stay 2-3 days and after that you will forgot the name of that site if it is not interesting.

I prefer forum, easier to navigate

chris
HouseYouTube.com--The Online Video Website For Real Estate-Share Your Real Estate Video -Making Memories Come Alive!!-Free Registration.

Please invite your friends and make yourself at home. Registration is FREE!!

Go for the blog I think a forum would be way to hard to drive traffic to get it started. If you had a big blog following them the jump into a forum would be easier. It is getting that following that is the hard part. The actual forum of blog format is irrelevant until you figure out how to get them their. It's not field of dreams "build it and they will come".

Cheers

Forums are easier to navigate but not quite as easy to share and syndicate. It all really depends on what you're trying to achieve with your site.

Share advice and get lots of feedback and others involved = Forum

Tell people how it is and establish yourself as an authority = Blog

Best of both worlds would be my choice.

I have seen Realtor websites that utilize a blog. They get two for the price of one.