Hey everyone! I've been wanting to build some kind of money-making website for a while now, but no ideas really came to mind. I've thought of content sites, making a blog, even turnkey sites. I've settled with making some forums! This wouldn't be the first time I've made forums, but it would be the first time I've made standalone forums. Usually I've made them for gaming clans or guilds. (I used to be a big mmo gamer) Anyway, I need your help! No, not with posting (not yet anyway ) I need some ideas! What should my forums be about? I'm horrible at picking good niches. I'm a pretty critical guy, so I shoot down every idea I come up with. I either think no one will come, or there's way too many forums like that already. Why would they come to mine? So, I need some ideas for my forums. I figure if anyone knows forums, it your guys. I guess I'll list my interests and topics I know a lot about for potential ideas: -Gaming PC Games MMO Games Xbox 360 Games Gaming News -Music Guitar Playing and such Rock and Roll News on Bands Indie Bands -Sports Skateboarding Skiiing Snowboarding -Computers Technology Joomla! New Software Freeware -General Forums! Innovative Ideas Inventions Business Opportunities Freelance writing and content creation Making money Hmm that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Tell me if you see any potential forums there. Also, let me know if you have any forum-building experience. I really want to make this work. I want to plan this out and implement it properly. I don't want another dud website. I want this one to stick and be great. I'm kind of a pessimist though. I keep thinking that all these ideas have forums, and I'll never get any people to mine. I just need to keep telling myself that's not true. If it was, how would there be so many different successful websites in one niche. BAH! I don't know. I need some help guys!
You're on DigitalPoint forums, forums for webmasters and most of people here make money or try to make money so I don't think anybody is going to share niche secrets with you. I'd say go with something you like to do since forums are not easy to deal with because it takes dedication and a lot of work to build a strong community and I don't think you want to do something you don't like for the next few years.
This forum is a guide so better poke around and see to get information for your money making project and about forum building..initially you have to give it a boost by getting paid posters and arranging competitions and prizes...once its starts building up!! you will have a great forum and a good community....good luck
Anything that goes with your Interests and you know well that you can keep it updated Regularly and grab others attention will do here. Don't consider Money making as your target, think of the content. I donot advise for Paid Posters as they post out of Self Interest, I believe in a dedicated Community. Though to get attention you may need to advertise your Services a Bit and SEO plays a Major part in that too.
I read how to pick a niche and I would add my two cents as follows: Some saturation is a good thing if the demand for the forum will be there for years to come. . .not an easy thing to predict. I've heard that you want there to be some heathly competition since if another community exists, you would want to attract those members. I don't know how true this is, but I would stick with what everyone else says and that is to pick something that interests you since its easier to take committed to something you like. You can't be everyone's everything, but a good landing page can spring board to other projects.
That's a good point, suzybakeoven. Also, I think it is important to note that just because there is competition in a certain niche does not mean that it is saturated.
Thanks a lot everyone. I got some great replies and some great ideas. I know how to pick a good niche now. I just need to do some thinking on which of my interests could be the best niche, and which I would enjoy most.