The forum starts out by having a few founding members. These members are also likely to be moderators, since there are so few of them. When a forum is launched, it has nothing in it. So founding members have to find a way to add content, so that the content can in turn attract other webmasters to the forum. Usually, they will start to post news and other webmaster related articles.

When a webmaster sees something that interest him, he will sign up as a member and maybe post some comments or ask some questions. The founding members will reply to his questions, and the new member learns something new. Now the new member is not so new anymore. He has a few posts under his belt, and he has acquired new knowledge.

When another new member starts asking similar question, he can now help to answer those questions. He will do so willingly because he has received something from the founding members for free. So now he is also willing to share what he knows for free.

Of course, not every forum member will behave like that, but most will. It's just human nature - to give and take. Hence, the webmaster forum takes on a live of its own. The founding members can eventually just sit back and moderate.

As a member of a webmaster forum, you can expect to learn many different webmastering tips and tricks. Such useful and valuable information include:

Search engine optimization.

Many members post SEO information freely on webmaster forums. They will go online to share with everyone the results of their SEO efforts. What works and what doesn't, it's all there. Some even go as far as posting search engine related news on the forums. They do this because they find the news interesting, so they post it on the forum so that everyone else can benefit from the news, and leave their comments.

Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing has been around for years, and successful affiliate marketers earn a very comfortable income. But the learning curve is very steep. Most affiliate marketers make costly mistakes during their first few attempts. You can always visit a webmaster forum, and see where others have failed. Then make sure you learn those lessons and don't repeat the same mistakes!

Free resources.

Sometimes, you may even be able to find free resources such as free website templates, free articles, free databases and so on. Such resources will help you setup your websites very quickly.

Active marketplace.

If there is any problem you can't solve, you can always engage someone else to overcome the problems for you. You can always find the help you need from an active webmaster marketplace.

Given the benefits, it would be crazy not to check out various webmaster forums if you are into webmastering.