I have a site that is doing pretty well and is getting good traffic. I want to build a community around the site using a forum. However, I have a small dilemma in regards to strategy and what will work best to build my forum and or forums. 1. I own www.alcoholtreatmentclinics.com and want to put a forum up for the community to talk about alcoholism and treatment issues. 2. I also own www.narcoticstreatment.com and will be building that site as well. Eventually I want to put a forum on that site as well. Question: 1. Do I put a forum on each site and keep the forums very specific and on my site to build up the content. 2. I also own www.addictforums.com and could push all of the forum traffic to one central forum. I'm inexperienced when it comes for forums. So my questions is from a Marketing, Community, SEO and Management standpoint which is the better option? Thanks for your help in advance.
It depends on your plans. For example if you plan to sell one of the sites, with its relevant forum, but then your forums are in one place, then it will be very hard. I would keep them all seperate.
I don't intend to sell the sites but that is important to keep in mind. I didn't think of that. Thanks.
Well one day you may get an offer you can't refuse Also, the other thing is they are on completely different domains so I would keep them separate. However, if it was like this I would make them join: Main site: www.addicts.com Sub sites: alcohol.addicts.com narcotics.addicts.com etc. Then have forums.addicts.com But since your setup wont be like that then my advice is to keep them as separate forums, but maybe link them all together.