Thanks soooooo much Laura for taking the time her to help!
My site is a content site, branding a service and name in a niche industry. I think the blog idea is great to form as a catilyst for a forum for maybe later.
But peope are dying for one because they need help desparately but there is no one helpig them. Just taking and abusing their needs by gouging them and screwing them.
I was hoping to have an honest no BS forum to help them and in turn gain business from that help. We are talking one sale can be $3,000-$5,000 to me, so this is a whole different animal then the typical forum or advertsing. I would be the backer and advertiser. And the time I put in would be rewarding if they turn into sales. Its not like I'm hoping to make $1 a click.
Now that you see what I'm doing and the potential ROI what advice can you ladies give me on that?
Everything helps Laura. What you and Blonde are telling me, I shoulds pay a consultation fee for but shit thats whay were here to help
Quote:
Originally Posted by Laura
Two things for ya, Moe. This will save you a lot of heartache later. 
1. Only add a forum if you know people are dying for one. You don't want to babysit and incubate it because, and BlondeTM says, the return for that work won't be worth it. If you didn't already have a content site, I would suggest only starting with a blog - with expert guest posters from the niche even - and once you start getting 20-30 comments per post, you have the starting of a seedling community. But since you already have a site, I would say that you are the best judge of the traffic and amount of interactivity with readers.
2. Keep the focus on your content site. Advertisers don't always feel good about forums. They know that forum users are far less likely to click on ads (or even notice them), but also many have concerns about their brand showing up next a post about somebody hating their brand. One thing we are working on changing on our site is taking forum content out of the forum to create more static pages (well really, they will just *look* more static). (If you didn't already have a content site, I would have said to only have the forum as an aside - not as the main focus.)
You CAN monetize forums, but you will work harder for that money. Is your content site product or brand-based? That will help you tremendously!
Hope that helps,
Laura |