RE: Starting a forum.. what do you think about this..

I would get a nice signature banner made and visit small business forums, lol. They are always looking for SEO help. And after a few visits to your forum, they'll bookmark you and tell their friends.

Forums can quickly become a massive drain on your time. Unless you have a very good way of monetizing it I wouldn't bother.

They are difficult to get going and once they become viable the active members (who fully realize that they are the content providers) can often resent the owner's attempt to make money off their community.

I've been involved in building several successful forums but Kierk is right, you must be passionate about your site because they do require a fair bit of energy to start and keep them going. You can make a lot and like already mentioned make sure you have monetised the site before you start inviting people so they expect it from the start because some do get all uppity about the ads but ads make the forum worth your while. They can be placed nicely (not in every post!) so members don't have to fight them (768 banners top and bottom for example) and you should be ok.

If you can help your members make real money you can also charge a bit as long as you end up being free overall (e.g. they make more than you charge for being a member). This is how stock market and trading forums make LOTS of money - because they make money for their members. SEO is a bit different as it's a bit more of an intangible so maybe it'll be ok to charge for "extra services" and use your forum as a way to attract the right type of people to sell something useful to.

Having said that, forums are a great way to share your passion for a topic. Once the posts are made they live forever so the content can still attract visitors years down the road. My advice is to put a delay timer (via plugin) on the login to foil the registration bots as the best way to avoid waking up to a forum filled with spam (as me how I know) because just one rogue porn bot spammer can upset a lot of people.

All in all, forums are great fun. If you have a passion to run one I say go for it.

There's a good article about creating an authority forum that you might want to read. It was written by one of the best looking Internet marketers that I know of. Here is the link: Successfully Creating an Authority Forum | Internet Marketing Strategies by E Brian Rose

Forums are great, but make sure you spend the time on them as stated above. Otherwise nobody will stick around. If you're going the paid route, treat your members like gold, give them new content frequently and make sure you continually advertise to get new blood in there.

It works.

I sold my best forum but my posts still exist and are referred to to this day and I have one that's been running for years (since 2007) for members only (all the specific forums are hidden from public) in an unrelated niche but I can shortcut a lot of pain for you if you like. Head on over to the site in my signature and start a (free) support session and I'll give you the lowdown on what I know.

Do you have any money to spend on a VBulletin license? I think it's much better than the free PHPBB. This forum runs on VB and most big successful forums do too. I can tell you from personal experience they are a cash (or goodwill) bonanza if you can add enough value to people's lives so they pay monthly fee. I was involved in a forum that charged $99 per month and I can tell you we ALL enjoyed the 5 figure passive monthly incomes (there were three of us in partnership).

Forums can make you a LOT of money if you can charge access but because of the massive amounts of cash they can generate you are best off dealing in a subject that you are very passionate about (and would do in your spare time for free) so you can be really good value.

Tip: Set yourself up to receive an email about every post and set your inbox to receive email every minute. Nothing impresses a member more than getting an instant response from the admin.

I even have a VB Forum sitting waiting doing nothing already setup if you want to go and have a play. It's even about making money. I won't put the link here because there is adsense on it but if you come and see me at the site which is open at the moment I'll take you for a free tour and a spin. If anyone else wants to watch or join in I'll start a webinar.

Forums are great. I had an online gaming community at one point with 5,000+ reg'd users. I never charged because of the genre, but once people get on it - they can get quite addicted so long as you make it appealing.

Very well said, yea money is the last thing on my mind, I just want to get the community thing going.

I already make a decent living with my SEO services so the forum is just there to communicate with other link minded people.

Mind sending me a link to your forum? If its a public forum.

Hey thanks. Yeap thats what I am thinking of doing. I am thinking of getting 1-2 full time content writers to first write good quality content just to seed the forum u know?

Afterwards, I will start doing some case studies. It shouldn't be too difficult to do.

I was also wondering, what is the estimated cost of just designing a forum and getting it going? Any suggestions would be helpful.

It might not be a great idea. (I hate to say never, but hear me out.)

I've been a member of sherdog.com for over 8 years. I was a huge MMA fan long before it was popular. When I joined in 2003, it was a tiny site, and the owner never made a god damn penny. But, he spent TONS of time & effort to get it big.

Just by happenstance, UFC and MMA blew up over the last few years, and finally he's seeing some money.

Now, what's the point? Well, if it wasn't for the happenstance of the MMA community blowing up, sherdog would still be tiny and broke. (Imagine having your forum for 10 years and it not being profitable? Do you have that type of passion?)

If I were you, I would make the forum only if you want to do it FOR YOURSELF and not for money.

Would you ENJOY providing great content and contributing to the community?

I think it can be profitable over time, but will be time consuming; so only proceed if it's truly worthy of your devotion.

PS: PM me if you get it going I'll contribute to it.

Also guys, can you give me a couple of suggestions on how to make the forum unique? Maybe enter new markets.. have new kinds of content? I am open to suggestions!

Warrior Forums is an awesome Forums Posting website for all . with Dofollow Signature it gives a best result to Website PR also. i am Using this forums since 2 years.