Forum Moderators: phranque
I'm looking for some advice, hope someone here can help. I started a site a few months back which is a resource website for widgets. I've since added my VBulletin forums from an old site (which I pay for on a yearly basis) as they were not used for one reason or another.
Over the past month I've attracted visitors through Adwords and it's been pretty interesting. I had 3000 unique visitors last month and only had one person ask a question on the forums. This was also the first post ever, so maybe the fact no-one has posted prevents people from signing up/posting?
I'm thinking about removing the forums for 2 reasons. Firstly, I mainly created this site to test out Adsense etc and secondly I don't have a massive interest in my site's topic. I'm trying to 'build the empire' and this is simply the foundation. I do care about this site and it's visitors - I just don't want to be visiting everyday checking for updates if the rewards are low.
So now I'm trying to weigh up the pros and cons of removing the forums. As I see it these are:
If I remove the Forums
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- I save money (£80ish) by not having to purchase another license at the end of this year.
- In the near future when the site is properly up and running, I'll have more time to work on other sites instead of answering questions on the forums.
- Forums and Adsense don't perform very well...If I remove forums/adsense my CTR will increase.
- I free up a database on my hosting package.
If I keep the Forums
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- Provides my visitors with a valuable service. They'll come back one day!
- VBulletin forums are well indexed by Google, which should bring in more traffic.
- My main competitor has a forum, which always has at least 75 people viewing 24/7.
- Without forums, my site will be similar to hundreds of others.
Anything else I should consider? Thanks :)
P.S - Hope this is the right section, I did see 'Forum Community Building' but it's not what I'm trying to do.
P.S - Hope this is the right section, I did see 'Forum Community Building' but it's not what I'm trying to do.
You're in the right place, although you really need to have a read through the library posts in Forum Community Building as you'll probably find the reasons for your forums lack of success in there.
Questions like this are better placed there:-
...only had one person ask a question on the forums. This was also the first post ever
That's the reason you're forum hasn't been a success.
...I don't have a massive interest in my site's topic.
OK, so that's why you're not posting in your forums yourself ;-)
I'm trying to 'build the empire' and this is simply the foundation.
I don't think you'll succeed on that basis - your foundation sites will be the ones that you have a massive interest in. The spin-offs will come from those.
On the basis of all you've said, I would say ditch the forums. All of the pro's for keeping them that you outlined above are superceded by the fact that no-one will post there.
Forums take time and energy to kick-start and maintain. If you're not able to kick-start it, it's better to have no forum than an empty one.
TJ
