starting a wiki

I'm considering starting a niche wiki that just targets an industry. I'm looking for the pros and cons of starting one.

The purpose of the wiki is to build a site, or let others build it, so that it becomes the go-to site for this industry. Then, throw some ads up and let it draw an income.

Any thoughts?

 

You can monetize most things, so I think the best suggestion I could give would be to pick a Wiki subject that you have a passion for. This will make it easier to stick with the project, and your passion for the subject will likely attract like-minded people, which will result in a thriving community for the Wiki.

Don't expect other people to build the site for you, though - even with a Wiki, or similar community site. You'll need to pump a lot of work into it to make a go of it.

 

I only see 1 con - i.e. time consuming. But that said, it is a great idea and I should think that anything on sex, money and diet should work. You want to invite visitors of all ages and so I would drop sex and instead create a wiki on all things a"celeb" such as all things Elvis or all things Michael Jackson. Just a thought.

 

wiki's work if people need the information up for grabs. If the information is already all over the place, your wiki won't grow easily (or at all). If you pick a specific industry (e.f international internet fiscal legislation whatever), you'll need to invest time in setting up a working group with a bunch of people to start the wiki & promote it. Do not make the mistake of trying to monetize it too fast - concentrate on content. If you have very good content on a specific industry, opportunities will open to monetize after. (wikipedia being the best example)

 

you would need people who are ready to contribute .. at the start its tough but once things are popular ppl will start helping but ull need a boost

 

Stick with the building of the content on a solid search engine and you should eventually have a source of information worth a good amount of money.

 

Wikis are definitely time consuming and require a ton of information. However if you pick your niche right, you just might hit the money. You really need to focus on something useful that people may google (Pokemon wiki, web 2.0 wiki, etc)

 

@Ascendancy

the great thing about the internet is that is Looooong-tail. Why focus on popular words?

 

Thanks for the great input. I'll refine my question a little.

When using wiki software like that of wikimedia as opposed to a CMS like joomla, is there an edge? Or, is the edge with Joomla?

Mostly I'm looking at the wiki from an SEO point of view. The wiki is also set up so that it links internally better than a joomla site might.

I don't expect people to help me build it but would expect some might be interested in helping if it grew to a point where it was considered an authority site.

I agree, being passionate about the subject would help in its continued growth.

My original intent was to build a supersite. Basically write a book and publish it on the internet. Not in book form, but in website form. Then I started wondering about the different ways of publishing it. The wiki crossed my mind and that is the purpose of this post, to find out if a wiki would be a good choice.

 

whats is a niche???

 

Its a word in a dictionary.