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Cost to develop a forum website

Discussion in 'General Business' started by Andrew2015, Mar 3, 2015.

  1. #1
    I have a domain (theinvestorslink.com) that I have not developed but I recently put it up for appraisal on Flippa. The average value was $200 but I was advised to develop it into a investment forum or advice based site. I have a database of 250,000 investors that I could attempt to email and get them to subscribe - then charge clients a annual fee to contact them.

    How much would it cost to develop this sort of business
     
    Andrew2015, Mar 3, 2015 IP
  2. trustybizz

    trustybizz Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Andrew, it is very hard to estimate the cost of a project without a clear understanding of how complex functionality you would want in it. For e.g. an auction site can be built in $200 with a readymade script installed, but to have functionality and complexity as offered by eBay would take a ton of more money.

    If you'd like a forum with a regular forum functionality it would not cost you more than a $1k-2k depending on how much you customize it if you use a good forum software like vB or XF. Then once you start customizing it and adding features which are specific to your business model, the cost can go up depending on the exact features being coded and integrated.

    Or you could build a membership based website, get your 250K investors to join as free members, create their profiles, share some information like their investment range, income level, etc which will be beneficial to your clients who would like to attract these investors. Then you can sell "Client" accounts for a monthly membership fee basis which lets these "Clients" post their marketing pitch on the membership site, they pay extra to have their pitch "Featured" on front page, pay extra to include it as Featured in the "weekly newsletter" which you should send out to all subscribers with selective and informative content. If you have a really good batch of Investors as your subscribers, these "Clients" would bid against each other to get a chance to be heard by these investors and they will pay you more to offer such an opportunity to them via you membership site and mailing list.

    I am just brainstorming, before you begin any project you will need to really sort out the specifics and study your competition, technological tools available, don't reinvent the wheel if there are software available to do the job, use the tools and customize them to suit your specific purpose at the lowest cost possible. And always, keep some budget for initial marketing, investing thousands in a project which remains unknown to the audience is useless unless you spend some money in making it known until it takes off on its own.
     
    trustybizz, Mar 5, 2015 IP
    digitalpoint and jrbiz like this.
  3. angelica c

    angelica c Greenhorn

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    #3
    This business approach seems a bit weak... At least from what you describe.
    I mean, why would investors give you money!? I'm sure they are rich and so... but that's no coincident!
    If you have something with added value, then it's different. But just a regular website, the average forum...

    No, I don't believe in this idea. Internet is a non-paying global mass thing...
    You're an SEO dude, not an investor yourself! Or?? Do you know what brings business!?
     
    angelica c, Mar 6, 2015 IP
  4. trustybizz

    trustybizz Well-Known Member

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    #4
    I think it all depends on what the business model is, no business model is useless. Few years back nobody would have thought a business model like Kickstarter would work, but today it is a huge hit. All depends on the specifics and creativity of the idea and the accompanying tools and applications to make it happen.

    In business it has always been the case of combining one's capital with someone else's ideas to make money together, a website connecting investors with potential entrepreneurs is not far fetched but you really need to focus on specifics of how you would make it marketable and operational.
     
    trustybizz, Mar 6, 2015 IP
  5. JoeMongan

    JoeMongan Member

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    #5
    The cost comes in when you are trying to fill the form with great content. Really the empty restaurant effect is the
    major killer when it comes to building forums. Basically it means people wont come unless there's activity, so you
    have to do the hard work and pay people to contribute.

    Hiring those Virtual Assistants along with social media marketing gets pretty pricey. Hard to just toss a number on it. :)
     
    JoeMongan, Mar 6, 2015 IP
    macdonjo likes this.
  6. ablaye

    ablaye Well-Known Member

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    #6
    I would say about $1,000 to $2,000. You can purchase a vBulletin license and hire someone to design a custom template for you for about $500.
    Best of luck!
     
    ablaye, Mar 8, 2015 IP
  7. Franklin Hatchett

    Franklin Hatchett Well-Known Member

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    #7
    I currently co-own a forum with a friend that was started over a month ago, My investment was $1100 usd and we used $2400 for resources at the start. We have since raised a further $9,000 from donations and memberships for future advertising etc. Owning a forum can come at a cost if done right.
     
    Franklin Hatchett, Mar 8, 2015 IP
  8. Ethan Alvin

    Ethan Alvin Active Member

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    #8
    It can cost below $100 with A Wordpress theme or plugins. Define your features and functions, what are you trying to provide before diving in. The cost of undoing or redoing a site can be costly (time & effort > money).
     
    Ethan Alvin, Mar 8, 2015 IP
  9. King-Servers

    King-Servers Greenhorn

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    #9
    There are many open source forums available in the market that you can use it for free and hire a developer to do customization according to your requirements.
     
    King-Servers, Mar 8, 2015 IP
  10. Matei Gavriluta

    Matei Gavriluta Well-Known Member

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    #10
    If you want to develop a nice forum, consider a long rung business! 5k to 10k somewhere!
     
    Matei Gavriluta, Mar 18, 2015 IP
  11. terrymason

    terrymason Well-Known Member

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    #11
    If you're hoping to sell your domain for $450 instead of $200 then I wouldn't bother.

    You'll spend several hundred / thousands of dollars and tons of time building a forum.
     
    terrymason, Apr 2, 2015 IP
  12. dscurlock

    dscurlock Prominent Member

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    #12
    First I would have to question the quality of the appraisal for the domain.
    I certainly would not pay $200 as the domain does not sound professional.
    It sounds like someone created the domain simply because he had
    no better options to choose from or a kiddie thought up the domain.

    You can get a custom XF theme for $200; that does not mean you will
    have every feature there is, but the theme will be above avg then
    most free or $30 paid themes, and can cost much more for added
    features that would not normally come with a custom/free/paid theme.

    As everyone has said; setting up a successful forum of any venue
    is no simple task these days, you could easily end up putting
    thousands into your site with nothing to show for in the end....

    If you are serious, then start it off as a hobby, and if you see
    any progress, then adapt with new site features, bla, bla...

    If you spend money on any site, and earn nothing in return,
    then it is nothing more then a hobby; However, when you
    invest, then start earning, then it is more then a hobby...
    I could just as easily spend $1000's to learn how to
    crash expensive model planes; Its just a hobby, right?

    However, if your soul focus is about making money, then
    you have already failed; You have to look past how much
    it costs, and have a certain level of passion. It will take time,
    money, resources, and at the end of the day, there is still
    no guarantee that your site will succeed.....
     
    dscurlock, Apr 2, 2015 IP