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Is a forum a good idea or is it too much work?

by Sheryl Polomka
24 replies
I'm tossing up whether to add a members only forum to a package I am going to launch on Clickbank.

My package includes 3 ebooks and 50 Wordpress templates and I think it is quite good value for money, but I'm still wondering whether to add value by having a members only forum.

Is a forum too much work for the returns you get or is it worth having one?
#forum #good #idea #work
  • Profile picture of the author Solidsnake
    Banned
    Forum is a hell difficult to promote...
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    I know but it will be as part of the package - a members only forum - so I wont be needing to promote the forum on its own
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    • Profile picture of the author Frank Murphy
      The more value you give your customers, the better. Go for it, do not hesitate.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aliaksandr
    GREAT idea especially to help with support if they have any questions. I say go for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Villa
    I always think that forums are a great idea. But I also know that its success depends on how well you promote it and participate in it. One friend of mine hasn't been doing well with her forum because she is just sitting around doing nothing. In summary, yes, it is a good idea but you have to really work hard to support it
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  • Profile picture of the author Shane Watson
    Sounds like a nice plan. If you can pull it off then it might give you some great result.
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  • Profile picture of the author Akky
    Go for it mate, Forums are awesome especially for mini sites.

    G'day,
    Akky
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    Just a random guy. Learning Ruby On Rails at the moment.

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  • Profile picture of the author CBSnooper
    I would probably wait until you have x number of subscribers. I've launched forums before and found them hard to get going on your own. You have to have a good few people to post on a regular basis (like a few times an hour!) to get people to want to join in. If there's no posting going on, no one will want to post for fear of not getting an answer.
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    Mike
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    CBSnooper - Take the hard work out of finding hot Clickbank products.

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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Oh Geez, so many different opinions.

    Thanks everyone, I still have no idea, although I think I'm leaning toward not having one. I don't want a dead forum with no-one posting
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  • Profile picture of the author Tyrus Antas
    If you promote a forum membership as part of your package, people buy then go to the forum and see its empty, you'll probably haver higher refund rate as well as lower overall satisfaction.

    When you make the decision of offering your costumers a forum, make sure you're ready to invest the time to make it grow and appear alive. Otherwise it'll just create negative social proof.

    Tyrus
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    • Profile picture of the author iantrader
      Forums tend to need a 'critical mass' of members in order to keep going with their own momentum. The usefulness (and busy-ness) of a forum also depends on how much there is to ask and talk about the product. If there are regular updates then a forum could be a good place to inform and help members.

      Why not wait until you have what you think is a critical mass (this will likely vary depending on the product - anyone have any thoughts/figures on this?) before launching?

      And, as has been mentioned, they can require a lot of work to maintain, certainly initially. Even when they're self-running you'll probably need to moderate.

      Ian
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  • Profile picture of the author 1 Marketing
    It's not a bad idea but I guess it's installation/ setup running and promotion cost are the factors which keep most of the people away from having a Forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author commerce cat
    The critical mass part is really important for more anonymous relationships, but if you have a small group that you're in regular contact with you may not need so many people if you sell the forum as a main meeting place. Maybe you could organise weekly exercises through the forums or give people an incentive to create mastermind groups to work through your course material via the forums.

    I've also seen a few theme memberships with private forums for support questions and that seems to work well.
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  • Profile picture of the author navita
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    • Profile picture of the author Jays80
      If you have good content ready go for it. Value addition builds trust which help promote products in future,

      if you do not have decent content ready and can not commit time stay away.
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    • Profile picture of the author webdev08
      I guess forums would help your site in anyway by giving your members the chance to communicate and share each others ideas. Go ahead go for it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Dean Martin
    All the info given to date is correct - forums are great but need a critical mass to be successful.

    One option you might consider is to find an existing forum that would allow you to create a subforum for your customers. Vbulletin is the software of choice and allows you to actually theme a subforum differently so you could brand yourself easily. If I buy a product and see the forums are one of the 'free' versions it immediately tells me something about the value they perceive of their own business.

    I can think of a few 'membership site gurus' that are too cheap to spend $160 on quality forum software... not impressed.
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    The forum will be a black hole as far as sucking away your free time. If you are going to interact heavily and often with your users, then do it. Your forum will also be a place to market your additional services, so it can be a goldmine done properly. Having said that, if you don't have at least 200 customers to start before opening the forum, it will be a ghost town.

    TomG.

    PS - I got your website flipping ebook. Did you get mine?
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  • Profile picture of the author shermancox
    Forums are hard to get going...most forums I have seen have a small number of folks who think they own the forum and discourage others from posting or participating through "troll-like" behavior to newcomers...

    I think if you can grow through that it will be fine, but most forums I have seen either have no contributions or about 10 folks who try to treat the forum as their own personal domain....
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  • Profile picture of the author DwayneCoaching
    I think if it's part of a package its worth your time and efforts. You can do anything just alot a certain amount of time for each task. This way you will not be taking away time from anything else. Go for it. Good Luck
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  • Profile picture of the author Thaddeus
    No question in my mind, go for a forum. It's hard work to promote initially, and does take time and involvement, plus some money, but the community it builds is unbelievably valuable once you have it going. For about six months I ran a monthly competition - each post bought you a ticket in a raffle to win a piece of industry standard competition. I bought these with the marketing budget and thought it was incredibly worth it. Now I have over 500 members, a thriving community - and lots of regular traffic to the site from the over 10k forum cropping up in SERPS.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mgwolf
    There are forum posting services that can give your forum that initial push, just enough so that it starts to get noticed and really attract new members. Send me a PM if you would like me to put you in touch with someone who runs a reputable service.
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    Increase Your Forum Traffic
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  • Profile picture of the author Anonymous Affiliate
    First hand experience here: forums are hard to get rolling and they are hard work to maintain. It will suck up all your time and there's nothing worse than letting your customers see an empty forum.

    Be very careful there...
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  • Profile picture of the author michaelforsure
    First I must say that I've always been a sucker for a pretty girl who wears hats It seems to me that if your initial offering is strong enough as a stand alone why take the extra time and trouble involved in jump starting a group forum. If your product looked good enough to me, I could care less whether or not you had a forum. Just my opinion. Best of luck to you !
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