Strategies for building a community?

by BoonBoon

Posted: 10 years ago 11 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

As the new guy, I've been reading as much as I can about internet marketing, starting businesses, being an entrepreneur etc. I've come up with some community type sites (blogs, blogs + forum, maybe) but I have a few questions for anyone who's familiar with this type of thing. I'd greatly appreciate any feedback.

The idea I'm thinking about right now would generate a very tight-knit community but the problem is, I'm not really sure how profitable it would be. The main source of revenue would probably have to be from ads. There aren't many products to sell in this niche (except a few very specific items), but I might be able to establish affiliations with content sellers, authors, and others in my niche as well. The biggest perk is that I'd be helping others, which I really enjoy - so I wouldn't mind putting in the time and effort. The list that I would build would be extremely targeted, very fresh and very genuine, which I guess is a plus as well.

Could anyone give me a ballpark estimate of traffic needed to pull in a decent amount of revenue? By decent, I mean like $100 a month. I know exact figures aren't possible, I'm just looking for a good idea of what the number would probably need to look like.

What are some broad ideas for advertising outside of Youtube, written articles and forums? Are Fiver gigs that advertise or make videos for you worth the money or trouble? Are there better places to spend my money?

The most important question I have is, what numbers should I be looking at for keywords and target audience? Some people say to do research by hand and others think keyword searches work fine. What do you guys recommend based on experience?

#building #community #strategies

James Fame

10 years ago

You need a topic that is passion-worthy.

There are tons of topics that generate buzz - even hobbies like gardening or seed planting. Weight-lifting, aesthetic bodybuilding, strength training, survey-filling, pop music, classical music, occultism, esoteric practices, personality tests, astrology, etc. Take a look at big-boards.com or http://forum.top-site-list.com/ for an inspiration.

They say birds of the same feather flock together. Find that same feather, and go into your niche with the same amount of passion. The community will slowly come together.

No one can give you an exact ballpark estimate of traffic for profits - it's subjective. A simple layman formula can be as follows:

Profits = (Amount of Traffic * Compounded Conversions * Product pricepoints) - Costs

It depends on how well you monetize your sales funnel and load it with backends, etc. It depends on your marketing and approach. Your USP and angle. Your personality and exposure.

I personally don't use Fiverr, but you might be able to find good outsourced gigs there.

Research should come from your brain, heart and mathematical data. It has to be a sweetspot in between your strength, your passion and market viability.

For market viability, most people would look at demand and supply. You could look at indicators of demand like... search volumes, actual crowds, community sizes, etc. Or supply indicators like ads, number of products, affiliates etc.

James Fame

Thanks
1 reply

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harvy

10 years ago

Originally Posted by James Fame

You need a topic that is passion-worthy.

There are tons of topics that generate buzz - even hobbies like gardening or seed planting. Weight-lifting, aesthetic bodybuilding, strength training, survey-filling, pop music, classical music, occultism, esoteric practices, personality tests, astrology, etc. Take a look at big-boards.com or Top Forums - Top Site List Planet - The biggest top sites lists in the planet for an inspiration.

They say birds of the same feather flock together. Find that same feather, and go into your niche with the same amount of passion. The community will slowly come together.

No one can give you an exact ballpark estimate of traffic for profits - it's subjective. A simple layman formula can be as follows:

Profits = (Amount of Traffic * Compounded Conversions * Product pricepoints) - Costs

It depends on how well you monetize your sales funnel and load it with backends, etc. It depends on your marketing and approach. Your USP and angle. Your personality and exposure.

I personally don't use Fiverr, but you might be able to find good outsourced gigs there.

Research should come from your brain, heart and mathematical data. It has to be a sweetspot in between your strength, your passion and market viability.

For market viability, most people would look at demand and supply. You could look at indicators of demand like... search volumes, actual crowds, community sizes, etc. Or supply indicators like ads, number of products, affiliates etc.

James Fame

The idea given by you is great. Building a community for the product is very need. Your formula for profit, a known one is reminded. thanks.

Thanks

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RickCopy

10 years ago

all depends on your niche...one niche that figure might take 15,000 uvs a month... another might take a quarter of that...theres really no way of telling other than some very vague cpc figures in adwords that are horribly inaccurate anyway.

honestly if I were you id take money out of the equation right now and just solely focus on traffic and making good content. I know this is blasphemy here but i could really care less about keywords or google. I go find my readers... i dont rely on google to do it for me.

If you focus on really building a community and writing content that provides value and makes people think "man im glad I read that...i wonder what else he has on here" then you'll have something that brings people back. With social media and all the other alternative traffic methods today outside of google.. i dont know why people even care anymore. Most people's SEo traffic doesnt even come from primary or secondary keywords...it comes from long tails, and you'll build those up naturally over time as you produce more and more content that people like and will want to share.

Trust me... if you're really going to focus on making money through 1 site with ads... its going to take a while..but it will be well worth the time investment in the end. Dont rush it.

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

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BoonBoon

10 years ago

Originally Posted by James Fame

You need a topic that is passion-worthy.

They say birds of the same feather flock together. Find that same feather, and go into your niche with the same amount of passion. The community will slowly come together.

Research should come from your brain, heart and mathematical data. It has to be a sweetspot in between your strength, your passion and market viability.

For market viability, most people would look at demand and supply. You could look at indicators of demand like... search volumes, actual crowds, community sizes, etc. Or supply indicators like ads, number of products, affiliates etc.

James Fame

Thanks, James, all of your information has been very helpful. Like I mentioned, I think the best thing about my niche is how much I'll enjoy it. I've been wanting to start something like it for a while, but never got around to it. I figure since I have a genuine interest, it'll work itself out; kind of like the ol' adage, "if you build it, they'll come." Your post was very informative and got me thinking, so thanks again.

Originally Posted by RickCopy

theres really no way of telling other than some very vague cpc figures in adwords that are horribly inaccurate anyway.

honestly if I were you id take money out of the equation right now and just solely focus on traffic and making good content. I know this is blasphemy here but i could really care less about keywords or google. I go find my readers... i dont rely on google to do it for me.

If you focus on really building a community and writing content that provides value and makes people think "man im glad I read that...i wonder what else he has on here" then you'll have something that brings people back. With social media and all the other alternative traffic methods today outside of google.. i dont know why people even care anymore. Most people's SEo traffic doesnt even come from primary or secondary keywords...it comes from long tails, and you'll build those up naturally over time as you produce more and more content that people like and will want to share.

Trust me... if you're really going to focus on making money through 1 site with ads... its going to take a while..but it will be well worth the time investment in the end. Dont rush it.

Excellent post, Rick! I think you're spot on with your analysis. I want something that I can be proud of, and this is the area where my natural talents can come through. My biggest hindrance in pursuing my ideas has been keywords and their numerical data. I've been putting way too much emphasis on competing with people on Google. I should be focused on delivering fresh, unique content to the people who want it. If I do that, the rest should slowly come with. Thanks for helping me to refocus my attention.

P.S. I loved your final statement. "It will be well worth the time investment in the end. Don't rush it."

Thanks
1 reply

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BoonBoon

10 years ago

Can I pay people to post portions of my article on their website with a link back to my site? Or to post entire articles with keywords / links to my site? I'm assuming the answer is yes, so would I want to start sending emails and messages to people of similar sites, forums, etc. or do you feel there's a better way? I have some ideas in mind for other types of advertisements like forums and the like. I'm also thinking if I can write well enough, I might have a chance at landing some really nice affiliations and perhaps even an interview or two.

The main portion of my site would consist of articles, so my biggest effort would be in writing quality content on a daily basis. I think if I can write well enough, people will want to share the content. I also have a few other ideas in mind but they're too convoluted to talk about.

Thanks
1 reply

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RickCopy

10 years ago

Originally Posted by BoonBoon

yeah you probably could pay people... I actually offered someone money to do just that when i first started. thankfully he didnt take it...he just said "keep writing good stuff...if i like it I'll syndicate it"... he did....and he did.

basically what you're talking about here is guest posting and article syndication.
what I would do is take some of your keywords and type in google:
(keyword) "guest post" or "guest posting"

That will bring up a ton of sites in your niche that have guest posting opportunities.
Do some more research on guest posting....great way to get your name out there, but remember its just one tool in your traffic toolbox. Don't focus all your efforts on it.

Thanks
1 reply

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BoonBoon

10 years ago

Originally Posted by RickCopy

Code:

yeah you probably could pay people... I actually offered someone money to do just that when i first started. thankfully he didnt take it...he just said "keep writing good stuff...if i like it I'll syndicate it"... he did....and he did. 

basically what you're talking about here is guest posting and article syndication. 
what I would do is take some of your keywords and type in google:
(keyword) "guest post" or "guest posting"

That will bring up a ton of sites in your niche that have guest posting opportunities. 
Do some more research on guest posting....great way to get your name out there, but remember its just one tool in your traffic toolbox. Don't focus all your efforts on it.

Awesome! Article syndication and guest posting weren't things I'd known about. That's the type of information that's helpful. I didn't know I could get results for that type of query, either. Fascinating. More resources and terms added to my "toolbox." Thanks!

Originally Posted by Watchman220

Hi BoonBoon

I think you have the right idea when you talk about building community.

I am part of a community that uses WORDPRESS in combination with BUDDYPRESS...which essentially creates your own Social Networking Platform based on whatever your subject site is about. This one happens to be around making money online. That is what everyone really wants to know.

Very nice! I had no idea BP existed. If it's as flexible as I'm hoping, it'll provide a good basis for building the community I was thinking about. Thanks for that tidbit.

Originally Posted by Watchman220

Sounds like you have your niche targeted already. Can you produce your own products that would help people in the niche?

Yeah, I definitely think so, but that's further down the line when I have more credibility. There's a lot of different ideas I have, and if it all goes as well as I'm hoping, I figure I can have a few items on ClickBank, Amazon and the like.

Originally Posted by Watchman220

Sending traffic to your community can be done with paid sources. But it's not really targeted traffic then... Organic traffic used to be (is still the best) much easier to get...but with GOOGLE changes...much harder now.

YOUTUBE is very important. It communicates REAL PERSON...AUTHENTICITY and SOCIAL AUTHORITY. I would not ignore it.

Right on, makes sense. I think the best source of traffic would be "warm" traffic (I think that's close friends and family, right?) and my videos on Youtube. I had a whole series planned out that I wanted to film but I never had the time or proper setup. I'm still gaining legitimate subscribers from videos I posted a year or so ago, which gives me a little feeling for building a community.

Never thought much about annotations, either. I find them to be annoying when watching videos, but I definitely see their potential now that I think about it in terms of marketing. Nice!

Both of you guys have given me some really great feedback and a lot to think about. I'm going to put it to use and start doing some research. I feel I have enough to work with. You guys mentioned things I hadn't even thought about and might've even helped me to avoid a pitfall. Thanks so much for sharing.

Thanks
1 reply

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dearfred 10 years ago

richard millington is all you need to know. don't waste time with any other the above answers
- Thanks
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AlexGeorge 10 years ago

Make people feel like you care and point them out in a good way to the crowd of thier peers one by one. It works for fanpages should work almost anywhere.
- Thanks
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Watchman220

10 years ago

Hi BoonBoon

I think you have the right idea when you talk about building community.

Originally Posted by BoonBoon

I am part of a community that uses WORDPRESS in combination with BUDDYPRESS...which essentially creates your own Social Networking Platform based on whatever your subject site is about. This one happens to be around making money online. That is what everyone really wants to know.

Originally Posted by BoonBoon

The idea I'm thinking about right now would generate a very tight-knit community but the problem is, I'm not really sure how profitable it would be. The main source of revenue would probably have to be from ads. There aren't many products to sell in this niche (except a few very specific items), but I might be able to establish affiliations with content sellers, authors, and others in my niche as well. The biggest perk is that I'd be helping others, which I really enjoy - so I wouldn't mind putting in the time and effort. The list that I would build would be extremely targeted, very fresh and very genuine, which I guess is a plus as well.

Sounds like you have your niche targeted already. Can you produce your own products that would help people in the niche?

Originally Posted by BoonBoon

Could anyone give me a ballpark estimate of traffic needed to pull in a decent amount of revenue? By decent, I mean like $100 a month. I know exact figures aren't possible, I'm just looking for a good idea of what the number would probably need to look like.

That is a really difficult thing to estimate. Depends on your niche. COMPLETELY. DO you know how you are going to generate traffic? And wll it be qualified traffic or bulk traffic?

Originally Posted by BoonBoon

What are some broad ideas for advertising outside of Youtube, written articles and forums? Are Fiver gigs that advertise or make videos for you worth the money or trouble? Are there better places to spend my money?

Sending traffic to your community can be done with paid sources. But it's not really targeted traffic then... Organic traffic used to be (is still the best) much easier to get...but with GOOGLE changes...much harder now.

I have moved much more to a social authority model for traffic which means you are spending time in your niche generating good content that people legitimately like and want to share. The era for cheap targeted traffic via organic methods seems to be gone.

I have been in SEO for nearly 4 years now...and the last year was a total disaster for SEO folks. Google has changed the scene to be personalized results and geographically related results...getting keyword traffic for specific keywords is not what it used to be.

Google is forcing people into the PAID search results niche...so that is where I would spend my money if you are looking for direct results...but that gets expensive.

YOUTUBE is very important. It communicates REAL PERSON...AUTHENTICITY and SOCIAL AUTHORITY. I would not ignore it.

I would spend some time if I were you on developing content for YOUTUBE...and to create a self-gravitating YOUTUBE channel you need RETENTION on your videos. Are people watching your whole video? Are you annotating each video and directing them to the next video? To keep them in your queue of videos? IF SO....YOUTUBE will prmote your videos above others.

Originally Posted by BoonBoon

The most important question I have is, what numbers should I be looking at for keywords and target audience? Some people say to do research by hand and others think keyword searches work fine. What do you guys recommend based on experience?

Again you are looking at keyword targeting which in my book has really gone the way of PAID advertising on the search engines.

Good luck to you.

Thanks

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Strategies for building a community?

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