My problem with forums

[Roman Triller]

Hi!

I am a passionate vaper (that's the only topic I could talk about for hours), so I play with the idea of opening a local austrian vaping forum. But then again I ask myself why people should register in my forum when there're many other better visited forums in german language around. In addition, there are even already a few Austrian facebook groups that deal with vaping. So what are the benefits in a country specific forum. I know that forums take a lot of time and it's also a question of money . A forum is not worth it if there is simply no longer any demand for a special topic, and vaping isn't a niche anymore like a few years ago. I don't wanna spend a lot of money and put all my free time into a project that doesn't even get going and failed again after a few months. That would hurt a lot to be honest and in addition, I've the feeling that people are no longer interested in new empty forums anyway. Sure, I could create fake accounts to pretend other people were writing, but would it make things look different?

So what do you think?

 

[Joe Kuhn]

Sounds like you've decided. I do have experience at failing. My first attempt was on the theme of Mindful Kindness. Turns out people don't want to talk about it on a personal level, so we closed after a year of trying.

My next niche is a tech forum on translating old FoxPro compter programs to C# (C-Sharp). Since I do this at work, I use the forum in my job. If it helps somebody else, fine. If not, then it's my new hobby. A little internet experience never hurts. I've found my own reasons for doing it. What are yours?

My cost is about $20 per month. Host is GoDaddy.

 

[duderuud]

Do you think you could fill that niche? Are there good alternatives? And think about rules and regulations too. Not only for vaping but that can also work in your advantage because rules and regulations are country specific.

Facebook is not an alternative if you ask me. Information is way too fluid. A good forum can be used as a database for information, how to's etc.

 

[Dad.]

To me, forums remain the most powerful when speaking to a very specific group. Specific locale, language, culture, even a super specific breed or type of car or anything like that. People want to meet people who are likeminded and are going through similar situations (with respect to your niche at least). As long as you have this, there really is no need to concern yourself with "similar" forums. Obviously if its the exact same, consider branching out into something more unique.

Gaming forums are dime a dozen these days, but I've still seen some do quite well by offering almost what clans used to back in the day. Specific product forums are very helpful as well as you can get super super detailed and helpful responses than a catch all.

I know nothing of vaping, but idk, perhaps an epic vape rip video contest to earn $5 amazon gift card? Reviews for local spots? Its the little things that'll get people interested Terrible ideas here but you know, just think of stuff like this. If you're limiting yourself to "Austrian vaping forum" yeah idk. Don't overgenericize and don't add too many forums. Heck even just a simple Intro forum, general discussion, and site announcements is really all you need to get started. Get some friends, and go from there. New forums aren't dead since there will always be small niche communities. And getting together to share never dies.

 

[sbj]

Are you ready to do the heavy-lifting a.k.a. content creation?

These days it is not enough to offer a place for discussion when you start new. People won't even know your place. Where do you expect the users come from?

If you can provide articles about your niche, maybe have a database of all the different vapers, and so on, then this gives Google a reason to index you, and people may land on your website and find valuable information.

Have 2-3 categories for discussion will not do anything for anyone. You need to provide something.