Are forums really profitable? I mean this is a really busy forum with well above the posts I think I can ever achieve, but are these things a good way to make a living if you have enough of them? Can they actually support a person with good income?
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- Thread starter WiredHappy
- Start date
Any time you have readers, there is a potential for profit. This forum does not monetize the traffic in a way to make the owner as stinking rich as he deserves.. The challenge is to build a forum that gets a lot of traffic, then to monetize it. These are not easy to accomplish..
Yes a forum can be profitable. Or not. It depends on what you do with it.
Yes a forum can be profitable. Or not. It depends on what you do with it.
Thanks for the insight Jake. I was actually partnered on a forum a while ago. It was about complaining. It never got any traffic though. I think the content really has to be something good to develop that traffic. I'd love to see how a forum like this one went about drawing in all the people. It seems like it would take years to do it.
The categories on a forum can be a critical issue. Have you ever seen a forum with more categories than it has members? I've seen a few like that. You do need a certain level of traffic before you start a forum.
Even with traffic, you have to watch about watering down the posts with too many categories. Many forums spread themselves too thin in this regard and the forum, even with a decent number of posts, looks like a ghost town.
Build traffic, start the forum with a few categories, build more traffic, and expand the categories. That would be my approach.
Even with traffic, you have to watch about watering down the posts with too many categories. Many forums spread themselves too thin in this regard and the forum, even with a decent number of posts, looks like a ghost town.
Build traffic, start the forum with a few categories, build more traffic, and expand the categories. That would be my approach.
Learn2b, I have seen a forum like that. It was the one I was working on until I told my friends they needed to join it. They never really posted though. I was thinking of maybe some kind of gossip celebrity forum. So many people are into things like that.
I think first you need to figure out a topic that'll a) get people to join so they can post about it and b) be interesting enough to keep them coming back. It's sort of like finding that perfect keyword to start a niche site.
Okay so are you asking if it’s profitable to be a forum owner or to be an active participant on a forum? Really, there’s a profit potential on both sides. I don’t know that I’d start a forum up as my primary money maker unless I already had a solid list to promote it too or I was building it as a compliment to a paid service/product launch – something that naturally lends itself to an active community. Otherwise you’ll need the time/patience to really participate in it & let it grow. I think success as a forum owner depends on your personality too.