Running a forum isn't an easy thing to do and I know people are always looking for help on certain areas. I am doing some research for a new website I am working on and would like to know:
What area did you find hardest when running your forum?
Is there something you would like to learn more about? Ex. Attracting members, SEO, Themeing etc.
What would you pay for this information and how would you want it presented? Ex. E-book, Newsletters, Blog style
The hardest area for anyone has to be attracting new members, if we all knew the secret to doing that, then we would be living in an ideal world.
There are a lot of myths around that say one method is better than another, so finding qualified truth on the subject would be a big plus.
My own feeling is that it's down mainly to perseverance and hard work, and the majority of other methods, like traffic spammers are just there to make money out of the ignorant.
All this ties in with SEO, particularly keywords, get the right keywords for your forum, and people will find you.
As for paying, I don't think that a forum owner is willing to pay what it costs to hire a genuine SEO company who will promote your forum, so we have to rely on free stuff, myth, and luck.
What area did you find hardest when running your forum?
Earning revenue to pay for the upkeep of the forum.
Is there something you would like to learn more about?
Earning revenue and themeing.
What would you pay for this information and how would you want it presented?
If I told you I'd have to kill you. I know exactly how but it's kind of one of the major ideas for my forum.
As others said, getting new member is the hardest thing. Unless your niche is unique or you provide lot of perks for your members, people won't register.
Is there something you would like to learn more about? Ex. Attracting members, SEO, Themeing etc.
I would prefer blog style. I hate e-books as i believe it stresses eyes (strange, i know), and i don't read any newsletters. I'm quite comfortable reading blogs, so i would prefer if its in blog style.
For me, the hardest part is getting the first batch of "core" community members. Members that will be on the site daily or near daily, posting and contributing to the site. This isn't the forum to get those people from, nor is any other promotion or admin forum, because rightly so, we're all admins and have our own sites to post on and contribute to. Posting on others will obviously only last for short periods. That makes getting those members even harder, because now you have to go out and find members on similar niche forums, find a way to advertise without spamming, make use of social media, real life advertising, etc.
As for learning more about something, I'd like to learn more about really getting social media and forums intertwined and connected. I love that concept, and there's a real market for it now that is pretty much untapped. I don't know if I would pay for an ebook or something about it, it would depend on who wrote it, how much it was, etc. I'm a college student, so I don't have too much to spend on something like this, but if it is worth it, I would consider buying it.
The hardest part for me is getting new members and keeping them active.
I wouldn't say earning revenue is the hardest part yet because i'm not even going to think about that until I have enough active members to make it viable.
Getting new members to my general chat forum has always been the toughest job. At least for me as mostly my forum is for my friends. And, not being able to be on forum at all hours meant a good deal of the active posting members went inactive. I knew most of these people and I guess they were there to talk to me. But it's OK, next time I will start a forum that is based less on friendship and more on niche.
