How can I start a successful forum?

Since I was a pre-teen, I've wanted to run a popular forum. I've taken part in many, many forums in my time. I'd say I probably have well over 150,000 posts total. I have plenty of input on just about any topic, and I love sharing my opinion and discussiong the topic with other people. It's a hobby.

I've tried running forums. I've tried tech, music, hip hop, Eminem, general discussion, more tech, more music, etc... I fail each time though. I don't know how to perform good SEO. I don't know where to post my site. I don't know where to get ACTIVE members.

I know how to operate and modify phpBB, MyBB, SMF, xenForo, and Vanilla. I've put so much time and effort into having a successful forum with active people, but I don't get much back!

I'm getting tired of doing the same thing over and over again. I need some guidance. I want to eventually have a successful forum with a thriving community, and maybe even place ads and member upgrades to get some income. I'd rather have a thriving community than income... I'd easily drop a couple hundred dollars for a newer, active forum.

 

Perhaps, it is time to cut your losses..... OR you can buy an existing forum on here or on flippa.

I am on many forums, and I have seen them die off. I have seen forums with 1k of active members, become empty ghost towns. I believe that the strength of some of these social networks, has taken its toll on many different forums. I mean, why join a new forum, where noone knows you, when you can hang out with your friends (or on other established networks)

I once started my own forum, in its own specific niche, where we had massive amounts of excitement and enthusiasm shown by the community before we started, and nothing came from it. And this is when I ran out and spoke with others. There are people here that have used postloop (you pay members to post), they spent on content, seo, advertising, and when the money ran out..... the forum instantly died, and *thats* what I have seen time and time again from other forums.

I think for your forum to have any real chance, it has to offer something really really unique, that others dont offer.

I realise that this is something that you are passionate about, but maybe you need to change your angle.
Instead of running your own forum, you could:

• offer to be a moderator on others forums for $xx weekly
• offer to write posts, threads, or other, normally $20 (or more) per 100 short posts for other peoples forums
  
• join up with post loop, where you are paid per post
• if you are active on many forums, you can sell your signature space to members on THIS forum
• there are people that will pay you to join different forums, (not their own) to make posts (maybe 1-10 per forum) to get a signature backlink to their site, and or to write an article to promote them. IE, a site about a car club, you might post on different car related forums, to establish an account to help promote the site.
• if you are skilled at installation, setting up, customization, and even moderator training and stuff, you can offer that as a service to others that are starting their own forums.

These are just a few things you can do with your skills, that you can earn from.

You say that now, but once you have spent $1k on a forum over a few months, if it is unprofitable, at some point you have to cut your losses. Some people keep putting more money in.... but at some point when the money runs out, if the project is unable to cover its own costs, then what do you do....
I am not trying to discourage you from trying, I just want to give you an honest expectation of what to expect.

FYI, one thing that I noticed along time ago, is there are alot of people selling their VB licenses. So when I was trying to buy a second hand license for cheap, I would chat with them, ask them why they were selling it, and thats when I found out that there seems to be more failure then success with people that start new forums.

Everyone else on here will encourage you to go ahead with the forum, mainly as we make money from hosting / domains / SEO / advertising / licenses, and anything else that you need before you give up.

 

to start a successful forum you need 1- a place which gives them value, of information.

to start one, make sure you have some sort of an anchor( product or service) that they have to come to support.

take a look around, almost nobody succeeded because they wanted a forum, all the successful forums start as a support of some type, and grew over time, like - dp ( optigold isp, you will still find it in sections) support section of any theme on themeforest etc etc.


Think about it.

paying someone to write posts on your site is useless, i almost never saw a site get successful with that.

you can also take a look at blackhatteam.com , they started with warez posting and went to a successful forum.

 

I am sure that DP had that a while back. There are still posts here that relate to the payouts from the owner of DP.

 

That's a really really comprehensive comment there matt_62. You offered not only your ideas on the subject but also alternatives he can take and the suggestions you placed sounds really really good.

 

Luckily for digital point, it became one of the most popular IM forums today. Although not as big as WarriorForum, it's one of the top forums for IM's.

 

You said you're tired of doing the same thing over and over again. Perhaps it's time to go a different route but still having some taste of what you want in forum marketing. What is it that you really want about having a forum? Is it having a forum or being a part of it? Perhaps, you can try one of the suggestions by matt_62.