Robby
Well-known member
Do you make a living from your forum or is it just a hobby.
It looks like a great site and cool blog by the way.
How do you make your forum big?
- Thread starter danielwerner
- Start date
It looks like a great site and cool blog by the way.
TheBigK
Well-known member
Do you make a living from your forum or is it just a hobby.
It looks like a great site and cool blog by the way.
Thank you for the good words. I left my job to run the site full time several years ago and now building a business around it
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Robby
Well-known member
Wauw great, very inspiring.Thank you for the good words. I left my job to run the site full time several years ago and now building a business around it
digitalpoint
Well-known member
Growing a forum is no different than any other website... Give users something unique that they want that they can't get anywhere else. For us that was the stuff outside the forum. Our forum was started in part because we needed a support venue for our tools.
Just learn the basic, for daily maintenance.
AzzidReign
Well-known member
Unique content, being active (and not just on your own site), and being friendly (which most owners are not to their members). I had a following before I created my own site bc I was active on many others. It's quite a long story but when I created my website, I had a lot of people register right away and were helping out from the start. It helped that my site was the only site that offered many things back then (there was another site but charged users $20 to register and our guides were much easier to follow and they stole most of our content - they lasted less than a year lol).
Stuart Wright
Well-known member
As people have said, it helps if you are filling a niche that nobody else has thought to fill. Which is harder and harder as time goes on.
There is very little point in starting a forum on a topic which is already the focus of other forums.
When we started, AVSForum in America was already huge. But we served people in the UK, so we had something unique.
There isn't at the moment, for example, a decent UK swimming pool community. That's no doubt because very few people in the UK have swimming pools. But it means that anyone looking for UK swimming pool advice have to ask at foreign websites.
Agree that you should choose a topic about which you are knowledgeable and have a passion.
If people come to your site for help, they need to know they will get it. Which, until you are enough members to answer the questions for you, means you need to do your best to help people yourself.
Also write articles which will act as a useful resource for people interested in your chosen topic.
If you can recruit some enthusiastic, knowledgeable volunteers to help you, then that would be a good asset.
At the same time if there is no scope for advertising on the topic you choose then you'll struggle to fund your site as it grows. The cost of your wages, servers, organising merchandise, member meet-ups and maybe freelance writers can make the cost of your site build, and you will need to fund what will become a business.
If your topic is, say, train spotting, then there is not much scope for advertising. Notebooks. Maps. Macs.
Whereas with us, we have everything which comes under the umberella of home consumer electronics and home entertainment, so there is miles of scope for advertisers.
Always make your site welcoming to new people. Discourage cliquey behaviour, swearing and ensure members are always respectful.
I disagree to an extent about copying other websites. I think it helps to cherry pick the best elements of other websites. But that applies more to non-forum elements since, aside from a unique design, the functionality of the Xenforo forum will be pretty standard. And that's not a bad thing. Just like McDonalds decorate all their restaurants the same so they feel familiar to customers whichever city they are in, retaining some element of the Xenforo feel will make people feel confident about using your forum. This will apply more as Xenforo continues to earn more market share from vBulletin.
Try to partner with an organisation who have a resource but no corresponding community. An existing website, maybe, or even a magazine if you can find one without a website community already.
Knowing PHP, MySQL, CSS and Javascript helps.
Work hard. I spent all of my spare time and had no holidays for four years before AVForums attained 'critical mass'.
There is very little point in starting a forum on a topic which is already the focus of other forums.
When we started, AVSForum in America was already huge. But we served people in the UK, so we had something unique.
There isn't at the moment, for example, a decent UK swimming pool community. That's no doubt because very few people in the UK have swimming pools. But it means that anyone looking for UK swimming pool advice have to ask at foreign websites.
Agree that you should choose a topic about which you are knowledgeable and have a passion.
If people come to your site for help, they need to know they will get it. Which, until you are enough members to answer the questions for you, means you need to do your best to help people yourself.
Also write articles which will act as a useful resource for people interested in your chosen topic.
If you can recruit some enthusiastic, knowledgeable volunteers to help you, then that would be a good asset.
At the same time if there is no scope for advertising on the topic you choose then you'll struggle to fund your site as it grows. The cost of your wages, servers, organising merchandise, member meet-ups and maybe freelance writers can make the cost of your site build, and you will need to fund what will become a business.
If your topic is, say, train spotting, then there is not much scope for advertising. Notebooks. Maps. Macs.
Whereas with us, we have everything which comes under the umberella of home consumer electronics and home entertainment, so there is miles of scope for advertisers.
Always make your site welcoming to new people. Discourage cliquey behaviour, swearing and ensure members are always respectful.
I disagree to an extent about copying other websites. I think it helps to cherry pick the best elements of other websites. But that applies more to non-forum elements since, aside from a unique design, the functionality of the Xenforo forum will be pretty standard. And that's not a bad thing. Just like McDonalds decorate all their restaurants the same so they feel familiar to customers whichever city they are in, retaining some element of the Xenforo feel will make people feel confident about using your forum. This will apply more as Xenforo continues to earn more market share from vBulletin.
Try to partner with an organisation who have a resource but no corresponding community. An existing website, maybe, or even a magazine if you can find one without a website community already.
Knowing PHP, MySQL, CSS and Javascript helps.
Work hard. I spent all of my spare time and had no holidays for four years before AVForums attained 'critical mass'.
Amaury
Well-known member
digitalpoint
Well-known member
Unique content that people want and that they can't get elsewhere (content doesn't necessarily mean an article). As an example, for us, unique content is more the tools, marketplace and advertising platform we built.
Solve a problem that your users have and they will keep coming back. Again, applies to any site, not just a forum.
FredC
Well-known member
Don't be afraid to learn from your mistakes.. Don't make the same mistakes over and over.. If you have a competitor don't copy them, figure out what weaknesses they have and exploit them by going a different route.. In my case my competition let the core group run the asylum they treated new members with heavy disdain, and attacked any new comer with a slightly different opinion.. So in creating my forum we used that information to our advantage word got out and the newcomers ran from that site to mine.. Word got out and today i run the number one privately owned forum in my niche... It's funny but today my largest competitor is my number one referrer outside of google.. However word of mouth will only get you so far good high quality content will get you listed in search engines, and that's the real meat and potatoes..
AzzidReign
Well-known member
Fixed.
tommydamic68
Well-known member
Although I have a small site, 6000+ members 250,000+ posts It is a unique niche as some have mentioned above but the only one of its kind. I started it because of the love of what the forum was about (cats, well, a specific breed of cat) and there was very little to no information available on the net. I was lucky to get a few members in the beginning knowledgable to get the content portion going and then grew it from there.
A lot of my members were "carefully" solicited through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. I do have a 4000 plus following on Facebook and Instagram has also taken off for me with over 3500 followers. I try to stay fresh in the community of my niche. As an owner/ admin - I am involved daily in mainly at this point, maintaining the site, greeting new comers, (I greet every new comer if they post in the "introductions" forum personally. Have since day one all the way back to 2009 when I started the community.) I also have two non - paid moderators (long time members) who sort of help out here and there, nothing like moderators here on Xenforo.
I hope this helps any forum owners looking to build their community. So this was leading to a question I have for experience forum owners that hopefully can help me in some decisions I was thinking of making recently.
Here goes -
I have dealt with internet "bullies" over the years as well as "free loaders" becoming members, slightly active on the site- only to sell lets say, animal clothing, art or even kitten or cats. I do not allow breeders to sell or advertise cats since day one, its an ugly world out there in the breeding industry and found it best to keep off the site, however there are some popular cat clothes dealers (3 big ones) that have either tried to sneak it on the site, or ride my coat tails and follower on social sites to try and get their name and product out there but just will not advertise for whatever reason, never even asking the cost. I do have the biggest following in my niche of cat breed.
Also - I sell forum space (The seller has their very own forum) that they can freely advertise and sell - talk about their products and services for a monthly fee. I have always had about 2-3 sellers consistently on the site for years.
The question I have is if I allowed all sellers of clothes, art, etc - anything to do with my niche for "free" (but managed, lets say in a specific section of The site) on the site, in my opinion would get a much larger influx of members an visitors to the community. So there it is - should I allow a free for all with products? Also - I allow no linking to sites like Etsy or other product sites which I believe also hurts my site a bit because its less sharing of useful products amongst members or even interesting products directly reflecting my niche, plus it protects the paying advertisiers and their products. Thoughts? Suggestions? Bear in mind I would lose my $25 -$50 bucks a month if I allow free advertising of products.
Thanks for any input in advance.
A lot of my members were "carefully" solicited through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. I do have a 4000 plus following on Facebook and Instagram has also taken off for me with over 3500 followers. I try to stay fresh in the community of my niche. As an owner/ admin - I am involved daily in mainly at this point, maintaining the site, greeting new comers, (I greet every new comer if they post in the "introductions" forum personally. Have since day one all the way back to 2009 when I started the community.) I also have two non - paid moderators (long time members) who sort of help out here and there, nothing like moderators here on Xenforo.
I hope this helps any forum owners looking to build their community. So this was leading to a question I have for experience forum owners that hopefully can help me in some decisions I was thinking of making recently.
Here goes -
I have dealt with internet "bullies" over the years as well as "free loaders" becoming members, slightly active on the site- only to sell lets say, animal clothing, art or even kitten or cats. I do not allow breeders to sell or advertise cats since day one, its an ugly world out there in the breeding industry and found it best to keep off the site, however there are some popular cat clothes dealers (3 big ones) that have either tried to sneak it on the site, or ride my coat tails and follower on social sites to try and get their name and product out there but just will not advertise for whatever reason, never even asking the cost. I do have the biggest following in my niche of cat breed.
Also - I sell forum space (The seller has their very own forum) that they can freely advertise and sell - talk about their products and services for a monthly fee. I have always had about 2-3 sellers consistently on the site for years.
The question I have is if I allowed all sellers of clothes, art, etc - anything to do with my niche for "free" (but managed, lets say in a specific section of The site) on the site, in my opinion would get a much larger influx of members an visitors to the community. So there it is - should I allow a free for all with products? Also - I allow no linking to sites like Etsy or other product sites which I believe also hurts my site a bit because its less sharing of useful products amongst members or even interesting products directly reflecting my niche, plus it protects the paying advertisiers and their products. Thoughts? Suggestions? Bear in mind I would lose my $25 -$50 bucks a month if I allow free advertising of products.
Thanks for any input in advance.
Last edited:
daviden
Active member
Content may be king but context is KING KONG.
My site has grown over 300k posts in less than 1.5 year. We discuss watches and let some OT-discussions take place. The OT-discussions is the "glue" that keeps the main focus all together, it keeps people happy.
Also, we're (the three guys running it) not greedy. We've turned down a lot of companies wanting to advertise, because we only want companies that really fit our profile. Therefore not running Adwords either.
We try to run a lot of contests with prices from our sponsors, not keeping them to ourselves that we could have done. This behavior is contagious on the members, we've got people running their own small contests when they reach 1000 posts and so on. We've got a really good mood and feeling on the page, everybody's welcome.
My advice is ...don't be too serious and greedy in the beginning. And yeah, context is king kong.
My site has grown over 300k posts in less than 1.5 year. We discuss watches and let some OT-discussions take place. The OT-discussions is the "glue" that keeps the main focus all together, it keeps people happy.
Also, we're (the three guys running it) not greedy. We've turned down a lot of companies wanting to advertise, because we only want companies that really fit our profile. Therefore not running Adwords either.
We try to run a lot of contests with prices from our sponsors, not keeping them to ourselves that we could have done. This behavior is contagious on the members, we've got people running their own small contests when they reach 1000 posts and so on. We've got a really good mood and feeling on the page, everybody's welcome.
My advice is ...don't be too serious and greedy in the beginning. And yeah, context is king kong.
