What types of forums are in right now?

[Veolus]

I can buy a leased or an owned vBulletin license and i'm thinking of starting a new forum.. the question I have for you is, what types of forums are in right now?

Type = what the forum is based on

Thanks in advance!

 

[jon]

The trick is not to create a forum on something that has been done 100’s of times before, so your “in” theory doesn’t really work.

Find a topic that hasn’t been done before and target that. It will be much easier to advertise and profit from if you target a niche market.

 

[Veolus]

ahh I see, great advice, Jon

I'll have a search around Google to find anything good to base the forum on and try to make something unique as you said, I was thinking of making a webhosting forum, but I think i'm going to pass on that idea, too much of those types of forums around!

Thanks for your help! :tu:

 

[Brian]

You shouldn't just look for something that is extremely popular to put up a forum about, but something put the forum up about somethign you are extremely interested in. If the site is about something you have no interest in at all, its pointless you won't spend the amount of time needed to develop it properly.

One of the biggest mistakes I see with most of the new forums is, the admins just make the topic about something that is big at the moment, and not something they are interested in.

 

[Veolus]

ahh I see the validity of your point and I will definitely consider the things you said

I guess I'll need to think about it :D Thanks so far for all your help guys! :tu:

 

[Brian]

No problem, just lending a helping hand, and speaking from experience.

Best of luck.

Regards
Brian

 

[ccdesigns]

Definitely agree with Brian - you have to, or people you know that want to be involved at the grass roots level, MUST be an engine in creating content. A ton of web browsers will go to your forum a couple times before posting because they want to get information from your forum. Once they like what you have to offer, they will get involved.

I would recommend, whatever subject you choose, gather a group of experts in that field that are willing to help jumpstart your threads.

 

[GeneCosta]

^I agree with the expert part. It's hell trying to build it up completely. Find people with a common interest/goal and have at it.

 

[Veolus]

I'm looking to start something different :D too hard to compete with these forums and too many of them around..

 

[netzilla]

Last year I took my first adventure and created a content/forum site for an ATV brand who's name starts with an H and ends with ONDA. Now while the idea of an ATV content/forum site was not original I was the very first to have one dedicated only for that brand. By the eigth month my member count was 520+ and the site was averaging about 25,000 unique visits and 1 million hits per month. The site reached PR4 status quickly pretty quickly and generated decent revenue. You don't necessairly have to do something new but just do it in a different way.

 

[jmweb]

A forum on web hosting would certainly be a good idea, mind you it would take a bit of work at first. There isn't many active forums on web hosting...

 

[hbalagh]

I started my daycare forum about 3 months ago.... a forum that is strictly for day care providers... somethign that i haven't seen... Its doing pretty well i think and is number 1 google

 

[GeneCosta]

I'm looking to start something different :D too hard to compete with these forums and too many of them around..

I had an idea about starting a forum dedicated to only "guys"- like the "guy forum". Maybe that?

 

[netzilla]

I started my daycare forum about 3 months ago.... a forum that is strictly for day care providers... somethign that i haven't seen... Its doing pretty well i think and is number 1 google

Is the majority of your traffic search engine traffic or word of mouth? Just out of curiousity.

 

[Namedelivery.com]

I respectfully disagree with the idea that if it has been done before it isnt a good idea.

There are TONS of game forums and even new ones can flourish. You just need to take a different or provide some good content to get it going.
The reason there are multiple forums about the same topics is because there are a lot of people who enjoy those topics.
Look at NP. There were a lot of other DN forums in existence and I can remember people scoffing at the idea of "another domain forum".

I don't disagree with doing something that hasn't been done before. If done right people will find it and tell their friends etc.

Just my $.02

Good luck with your forum!

John

 

[def1]

definitly do something new and different because although creating a forum thats been done before might do well it will be hard to keep up with already well known forums. I suggest doing a forum about coca cola

 

[mituozo]

New and different is normally better, but as an example, my forums which are general discussion forums themed around ancient mythology are rather empty to say the least. Advertising a unique niche can be very hard in the beginning. Normally you need 100-200 active members before your forums grow 'naturally'.