Forum site

Hi all,
I am considering launching a forum. I have another person who is not interested in anything but running the forum. The forum content is his passion, not mine. He is an avid forum goer in his subject area and he believes that there is a niche area in that subject area that would suit.
I work in a technical area and have been looking at what I can do in terms of setting up an online business of some sort.

So I thought that I might set up a forum in the following way,

- I would pay for all expenses the domain name and hosting and handle all the technical side of things. In effect the forum would be my business
- He would run it, in terms of being the moderator etc

My question is,
- What are the revenue generators for a forum?
- What sort of challenges might I be facing, I can see (subscribers) as being the biggest
- Is there money in it?
- Any comments or opinions on the realities on running a forum?
- Are there any hidden costs with regards to running a forum

Any comments welcome,
Thanks

 

Be sure to choose the best software for a start in case it takes off, you don't want server fees to cost more than the forum brings in, as can happen if you run it on inefficient software - and you never want to switch later! You may even want to have it hosted, e.g. via invisionpower's "we host for you" system which is reasonably priced. I have found that my own forums really don't pay well via AdSense despite massive viewership, but that might just be us. I've ended up selling sponsorships instead.

 

Hi Davert,
Thanks. What do you mean you are selling sponsorship? any theories on why the forum is not doing well with AdSense. Have you tried affiliate banners etc

Coffee

 

I don't know if the issues about switching later are that bad. There are lots of upgrade avenues. It might be a little painful, but it all depends on what you need, what kind of functionality you need etc etc. If you have some money allocated to this project then you might look at VBulletin, otherwise there are several free alternatives that all can be upgraded to something like VBulletin later on.

As for if it is profitable depends on a lot of things. How much appeal does the topic have? What kind of angle can you take on the topic? Is it a fairly broad topic with lots of various areas (ie think of home entertainment and a site like AVS Forums, they have a fairly broad appeal and a wide range of topics.). If you are just putting up a site for fans of the potato peeler 2000, you are going to be much more limited.

Sponsorships are always a route to go, find someone in the industry who makes products for the particular segment and see if they want to sponsor the site. I agree that adsense is probably not going to be the best source of revenue for forums, but it really depends on what you are trying to do. Lots of way to monetize.

Again it comes down to how broad your topic is, and how competitive it is. If it is a broad topic but with a lot of other established resources, than it is going to be harder to get regular users built up. I would do some due diligence on the topic and find out how many forums exist on the topic, and then visit them and see how active they are.

 

In my opinoin, vBulletin is the best and only way to go if you are serious about this forum. It is a little costly up front but the features and support are amazing.

You will also probably want to purchase a skin/theme for the forum other than the default that comes with it. You really should not have too many other expenses besides the space and bandwidth.

Test links, and banner ads are your best bet for advertising. I have found not much benefit using Adsense, therefore I am in the process of switching over to some text links and a banner ad in the header of my forum.

The more traffic = the more income.

 

Typically Adsense doesn't pay real well because people tend to ignore the ads for forums. With a forum evrything is always in the same place. Most people don't tend to look at the very buttom of the forum or to the the sides.

The CTR are lower just because people are mainly there to read and post and are kind of blinded to the ads.

 

Hi all,
Thank you for all your replies. I still need to look a little further into it, however, from my research I think I’m finding that forums are more an interest thing as apposed to a business. What I mean is that since my goal is to set up an online business my time may be best spent on something that has a higher potential of making money.

Thanks again,

Coffee

 

Forums can make money. With anything online the key is getting a lot of visitors.

You can get your own advertisers and charge monthly banner fees or charge based on impression.

You can, also, charge members for a premium service such as if they pay $X then they get more privileges like custom user title, access to members only sections of the forum, large avatar, bigger signature, more PMs, etc.

 

Try attracting customers before throwing them into a wash of money-grabbing schemes. Potential visiters will be put off by a site overcome with adverts and paid-for benefits. As ever, the trick is to attract a user base, then slowly develop into making money