Half of forums started are defunct

[Grim Day]

The market is saturated! There is hardly a niche where you don't have to compete with hundreds if not thousands of like forums on the web....Especially here...90 to 95% of the forums posted here are gaming and general forums where the market is over saturated and failure is almost inevitable in this case....It's like starting a new car company in the US you have to compete with the likes of Ford, Chevrolet and Chrysler and your chances of success are extremely low.....

Like this battle of the forums you have here..When I do vote I will not vote for a gaming forum or general forum no matter how bad the opposition to that forum looks.....

I think here at FP the categories just be expanded to include more...Like Science and Religion having its own category. That said forums failing are not the fault of FP I know that..Forums failing are admin related....I personally do not see forums even existing on the web in another 5 years or so just because of the over saturation....

 

[SoRonerly]

You dont seem them existing in the future because there are too many of them in the future?

That makes no sense.

Social Media has been the biggest issue for forums, not the admin. I would agree that too many forums is also an issue.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

People want success straight away though. I think if you keep at something long enough in the forum world it will eventually pick up. But you shouldn’t expect a busy forum within weeks of launching.

 

[SoRonerly]

Or even a year, or two possibly.

I dont blame people giving up, its harder then every to get a forum going.

 

[meetdilip]

You can get a busy forum in 6 months. Only if you spend enough on advertising and in a planned, proper manner.

 

[Page]

You can get a busy forum in 6 months. Only if you spend enough on advertising and in a planned, proper manner.

Allot of cash indeed, Talking like over $2K just to get it going!

But like anything else it takes time, SEO is very important and takes months to years to build SEO up and once going it takes time and work to keep at it.

 

[meetdilip]

Another method I have seen is to poach members. ie, critical members. There was an admin who started a new forum just like another famous forum, poached around half of its knowledgeable staff and made them do guides. Then he spammed a lot of boards with his links. Now with a good team, enough content and backlinks, his forum was doing pretty well in less than a year.

 

[SoRonerly]

I find forums that poach other members tend to not work as the members they have poached are probably toxic anyway.

Seen it a million times when someone isnt happy with a forum, starts their own forum to compete, then closes it down months later as nobody cares.

 

[meetdilip]

The famous forum in question had a leech admin too. He never cared about contributors. When they were offered some money and recognition, they went looking for greener patches.

I am not the one to tell which is wrong and not. But such tactics are happening and is very efficient. May it be with Waymo and Apple's driverless car project or forums.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

To have an active forum you only need 2 people. Trying to take other members very rarely works out well.

 

[SoRonerly]

two people talking to each other can get pretty boring pretty quickly.

@meetdilip which forum you talking about?

 

[meetdilip]

I don't want to name the domains. It is their business.

 

[SoRonerly]

is this a company that bought a heap of forums and ran them into the ground? if so I know who you mean... lol

 

[meetdilip]

No, these are two individuals as far as I know.

 

[FindMyDIY]

Forums will come and go depending on the people who run them and if they are making an income from it.

 

[Ashley]

Well, to be honest, sometimes they just fail. It took the third attempt for me to finally have one that stuck. The first two failed within about six months.

It's like starting a business. You just have to try, and try, and try, and one day you'll have one that sticks. We're running on seven years, and while we are a small community with a relatively slower-paced vibe, we are still active and around (and we like it that way. 😛)

Honestly, I always say kudos to those who didn't succeed the first time, got up, and tried again. It takes a lot to grunt through that. It hits a little hard when it fails. When you can get back up and try again, it shows a lot for your dedication to it. That level of dedication is a part of what it takes to be successful, so if you can push yourself to get back up and try again, half the battle is already won there.

That being said, the barrier for entry is pretty low on forums nowadays. I would say that 80-90% of the forums made probably don't make it, but of the ones that don't the majority of them only had 50 posts and 6 members. I don't think those particularly count... 🙂

It actually took me several tries before a project finally stuck. I left my real life job last summer because of my health and this has actually gotten me more time to focus on my forum as well

 

[Darth-Apple]

It actually took me several tries before a project finally stuck. I left my real life job last summer because of my health and this has actually gotten me more time to focus on my forum as well

Honestly, I agree. Real life always goes first, but forums (even in modern times) are kind of nice. It's a hobby for me. When I have free time, I truly enjoy doing it. 🙂

Sometimes a RL break gives a lot of time to focus on the online side of things.

 

[leangreen76]

I've honestly enjoyed making forums since 2002, but it's always been for pleasure for me - never about profit. One of the things that keeps me going is as an owner of an almost 18 year old board, I look back at earlier ones in 2002/3 maybe even 2004 and how much of a n00b admin I was. I've never claimed to be the best admin but having a forum this long has made me realise how much I've grown since then as a site owner. I may have not always made the best or right decisions (Though I would've felt them right at the time) but looking back to then having a forum this long has really made me wiser, better tempered and humility compared to the hot hed I was then back in my 20's!

 

[bomb]

I've honestly enjoyed making forums since 2002, but it's always been for pleasure for me - never about profit. One of the things that keeps me going is as an owner of an almost 18 year old board, I look back at earlier ones in 2002/3 maybe even 2004 and how much of a n00b admin I was. I've never claimed to be the best admin but having a forum this long has made me realise how much I've grown since then as a site owner. I may have not always made the best or right decisions (Though I would've felt them right at the time) but looking back to then having a forum this long has really made me wiser, better tempered and humility compared to the hot hed I was then back in my 20's!

Please share your link and what was your trick that worked?

 

[leangreen76]

Please share your link and what was your trick that worked?

You have to keep in minds back in those days Google algorithms were different and it was alot easier to get your site onto the google search engine results. I think (Maybe incorrect here) that it's changed. I'm sure I read somewhere that they no longer go off things like keywords which used to help highly. Maybe someone here with a lot more knowledge would know.