Making A Profit

[d a]

I have a concept for a forum i think has some legs. Im sure its also in a niche market and i know its actually not a small market too.

The question i have is ;-

1. how hard is it to build it up and get traction when you first start off . ie what are the top 10 key things to do in order ?

and

2. i heard that many semi successful forums makes only a few hundred dollars or less a month . given it appears to be a lot of work and time, and you have server, marketing and other costs is this a field mainly for hobbyists ? what do you need to get real traffic and income ? ie in the few thousand dollars a month mark ie profitable. !

I know this is a sort of how long is a piece of string question but give it a go !

thanks v much in advance

 

[Mr Lucky]

Im sure its also in a niche market

what do you need to get real traffic and income ?

Not be in a niche market maybe.

The biggest issue is the chicken and egg situation. How do you get the forum found in searches?, You need good SEO. Good SEO needs good content. You don't get good content (on a forum) unless you get found. How do you get the forum found in searches?....

 

[Donny]

All my forums that were the first online of their type (so in a niche) now make money and profit, most been online 10+ years now. All the forums I try to start that there is already one or two leading forums for, never gain traction. It's really hard to overtake 'the number one' forum when they've been running well for ages. Best thing you can hope for is some staff shakeup that upsets the forum and members and they all want to find somewhere else to chat/share knowledge.

Good luck.

 

[Pierce]

Ten things you should do, you won't believe number 6!

1. Hard work
2. Hard work
3. Hard work
4. Hard work
5. Hard work
6. Hard work
7. Hard work
8. Hard work
9. Hard work
10. Hard work

 

[motowebmaster]

The question you need to ask yourself is how much content are you willing to do on your own to get started? I've created successful forums with no posts or content, but that isn't a good strategy. If your idea has value to others, start your site off simple and let the community drive it's evolution.

 

[d a]

The question you need to ask yourself is how much content are you willing to do on your own to get started? I've created successful forums with no posts or content, but that isn't a good strategy. If your idea has value to others, start your site off simple and let the community drive it's evolution.

I can create quite a lot of content

The question is how ?
Setup members and post on forums blog or how ?

Pls elaborate +

 

[d a]

All my forums that were the first online of their type (so in a niche) now make money and profit, most been online 10+ years now. All the forums I try to start that there is already one or two leading forums for, never gain traction. It's really hard to overtake 'the number one' forum when they've been running well for ages. Best thing you can hope for is some staff shakeup that upsets the forum and members and they all want to find somewhere else to chat/share knowledge.

Good luck.

Thanks

What are the main things to do to start ? pls advise so i dont waste a lot of time !

 

[Mr Lucky]

If you have good content I think it may be better to start a regular site or blog rather than kick straight off into a forum. I believe this because IMO the forum format is not great for SEO. Once you have site visitors and some web presence, then start the forum.

That worked well for me anyway. However much of your own content you put into a startup forum, it always looks a bit sad that to me that there only admin posts.

 

[motowebmaster]

One site was more "blog" than forum, a few years later I copied the blog entries into something else when the forum was going strong.

 

[meetdilip]

You need to be in a money spinning niche. You can earn more if you are into a niche where you get business customers than who are there to meet their personal needs.

 

[JonnyRich]

You are best off starting a blog before jumping right in to a forum... Get the visitors on your block then make a post about a forum coming soon. It has worked for me in the past but had to shut it down due to not having enough time to run it.

 

[dvsDave]

Richard Millington over at feverbee.com has great articles about what to do BEFORE you launch a community and how to test it's viability before you invest a ton into it.

 

[Alpha1]

I'm a fan: War On Kittens

More to the point:

In all our decisions – hiring, creating content, managing our communities, and working with our clients – we try to abide by five clear principles.

• Building a community is a scientific profession
  Data and proven science must guide our actions, not guesswork.
• Community Managers should love the topic
  A community should be managed by a passionate, full-time, community professional.
• Communities must benefit the members more than the organization
  Communities must give members more in ego, social, informational, and supportive benefits than it takes.
• Measure the value of communities
  Communities deliver incredible benefits that should be measured metrically.