Forum Moderators: rogerd
I'd like your opinions on what you think would be a good way to start building a community.
First off...i want it to earn some type of money...not for me, but i want to beable to give rewards and stuff like that for participation, contests, and give a little to admins or mods when i get them.
-i just applied for adsense as a start and was also think ing about maybe add a banner rotator. ideas on both?
-it's a sports forum..not like a gaming forum...i'm having a hard time validating the need for a membership fee. maybe a 'pro-member' fee with special perks?...but i can't figure out any perks either
-should i make a few fake users to get a few conversations going?...or just hope to get the traffic started up
-traffic startup...how would you suggest getting my first few initial members?...how did you do it?
i'm sure i've got more questions...just can't think of them all at the moment...so any other things you think are important would be greatly appreciated.
Depends on the banners really - Adsense doesn't convert as well on forums (although a lot of people still make a decent income from it). Direct sponsorship from other businesses may make for a more stable income initially.
> it's a sports forum..not like a gaming forum...i'm having a hard time validating the need for a membership fee. maybe a 'pro-member' fee with special perks?...but i can't figure out any perks either
You could negotiate discounts with related businesses (online shops, etc) - you could run exclusive news releases in a private forum (and possibly filter them to a public forum at a later date) - there are lots of potential ways to offer perks.
> should i make a few fake users to get a few conversations going?
Yes, and focus a lot of conversation around your "real" username to build your own post count and credibility (in terms of the quality responses you give).
> traffic startup...how would you suggest getting my first few initial members?...how did you do it?
Varies from forum to forum. Personally, I started my forums back when it was still easy to get Google traffic to new sites, so the forums built up naturally (with a little bit of help from me of course!).
Creating static content outwith the forum (news items, articles, etc) and optimising it for key industry terms, followed by more niche targeting can help to bring in traffic naturally. You need to then give users a reason to discuss these subjects on your forum.
Threads like "introduce yourself" or hot topics, "team A vs team B", etc are good easy ways to get people to start posting.
Other options are using a small PPC campaign or posting on other forums (related forums or at least forums with the same user group) that allow signatures to be used, are good ways to promote your new community. I would suggest making sure you forum at least seems *busy* before you start your marketing efforts though.
MG
It's not just a forum, there is a CMS style front page and i'm currently working on a few other content pages as well. I'm hoping i'm good as SEO...any pointers on that would be good as well.
One of the main things i plan to do is starting some contests and prizes and stuff like that for certain things. I've actually got a plan for an ongoing contest that I haven't really seen much of in most of the forums that are 'related' to mine. I'm hoping have my own unique contest idea that is both indepth and fun will help out as well.
Anyone use any other means of advertising that works well that is cheap to begin with?...other than hoping SE list me and putting my signature in my other forums i visit?
The ABC of building a successful forum
[webmasterworld.com...]
still need some more advice on the money making aspects and such, and getting my first intial member base
Making money on a new forum will be tough. Selling memberships, or premium memberships, will be next to impossible due to small content and participation. Most ad solutions (Adsense, affiliate links, ad networks, etc.) will produce very little revenue early on due to a combination of low CTR and low pageviews. Trying to get a "forum sponsor" might be your best bet during the launch period.
I'd resign myself to months (at least) of no or low revenue. I don't think it's worth cramming the pages with ads when you'll be earning pennies from them - it will turn off new visitors, but produce little actual income. Let volume build, and then gradually introduce ads.
For prizes and mod rewards, try to solicit free merchandise from companies in your space. Woo them with public credit on your forum.
about the ads, i was planning on putting some ads on my main static pages, as well as maybe selling (for cheap at the start) a left side forum add space, as well as one under the first post of each thread, and then adsense either at the bottom of each thread, or near the header (haven't figured out exactly where to put the adsense yet)...do you think this is overkill?
[edit]...thanks for the welcome too!
One banner would be ok, but for me at least there would need to be some strong positive things about the forum to make me start posting in one with ads inside the threads, and I don't think a brand new forum could offer these things, although one with an established community could.
