How to build a great forum?

[Robby]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering what it takes to build a great forum?
When you start from scratch, do you begin with a couple of forums or immediatly 20?
How do you go get subcribers?
How fast can it go when yoy put a significant amount of time in it?
Who has done it before?
Can you make a living from a forum and how long would it take?(is english as a language neccesary?)

 

[Sadik B]

Lol... ,

In a nutshell...


I was wondering what it takes to build a great forum?

Knowledge and expertise about a specific niche and being tech savvy enough to create a forum for it. Good network of people in that specific niche who would be willing to join the forum / or money to advertise to people interested in that niche.

When you start from scratch, do you begin with a couple of forums or immediatly 20?

Begin with consolidated categories and expand as need arises.

How do you go get subcribers?

If your forum has knowledgeable members discussing on interesting topics within your chosen niche, visitors will be impressed, join and subscribe.

How fast can it go when yoy put a significant amount of time in it?

Depends on niche, marketing and admin's abilities. Anywhere from one month to one year to get to a moderately busy site.

Who has done it before?

Plenty have. As a perfect example to the answer to your first question, look up milepoint.com

Can you make a living from a forum and how long would it take?(is english as a language neccesary?)

Yes, I do as do many others. English, not necessarily so, if your chosen niche would have advertisers and/or paying audience in that language.

 

[Lisa]

Ingredients:-

1 person mad enough to want to run a forum
1 decent piece of forum software
1 decent webhost

Method:-

1. Switch freetime to infinity and install software onto hosting.
2. Insert mad person into the ACP and build your forum layout.
3. Add custom style.
4. Mix in lots of content.
5. Add advertising, bringing in new people.
6. Rinse and repeat points 5 and 6 eternally!


Or in other words - dedication and passion

 

[steven s]

I think one has to define what a great forum is.

Do you consider a great forum lots of members and posts or a niche forum with a genuine community?

And I disagree, a custom style has nothing to do with making a forum great.

 

[Lisa]

heh heh my recipe was me being silly.. my real response was after the "in other words" part

 

[mrGTB]

One word - LUCK, you'll need plenty of it.

 

[Robby]

Is it really possible in one or two years?

 

[Lisa]

It really depends on what you mean by great. My forum has been online 2 years this coming January. We're not massive, but we tick over quite nicely.

 

[CTXMedia]

Commitment.

 

[mrGTB]

Is it really possible in one or two years?

Never say never - it's possible for sure. Just keep in mind that no matter what niche you decide to cover, there will already be many other forums covering the same thing (some well established ones). If your new to running a forum you will find out for yourself it's not easy soon enough, unless your very lucky.

They require a lot of hard work adding content, too many people set forums up and think the members will come rolling in doing all the content adding for them. I wish that was the case!

 

[dutchbb]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering what it takes to build a great forum?
Interest, passion, perseverance.
When you start from scratch, do you begin with a couple of forums or immediatly 20?
IMHO, as little as possible, but the important ones should be there from the start.
How do you go get subcribers?
Posting on other forums/sites, telling friends, posting great content, ...
How fast can it go when yoy put a significant amount of time in it?
Depends on the forum subject and so many other factors... Impossible to give a number really. But you should see progress in a few months, otherwise you need to do things differently.
Can you make a living from a forum and how long would it take?(is english as a language neccesary?)
It's possible, but after 10 years I still need to do other work. It helps if you can sell something on your site of course. You needs a lot of visitors to live from advertisements alone. The language is an advantage for growth, but not essential.

Hope this helps.

 

[Robby]

Hope this helps.

Yes it really does but won't it grow faster if you have also a daily updated blog on your site. When you start selling stuff on a significant scale you must have a company, no?

 

[mrGTB]

It's not easy keeping both a Blog and Forum updated with content. Hard enough adding content on a forum alone, without a Blog thrown in the mix requiring more detailed stuff like Articles added.

 

[jonsidneyb]

Or you can have 0 clue to what you are doing. Have a dozen people say your forum will never grow. Make a ton of mistakes and people just start showing up. Don't do any marketing, dont have facebook or twitter.

Thats how I did it at least.

I don't know if there is any logic to growing a forum.

 

[-GR-]

Is it really possible in one or two years?

It is possible, especially if you have a friendly community that is resourceful. We are approaching our 2nd anniversary and are at 110,000 posts. We should hit 130,000 at least by the 2nd bday. Takes a lot of work.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Is it really possible in one or two years?

Anything is possible. Will it be reality? Tell us in a year or two!

 

[jonsidneyb]

Mine started on 03-28-2006

We are not large but not small either. This is where we are at now.
Threads
52,905
Posts
663,045
Members
25,485

You have something I didn't utilize. You have other forum owners to advise you. I kind plodded along blindly not knowing what I am doing. I still don't know what I am doing.

 

[Disrelation]

I think one has to define what a great forum is.

Do you consider a great forum lots of members and posts or a niche forum with a genuine community?

And I disagree, a custom style has nothing to do with making a forum great.

You would be surprised how much a good custom style plays into the success of your forum. It can make your road to success very long and hard.

 

[steven s]

You would be surprised how much a good custom style plays into the success of your forum. It can make your road to success very long and hard.

You are contradicting yourself or I'm just not following.
Are you saying if you don't have a good custom style, the road to success is very long and hard?
Content is king. You can't polish a turd.

Still, I think one needs to define what a great forum is.

 

[CTXMedia]

You can't polish a turd.

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