Does a Gaming Forum pose potential?

Anything is possible in the world of IM. Although the market is pretty saturated, solid content, great marketing skills, with something new and exciting. All it takes is hard work and a bit of elbow grease and you can accomplish whatever you set out to do.

This word "gaming" means different things in different countries.

I may be wrong, but I think that in the US it usually means "playing games" (e.g. computer games/video games) and in most or all of the rest of the English-speaking world - and certainly the UK - it tends to mean "gambling" (e.g. roulette or horse-race betting)?

I imagine in either case the answer should be "yes", but gambling (unless I'm very out of touch with reality) is likely to be easier to monetize than computer games?

I'm also interested in the way you say "in which I gain traffic and money". I think you gain money from it, but you have to attract traffic to it: no point in imagining that it's going to attract its own traffic just by sitting there?

Well I am somewhat a new marketer in the Internet world. I've just had this idea as it's always interested me. Especially since I play video games.

My biggest concern is advertising.

I actually have consulted a client a few months back. Now I see they make a few $k with a gaming forum + site. So yes, it's very possible

Agreed we have built our company around video gaming and even launched an ad network around gaming that grew into what we have today.

a webmaster from Switzerland once contacted me requesting for gaming website or domain alongside other niche to purchase for his client from Japan sometime August '13,well! quite profitable venture for sure.

Well I have a domain for the idea, but as a new marketer, what are the first steps to starting this?

It's not going to be easy unless you're a hardcore gamer yourself or have 4-5 active partners with you to build up the community.

Hello,

It's great that you want to start a gaming forum! I'm going to share some information with you and I hope you find it helpful.

Like most niches, gaming is incredibly saturated - every aspect of it. There are already large, loyal communities that dominate the internet. Of course anyone else would say "sure go for it", and usually I would say that too. However, there are alternate methods of creating a 'gaming' community that I would advise you take time to look into before starting a forum.

Let's take PC gaming for example. There is a popular piece of software/community known as Steam. If you are unsure about what this it, feel free to Google it. It's a place where you can buy PC games, download them, play with friends, ect. Most importantly it's a place where you can start groups! There are ALOT of Steam groups - like Facebook groups and websites, they all target a niche - mainly to do with gaming. Why am I telling you about Steam? Because to build up a Steam community you do not need paid advertisements and people are much more likely to invite their friends to your group.

Perhaps I'm going on a tangent here. What I'm basically saying is that it's going to be hard for you to generate traffic to a gaming forum in an already loyal and saturated market. If you look at alternate methods for example Steam groups, you'll find a targeted audience (gamers) and you'll be able to directly send out announcements as if your group members were part of an email list.

You may want to throw this information away but with the development of hardware in recent years, with a release not so far away, PC gaming and Steam will probably grow considerably larger.

Just some food for thought.
- Jack.

The gaming niche has a lot of potential, especially for an internet marketer. The best I think is for you to get many written content beforehand so that you can focus more on the marketing efforts. There are many writing services out there but the cheapest ones are usually on iWriter. You can also pay 50 people to start discussions on the forum so that it gains some momentum. The forum won't gain exposure if it isn't active.

Also, you can build a list that attracts gamers. This is the best option sine you can market CPA offers related to gaming to them. That is instant cash in your pockets.

I will try and chime in on this more later, I am traveling to LA today for E3 Expo this week... but I can help you out

Potential? Yes. Worth bothering? I wouldn't. Especially a forum. A site about a specific niche, now perhaps that is worth doing.

I have always believed a gaming forum has a lot of potential, but also very tough to build up. Yes, there are already many gaming forums around, but you can always build around a particular game or series with so many new games coming out monthly.

The biggest reason why I've not done this myself is the sheer amount of time and effort needed to build a thriving community that will last more than a month. It's doable and has very high potential, but also hard work with a bit of luck thrown in.

it's very hard to start a new forum nowadays. You really need either have a good base that wants to come over before it launches to populate it, or offer something no one else does, which with gaming I have no idea what hasn't been done. My own forum was much easier, as it's a niche market music style and it's the only forum for it, so my job was a lot easier.

It's already been said but maybe worth repeating. The gaming forum niche (assuming you mean console or computer games) is extremely saturated. Every game has it's own official forum and half a dozen fan forums. Thousands of generic 'gaming' forums already well established. You could start a forum around a specific upcoming game but if that game flops then your forum will to. And, after that game comes out, the forum participation might sizzle anyway. Maybe if you could come up with a new idea about gaming, some new game technology to cover, some unique gaming aspect. Maybe then, you would have a forum niche that people would be willing to explore. But, as said before, most gamers already have their own favorite game related forum and very loyal to that community. And, that's one thing a new forum doesn't have, 'community'.