HELP! Marijuana Forum + Affiliates? Good Idea? Also Domain Suggestions..

After reading a article on webmd, it had a statistic about the amount of marijuana users, and how it is rising yearly. Since this seems to be an untapped area, I had the idea of creating a marijuana discussion forum, hosted offshore of course for legal reasons.

Anyways, I am already an affiiate of some top online smoke shops, as well as legal herbal buds too. I was thinking of creating a forum, and placing some of these ads on the forum for profit.

To increase traffic from SEO, I was planning on having a news section, with marijuana related news articles regarding health and laws, would this be the most ideal way to get SE traffic?

Also, I plan on using myspace and facebook, posting ads in bulletins, on profiles, creating a profile and becoming friends with people, etc.

So what do you guys think? Good Idea for some money? I understand this won't be a get rich sort of website, but I am sure I can at least make some dough from it, right?

 

I'm a bit confused about who you're targetting. Are you targetting marijuana users or people who want to know about marijuana? or people against marijuana?

If you're looking at marijuana users then I don't think posting up health problems is a good idea. I think you should definately go with creating a forum for marijuana users to talk about experiences and how best to take it etc. Not sure about how ethical that is but definately sounds intesting

A little suggestion that just came to mind:

Give an option when signing up if they are a "user" or a "hater". Each one directing different members to a different kind of forum? I don't know, but if you're targetting anyone it should be users.

 

I am targeting the smoking audience, it's going to be a forum to discuss the use of marijuana.

I think your user/hater idea is really good! This will encourage discussion, and contraversy, which is usually good, just as long as I keep it under control, I don't want my users to feel threatened.

Also, I am not sure what domain to choose, here are a few options:

talkchronic.com
chronicforums.com
chronicforum.com
talkaboutpot.com

 

I like "chronicforum.com". Easy on the eyes.

 

yeah nobody really refers to it as "pot" except middle aged people trying to be hip

but I agree that it's a good idea as there are only a few drug-related forums
also, i know someone creating their own drug site, i could talk to them about trading banners or something after his site is up

 

That would be a good idea. And yeah, about the pot thing, I agree, no one calls it pot anyways, but I went ahead and choose chronicforum.com.

Now here is a my though choice, make the forum on the main page, or create a landing page, with a forum link, a news link, and a "store" link taking them to an affiliate site?

 

Just have to consider the FBI can't touch you if your talking about it, but if you start to sell stuff then even if you have it hosted off shore then you can go to jail. Talking about smoking and talking about ways to smoke, etc isn't illegal. You can host it in the US. As long as you are not selling anything related to the product. Look at high times and the way they do it. They are a US based mag devoted to smoking.

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I agree with exodus, as long as it's ok with your host you can host it in the US just don't do anything to risky with the affiliate thing, keep the links minimal and don't advertise it to much or you could face jail time.

 

Still, this is probably much safer than running a warez forum, right?

I was going to host off shore just to be safe, but I will be doing all the work on the site from the US...

 

I liked "talkchronic" but I guess "chronicforum" will help a bit when it comes to SEO. I think your idea is pretty decent mate and I wish you the best of luck

 

I think the main page should just be the forums, not a landing page. You could put links at the top anyways. But I find that forums with a landing page are slightly annoying, seeing as you have extra mouse clicks to get to the forum part.

 

Yeah, which is the exact reason I was doubting the idea. I think I will just have to learn some php so I can intergrate ad's into the top, and some text ads in between posts or something.

I liked talkchronic too, but I used some keyword tools, and using the word forum in a search comes up often.

 

Not so sure about that, remember the overgrow forums? They had one of the biggest and best forums on marijuana cultivation on the internet. I don't think they actually sold anything, possibly some hydroponics/legal grow supplies, but they did allow seed company advertisements. They were shut down because of them. The scary part is that they were based in canada. Don't get me wrong, i'm pro-marijuana, it's just a very grey area. You really need to do some due dillegence before starting up something like this.

 

True, I need to really look into laws about it. So if I am placing ad's, is that considered selling it?

 

You may want to checkout hightimes.com, cannabisculture.com, and marijuana.com

I can provide you with alot of information on this market and maybe put you into contact with a few peeps that might be willing to help you out. PM me if you're interested.

 

No, you wouldn't be held responsible for the content of the ads if they were illegal.

 

I think it is a great idea. When starting a business it pays not to look at what most people think is acceptable and go for what is going to make you the $$

So good on you for the great idea.

My advice - Don't do anything illegal, even remotely so, because that will get you into trouble.

Also make sure you write in Big Bold letters somewhere that you do not condone the trading of Illegal substances or the equipment used to either take the substance or create the substance.

I would also keep an eye out for people asking how to or telling people how to make the drugs.

Oh, and one more thing. If someone even mentions "P" ban them !!!!!!!!!!

 

To make money, you could run an affiliate program for my drug lords. We're set up on the ground in every major city, so there would be a high conversion rate.

 

I suppose Adsense is definately out of the question.
HA

 

Actually Warez forums are totally safe as long as you only link to the downloadable files and you yourself don't provide pirated content.