Buying a Forum/Blog vs Making a New One
- Thread starter Jason76
- Start date
I haven't bought a fourm/blog that was fully active running site. There are positive and negative. I seen people spent time building and site then after a month of opening they sold it.
I think the market would be tough unless you had something spectacular.
I buy forums because it's very difficult to build a forum, or even a blog. Even having a blog is harder. To treat it like a news site? Damn, you're going to have to find a good niche to dive your hands and feet into... otherwise forget it.
Wordpress is free, but it's not really extendable or easily "designed" from scratch. You'd need either a programmer or a coder to design your wordpress website to be "attractive" and different from the 1,000 other websites out there. Unless you are in a niche that lasts for a long time. I had a niche blog, but it used to deal with one game. It was very popular, but I found it hard to transfer from that to my new blog. This is why I love and hate blogging. It takes a lot of time to think about what you're going to write, but I hate it that the weakness for blogs is that you can't repeat the process all over again, consistently. I launched a Black Ops 3 Blog - and I wasn't able to get "first news" hot article. And that's the meat of what you really want for your blog. Otherwise marketing for a news piece is HARD. I stopped doing blogs for this reason.
Whereas with Forums - I can choose the right software package for my site and just launch it. I can buy a skin, edit and modify the skin to my liking, without any kind of coding knowledge. That is, if I want it to be attractive, and marketable. I could do this with blogs, yes, but with blogs, you need a specific skill to do some "jobs." You want a "social" aspect of the site? Coding. You want to put an info "box" for video game info? Coding. You want to put a review system in place? Coding. These are intricate stuff that needs to be coded or you find a plugin that does it. But even with a plugin, if you don't know code, you won't get it the way you want it implemented.
I could go on and on, but I feel that forums are easier to launch, than blogs.
Wordpress is free, but it's not really extendable or easily "designed" from scratch. You'd need either a programmer or a coder to design your wordpress website to be "attractive" and different from the 1,000 other websites out there. Unless you are in a niche that lasts for a long time. I had a niche blog, but it used to deal with one game. It was very popular, but I found it hard to transfer from that to my new blog. This is why I love and hate blogging. It takes a lot of time to think about what you're going to write, but I hate it that the weakness for blogs is that you can't repeat the process all over again, consistently. I launched a Black Ops 3 Blog - and I wasn't able to get "first news" hot article. And that's the meat of what you really want for your blog. Otherwise marketing for a news piece is HARD. I stopped doing blogs for this reason.
Whereas with Forums - I can choose the right software package for my site and just launch it. I can buy a skin, edit and modify the skin to my liking, without any kind of coding knowledge. That is, if I want it to be attractive, and marketable. I could do this with blogs, yes, but with blogs, you need a specific skill to do some "jobs." You want a "social" aspect of the site? Coding. You want to put an info "box" for video game info? Coding. You want to put a review system in place? Coding. These are intricate stuff that needs to be coded or you find a plugin that does it. But even with a plugin, if you don't know code, you won't get it the way you want it implemented.
I could go on and on, but I feel that forums are easier to launch, than blogs.
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Difficult is good news to those who have spent years trying to build something cause it means they have an edge. Difficult means most will give up.
I don't think so, there are always sites going up for sale. It's never the right subject or if there was! the lowest price is to high.
You are misunderstanding me. The problem with blogs and forums today is that they are hard to get off the ground. Not only because of the "writer's block" but deeper issues such as slow spider searching, slow indexing, slow this and that. You buy forums to push that speed of indexing along. When you mix two issues together, you have a hard time getting the word out. And on top of that, users will have to be the one doing the "word of mouth" for you, or not at all.
Those who spend years building the forum have the edge, but most people who "give up" aren't giving up because they can't do it, it's because the subject or niche isn't working out. That's why I love forums for a reason; I can just take that database and merge it into the project that's working. With blogs, it's a harder process from what I understand. I mean, I can import the posts and whatnot, but to maintain the readership? It's gone as soon as you close up the niche site and put it into the newer, more successful site. There's no way to reach users from e-mails on blogs. Unless you set up something like mailchimp.
That's the ultimate weakness of blogs.
I think the perk of buying something already made is it's already off the ground, and you just have to alter it to make it more like you. A lot of the work is already done for you, and all you're really doing is adding your own personal touch to it.
But when you make something yourself, you have the satisfaction of building it from the ground up. You have to do everything yourself (with maybe some help from others), but when it's done, there's a sense of pride because you did it yourself, you didn't just get someone else to help you because you did it yourself from start to finish.
But when you make something yourself, you have the satisfaction of building it from the ground up. You have to do everything yourself (with maybe some help from others), but when it's done, there's a sense of pride because you did it yourself, you didn't just get someone else to help you because you did it yourself from start to finish.
I'm doing this way. I've developed site/blog (Not forum) for months from scratch and then sold it on Flippa.
cool, nice way to earn income
@daica85 Bro, can you estimate the price of my forum if I sell it there?
I prefer to create a new forum or blog because it is like starting from the first base. An existing website may have hidden problems like it may be a favorite of trolls and spammers. Worse, it may have a history of being hacked. What's good in an existing forum or blog is the presence of followers and members. However, if the forum has stagnated then it is not a good choice since you will have to start from the beginning again.
Well it's perfect for those people that doesn't want to start from the very beginning and just wanted to take over. Also rather then seeing an site closed down, it's good to see someone taken it over to keep it alive
A lot of the time when a forum is bought out, it turns into a shadow of it's former self.
I have even sites which were bought, merged into larger competitors, and practically all the members left leaving the big dog's (aka The Admin Zone).
People have loyalty to their admins, it seems. A lot more than you would expect some of the time. Also, there can be a bit of a culture clash.
I'm not sure how much money it would get, to be honest.
My ISP charges me about $140/month just for FTTC internet (although, they are surprisingly reliable), so I don't think the profits would justify the losses, if I'm looking at it as a business venture rather than as a hobby.
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