Forums???

[coolant113]

Hey i am looking to possibly start up a forum/ news site about Apple Computer or anything really to do with computers or politics or maybe even the economy or something like that.. i was looking to everybody on here for some ideas... I was also wondering if you can make any money off of this.?? How hard is it to keep up?? etc.. thank you in advance i am extremely anxious to hearing everybody's thoughts thanks

[CycloneArts]

You can try starting a social community using the Ning platform. You can make money from affiliate products. Depending on how big the community gets you might need some people to help manage it.

[Aletheides]

Register a domain, get hosting, and download PHPBB... http://www.tylercruz.com/ makes a good amount of money off of forums.

[kinkarso]

I personally would not recommend you starting a web forum, if your focus and goal is to make money with it. Web forums are a huge source of revenue, but generally speaking, you won't be able to make it to that point unless you are truly passionate about the topic of your forum, and is willing to invest hours/day into it. Then, you might be looking at some nice residual income after some time (at least a year).

But anyways, that's just my opinion . Good luck!

Thank you,
Donny

[CIsaac]

I personally would not recommend you starting a web forum, if your focus and goal is to make money with it. Web forums are a huge source of revenue, but generally speaking, you won't be able to make it to that point unless you are truly passionate about the topic of your forum, and is willing to invest hours/day into it. Then, you might be looking at some nice residual income after some time (at least a year).

Ditto. I had a client who started a renowned forum by simply starting it as a hobby/passion for the first 2 years.

____________
IBS - Isaac Business Services

[Aletheides]

I would suggest building a content website that gets relevant traffic to it first. You can point these visitors to your forum and get new signups, as well as profit off the traffic.

[cocaine]

Forums not worth the hassle, i own a business/entrepreneur forum similar to this one, and it has taken me 2 years to get to Threads: 1,251, Posts: 4,730, Members: 5,344

and the members (most are spam bots, will need to delete them soon)

[meaghannf]

I agree with what's been said before with a bit of an exception - if you really want to build content and a returning user base, you might be able to get away with adding a forum that can develop more quickly. Make something on your site that people want to view anyway, and then the forum is just an added bonus. Good luck!