I am having a heck of a time keeping up with one. I think you should focus on getting one really good before you run out and get more. running a forum can be very time consuming.
well said.. Owning more than 1 just makes u have lesser time to make each of them better, unless the forums u own are like having 500000 members with 5k-10k members visits a day.. probably it'll do some great earning.
Well I don't plan to have more than 2 forums at this time, already having a hard time managing just 1 and the other one haven't taken off yet.
I had 4 all at the same time albeit 3 were small but initial it was a buzz but then the spammers kicked in and the buzz went very quickly,still have 3 but we finally got the spammers under comtrol so we are working on building them up again.
I think running multiple forums is possible with the right help from assistant admins, mods, etc. You cannot pay attention to each of your forums as much as you need to with multiple ones. I have a hard time keeping up with one, and it was hard enough getting members and activity, so I cannot imagine doing it again at the same time!
exactly. one busy forumboard like DP is already hard to handle. you can imagine how these mods here are getting lots of comments from users.
Last year I had this vision of opening a network of forums that were all going to be on loosely related topics. In all, there were supposed to be 5 VBulletin forums. The problem is, I did not have enough time to build and promote each site. My primary promotion technique is video blogging. I did not have the time to make 4 or 5 videos on different topics and for each site. 2 years ago I started my main forum, it was supposed to provide a launching point for my other forums. Well, very few of the members signed up on the other forum. They were happy to just visit just that one site. I was hoping to launch 1 forum per year, but it did not work out that way. The time constraints is really what got me. There is not enough time in the day to promote, link build, post quality content on more then 2 or 3 forums. Then there is the drama with the members. On average, I get about 500- 600 private messages every month from my members. Its not just posting or promoting the forum, its dealing with the trolls, banning spammers, dealing with problem members,,,,,,, I closed the other site I opened and used the vbulletin license for my wifes forum. All of the other domain names I bought, I just let them expire. If you want to open more then one forum, I would say no more then 2 or 3. Right now I maintain 3 forums - mine, my wifes and my sons. I could easily spend 4 - 6 hours in one day just updating the forum software and modifications I have installed. As an example - one day I spent 6 hours just updating my main forum. This included the forum software and then about 25 modifications. Now multiple that by how many forums you have.
Owning multiple forums ain't a problem... If you have to moderate multiple forums (which are busy) then that gets tough. Start with one and take it slow!
One good way to own and operate many different forums is to network with other forum owners, or hire other admins to run your forums. This way you actually own, lets say, 5 forums. But you only manage one. The other 4 are run by people you have hired.
I personally run 2 forums, one new (in development), one small forum that seems to be getting an influx constantly Do I make a killing from either? Not at all, but I do well enough.. It really depends on the forum itself
I have had as many as 30 forums running at once...yes not all successful and some completely dead. You might ask why so many? Well I have no great answer. I just like to throw out ideas and see where things go. It's weird because you can start a site and really want it to take off and it never does. But then sometimes you have a site that unexpectedly does well and you go with it. I also like to sell my sites and forums so having many at hand to deal with always gives me a project to work on. Right now I have about a dozen or so forums but only less than 5 that are doing well and profitable. I will concede that focus on a small group of sites is probably the best idea.
I currently manage about a half dozen forums. 1 is 'ultraprivate' - so there are few worries involving it. I add new members manually, completely closed off from the rest of the Internet, etc. 2 Elliquiy is the largest and most active forum in its niche, and was breaking 20k posts a week last month and will probably do so again over the summer. 3 Blue Moon Roleplaying takes the #2 spot in its niche, after Elliquiy. It's about half the activity - only 10k posts a week or so. 4 Personal Roleplaying is the new kid on the block, only netting about a thousand posts a week. I have a few others - as that layout might suggest, I'm working on doing a round robin of various CMSes. I'm designing a Drupal site to run my own webmaster / server administration / community running community, for example : )
Once you've got one forum firing along well then give it to a moderator to run and work on the next one but keep a good eye on the first and still help with posting.