Are promotion forums dying?

[MasterA]

Hello all,

There used to be many promotion forums that has decent traffic and quite good for promoting your website but now a lot of the other promotion forums are closing down. Do you think that promotion forums are dying?

 

[Cosmic]

Forums in general aren't what they used to be, but I think there's still an audience for them, and there will probably continue to be an audience. Generally people like to rush off to whatever's "new." Right now, social media is the big thing, but I think forums will become more popular again once people get tired of Facebook, etc.

Anyway, for promotion forums in particular, they have always been opening and closing. I don't think promotion forums in general are dying.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I don't believe so. The biggest thing is that more and more people keep opening new forums, and then will close or delete them when they do not get popular within the first couple months of opening. At any rate, Promotional Forums are still kicking, you can tell by several of the larger forums still getting new members, and some of the hard working new admins actually trying to get their forum out there.

 

[MasterA]

Yes, I agree that people are more into social media. Most of my friends are into social media more than forums. There are many promotion forums that open and close indeed but it just seems so hard to keep members staying active on your forum nowadays. There are still several large forums but some of the old active promotion forums just seems to be losing active members lately.

 

[Atrox]

Not at all, if you set up right and choose the right path, a promotion forum can go very far. Look over at Forum Spark, they're doing so well.

 

[MasterA]

Not at all, if you set up right and choose the right path, a promotion forum can go very far. Look over at Forum Spark, they're doing so well.

That is a good point. Forum spark seems to be doing quite well. What do you think is the right path?

 

[VirusZero]

I don't think that social networks are the cause of forums dying. (Forums and social networks often provide different goals and options for users. I feel that the only way they compete with each other is in the very broad way of "I only have so much time... where do I go or what do I do?". Which would also mean that if you play videogames or other hobbies then those would compete too.) Like mentioned before I think the real answer is that making a forum is easier now than ever before. It doesn't take so much specialized knowledge compared to what it used to. (Sure you can dig in and really modify things if you want, but you aren't required. And installing new mods/plugins is a lot easier than it used to be.)

Though in the case of promotion forums especially, I think that some of the hardships of them come from the fact they're built off a fundamentally flawed principle.
Admins who are using promotion forums do so to promote their site... But who are they promoting to? Other admins. And that's part of the problem because those admins tend not to care about other sites. (Why would they? they have their own sites afterall.) Which means even on larger sites (like FP) their effectiveness is hindered some.

Secondly a lot of promotion sites, especially ones by members of FP, fail because they all simply try to copy FP. They provide the same services as FP. They advertise on FP and have the same basic group of people (from FP) join to advertise.
Then they inevitably run into issues because people stop showing up to promote (due to limited effectiveness, I mean why promote on a knock off when the real thing exists and has more people?) or they lack enough staff to effectively provide all the services they want.

 

[Cosmic]

Though in the case of promotion forums especially, I think that some of the hardships of them come from the fact they're built off a fundamentally flawed principle.

I hear this a lot, and maybe I'm missing the point here, but...

STATISTICS
Total posts 1,227,414 • Total topics 115,145 • Total members 21,247 • Our newest member Mark Xavier

Maybe there's only a need in the market for only one or two promotion forums, but that doesn't mean that promotion forums are a bad idea. There is only one satellite radio company, but that one company still makes out like a bandit. FP isn't doing as well in terms of activity as it has in the past, but I don't think that necessarily means that promotion forums are a bad idea. I think our past activity proves that a promotion forum can work very well when forums as a whole are doing well, and I am sure there are also many ways to improve our activity through improving the forums themselves, and updating them to fit in better with the current needs of the market.

 

[Atrox]

Not at all, if you set up right and choose the right path, a promotion forum can go very far. Look over at Forum Spark, they're doing so well.

That is a good point. Forum spark seems to be doing quite well. What do you think is the right path?

No idea. Really, promotion forums aren't the thing dying. It's good Administrators for promotion forums.

 

[VirusZero]

I'm not saying promotion forums are bad. What I am saying is that their effectiveness is limited and that means people are less likely to continue to rely on them.

Also I never stated that a promotion site couldn't become large, nor that there wasn't room for others. (Actually I think that having only one would be a massive disservice because in a monopoly people get screwed. But having multiple good options means they're going to work harder for the end user.)

 

[R44]

Maybe there's only a need in the market for only one or two promotion forums, but that doesn't mean that promotion forums are a bad idea.

You're missing that a LOT of promotion forums spawn off of FP, and thus, attract the same crowd as FP. Why join a new site and promote to the same people, and get the same viewpoint as the same people as you would from here.

Hell, why would you join another promotion forum just to post the same bleating stuff over and over?

 

[Atrox]

Maybe there's only a need in the market for only one or two promotion forums, but that doesn't mean that promotion forums are a bad idea.

You're missing that a LOT of promotion forums spawn off of FP, and thus, attract the same crowd as FP. Why join a new site and promote to the same people, and get the same viewpoint as the same people as you would from here.

Hell, why would you join another promotion forum just to post the same bleating stuff over and over?

Agree'd.

There is only room for a few powerhouse promotion forums.

 

[juststeven]

Websites are dying in general. Apps are taking over. They're quicker and easier. If forums became much more mobile-friendly. Then you're sorted.

 

[Ashley]

I agree with JustSteven and Josh. Promotion forums are by no means dying out completely, but one thing I HAVE been noticing, however, is the fact that they're not as popular as they once were. The major problem is people see active, popular sites like this one and, say, The Admin Zone, and their first thought is, "Wow, these guys are doing awesome! I wish I could be like that!" and then they open their own forum thinking sites like this one and TAZ got popular overnight, when sadly that's not the case. As I said in the Feedback area of this forum, members and posts do not grow on trees: You can't pick a handful off a tree someplace and say, "hey come to my site, it's really good!" and expect them to believe that. I've been in the forum owning bus off and on since 2008, and when I first started out, I learned the hard way that forums do not grow overnight.