Jul
Starting a Forum – Tips From Forum Expert Lee Dodd
I was just going through folders of crap on my hard drive and came across a radio show featuring Lee Dodd. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s like the uber-guru when it comes to forums. I think the show was from smallbusinesstrends.com or smbtrendwire.com, and it’s from March 2006, but the advice is still applicable.
Believe it or not, this show actually gave me a few tips, and I’ll admit, it was worth my time! So I’m going to share some tips from this expert along with my advice when it comes to online forums (or discussion boards.)
Let’s dive right in to the forum building process…
Pick a Topic
Start by making a list of topics, preferably ones you’re passionate about. (In other words, a topic you could research and discuss every single day and not get bored.)
Research
Then you need to check competition and analyze the topics (or niches.)
You can do this by opening three browsers (google, msn, yahoo) and searching for “yourtopic forums” where yourtopic is actually your chosen topic. That should give you a good list of competitors for each topic. You’ll want to join each forum, check it out, and see if you can come up with some better ideas. The goal is to come up with a way to differentiate your forum, whether it will be more specific or include member photo galleries or whatever.
Next, pick the forum software you want to use. Lee likes vBulletin (VB) because it is the most stable and you can buy an owned license for $160. (If you want a free solution, I’d say that Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is the best choice.)
Web Hosting
Then find a good host. A shared hosting plan will work if you’re just starting out, and you could move to a dedicated server later. For more advice, Lee recommends webhostingtalk.com.
Domain Name
Every site requires a domain name, so pick that next. But take your time, because it’s a VERY important choice. You want to choose a natural domain, the shorter the better. It’s good to have “forum” or “board” in your domain name. No dashes though. Or you could choose a brandable domain name, sort of like the trendy new Web 2.0 names (Flickr, Bebo, etc.)
Website Design
Almost forgot, the website itself… You need to design the site, which is also a very important step. It needs to capture the attention of the user, and it’s best to get a completely custom theme.
Get Moderators
Once the site is up, moderators are very important. Moderators help watch for spam and angry members, both of which can cause serious problems if not taken care of quickly. There is no magic number that you need; it depends on the size of the forum and how much moderation is needed. The rule of thumb is to get 3-5 moderators on board in the beginning, which will help get the ball rolling.
Each moderator can handle about 100-200 posts per day, so a forum with 1500 posts per day requires 10-15 volunteer moderators. When choosing moderators, get people who love the topic and love your community. They are volunteers, but they get some recognition as a big part of the community.
Get Visitors and Members
Now that you are ready, you need some people to come and participate!
For that, it’s all about the content. You simply have to have the best information. To get people coming back, never have an empty forum. The “zero posts” will drive people away instantly.
One common cause of “zero posts” is having too many sub-forums on your forum. Start with 6-8 sub-forums and make sure each one has posts. You can increase that number as membership and activity increases.
You want people to post, and there are a few ways to accomplish that. One is to hire paid forum posters, although that is pricey if you want quality posters. Watch out for people who don’t speak English! Another idea is to offer incentives, such as contests for posting quality topics and Adsense revenue sharing.
Here are some ideas to get traffic:
- Use digg, social bookmarking, and free press releases to get the word out.
- Post on other forums and use your sig link to display your forum’s URL.
- Advertise on similar sites that don’t yet have a forum.
- Do basic link building, directory submissions, etc.
- Use mod-rewrite to get Search Engine friendly URLs (for better organic traffic.)
Tip: When using your sig link at other forums, be sure to use descriptive anchor text to entice people to click. (Also note that some forums frown on posting links to competing forums!)
Monetizing a Forum
Now let’s make money!!
No matter what ads you’re using, TEST, TEST, TEST! How else could you compare which ads work best?
Here are some options for display ads that make you money:
- CPC ads like Adsense and YPN.
- CPM ads like BurstMedia, Tribal Fusion, Casale, and FastClick.
- CPA ads like CJ, Linkshare, and Lee’s personal favorite, Azoogle.
- Private advertisers.
- Forum sponsorships.
- Use the forum’s archive pages and put ads on them, too.
- Sell links (try TLA.)
- Donations from members.
- Have ads in your newsletters.
Note: The newsletter is a MUST, since community is all about communication. Keep users updated on the site, and make them feel like part of the community.
How Much Money?
So how much money can you make running a forum?
For a young forum, if you do hard work for 6 months: Expect 1000-2000 visits daily for $20-60 daily income.
For a year of continued growth: Expect 3000-5000 visits daily for $2000-5000 per month.
Make sure you researched profit potential of your niche, though, or you could be in for an unpleasant surprise!
Now let’s go back to forum sponsorships for a bit, because Lee had some extra advice for that. You might be thinking “why would a company sponsor one of my forums?” so Lee has an example…
Take sprintusers.com… Maybe a company sells ringtones, and that would be a great thing to advertise on such a forum, especially for a “Ringtones” sub-topic. Underneath the specific forum’s link would be a text link like “Thanks to X Website for sponsoring this forum” (where X Website is the sponsor’s website.)
There you go, now you should be building forums like a champ! I’m sure Lee Dodd has plenty of secrets still up his sleeve, and you probably won’t realize how hard it is to create a forum until you try, but hell, go for it anyway!
Final thoughts on Forums:
If you’re looking to build a successful forum, you better have some time to do it, be very hands-on, be part of the face of the community, be ‘out there’ posting many times per day, be visible, and expect to work hard and put in the time.
Want to learn more? Take a look at Lee’s blog TheForumFix.com along with one of his newer forums, EarnersForum.com.
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Great tips and analysis!
What’s Up?,
I’m just starting here. And it feels like an awesome forum.
I just wanted to give a friendly hello to all of you here.
-Susan
Hello!
How are you?
I was searching for tips to start a forum when i stumbled upon your page. Very well written !
Thank you for this great article. In most forums the novices ask questions, and more advanced users answer them. If we want to keep beginning and intermediate users more engaged, we need them to shift from asker to answerer much earlier. That is very important.
Nice article. Another good way to monetize forums is to have premium levels of membership with special privileges, like the ability to have larger signatures etc. Dnforum does this well.
The most difficult thing about starting a forum, is active users! Thats why sometimes you have to jump start it by asking your own questions and answering yourself
Hi,
Thanks for the tips, Ive just started up my forum.
After 2 weeks I have got 6 users, think Ive gone wrong somewhere!!!
Found this guide and considering the competition bit now.
Thanks Again
Chris
Hi just a few questions please,
Why do you state that the domain should have no dashes? Dont dashes in your domain if it is a keyword domain rank higher than just 3 words put together i.e new-york-forum.com as opposed to newyokforum.com? Of course you could have both? What about using the term blog as opposed to forum? Is that not a more popular term nowadays?
Many thanks and look forward to the answers on the above,
George
I didn’t know almost anything about forums until now. I didn’t know how to create and how to use them. I thought that they are boring, but you get my interest. I will start one this days. I will tell you more after I do it.
Its harder to make money from a forum especially in mmo related niches. otherwise they are a great tool for building up a community.
Great and informative tips for someone to start a new forum.The most important factor of your forum is your visitors ..Try to get as much visitors who love to be in your forum and feel good to come there
WOW. That is the best article I have a read in a long long time. I bookmarked it before I even got to the end. I almost can’t believe you are giving away this information for free. Crazy guy.
Keep articles like this coming! I also read your other article about TNX.net which was also something I was looking for.
Thanks.
P.S. Awesome name for the site too!
Expect 1000-2000 visits daily for $20-60 daily income. Where does the income from? If 2000 visits gives you $20. Then 100 visitor gives you $1. If you use adsense, and you have 1 click for $0.1. Then you will be needing 10 clicks from 100 visits / person. That means 10% CTR. Wow. Could you give example of the forum?
I personally finds it harder to monetize from a forum due to the time required and the amount of hard work you have to put in. Aside from all that, you have to be really committed to your own forum where there are many things that can’t be done by outsiders. Instead of spending too much time on one thing, i recommend spending the same amount of time doing more. – Rif Chia
Very informative and helpful. I’ve always had a big problem starting forums, i always give up but one day i’ll follow this to perfection and make sure i bring one to life. Thanks Lee, very kind!
@Mr Article
Forum is never easy to set up. However, there are still certain factors that you can focus on to ensure that it might at least be a success.
Roger Hamilton
i would just say its very hard to open a forum individually. at the beginning if u dont hav much support from ur partners or frnds its very hard to continue & succeed. u cant write all posts alone
make a group & it will help u to manage & u dont need to think of moderators. each can contribute to popularize it.
Really great article. I am just starting a forum and these tips will surely come in handy. Thanks so much Sucker
Forum is nice, if you have high PR. Because it has lots of pages…
i would say one good forum building process and tips and also credit goes to you with forum expert to provide forum building tips and tricks but this process will take long time not only this process but to build successful form on any topic it would take time, while tricks and planed information like this with you it make easy.
Great tips, I was just researching about how to start a forum. I was thinking about affiliate talks, may be topic where people will get money back if they buy from the poster affiliate link ( not sure if many people would agree to part with % of their commission)I personaly would.
I’ll let you know how it goes
Cheers
How to get people commenting on forums? Got one on my site and though I have good traffic still not many comments…like to learn more about this
I had a forum which I quit because it is very time consuming to manage (moderate) a forum.
Thanks, really useful ~
Maybe topic where people will get money back if they buy from the poster affiliate link ( not sure if many people would agree to part with % of their commission)I personaly would.thanks/
Great tips, this makes me want to start a blog/forum. Looks like there’s money in it if you do your homework beforehand.
I should start a forum….. I definitely am looking for more ways to make money.
In view of this forum I seem to have required a certain degree of improvement! Thank you Forum Expert Lee Dodd very much
I’ve been seeing new forums springing up every day, some don’t work AT ALL, while the others might become addictive to it’s users. My experience shows that most specific forums may work better than general ones!
I think forum is a great way to drive what people used to say “passive traffics” because our part only promoting it at first, after that the members will do it for us.
Lee Dodd apparently DOESN’T know how to keep members at a forum. He is running ads that contain TROJANS and MALWARE on his diaperswappers website. MANY members are leaving over this. I wonder what his new “strategy” will be?
Foundational stuff that will always be applicable and relevant. Without this you cant progress forward. I personally dont know if I’ll go the forum route, as blogs have taken over in a big way, but sound advice nevertheless.
Hi.
I should start a forum….. I definitely am looking for more ways to make money.
Thanks.
Nice tips about forum. I think forum is particular topic for forum more beneficial.
Great tips about foruns!
I started a forum in my website and it´s having great results, lots of feedbacks of my patients and costumers.
Nice post!
I’ve thought about starting a forum as a offshoot from my website however, my main concern has always been that of getting people to post to get it going. Paying people to do it seems so artificial to me and just could not bring myself round to getting people to artifically post (paid or not).
Lee
Great tips and analysis!
As well as using my website to promote my services, I have also been looking into other ways of monetizing it. I have already integrate Amazon Books into the site but didn’t think of selling advertising or links on it. Thanks.
Lisa
Making money from blogs is a difficult thing to do, there is not much that a reader can get from there except the content that is provided. In a forum though, the reader can participate and become actively involved.
Thanks for the great article; this is an excellent guide to start a forum. I have recently installed PHPBB on my website and that working fine although it’s a free script.
Thanks for sharing. What a great post!!
I was searching for tips to start a forum when i stumbled upon your page. Very well written !
I should start a forum….. I definitely am looking for more ways to make money.
Thanks.
This is great great resource for anyone trying to start their own forum. I am trying to start one in my niche. I am trying to get a designer at get a freelancer.
Well, all the good domain names for New York Forum are gone so we are going with the dash.
Wish us luich and thanks for the tips.
Simple Machines Forum software is by far the best for the free. I’ve used vB before but simple machines is damn good.
starting a forum is a nice idea but, as you mention, needs hard work. And cannot be started by beginners. However, your tips are quite helpful.
simple machine is good but how do i stop the spam
simple machine is good but how do you stop the spam on these forums.