Blogging is great and I always enjoy giving my thoughts in these articles.

But I know there are plenty of experienced entrepreneurs who read this blog who have their own important view points.

Sure, we get a little bit of discussion in the comments, but it is mostly just me talking AT you instead of a real back and forth conversation.

Well no longer! Today I’m introducing the Breaking Free forum which will be located at: http://www.startbreakingfree.com/forum/

I used the WP-Forum plugin for Wordpress to get this installed in case you would like to put something similar on your blog.

I tried to do a few things differently…

• There is no registration required to post.
  I’m a big believer in reducing all possible barriers for people. I hate it when I stop by a site and want to drop a quick response and they ask for registration. It’s not worth the time and I don’t want them emailing me in the future so I just give up! Not requiring registration was also a big part of Wikipedia’s success I believe, since they allowed anyone to edit an article even if they didn’t have an account.
• I tried to start small with a very limited number of categories.
  I think people try to overdo it sometimes by making dozens of different topics in a forum
• Forum posts could turn into blog articles.
  I will of course still be making blog posts. But occasionally I will take interesting threads from the forum and highlight them here on the blog. If yours gets picked up I will make sure to highlight your name and website.
• You can get incoming links to your site by participating.
  If you do decide to register on the forum, you can create a “signature” that shows up at the bottom of your posts and includes a link to your website. People who post deserve to be rewarded for their efforts. I won’t use a “nofollow” tag or anything like that to block Google from following the links.
• It will be a place to network and meet other entrepreneurs
  I’ve created a section called “Introduce Yourself”. Here you can post a link to your business or website (free advertising!) and also include what city you are physically located in. This will hopefully be a great place to meet other entrepreneurs. The more like-minded people you can get around, the faster you will reach your goals.

Anyway, I really think the forum will help take this site to the next level. It will turn Breaking Free into a real discussion where anyone can participate instead of just one man’s point of view.

Here’s How You Can Help Us Get Started

Think of the one question or problem that is bothering you that if you could just solve it, it would help you get your own business started in the next year or take your existing business to the next level. Then post in in the forum.

I’ll be personally answering questions there on a regular basis and may phase out the contact form entirely in the future.

Also take a moment to introduce yourself and your business/website to rest of the Breaking Free readers.

See you in the forums!
Brian