Is it realistic to set-up a new forum and work full time?

[Borgia]

Hi

As my title gives away. I want to set-up a new forum while I work full-time. And I would be grateful for views on how possible that is. People say that they are on their forums all the time, and that they mostly do not pay - for me that is not a workable combination.

Thank you,

David

 

[Dean]

Hi

As my title gives away. I want to set-up a new forum while I work full-time. And I would be grateful for views on how possible that is. People say that they are on their forums all the time, and that they mostly do not pay - for me that is not a workable combination.

Thank you,

David

Here is an idea, setup a password protected forum called BorgiasFamily.com where your family can trade personal pictures, keep up with who will be going to family events, etc. That way you could learn all about the basics and not need to worry about having an uncontrolled situation.

maybe?

 

[Jethro]

Thank you, it is a very sensible suggestion. I am just not sure whether my circumstances at work will last longer then a year (and I hope not to be honest) so in a year I will hopefully have progressed my career and will have that to focus on.

Now if I have a succesful forum then I will keep working on it.

If I do not, either because I have tried out a less good idea, or becuase my current idea does not work. Well, I tried but I doubt that I will have the time to set-up another.

B

To be frank the majority of forums fail or don't get passed a few hundred posters using it.

Like any web site you need to build solidly and get a following happening. If you have an idea check who already has a site up covering either what you plan or something similar (your direct competitors). Forums have taken a beating recently, I'm blaming community based software, but there's still new ones being established on a daily basis that will be successful.

Content, content, and then more content. A lot of highly successful "forum" sites added forums to their pre-existing web presence as demand grew.

Good luck hope it works out for ya.

 

[GofD]

I think it really depends on your niche and how well you play it. We started out 5 years ago and although our forum membership doubled every quarter for almost three years (starting at 125 at the end of the first quarter, until we reached ~125,000 members), AND we're in a high-paying niche, it took a LONG time to get to the point where we could afford to make a living at it. Granted, we're a family of four but we live in an area that is relatively low cost of living and we don't have a high-flying lifestyle.

It's a lot of work to get it off the ground and even if you do, if you fail to choose a niche that A. pays well or B. you have a real (and enduring) PASSION for, chances are slim that you're going to make it. Some very experienced forum owners that I know (who do make a living, and a GOOD one) won't start a community from scratch anymore - they say buy an established one to kick start your business.

Good luck whatever you decide!

 

[Walter]

I guess I just didn't realize the type of crowd I was addressing here.

Obviously you are out of arguments... 

 

[HannahP]

There are times when there is a point to made by arguing, and times when there is not. Here in America - home of rock and roll, delicious hamburgers and beautiful women - we call it "cutting your losses."

 

[EQnoble]

just remember expect the worst hope for the best, if you keep that in mind you wont set yourself up for a giant loss as if you plan for the worst you minimize loss. Like someone said earlier in this thread, try a private forum for friends and family and see how that works for you and see if you can sit there for hours on end playing with things and moderating posted materials. If from there you are still gung-ho about it then the next logical place to go is a re-approach of your site with business in mind.
To jump right in from point-zero and think you will not be putting money in out of your pocket would be setting yourself up for disappointment. Maybe finding a few people that need hosting as well and getting them to put their money together so you can create multiple hosting packages (through vps hosting which you can get relatively cheap in comparison to a dedicated server) could lower your overhead drastically and give you a low priced way to learn away. This is what I did.

 

[MrBrian]

If there's a business case for something then by definition its going to be busy enough to support itself, so its not going to be some crap half effort like a lot of them.

I personally don't like upstart stuff where there's not a need for it, but these die anyway so no biggie. Either that or the first hack attempt / legal letter / issue which can only be solved with a bit of sense leads to it being closed.

 

[Elizabeth]

I think it really depends on your niche and how well you play it. We started out 5 years ago and although our forum membership doubled every quarter for almost three years (starting at 125 at the end of the first quarter, until we reached ~125,000 members), AND we're in a high-paying niche, it took a LONG time to get to the point where we could afford to make a living at it. Granted, we're a family of four but we live in an area that is relatively low cost of living and we don't have a high-flying lifestyle.

It's a lot of work to get it off the ground and even if you do, if you fail to choose a niche that A. pays well or B. you have a real (and enduring) PASSION for, chances are slim that you're going to make it. Some very experienced forum owners that I know (who do make a living, and a GOOD one) won't start a community from scratch anymore - they say buy an established one to kick start your business.

Good luck whatever you decide!

That's true.

I do know of a couple but most have been around for over a decade. Two of the ones I know, one started in 1998, the company that owns it is headquarted in CA and it is privately owned. By 2008 they had over 600,000 members. But those are the only stats I know on that one. And the software they use is a bit odd. (amos is the basis of it) The other is also privately owned, is a vb forum that started in 1996, these are the stats: Threads: 882,852, Posts: 7,418,333, Members: 558,722 as of right now.  Both started the same way, as a hobby that exploded. And BOTH are in a niche that has served them well. Liz

 

[Carlos]

There are times when there is a point to made by arguing, and times when there is not. Here in America - home of rock and roll, delicious hamburgers and beautiful women - we call it "cutting your losses."

Just admit that you were out of arguments.

But otherwise, your comment about "addressing" the wrong crowd seems insulting - I know I'm alone in this, but that's what I think.

 

[cedivad]

Can I say mine? I think Carlos here is just a bit depressed. Go out and enjoy a bit!!
It wants just to be a friendly suggestion =)

 

[Jethro]

I think it really depends on your niche and how well you play it. We started out 5 years ago and although our forum membership doubled every quarter for almost three years (starting at 125 at the end of the first quarter, until we reached ~125,000 members), AND we're in a high-paying niche, it took a LONG time to get to the point where we could afford to make a living at it. Granted, we're a family of four but we live in an area that is relatively low cost of living and we don't have a high-flying lifestyle.

It's a lot of work to get it off the ground and even if you do, if you fail to choose a niche that A. pays well or B. you have a real (and enduring) PASSION for, chances are slim that you're going to make it. Some very experienced forum owners that I know (who do make a living, and a GOOD one) won't start a community from scratch anymore - they say buy an established one to kick start your business.

Good luck whatever you decide!

I tend to think buying an established community doesn't always work, there's some big examples of that going peared shaped (vbforums.com). As someone said previously members of forum are not big on change and if you screw around with a forum's current mode, must be a better world, then you risk irritating the members. Some will be vocal about that a lot more will simply disappear.

Not all forums will be established to make a $ and not all forums are aiming at 1000s of members. I know a few that have been around for a very long time that still require hands in pockets each month and that have under 100 active members, but which the Admins are real pleased with. If new to running forums, and hell yeah there's a learning curve, put up one for a hobby and see how you go. In many ways a forum can be a "labour of love", even a highly success $ one needs TLC about every single day on a regular basis.

 

[Carlos]

Can I say mine? I think Carlos here is just a bit depressed. Go out and enjoy a bit!!
It wants just to be a friendly suggestion =)

I do.

And I'm not depressed.

I tend to think buying an established community doesn't always work, there's some big examples of that going peared shaped (vbforums.com). As someone said previously members of forum are not big on change and if you screw around with a forum's current mode, must be a better world, then you risk irritating the members. Some will be vocal about that a lot more will simply disappear.

Well, the problem with many of those "change of owners" is that they change too quickly.

The new owners have to be mindful about how they handle it. For example when the new owners bought www.nintendonow.com the transition was smoother - mostly because the new owners posted there for a long time before the switch of ownership. Once they changed ownerships, they moved the forum database into the centralized gaming network conglomerate. There was a bit of revolt, a minuscule one. So, it wasn't as hard as many of those buyouts.

Now, when the same conglomerate bought out www.everythinghalo.com there was a backlash. Because we went in too quickly. To our credit, we took it carefully because we learnt mistakes from the buyout of an xbox site. We gave them our case, and such, I gave them a suggestion; "go ahead, run the site yourself, then." A few months later, Everything calmed down. A few left, but some remained there, and I was the one who saved the day by clearing up the air. Everyone was in a sigh of relief.

 

[MrBrian]

I'm getting the mental image of a spoiled middle school aged child throwing a fit....

 

[feldon30]

 

[DXGeneration]

If I owned 10 big-boards, then i'd definatly be considering it because of

a) the time it would take to manage and keep
b) the amount of money that could be made

But I would always like to have some other way of making cash incase things fell through

 

[motowebmaster]

When I owned a very large motorcycle community, the amount of money it made annually may have been considered sufficient to replace most professional full-time careers. I never looked at it as a replacement for a career, probably because of what I do in my normal life, but if it makes one happy then why not?