Starting a Forum

[pats4801]

Is it a good idea to start a forum? How can i make money from doing so? What are some drawbacks?

[Encrypted]

Take a look here: http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/for...rum-51081.html

[azance]

I do. It's frustrating if you can't get the member base. I started off getting 20 or so friends from another forum to post actively and slowly they brought in tons of members. Even with all that help right away, it still struggles. It is definitely not the best way to make money online. They can be steady and nice incomes, but to get to that point you need a bit of luck or a ton of hard work.

[mtnjkwe]

When starting a forum you main aim should not be to make money $$$$ FIRST, you PASSION should be your main driving force because before you start earning a decent revenue your member base should be in the thousands and trust me, its hard to reach that even in a niche market.
I am currently working on an accounting forum and I get like 3-4members per week .

So your PASSION------>$$$$$

[rpermana]

low members volume or number of posts may not attract new visitors. It gives inactive impression to them

my advise is to hire a freelancer to sign up and do 1,000 posts. I know they are offering this service.

[Alexishost]

that is true,
the negative is as the starter phase. need more time from you.
The positive is you can get much traffic than ablog to monetize in long run

[Carlos™]

I have 7 years worth of forum marketing.

The trick of most popular forums out there is that they (20 members or 50 members - depending on the community) bring 20 or more members over to your site and post regularly.

But that's just without SEO. If you can refer members without ANY marketing, ANY source of help from your friends, ANY source of help...that's the way to go.

However, with SEO. You can easily bring members to your site if you have [emphasis on] enough content on your site. This is why right now is the best time to buy a vbulletin license, and a vbseo license and let google find your url's. However, like I implied: Content is key. CONTENT. IS. KEY.

Overnight success isn't a guarantee anymore.

SEO is done through vbulletin/vbSEO. Marketing is done through product placement (if you know a forum that has the same niche as yours, let alone a website that is similar to yours), google/yahoo/msn search placements, and finally, ad placement on websites that have the same niche as yours (this costs a lot of money to do).

Marketing also needs its own brand; you can be the marketing's brand, in fact. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

You'd be lucky to find a website that wants to do affiliation to any niche website. Its rare some times. The only ones that want to do them are new entrepreneurs.