Demand for forum and community based sites?

[CGM]

I've been compiling a very long list of available domains, much of which are short and keyword(s) in domain + "talk" or "forum(s)" or "discuss" immediately afterword.

My thinking here, is I would like to start up another website that is entirely community/forum based, and my questions are:

Is it worth it? Essentially, after initial start up and forum begins to get large, as the admin I can begin to appear less and less. Moderators and global moderators will handle most of the work associated with forums (deleting spam, banning members, etc).

Are forums still as popular today, than say, 5, 6, 7 years ago before social networking grew to the size it is today? What sort of community based websites do well?

Marketing. How does one market a forum, when viable alternatives exist? Why does one do well, and others, not so well?

There are atleast two top-level (although not listed as top level/premium domains) domains available that cater directly to two forums or community based websites I would like to start up, and I am doing some research before hand. I ran one before, used to have 1,000's of members, but this was back in 02-03 when I was just a kid. The game has changed now, I would guess.

[SCJeff]

I've been compiling a very long list of available domains, much of which are short and keyword(s) in domain + "talk" or "forum(s)" or "discuss" immediately afterword.

My thinking here, is I would like to start up another website that is entirely community/forum based, and my questions are:

Is it worth it? Essentially, after initial start up and forum begins to get large, as the admin I can begin to appear less and less. Moderators and global moderators will handle most of the work associated with forums (deleting spam, banning members, etc).

Are forums still as popular today, than say, 5, 6, 7 years ago before social networking grew to the size it is today? What sort of community based websites do well?

Marketing. How does one market a forum, when viable alternatives exist? Why does one do well, and others, not so well?

There are atleast two top-level (although not listed as top level/premium domains) domains available that cater directly to two forums or community based websites I would like to start up, and I am doing some research before hand. I ran one before, used to have 1,000's of members, but this was back in 02-03 when I was just a kid. The game has changed now, I would guess.

I would definitely say its worth it. I'm in the middle of building a forum/networking site now. Its a lot of personal work in the beginning like you said, basically having to be the moderator of everything until you can get moderators, but once you do get more help, you can kind of sit back and watch things with out having to do much.

Forums are definitely still popular. We're on one right now aren't we

For marketing you can advertise on similar sites that relate to your forum topic.

[azance]

I'd say it's slowly dying. Ad clicks just aren't what they were many years ago when they were introduced. The only forums really making decent money are those with a subscription type section or a main site marketing some tools of their own relevant to the users on the forum.

I have a forum and it's made no money despite having over 1,000 members and being a year old.