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Forum or Squeeze/Sales page?

by IMMer1975
6 replies
Ok - Let's say I found a niche - Google shows over 550,000 searches per month with LOW competition. This niche targets a specific demographic and this niche seems generally under-served on the web. Sounds good right?

So, I know this forum generally promotes the Squeeze->List->Sell (or similar) methodology. My question is this:

What about setting up a forum and trying to build a community versus the squeeze/sales page?

It strikes me that with the forum, you get the benefit of a sticky community, advertising opportunities, upsell opportunities and you still get the list - and best of all, all the content is user generated.

Thoughts?
#forum #page #squeeze or sales
  • Profile picture of the author winds
    This forum doesn't generally promote Squeeze and Sales pages, you've just been reading the wrong sections.

    Forums are great if you have the time to invest in a long-term project and a large base of internet traffic. As you can tell from the Warrior Forum itself, a forum in the right community can grow to a huge level and have tons of paid members, advertising options, and paid classified.

    The problem is that it's really not quick money. It's not even average money. Developing a quality community that is sizable enough to make you a good profit will take a long time filled with lots of difficult work for (most likely) years before you are even able to make a living off it.

    So that's why most of us promote the squeeze, list, sell method. You'll put in a lot of work but there's a quicker level of estimation - that is that if you make mistakes along the way, you won't make sales. You'll have to constant change your method until you find one that works, but since you're focusing on short term projects, you'll have the benefit of time to make those mistakes.
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    • Profile picture of the author joseph7384
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      • Profile picture of the author TownMarketing
        Originally Posted by joseph7384 View Post

        It would be much wiser to build a list first and then funnel them into a forum. Without any activity, your forum will not get off the ground.
        This is a very wise statement. Considering the characteristics of your niche (high traffic, low competition) it would be ideal to start with a sales page and build a list. After you have utilized your sales page to gain followers and build a list you can start building your forum. Once you have your forum up and running you can point new members back to your sales page and continue to utilize both.
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  • Profile picture of the author GailTrahd
    And, it bears repeating that developing a forum in a niche is time consuming and a long-term project. So, while it can have great benefits in the coming years, you must be willing to put in the time and commitment to receive those benefits - no large monetary short-term benefits in the development of a forum!
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  • Profile picture of the author RonnyRaygun
    Why not do both?

    Set up an initial website with content generated by you which focuses on serving that demographic. Use this initial website to feel out how much money these people are willing to spend on that niche, and sell them the answers to their problem.

    This will make you appear as the authority and further increase social proof convincing other people joining that niche to buy from you.

    Once you have that brand set up, go ahead and make a forum, to give those people a place to discuss your awesomeness.
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    • Profile picture of the author IMMer1975
      Hi Everybody - Thought I'd share an update on this.

      I decided to go down the Forum route. I started it Dec 6th, 2012. It's really taken off quite well (all that is relative, nothing like the WF )

      As of today I have:
      • 5010 registered members
      • 3800 visitors a day
      • 860,000 page views for the last 30 days
      • 11 pages average per visit
      • Over 29,000 posts
      • Over 615 blogs
      • Over 5200 member images uploaded
      • Over 4000 chat messages per day

      So it has turned out to be a really active and sticky community. I can't compare those metrics to anything since I'm no expert in forums, but its definitely the most active site I have.

      I used PPC to buy my members. I spent $300 per month for the last 3 months or so in ads. Now at least my site is ranking page 1 one on google so I can hopefully drop the ad spend down.

      So all in all very happy with my decision to go with a forum. It is far "stickier" than an email list. That said, I haven't monetized this yet and may realize there is no monetization options, but in the meantime I'll keep growing the forum.

      Thanks for all the tips I've received on *this* forum.
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