I am thinking of starting a forum but cannot decide on a subject. Which of the following subjects do you think would attract people 1. Make Money Online Forum 2. Debate Forum 3. Political Debate Forum 4. Medical Forum 5. General Health Forum Any other ideas would be welcome.
Anything can be successful as long as it is correctly run.... health/ medicine there are naturally higher liability risks and so insurance may be sensible on top of PROFESSIONAL T&Cs. The other 3 are ok At the end of the day, why is someone going to come to your forum rather than one of the other 100,000 that cover the same areas? It is a rhetorical question for you to answer yourself... if you can come up with a couple of genuine reasons then it may well work... if you cant then it will most likely be one of the thousands of virtually dead forums.
Pick the one you know the most about and are most passionate about. Plain and simple. That way you'll be able to more effectively contribute to it.
If you have interested to profit from your forum then definitely Make Money Online is the most preferred. It's very rare to come across Money making forums with few visitors. Most of them actually do well.
All these subjects are a dime a dozen all over the internet, so unless you have a particular knowledge, or a particular spin to put on one of these subjects, you'll be pushing a very heavy whelbarrow up a very steep hill! Very broad subjects sound good in theory, but all that usally happens is that you end up with a website that specializes in nothing, never manages to stand out from the crowd, remains a ghost town, and dies a quick and merciful death.
Pick a nice which you think, you can promote easily! You must have atleast some knowledge with your niche. Give some FREE offers to your members. Hire forum posters gradually! They will keep your forum looks active! Also try to answer the questions of every members. Because members will come back to your forum mainly to check the replies for their threads(I'm talking about new forums)! All the best!
Do something completely orginial and refain looking at other forums for ideas, well not just plain copying them, use the latest forum software - and I'd have to admit advertisements - small or large banner just tops the forum off with the classic "touch" General Talk Forums I'd go for.