exoitXboard - Exotic Car Forum/Blog/News Portal/Resource Site...

As most of you know I run a pretty large forum Exotic Car News (2,4xx members) and I am looking to expanding it; however, I am on the verge of selling it. It is not pulling in any money, except what a few small sponsors are paying me monthly. I had originally intended it to be only a forum -- this was two years ago when I knew very little about SEM/SEO and programming. As of recently I had been thinking about making it a news site similar to www.leftlanenews.com, but after learning that Left lane is part of a huge media group with over 60 writers updating it daily the idea was kind of squashed. I just don't know what to do with it anymore. There are a few other forums in my niche (exotic cars) but they are all brand specific -- and they have been around longer. They offer nothing that I don't already offer. In fact I offer more. I had a few threads with polls asking our members what they think would improve the site. I got pretty lame answers: more forum catagories, t-shirts, plate frame, aka nothing that would help the site expand.

I was thinking contests, but there is not really anything that my users couldn't afford that I could offer. Also, I am leaning towards something more along the lines of a portal (news, events, top members, featured rides...etc) so a contest would not really appeal to that.[/COLOR]

Any tips and suggestions would be appreciated. Even constructive criticism.

 

i can gaurantee you that leftlane news does have not 60 writers working on it. they push content out at the same rate as autoblog and most of their stories are duplicate.

autoblog has 8 writers, but only 4 really contribute a lot.

operating one of these sites only really requires time. it's not hard in any other way.

in the case of your site, it's tough to monetize. car forums are usually model specific and that draws the tightest community.

model specific forums are also loads easier to monetize. for example, honda-tech attracts a ton of aftermarket honda tuners and shops. those tuners pay a lot to show ads to a targetted group of people. unfortunately though, i'm drawing a blank for your site.

the automotive niche is wide, i've tried exploring every corner and have found that mfa car pages are most successful for me. good luck.

 

I like the layout. However, it takes me time to load the pages

 

Left Lane is apart of the Federated Media Publishing Group. I exaggerated with 60 editors, but they have a few. I guess I could do it to. Maybe I can shift the sites focus to a luxury item blog/news/and forum portal. But then again the domain isn't really fit for that.

There were a few brand specific sites started around the time I started mine. Without much promotion they peaked around 10,000 members and have over 500 new threads a day. Your definetly right about the brand specific forums. Thanks for replying!

You on Dial Up? The pages load like lightning for me...

 

i'm telling you, the perfect opportunity is when a new model is announced. grab a domain with the car name in it and slap up vbulletin. do some seo and when the model is released, you will be profiting big time.

 

Yea thats also great, but I am trying to figure out what to do with exotiXboard. Should I sell it or invest some in it -- I am afraid that investing time into it will not return enough to reimburse me.

 

i just don't see it as a good basket to put your eggs in.

selling it would be ideal if you could gather a lump sum to invest into another site, but who is going to pay good money for a board that generates little revenue?

other possibilities include changing ad positioning or just holding it and using it for co-op. forums have lot and lots of pages.

 

I been thinking about using it for co-op. I was offered $5-6k for it a few times.

 

why do you still own it then?

 

This was a few months back -- I have decided to keep it and expand it. But I am ready to make the move to sell it again. I think $5k is an exceptional price for a 2 year old forum that ranks #1 on MSN and Yahoo for many exotic car related keywords.

 

that decision to not to sell may have cost you a lot. why not list it for sale? entertain some offers, maybe.

 

I will be relisting it again -- like I said. I was thinking of expanding it, not selling it. I decided to get a few opinions and those few opinions have told me that it's wise to just sell it because it won't return much.

 

anyone else want to chime in?

 

Yeah, some automakers wouldn't be too happy about that. I got sued by Porsche because my domain name contained a copywrited name of theirs (the new model name), as well as other infractions. I'm sure some companies would see this as good advanced advertising, but others don't look kindly upon it.

Ever think of approaching the Gumball Rally, Players Run, or one of those other groups to see if they'd be interested in sponsoring your forum?

 

cayman? they can copyright that?

 

They wouldn't be, I know a lot of the people who participate in those rallys. They support their own forums, and not others.

 

STICKERS!
give free windscreen stickers to your top forum members
im going to do that with one of my drifting sites
free highly targetted advertising.. (apart from sticker and postage)

 

I wouldn't worry about any a-list automotive blogs. You're never going to beat them, not when they are well-funded purely-for-profit ventures with an ad sales staff and a stable of writers willing to work for minimum wage in order to be associated with a popular blog.

Those a-listers do one of two things, but they do both of them very well. They regurgitate the daily breaking news and/or they review cars. So, my advice is not to do either of those. At least not as a primary focus of your expansion.

Look at the wider gestalt* of exotic car culture and cater to those classes people. I'm guessing there are two primary types of people involved with exotic cars: the owners and non-owner enthusiasts. The owners are people to whom $200,000 is still play money. Amongst other things, they are interested in the prestige of ownership and protecting their investment. How can you cater to that? A directory of high-end detailing shops? A store only offering bottles of $150 wax? Guides on how to set up dehumidification and climate control for their garages? Exotic car secondary market values? A directory of secure parking stuctures in every major city in the world? I'm just tossing out some speculative ideas.

The non-owner enthusiasts are probably more interested in learning about the cars, the specifications, seeing and downloading photos, chatting, speculating, bench racing, and sharing stories of close encounters. Maybe a "Gawker Stalker" for exotic car sightings? These folks may also be interested in the affordable items associated with exotics: models, keychains, books, posters, etc. Perhaps you could cater to them by offering a directory of exotic car rental agencies, or partnering with an existing site to offer that information. A lot of successful forums also form buying clubs, where members get discounts once enough people have signed up to purchase a product or service.

Somewhere inbetween you will have the folks who own the affordable exotics those who rebody cars to look like exotics, or build replica kits. I'm not sure what you would do with these guys without getting way off base.

Another option is to buy a copy of duPont Registry or visit their site and you will probably find quite a few ideas on how you can expand your site and still keep it in the general theme of things.

*I finally got to use the word "gestalt!" Yay, art school!

 

Thanks. Great suggestions, and tips. First time I got a decent reply in a long time.

 

You might want to look at the german http://www.speedheads.de/ which is a combination of daily auto-news, special reports, picture galleries and a forum. They must be doing pretty well and even if you don't understand german you might get some ideas for your site by clicking through.
Another site you could investigate is http://www.track-challenge.com/. They put up test-specs of cars and are often used for reference in forums.

Kind regards, Hans