I'm stuck on what to do next with my community

7 replies
Mods: I apologize if this is in the wrong section or not on the proper topic.

My Story

I started a beatmaking forum as just a forum and now it's grown into this much bigger site. I have competitions, articles, and it's well known in my niche. However, since it's not a website that I initially tried to make money from, it's become a problem at this point. So years ago I added Adsense which worked out well at first but now the payouts are very low.

Basically, I'm at the point now where I don't know what else to do. I've done some affiliate marketing but my members just weren't buying anything. I get a very steady amount of traffic daily, and also I get numerous new members each day, however not many people are posting regularly.

Part of it is that I want to of course make some income from the site, the other part is that I just don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've written countless articles, done my SEO, yet it just seems like my site is just not at the top. When I look at other sites similar to mine, they have much less in regards to articles and forum members.

I know that it's possible that my website is just not something that's profitable. I get that. But with the consistent traffic and new signups, I have no idea why no one is more involved. I have some members that stop by daily and interact, but not nearly like years ago. Part of that is due to social media, but that's a whole other mess.

Anyway, I'm looking for some sort of input and ideas. I've been going at this alone for years and maybe I'm not seeing something.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
#community #stuck
  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    So...what do these people BUY?

    Do you have a list? Ask them what they'd like you to offer them (take the responses with a grain of salt; people will misguide you while trying to be well-meaning.)

    Do they want beats? Coaching? Reviews on things you can make an affiliate commission on?

    They call me the Hiphopopotamus

    My lyrics are bottomless

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    ...

    ...
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    If it were mine I'd look into making my site more social even though to do so you might need to hire a developer. Frankly I think forums are dying. Every one of the ones I regular are waaaaaaay down in usage. Theres so much more you can do and interact with on social sites. Your users could earn point for their battles and have a cash prize at the end. They could follow each other's music, upload beats to their profile pages and in competitions and I'd make some of those features premium for small monthly fee.

    Can't say it would work as everything in life is a slight risk but if they are not ad clickers then building income into the site features itself is a way to go
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    • Profile picture of the author grantus
      Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

      So...what do these people BUY?

      Do you have a list? Ask them what they'd like you to offer them (take the responses with a grain of salt; people will misguide you while trying to be well-meaning.)

      Do they want beats? Coaching? Reviews on things you can make an affiliate commission on?

      They call me the Hiphopopotamus

      My lyrics are bottomless

      ...

      ...

      ...
      They normally buy equipment and sounds, both of which I have tried to market to them, unfortunately only a few clicked through. This is the unfortunate part. I send out a weekly newsletter which they do like, and even then there were only a few purchases.

      Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

      If it were mine I'd look into making my site more social even though to do so you might need to hire a developer. Frankly I think forums are dying. Every one of the ones I regular are waaaaaaay down in usage. Theres so much more you can do and interact with on social sites. Your users could earn point for their battles and have a cash prize at the end. They could follow each other's music, upload beats to their profile pages and in competitions and I'd make some of those features premium for small monthly fee.

      Can't say it would work as everything in life is a slight risk but if they are not ad clickers then building income into the site features itself is a way to go
      Yeah, I see that a lot. Many forums have gone way down, but as I mentioned, mine is still strong, yet it's the consistency when it comes to clicking on ads or affiliate links, is what's missing.

      That's a good idea about earning points for the battles! And yes, charging a small monthly fee I think is good too, but that's where I'm a bit stumped because there's not much I can offer in return. I do have a few things to offer, but I don't want to put that out there and no one bites. I'll have to think of some stuff to offer them though.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Here's a shortcut...

    If you can't get much love from search engines due to your content, take the SIDE ENTRANCE and develop a robust community instead.

    Contrary to conventional wisdom, you don't need a HUGE number of people to have a robust community.

    Only a few dozen VERY ACTIVE PEOPLE are enough.

    Give them symbolic or mental incentives and get them to EVANGELIZE your site on social media.
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    • Profile picture of the author grantus
      Originally Posted by writeaway View Post

      Here's a shortcut...

      If you can't get much love from search engines due to your content, take the SIDE ENTRANCE and develop a robust community instead.

      Contrary to conventional wisdom, you don't need a HUGE number of people to have a robust community.

      Only a few dozen VERY ACTIVE PEOPLE are enough.

      Give them symbolic or mental incentives and get them to EVANGELIZE your site on social media.
      That's a great idea. I do have dozens of very active members, so maybe right now I should focus on social media.

      Originally Posted by Engineer2Blogger View Post

      Split test a bunch of related clickbank products. I'm sure you'll be able to find something that will sell more than adsense will bring in.
      Originally Posted by misterkailo View Post

      yea first test with Clickbank products for that niche .. easy to get that set up to try it out
      I thought it was against Adsense's policy to have other ads? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else. Do you guys recommend certain clickbanks?
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  • Profile picture of the author Engineer2Blogger
    Split test a bunch of related clickbank products. I'm sure you'll be able to find something that will sell more than adsense will bring in.
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  • Profile picture of the author misterkailo
    yea first test with Clickbank products for that niche .. easy to get that set up to try it out
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