Would there be any point in competing with a forum with 3 million posts and over 30,000 users? I don't know if I should right now. It's the only major forum of its kind, the other competitors have hardly any members and posts from 2004 as their latest in some topics. I've thought about going niche, but that forum really covers everything that there is. But I really want to. If I can, I'd be set for a whole bunch of sites relating to it. Has anyone ever tried anything similar? Do you think I'd be able to become established? Anything I can throw money at to ensure my best chances of success?
Well, could you give us the genre of the forum? I think if you have the skills or get the right people to join you, one could take down anyone. Remember when Altivista was the big rage. I don't hear about them too often. All I here is about this "Google". Anyone know them? All I'm saying is yes you probably could, but it will take a lot of work. Skinny
If they are the only forum like it, yes - go for it. No matter how big the forums are, if there is only one forum on any given subject, there is room for competition.
I agree. I'm obviously exposed to a large amount of forums. I've seen people start brand new forums in direct competition with large communities and come out successful because they just do the whole thing better.
Just be better. I started sites from scratch that were a lot like well known sites but became much more popular becuase I offered a better service. As long as your passionate about the site itself and not the money aspect you will be fine.
I also want to add, many people prefer a small community over a large one - A LOT of people are that way. So if you can get this word out to people at this single other forum, you'll find a lot of people coming to your forums simply because they do NOT want to go to the larger, intimidating counterpart.
Ok thanks for your advice everyone. I think I'll leave the idea for a few months while I get some other sites up first. Hopefully (as the sites are in the same field), I'll be able to use existing traffic/ find useful people. It would still be a challenge as I can't flaw my competitor on much right now (heh.. does poorish navigation count?), it seems to be doing alot of things right. But there's always other things I could target towards, it uses alot of white and has a standard logo for example, I could use more colour and a well designed logo. I agree with the small forum thing, I personally don't like huge forums as they tend to be alot less helpful.
Curse you, Skinny! I was going to post that! "I hate that Skinny guy. He has that lean and hungry look. Let me have men about me who are fat. But slim chicks are fine."
It isn't necessarily a question of "better". It's a question of "different". Just don't try to become a clone of someone else's forum - it won't work.
I did just that, opened my main site last year in direct competition with a forum with over 100k members and around 300k posts (i had started that forum too but partnership turned sour etc. - long story)... anyways, now I'm up to 40k members and 107k posts since march 2005... so its definitely doable, you just need to put a lot into it.
hehe I remember when i used altavista to search , now i only do it for translation and even that im gonna switch to google soon poor guys... tsk tsk. BTW to reply to your topic, yes its worth competing with them. As an example i started my site when there was not one, but several of these forums about my topic but so far id say im doing good.