Shutting down my forum..

L

Luigi1632

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Well, I'm just not sure whether if I should shut down my forum..

I mean, my forum has been up for almost two years and it still isn't off the ground...

I've done stuff like, doing post exchanges, here and there and I did postloop for a while(might resume..).

But, I still feel like maybe shutting down..

The (free) host I'm using isn't really that great, considering that the server I'm on is suffering from some re ent surges of downtime.

Advertising hasn't even yielded me any results..(Yet, I guess.)

Other than trying to work a light theme.. I dunno what else to do.
The two semi-active members I have for a community, are opposed to me shutting down the forum..

I mean, maybe I could post topics about recent gaming news and continue writing anime/game reviews from time to time.

But a shard of doubt exists in my mind, that my forum will never succeed, despite the fact there's some decent content...

The only thing I can't do is anything paid(as of yet.), since I acted stupid the day I made a paypal account and tried to add some money from a gift card to my account, which put that account on limited access..(I dunno of any alternatives, either)
 
If it's been two years and you have been with it posting daily and such, it should be somewhere by now or there's a problem. If your forum is the one in your sig, near 5k post isn't so bad, but after two years there should be more than that.

My advice is to honestly advertise it more. I'm here near daily and I've never even heard of it before. Try other forums as well that are bigger like DigitalPoint or V7N.

Don't give up, because we all know that won't make it any bigger.
 
You have two active member, so why shut down? You have a small community of people right now, if you just advertise, ask your friends to join, that number will grow. Shutting down and starting over isn't going to make it any easier.
 
Shutting down IMO would be wrong, the site look good, your Alexa rank is excellent, but from what I can make out you have done nothing to improve your PR, you need to work on your keywords, register with site directories etc, all this will improve your PR.

You are so close to having a successful forum to stop now would be the wrong move
 
Alexa rank doesn't mean anything it's by word of mouth and advertising. Have you done facebook ads? Myspace ads? Adwords? For the desperate ofcourse. But you gotta put money and time in it if you want it to succeed.

Get billboards and post them around the city/etc... Trust me it sounds corny but i've done it and it works.

Get bumper stickers and put it on back of your car like for my car I have the bumper sticker SpeakWhatsReal.com in the back/etc
 
Well, I need to find a better free host,because x10's server is slow(for me, that is).

Will including a link to my reviews, when advertising help out a bit?
 
Honestly, I think that you need to think about whether or not you're still enjoying it. If you're still enjoying it, then don't shut it down. If you aren't enjoying it, then maybe it's time to move onto something else. Only you can make this decision.
 
If you have any doubts at all then don't shut it down. If you need to, take a day or two off to regroup. Work on all the things that have been mentioned above

About the paypal account, couldn't you open another one and start from scratch?



The site loaded very slowly for me, try to work on that.
 
How do you make a forum a community? Doesn't matter the size of of the Community, connect with you community, be the community. I know it sounds cliche but it's ture. Keep things new, make people wanting to discuss on your forums... ND I'm sure you won't fail. If you you need a better host with fast speed and reliability, feel free to pm me.
 
Snobothehobo said:
Honestly, I think that you need to think about whether or not you're still enjoying it. If you're still enjoying it, then don't shut it down. If you aren't enjoying it, then maybe it's time to move onto something else. Only you can make this decision.
Click to expand...

This right here. That's the most important question to answer. You answer that, and it will/should be the answer to the question you asked.
 
Snobothehobo said:
Honestly, I think that you need to think about whether or not you're still enjoying it. If you're still enjoying it, then don't shut it down. If you aren't enjoying it, then maybe it's time to move onto something else. Only you can make this decision.
Click to expand...


Spot on! If it's not fun then it's done. So many people out there think they have the next best thing since Swiss Cheese when in fact, they are better suited working for another forum or being a member. Hmmm just like real life, owners, manager, labor etc.

I mean no offense with the above but it does boil down to the fun factor.
 
move to another host and promote it again. it should work, I have the same problem as you but i won't give up.
 
I would just keep on running it, but if your genre is bad, then you might want to change that.
 
I think you should get some paid hosting if your free host is not good. Paid hosting are often better but be sure to find a trustworthy one.
 
The forum looks good to me. I don't think the skin is the issue. I think the problem is you have not found a niche. My site began to thrive when we found a niche. Before that we were pretty much just another roleplaying forum among thousands and not even all that exceptional to Warriors roleplaying forums, at least to the outside viewer who had not yet joined. We set ourselves apart by catering to and fully allowing beginners, something almost all other RPG forums have snubbed. We simply made it as easy as possible to jump into it and didn't give two squirts about the quality of their writing when they joined. We have a high tolerance for goofing off, spammy jokey posts, double posting and such. It has involved some sacrifices, but wound up paying back big in the end, after years of hard work. Reason I'm saying this is that your forum does not appear very specialised. Ask your members what their favourite anime or game is and consider specialising your forum to that, maybe.

Also, how much time do you put into it? From the start of my ownership of my forum I've put at least 6 - 8 hours a day into my forum.
 
Last time I try to specialize the forum, it didn't work out.
And it revolved around a doujin game from all the way back in 2007.
 
Acorn said:
The forum looks good to me. I don't think the skin is the issue. I think the problem is you have not found a niche. My site began to thrive when we found a niche. Before that we were pretty much just another roleplaying forum among thousands and not even all that exceptional to Warriors roleplaying forums, at least to the outside viewer who had not yet joined. We set ourselves apart by catering to and fully allowing beginners, something almost all other RPG forums have snubbed. We simply made it as easy as possible to jump into it and didn't give two squirts about the quality of their writing when they joined. We have a high tolerance for goofing off, spammy jokey posts, double posting and such. It has involved some sacrifices, but wound up paying back big in the end, after years of hard work. Reason I'm saying this is that your forum does not appear very specialised. Ask your members what their favourite anime or game is and consider specialising your forum to that, maybe.

Also, how much time do you put into it? From the start of my ownership of my forum I've put at least 6 - 8 hours a day into my forum.
Click to expand...


Do you work, student, 6 to 8 hours per day? You offer sound advice but the time per day stood out to me as a red flag, suggest you quantify that time frame so people understand how you have that kind of time. I'm Jealous :lol:
 
But, other game/anime reviews.. can't think of anything else, other than some novels I plan to write..

However, I hid the section for my novel/story schtick, because there's nothing really to discuss about it at the moment, since I haven't started writing yet.. due to other things I need to finish.
 
Acorn said:
The forum looks good to me. I don't think the skin is the issue. I think the problem is you have not found a niche. My site began to thrive when we found a niche. Before that we were pretty much just another roleplaying forum among thousands and not even all that exceptional to Warriors roleplaying forums, at least to the outside viewer who had not yet joined. We set ourselves apart by catering to and fully allowing beginners, something almost all other RPG forums have snubbed. We simply made it as easy as possible to jump into it and didn't give two squirts about the quality of their writing when they joined. We have a high tolerance for goofing off, spammy jokey posts, double posting and such. It has involved some sacrifices, but wound up paying back big in the end, after years of hard work. Reason I'm saying this is that your forum does not appear very specialised. Ask your members what their favourite anime or game is and consider specialising your forum to that, maybe.

Also, how much time do you put into it? From the start of my ownership of my forum I've put at least 6 - 8 hours a day into my forum.
Click to expand...
I'll trade you FP for real life hours :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:
 
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