Buy a forum website for passive income: is it a good idea?

PerformanceMan

11 years ago

There's nothing passive about income derived from a forum - which requires an 'active' stance.

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TimothyTorrents

11 years ago

You can definitely make good money from a online forum.

But, it is not as easy as you might think. First, you need to build the community, which takes a considerable amount of time. You also need to make sure that people keep coming back to the forum and don't just post once or twice and then never return.

I helped a few friends build forums in the past and trust me, it is not easy to get people to continue interacting with the community.

Second, you need to moderate the forum closely and deal with spam bots. Your forum will be harassed on a daily basis.

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rapidtransit

11 years ago

I own a number of forums. Some successful and some not. They require quite a bit of work. they need to be actively cultivated and moderated to ensure that they don't whither and die off. Also, the reckless push for instant SEO success has resulted in a huge wave of spammers and spam bots flooding forums with bogus users and posts. (subject for another post but I am telling you these short-sighted "SEO expert" businesses with zero regard for actually building business value are creating so much white noise that many real businesses with legit backlinks, users and posts, etc. are getting drown out. These guys and their practices are the scourge of the net).

Rant over. Anyway, I'm lucky enough to have built a volunteer staff of moderators and loyal members (60,000) who are vigilant about keeping users and spammers at bay, at the same time, keeping content fresh. My best piece of advice is to create a forum based on one of your passions and/or expertise because you'll need to spend a lot of time and effort on the subject matter so you'd better enjoy it (ya know, labor of love and all that).

I may put together a post based on my experience of being in the forum business for +8 years....I can highlight what I've done right (actually build a profitable biz) and wrong (countless threats of lawsuits and even a couple of death threats).

Best of luck.

Thanks
1 reply

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giga

11 years ago

Hi rapidtransit,

Congrats for your success.
May i ask you what
Kind of web education i need to start a forum?
Should i learn html, css? I have small knowledge in
web design.
Or can i just hire people to create the forum and
Hire moderators?

I d really appreciated
Rob.

QUOTE=rapidtransit;8099079]I own a number of forums. Some successful and some not. They require quite a bit of work. they need to be actively cultivated and moderated to ensure that they don't whither and die off. Also, the reckless push for instant SEO success has resulted in a huge wave of spammers and spam bots flooding forums with bogus users and posts. (subject for another post but I am telling you these short-sighted "SEO expert" businesses with zero regard for actually building business value are creating so much white noise that many real businesses with legit backlinks, users and posts, etc. are getting drown out. These guys and their practices are the scourge of the net).

Rant over. Anyway, I'm lucky enough to have built a volunteer staff of moderators and loyal members (60,000) who are vigilant about keeping users and spammers at bay, at the same time, keeping content fresh. My best piece of advice is to create a forum based on one of your passions and/or expertise because you'll need to spend a lot of time and effort on the subject matter so you'd better enjoy it (ya know, labor of love and all that).

I may put together a post based on my experience of being in the forum business for +8 years....I can highlight what I've done right (actually build a profitable biz) and wrong (countless threats of lawsuits and even a couple of death threats).

Best of luck.[/QUOTE]

Thanks
1 reply

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rapidtransit

11 years ago

Hi Rob, you can start a basic, out-of-the-box forum with limited/no programming experience but it is helpful once you start to customize your site. There are a number of different forum software platforms you can use and most, if not all, allow you to pay extra to have the site professionally installed. For example, I use vBulletin which is the same software that Warriorforum uses. The software can be purchased for $250 and installed for $199. There are also some SaaS forum services that are probably easier to launch but offer fewer options for growth and customization. There are also some open source free, open source community platforms (phpbb.com) but you'll need to partner with someone who is skilled/experienced with it. we actually started with phpbb and converted to vBulletin.

With vBulletin there is a huge community of developers and resources who can help build out your community. There are also a ton of software hacks that are free. Just like plugins used to build a Wordpress site. With a little research you can find the list of "start-up" hacks to use on a new forum.

I have never hired a moderator. When starting up a new forum you need to demonstrate a genuine and credible interest in your site subject matter so if you do outsource this activity select someone who can, not only, hold their own in an online conversation but enrich the discussion. (I have hired 24 hr online chat tech specialists for a different website I own and that can typically cost $500 to $750 per month - that would be way overkill in your situation). Do some searches - I'm certain there are mods for hire at a reasonable rate. You've got the classic chicken - egg issue with a new site. Someone has got to create the content before people will come and engage in discussions about it. If you have no content the only function your moderator will perform is deleting spammers.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by giga

Hi rapidtransit,

Congrats for your success.
May i ask you what
Kind of web education i need to start a forum?
Should i learn html, css? I have small knowledge in
web design.
Or can i just hire people to create the forum and
Hire moderators?

I d really appreciated
Rob.

QUOTE=rapidtransit;8099079]I own a number of forums. Some successful and some not. They require quite a bit of work. they need to be actively cultivated and moderated to ensure that they don't whither and die off. Also, the reckless push for instant SEO success has resulted in a huge wave of spammers and spam bots flooding forums with bogus users and posts. (subject for another post but I am telling you these short-sighted "SEO expert" businesses with zero regard for actually building business value are creating so much white noise that many real businesses with legit backlinks, users and posts, etc. are getting drown out. These guys and their practices are the scourge of the net).

Rant over. Anyway, I'm lucky enough to have built a volunteer staff of moderators and loyal members (60,000) who are vigilant about keeping users and spammers at bay, at the same time, keeping content fresh. My best piece of advice is to create a forum based on one of your passions and/or expertise because you'll need to spend a lot of time and effort on the subject matter so you'd better enjoy it (ya know, labor of love and all that).

I may put together a post based on my experience of being in the forum business for +8 years....I can highlight what I've done right (actually build a profitable biz) and wrong (countless threats of lawsuits and even a couple of death threats).

Best of luck.

[/QUOTE]

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2 replies

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koreancowboy

11 years ago

Originally Posted by rapidtransit

Hi Rob, you can start a basic, out-of-the-box forum with limited/no programming experience but it is helpful once you start to customize your site. There are a number of different forum software platforms you can use and most, if not all, allow you to pay extra to have the site professionally installed. For example, I use vBulletin which is the same software that Warriorforum uses. The software can be purchased for $250 and installed for $199. There are also some SaaS forum services that are probably easier to launch but offer fewer options for growth and customization. There are also some open source free, open source community platforms (phpbb.com) but you'll need to partner with someone who is skilled/experienced with it. we actually started with phpbb and converted to vBulletin.

With vBulletin there is a huge community of developers and resources who can help build out your community. There are also a ton of software hacks that are free. Just like plugins used to build a Wordpress site. With a little research you can find the list of "start-up" hacks to use on a new forum.

I have never hired a moderator. When starting up a new forum you need to demonstrate a genuine and credible interest in your site subject matter so if you do outsource this activity select someone who can, not only, hold their own in an online conversation but enrich the discussion. (I have hired 24 hr online chat tech specialists for a different website I own and that can typically cost $500 to $750 per month - that would be way overkill in your situation). Do some searches - I'm certain there are mods for hire at a reasonable rate. You've got the classic chicken - egg issue with a new site. Someone has got to create the content before people will come and engage in discussions about it. If you have no content the only function your moderator will perform is deleting spammers.

Hope this helps.

[/QUOTE]

This is some great advice rapidtransit! Right now, I'm an Admin for a forum, and although I have a tonne of experience moderating it, being an Admin is a whole different ball of wax. I would be interested in any advice/suggestions that you may have.

Thanks
1 reply

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rapidtransit 11 years ago

This is some great advice rapidtransit! Right now, I'm an Admin for a forum, and although I have a tonne of experience moderating it, being an Admin is a whole different ball of wax. I would be interested in any advice/suggestions that you may have.[/QUOTE]

I replied to your PM. Good luck and let me know if the info is helpful.
-Dave
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- Jill Carpenter 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by giga
  
  hi dotcombum,
  
  sorry what is VPS hosting? forgive my ignorance
  
  If you're asking this type of question, then I'd say keep your money in your pocket a bit longer.
  
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rapidtransit

11 years ago

Originally Posted by rapidtransit

....... For example, I use vBulletin which is the same software that Warriorforum uses. The software can be purchased for $250 and installed for $199.

With vBulletin there is a huge community of developers and resources who can help build out your community. There are also a ton of software hacks that are free. Just like plugins used to build a Wordpress site. With a little research you can find the list of "start-up" hacks to use on a new forum.

Hope this helps.

[/QUOTE]

Wanted to drop a quick update here. There is a newer player in forum software, xenforo, that I neglected to mention. It was started by a couple of former vB engineers and has gotten good reviews. It seems to have solved a number of the issues that has bogged down vBulletin. It apparently is significantly better in terms of SEO and is not nearly the resource hog that is vB. Using this software could give a newer player a technical advantage against a similar vBulletin board. I would migrate my existing forums but they are highly modified and the features we need would need to be custom coded. There are just not the types of mods and hacks available yet for xenforo because it is so new. Interestingly enough Digital Point did, in fact, migrate and they've posted some really convincing comparative data pre- and post-migration. If I owned Warrior Forums I'd take a hard look.....just sayin'.

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DotComBum

11 years ago

Don't buy one, build one instead, first reason would be good forum is hard to come by and if it does it will be a huge sum of money to purchase it, so build one will be the best choice and also do start with a VPS hosting so you have rooms for growth should your forum become popular.

Thanks
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giga

11 years ago

hi dotcombum,

sorry what is VPS hosting? forgive my ignorance

Originally Posted by DotComBum

Don't buy one, build one instead, first reason would be good forum is hard to come by and if it does it will be a huge sum of money to purchase it, so build one will be the best choice and also do start with a VPS hosting so you have rooms for growth should your forum become popular.

Thanks
1 reply

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DotComBum 11 years ago

Originally Posted by giga

hi dotcombum,

sorry what is VPS hosting? forgive my ignorance

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, it is like a Dedicated Server but cheaper, for a start you don't really need a dedicated server to host a small forum, VPS hosting starts from just $19.95 per month at HostGator.
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Curtis2011

11 years ago

Originally Posted by giga

I heard that forums are the easiest way to produce passive income.

You heard wrong.

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JensSteyaert

11 years ago

Forums are the hardest to monetize and require the most amount of work. Unless you have the money to hire some admins to both moderate it and keep it active, it's really no way to earn passive income.

There are easier ways to make money online

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WillR

11 years ago

Forum and passive are two words I would never use in the same sentence.

A popular forum will require a lot of time and resources to run and they are harder to monetize than other forms of traffic.

That's not to say it cannot be done -- case in point this forum.

But you might be better creating a private forum where people must pay a fee to join. It makes monetizing the forum easier and takes away a lot of the maintenance issue because you are not dealing with all of the spammers who sign up.

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Malcolm Thomas

11 years ago

I agree with what the other posters have stated. Forums are very hard to monetize and even more tougher to get traffic and build a following to.

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giga

11 years ago

Ok,

Many negative feedback about forum and making
Money with it.
If you guys are the experts and say so , then i believe you.

One positive thing is that the content in forums
Is FREE and fresh every day. members post and you
Benefit from it.

Im sure there are members reading this that own a forum
and are happy ab their business.

I had minisites in the past and they were a loss of time and
money.
I still see a forum as a more reliable venue to build
A business

Originally Posted by Malcolm Thomas

I agree with what the other posters have stated. Forums are very hard to monetize and even more tougher to get traffic and build a following to.

Thanks
1 reply

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WillR

11 years ago

Originally Posted by giga

Ok,

Many negative feedback about forum and making
Money with it.
If you guys are the experts and say so , then i believe you.

One positive thing is that the content in forums
Is FREE and fresh every day. members post and you
Benefit from it.

Im sure there are members reading this that own a forum
and are happy ab their business.

I had minisites in the past and they were a loss of time and
money.
I still see a forum as a more reliable venue to build
A business

No one said it can't be done.

We are saying it's not a very passive business (an active forum requires a LOT of upkeep) and it's not just as easy as sticking up a forum and making money. There are plenty of big forums out there making very little to no money -- certainly less money than they are paying to host the forum.

A forum is really no different to any other type of business model. Some will succeed, many will fail. It's up to you which category you fall into.

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sbucciarel

Banned 11 years ago

I don't know where you heard that forums were easy, passive income. They are not. They are hard to monetize and require a great deal of moderation to keep spammers out.

Thanks
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giga

11 years ago

Sbucciarel,

One guy here on warriorforum posted a few year
Back that he created a forum based on a health problem
He had.

He was able to generate income of 10k a month, he quit
His job and with his free time learned how to fly helicopters,
play golf, teavel.

I can never forget that post.

But i now realize it can be really hard to produce income
and not even passive income.

So i guess ive to look in another direction.

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

I don't know where you heard that forums were easy, passive income. They are not. They are hard to monetize and require a great deal of moderation to keep spammers out.

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goindeep

11 years ago

All depends how much money you have to invest. You can buy a forum, hire a paid mod, and a manager and your all sweet. Just depends mate.

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Kalanag

11 years ago

It is not so easy to monetize forum traffic. But it is doable.
It is absolutely not passive. Keeping the forum members kicking and keeping the spammers out is time consuming.
Will be a challenge to find a good monetized forum for sale with an acceptable ROI.

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nicelife

11 years ago

I owned a forum with a few thousands of members in the gambling niche, and according to my experience the hardest part was to get the conversations going for any longer period of time.

People often leave 1 post and rarely follow up on the conversation.

However, when I got a few active members that kept the conversation going, all I did was talk to them and became almost like buddies with them. This kept the forum alive.

This forum was monetized with ads to various poker rooms that people signed up to and create a nice little income.

You will be hammered with Spam constantly, there's no getting away from it.

So prepare for a whole lot of banning and cleaning up spam posts:-)

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MrVen

11 years ago

Avoid buying a forum, instead buy a blog.

Reasons:
- it can attract more people at short time
- it can generate passive income for long term
- you need to just post content + little promotion
- you can turn that blog into big business by launching products
- you can easily build a community + in long run, you can open a forum also

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roblawrence

11 years ago

Forum content and blog content both can be monetized the same way...with adsense and affiliate offers. If you want to keep spammers at bay, then charge for your good stuff. Once the site is past 1,000 members and they are interacting, then add a premium tier and charge a membership fee. Once the paywalls go up, the spammers instantly disappear! I think if you aren't a writer but can organize people then running just a forum would be the way to go.

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gkuang2

11 years ago

If the forum is established it might be a good idea, buying a relatively new one is tough. You would need users and active posters. It is also very hard to maintain a forum. You would need to pay people to moderate the site.

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TravisO

11 years ago

Just an advice. When you pursue that plan of yours you really have to be active. I swear. If you think that it will only be a passive one you won't be having an income.

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PPC-Coach

11 years ago

They're not passive. They take a TON of work to get going and then maintain.

It's not impossible. It's far from passive income.

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RockNRolla

11 years ago

The main problem is actually getting a loyal user base to start with who can get the forum going, then the next problem is keeping the forum ticking over and active with new people signing up. neither of which are easy. The amount of forums I've seen who seem to have got the first bit right over the years, just to then die off, is unreal.

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Buy a forum website for passive income: is it a good idea?

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