The Concept Behind Forums and How to Start One

I'm getting a bit sick of everyone starting forums on topics that make for terrible forums. The concept behind a forum is a community. One where people will return visit, reply to their posts, and create topics that others will find interesting. Some topics make for terrible communities thus have no business being a forum.

I just visited one such forum a few minutes ago. I won't name names but it was in the careers category. Basically a forum where any and every job had a category and supposedly how to enter that career was the forum concept. This won't work. For one no one is going to be expert enough to cross post in many categories. For another he didn't have any general topic forums. I can't imagine people would join and participate regularly on such a forum.

I know not everyone views success as mass appeal, millions of posts, or high revenue. So if you're one of those people then my post is not for you. Go ahead and make your mini-niche forum that no one cares about and no one will return.

If you define success as income then listen up.

1. Find a niche that's going attract daily discussions. An example would be Anime. Fans of anime can talk everyday about them.
2. Make sure you have a few general topics outside of your niche like off-topic, movies, or humor. Something that people can participate and post all the time with ease. If people have to strain to think of something to post you have a real problem.
3. Don't start with ads for a new site. What for? You don't have any visitors anyways. You won't earn more than a few dollars per month and you run the risk of pushing away possible members.
4. Only start sites you consider yourself knowledgable in and can talk about every day. If you're into cars then make a car forum. If you're into bowling then make a bowling forum.
5. Research your competitors and forums already in that niche. Now that doesn't mean you copy them. It means you see if an audience exists and if you can do better than what already exists. Research competition can also help you set goals. If someone can get 10,000 members for a bowling forum than you can do it too.

That's just a quickie post for me. I could go on for hours but I have to attend to my own forums now.

Peace.

 

Nice post, something for a lot of people to consider.
I'm thinking of starting a forum sometime in the future, so thanks for the great starting point!

 

Having a forum about anime in general won't get you anywhere fast as the web is flooded with anime forums and communities. You'll have to go deeper in the niche of anime to be unique. I'm sure that's the same for other topics.

 

HF is ripped off at least once a week. Not one clone has done well either plus I've had lots shut down by a simple DMCA to their host. Such a stupid thing to do to start a forum.

WOW...that's just unbelievable.

 

maybe they just want to help out with support LOL

 

You have to keep in mind that most "internet marketers" and "SEO experts" are morons. Using words like "concept" will only confuse them.

 

My personal "Don't" tips to create a forum:

1. Don't buy a domain name until you're absolutely sure
2. Don't start a forum if you're completely alone and have no idea how to start
3. Don't spam other forums with mass advertising about your forum (it won't work)
4. Don't create more than 5 forum categories if you don't have more than 5 topics
5. Don't abandon your forum and hope it will blossom on it's own
6. Don't force people to register against their own will just to get files you're offering
7. Don't add automatic RSS feeds to create lots of ghost posts on your forum
8. Don't use spam tools to promote your forum
9. Don't include ads if your forum has less than 30 steady visitors
10. Don't think that a good domain name is equal to automatic popularity

Everyone will break some of these "don't" principles including myself. But remember that the first genuine forums members that you are lucky to host in your community will be the same people that will influence many others to follow, so take good care of them.

After the first year that my forum existed, I offered t-shirts to the 20 most active members from all around the world. That was four years ago and my forum now accounts with nearly a million page views per month and a very strong community.

My forums are not as big as many other folks here but the lesson is that you should really put your heart into creating something fresh and valuable to you and your visitors.

Just keep working and think on a good direction for the forum at something that you really like instead of starting a forum based on something that seems "cool" and likely to success that you won't likely keep on promoting after a few weeks.

Good luck.

 

Most folks read forums, they will only post if they request an answer not found in any of the post. If the forum does not look active why expect someone to ask a question.

No person will join an empty forum to help you, period.