Online course for forum owners

[Dakis]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking about creating an online course teaching forum owners (and aspiring owners) how to create successful and profitable communities through planning, building, growing, and monetising their forums.

Would anyone be interested in something like this?

 

[StarArmy]

What are your qualifications? Do you have the clout needed to get people interested in your "guru" knowledge?

 

[Dakis]

I guess that would be part of the course pitch if I went ahead with it, but since you're asking I can try to answer this now in a few words.

I've been working on forums since 2002 and through that time I've worked on more than 60 communities, to help customise them, or market and monetise them. I've got my own forum which I've built that is now running as a separate business, making a significant amount of revenue.

The main reason I was thinking about putting together a course is that I have worked on all aspects of forum building over the years;

1. Planning (finding your niche within the market you're interested in, how to do market research etc)
2. Building & Launching (translate your requirements to functional capabilities and learn how to deploy them)
3. Initial "infant" phase (how to attract the initial memberbase, build content, etc)
4. Growth phase (how to increase participation, and tackle growth challenges)
5. Monetize

So I wanted to see what people would think about something like this, if there would be interest to gather more information for starters.

 

[StarArmy]

It does sound interesting, in that case. Maybe you could include interviews from fellow "big board" owners (TheAdminZone.com has a good community of them) to present multiple perspectives to. You could perhaps make the course in a book format (think textbook) and sell it on Amazon, etc.

 

[tourmeister]

What do you consider a "significant amount of revenue" with regards to a forum?

 

[beerForo]

You would be competing with FeverBee whose courses are very popular and by esteemed community managers.

 

[Dakis]

What do you consider a "significant amount of revenue" with regards to a forum?

An amount that allows the owner to work on the forum as a full time job.

You would be competing with FeverBee whose courses are very popular and by esteemed community managers.

Thanks for pointing this out, I'm only at the research phase so it's good to know what else is out there, and how something new may compliment existing stuff or offer something different. The FeverBee website looks very well put together indeed

 

[beerForo]

Their courses are tailored to owners but also employees at medium-large corporations who are new to CM, dealing with a lot of traffic already and how to manage it, your angle could be for the smaller side of things, owners of small communities that need a jump start, etc.

 

[Dakis]

Yes that was my initial thought as well, given I have no exposure to running corporate communities with hundreds of thousands of dollars budget etc.

My background is more around the smaller communities that are either starting out or are sort of established but have not made that next step in taking it to the next level in terms of revenue, sales, community growth, etc.

I might put together a small survey and post it here to get people's view on what they would and would not be interested in.

 

[beerForo]

It's good research either way. Some smaller CMs also take the courses.

 

[Ludachris]

Is it even realistic these days if you don't have an existing forum with critical mass with as saturated the forum world is and how much social media has eaten into it? I wonder how many new forums have been launched (from scratch) in the last 3 years that have gone on to be big enough to allow the individual who launched it to make a full time income from it. And how would you get those case studies when very few who actually do it would want to share their achievements and encourage more competition? Some would probably prefer you didn't create this course.

 

[Dakis]

I know plenty of people that created new forums the past few years and went on to become very successful. The world is moving a lot faster than it did 20 years ago, and there are new areas/niches being created all the time, mostly due to new technological advancements.

The second part of your message I understand, there are indeed people that wouldn't want to share their achievements, however that is something that is irrelevant to what I am thinking of doing. Best practices are being taught in absolutely every part of the business market around us - and that happens independently of whether there are businesses that are afraid this process will enhance their competition (which it does).

 

[beerForo]

Perhaps you should start a new XF-based community based on community management. Have people post their experiences and have dedicated tutorial writers as well, and monetize that forum. Check out the FeverBee Community. That's where the "free" courses lie, in the discussions in their community. Hope this helps.

 

[Dakis]

Thanks for the suggestion - I think I would probably lean towards creating a course first and see if it actually provides value to people, and if that goes well then perhaps think about expanding that to a wider implementation.

 

[beerForo]

Best of luck, if you are passionate, go for it.

 

[beerForo]

One suggestion is, start is out as a Patreon page.

 

[Dakis]

I've seen patreon before, I thought it was for music/art creators?

 

[beerForo]

It's for all artists and content creators. If people want to support you and have you release more tutorials, it would be a good platform.

 

[Dakis]

Interesting, thanks I will have a look - the way I was thinking of doing it is start with a closed group of 8-10 people, and see how that goes, and if I get good feedback then release it out.

 

[beerForo]

Think of Patreon as a crowdsourcing site where, instead of funding one campaign, people are funding/supporting your ongoing ambitions, and granted access.

Even some forums software have plug-ins for Patreon donations.