Making money from a forum?

[the deftone]

Hey guys, im new to this and am just trying to decide what i want to do before i actually start anything. A forum seems to be the most low maintenance way to do it, i know i need to moderate and all that but it wouldnt be as time consuming as having to write new articals everyday... I was thinking of making an mma (ufc) site/forum. Just want to ask what you guys think? A small news site as the main page and a forum... Good idea?

Cheers guys

[Nora]

Originally Posted by the deftone

Hey guys, im new to this and am just trying to decide what i want to do before i actually start anything. A forum seems to be the most low maintenance way to do it, i know i need to moderate and all that but it wouldnt be as time consuming as having to write new articals everyday... I was thinking of making an mma (ufc) site/forum. Just want to ask what you guys think? A small news site as the main page and a forum... Good idea?

Cheers guys

Sorry but I think it's a bad idea. Forums are not low maintenance at all.. moderating is nothing but building the community, writing articles, spending most of your time writing interesting posts just so other members might decide to join is extremely time consuming and can become very annoying if you don't enjoy the topic enough to discuss it day in day out.
I'd recommend starting a regular informative website. If that ever grows then you can consider expanding it into a forum as well. Adding a forum just for the sake of adding one is a waste. Visitors might take your website less seriously if they see an empty forum.
Another advantage of regular sites is that it doesn't matter if you don't update. If you forget to post on your forum just for a day it's going to look inactive which lowers the chance of people signing up.

About the money making aspect of forums.. I think they're a lot harder to monetize than regular websites. I don't know if it's just me but my forum earned me very little compared to other sites with less traffic.

[the deftone]

Ye I see what you are saying. Maybe it is best to start out with just a news site and then start the forum... I didnt think of how bad that empty forum would look when the site is just starting

Thanks for the advice

[augenauf]

Also, forums are hard to monetize.

Why not try a blog? They're easier than sites, I feel, but easier to monetize and build traffic for than a forum =3

[Alan]

Lisa has some great vids on that on YouTube.

I've had a forum myself and I ended up ditching it because it hardly got any visitors and the stupid noobie things I did in an attempt to promote it meant all I really did was get rid of spam.

A blog such as wordpress in your area of interest or expertise will serve you better. And there's a free SEO plugin available for wordpress so that will do a lot of the work for you to bring the people in. Then, when you've got them, you can sell them on related products or services.

Even if you posted one good article a day, it would be a lot less hassle that trying to get a forum off the ground from scratch!

But in any event, Earning Money and Low Maintenance are like chalk and cheese. If you want to make money, you'll earn every penny of it. Enjoying that hard work is what matters...

[babble]

Yep, I think it is easier to earn money with a blog or an informative site. Forums can only make money for you in the ads banners that you put in your site. Other than that, I have seen some forums charge for premium memberships!