Creating a forum as a way to expand

Hi,

we have this established website - http://online-domain-tools.com/
We are always thinking about how to expand. What to do next to attract more people, more customers etc.

There are many ideas, but I would like to talk only about one of them. That idea is to create a new forum, quite closely connected to the web itself. We have a solid visitors base of more than 100k visitors each month and we also have a solid user base. Hence it might be a good idea to create a forum where these people, who do have something in common (they are usually web admins, web owners, online business owners and entrepreneurs, programmers, government/private sector IT staff, ...), could share their ideas, ask about their problems and all the stuff that you do on forums.

The question is: Is this is a good idea that will help us expand? Is it worth doing? Or will it not attract new visitors and we will end with the very same user base that might just spend more time on our web?

What do you think? What do you recommend? Do you have any experiences with this and could you share your results?

 

Yes. its a good idea. Its like a support platform for your users.

 

I'm a moderator on one of the popular internet marketing forums. Starting a forum to expand is really a good idea especially for increasing revenue. With 100k visitors already then you'll have a good start.

The most important thing when starting a forum is to always make sure that you know your audience and what keywords are most important. This will help you attract more visitors daily, once you're ranking well on search engines that will decrease your work load when it comes to inviting new people.

The most important thing when running a forum is to make sure that new people are joining on a daily bases, no day should go past without new members. This is why most forums end up dying. New members are the ones who keep the forum alive and increase engagement.

Also have a good staff that will take care of spam and keep the community in good shape to make sure everyone treats people with respect without violence, swearing, racism, self promotion etc.

I can go on the whole day giving you tips because I deal with too much on the forum I moderate. But go ahead and start a forum, it's a good idea

Feel free to ask me anything.

 

Thank you Gugulethu. What I am afraid most is whether the amount of work will be worth the outcome. Because every investment in one thing is potentially loosing an opportunity somewhere else. And there is so much we can do to expand. Creating a forum does not sound like the easiest thing to do. Well, setting the forum up somehow, connect to the system, that should be quite easy. But that's not where the work ends, it where it starts and that is what I am afraid of.

 

You can definitely hire someone to do the work or simply try postloop.com to start with.

 

You're absolutely right, it is not going to be easy at all. But there's a lot of benefits for owning a forum. The best way to decrease the work load is to promote active forum members and make some of them moderators and other positions within the forum.

I see you have started a conversation with me so let me give you more info there.

 

Start an "I WANT TO MARRY" section!
Ask for several pics with a short background.