Blog or forums have grown so popular over the years because of the high level of interactivity that members can enjoy. Webmaster, administrator, moderator and other members can all involve and interact with each other.

With the millions of blogs and forums out there, webmasters vie for attention from web visitors in a bid to get these people registering for a blog or signing up as a forum member, and stay loyal and active. One strategy that wise webmasters often take is to add higher levels of interactivity with various tools available for members that goes beyond the basic ability to post comments or start discussion threads.

One such tool is an interactive map that can plot the location of blog subscribers and forum users, providing both webmaster and site visitors a new visual experience never experienced before in old style electronic bulletin boards.

How forum members or blog readers can benefit from an interactive maps? Aside from being a nice eye catching addition to the website, forum members and blog readers would find it quite interesting to learn from which part of the country, or even the world, the person or she is interacting with are coming from.

This would give members and readers insight on why their forum-mates react to certain issues or discussion topics in a particular manner, or why some people are clueless about a certain discussion thread as if they don't know a thing -- because in their part of the world they really don't.

Aside from that, members knowing that they are part of such a diverse and global membership base would be more inclined to take part in the discussions more frequently or would give their insights or thoughts in their blog comments more readily. This would increase interaction among members resulting to a more vibrant and dynamic online community -- right inside your own web space!

With an increased interactivity and participation of members in the discussion and comment threads, visitors to the website will definitely increase and would prove beneficial for the webmaster or owner. Contents from comments or discussion threads can also appear on search results, further increasing the popularity of the blog or forum and thus attract even more visitors and potential members to the site.

Using the interactive map where user locations are plotted can give webmasters an insight as to what part of the country or the world website members are coming from. This information can be helpful in planning content for the blogs or discussion topics in the forum -- either in catering to what existing members are familiar with based on their geographical location, or adding new content related to a geographical area in a bid to attract more visitors from that particular location.

From a business or commercial point of view, webmasters can put up targeted ads or affiliate links to products which members with the highest geographical concentration would be more inclined to purchase or participate in. In this regard, you can set mash-ups with your interactive maps plotting your users' locations with any available data like viewership concentration of a particular movie, TV series or any other information about a product, service or trend. The possibilities can be endless and the only limit will be your imagination.