Is your niche too Limited?

[Pinky]

Do you feel that over time your niche has been too limited, locked to a certain type of member?

If that is the case, did you customize your forum sections so that it might bring in members that would not normally join for the niche area but did for your newly customized areas instead?

Did this make a difference, good or bad?

 

[TopSilver]

Hey thanks for the thread. This is a great topic to discuss. I honestly felt so much like exactly what your suggesting on other sites I tried to create. I've had 2 other sites. One for console/pc modding that at it's peak had 5,500 visits a month. Now that's not terrible but I had so much trouble getting users to sign up. I had an add-on where they couldn't see links to downloads until they signed up. After I enabled this I had 1,000 registrations in 6 months and I believe there were only like less then 10 that even made a single post. The other one was for programming. The xbox modding one was called thexboxcloud and it's a shame it didn't succeed. I kept that baby up for 3 years but to no avail.

So I decided I was going to make a more open niche forum and keep the subject matter more widespread instead of leaving it closed of to one single subject. So far we're almost about to hit 4,000 posts. That's not that much but for the 1 year it took to get that many it speaks volume to me for what I believe we'd be capable of in the future. I took the site down for 10 months after it was up for a year and just put it back up 1 month ago. We've had around 600 posts in that single month so not half that bad. We're yet to see the site get big or anything but I'm excited for what the future holds. I'm looking forward to it.

The reason I took it down is I wasn't seeing the traffic I expected out of it. Well apparently after putting it back up we've had almost 10,000 visits this month alone. Unique visitors isn't quite as much but will probably make it to a bit over 2,000 by the end of the month. Regardless this makes me happy. Only because it's like I'm starting new and we still have a steady increase. By 1 years time from now I can see the site having much more.

But yes great topic.

 

[Katrina]

I often wonder if having a Christian forum works against me...until someone says they did a search for a Christian forum and found us that way.

In the very beginning I knew we had to create a bunch of general forums because we had an Atheist helping us with the technical side of things on the site and creating modifications. He enjoyed being there until I made him mad.

If I ever have a different forum in the future I'm not sure it would be a Christian one because even though everyone is invited to join my site I think it's a deterrence by just having the name Christian attached.

 

[Pinky]

Hey thanks for the thread. This is a great topic to discuss. I honestly felt so much like exactly what your suggesting on other sites I tried to create. I've had 2 other sites. One for console/pc modding that at it's peak had 5,500 visits a month. Now that's not terrible but I had so much trouble getting users to sign up. I had an add-on where they couldn't see links to downloads until they signed up. After I enabled this I had 1,000 registrations in 6 months and I believe there were only like less then 10 that even made a single post. The other one was for programming. The xbox modding one was called thexboxcloud and it's a shame it didn't succeed. I kept that baby up for 3 years but to no avail.

So I decided I was going to make a more open niche forum and keep the subject matter more widespread instead of leaving it closed of to one single subject. So far we're almost about to hit 4,000 posts. That's not that much but for the 1 year it took to get that many it speaks volume to me for what I believe we'd be capable of in the future. I took the site down for 10 months after it was up for a year and just put it back up 1 month ago. We've had around 600 posts in that single month so not half that bad. We're yet to see the site get big or anything but I'm excited for what the future holds. I'm looking forward to it.

The reason I took it down is I wasn't seeing the traffic I expected out of it. Well apparently after putting it back up we've had almost 10,000 visits this month alone. Unique visitors isn't quite as much but will probably make it to a bit over 2,000 by the end of the month. Regardless this makes me happy. Only because it's like I'm starting new and we still have a steady increase. By 1 years time from now I can see the site having much more.

But yes great topic.

Little changes made a difference to you then which is great. I think if it's such a limited niche and there's not much activity from new sign-ups or members posting then opening up the forum was a good move for you.

 

[Pinky]

I often wonder if having a Christian forum works against me...until someone says they did a search for a Christian forum and found us that way.

In the very beginning I knew we had to create a bunch of general forums because we had an Atheist helping us with the technical side of things on the site and creating modifications. He enjoyed being there until I made him mad.

If I ever have a different forum in the future I'm not sure it would be a Christian one because even though everyone is invited to join my site I think it's a deterrence by just having the name Christian attached.

I see what you mean with the name as I have the same thing with mine as a niche...but it's just a name and what we make of the forum is a whole different matter.

 

[Katrina]

I see what you mean with the name as I have the same thing with mine as a niche...but it's just a name and what we make of the forum is a whole different matter.

It's hard when people have a bias against you because of the name and what you enjoy.

 

[meetdilip]

Isn't it a good thing ? That it is very clear what your forum is about.

 

[Katrina]

Isn't it a good thing ? That it is very clear what your forum is about.

There are pros and cons though. Even the name haven has a con to when people go there and don't like their beliefs to be disagreed with. I've had members leave because it wasn't all kumbaya.

 

[meetdilip]

Think about Harry Potter forum. It does not have any of the problems you mentioned. 🙂

 

[Darth-Apple]

Good thread. This is an interesting one.

In my opinion, the question isn't whether the niche is too narrow. It's whether there is a market for that niche. There is no such thing as "too narrow" if there is a market for it, but general discussion forums (I run one, so I can speak) often have a lot of trouble as well, simply because the market is flooded with them. There isn't as much "demand" for them because there are so many, even though their niche is wide.

I used to have the opposite problem at a Simcity fansite a very long time ago. After Simcity began losing popularity, we failed to branch out to a wider niche such as minecraft and other games. What we should have done was expanded our approach due to the declining demand for Simcity fansites. The forum ended up closing partly as a result of that.

So even though a wider niche isn't necessarily better, it sometimes can be an advantage if your current niche loses popularity.

 

[Robbie626]

I am currently starting a Student Support blog/forum. I feel it is extremely limiting only focusing on students/teachers. If it is something you are passionate about it should be worth it despite the limitations. 🙂

 

[meetdilip]

In my opinion, your niche should be very clear. If you take hosting providers, each and every one of them will have the word " host " in their domain name. That is how you define your niche.

 

[Page]

same with gaming, just one simple word that they stick with. Gaming.

JUst founding a good niche these no other's have and keep it stronger

 

[Deleted member 4320]

It depends how you market it too. For example there’s probably hundreds or more likely thousands of general discussion forums out there.

You need to market it to the right people and then from there you’ll get more activity. Any subject will make a good niche but you need to find the people that want to talk about it and that’s the hard part.