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Forums are best examples of Crowdsourcing. And a successful forum can do miracle in respect to sales generation or product development. And a good forum is so powerful that you can even ignore search engines to send you traffic.

Though this is the final output that you expect from a successful forum, there are some interesting features worth mentioning.

The most interesting feature of a forum based community is that, you do not need to worry about content generation at all. When the ball starts rolling general people (the participants) will write about your domain (forum topics) and they will keep the site running with fresh content.

And that is not all.

In any business development process, the most important aspect is “understanding the need of the target market”.  As forums are the best place to discuss on general and developing problems of common people, seasoned marketers can easily identify the trend and the need.

Apart from that, people keep the board updated with the latest problems which is almost impossible to determine by a small team that actually run a website.

And there should be no doubt about wisdom of crowd - just think about Wikipedia or any wiki based platform and you have the answer. Just think about it - why wordpress is the best blogging solution? And also think why Blogger (even after being a product by Google - famous for developing the best and most successful web applications) or other blogging applications are legging much behind wordpress!

However, there are some primary conditions that you must maintain to develop a successful forum.

The most important condition is to develop a non-profit identity. This is the easiest and the most important way to develop a successful forum based community. When I say non-profit identity I do not mean that you should not sell any product - on the contrary you should let them take the decision. And that’s not all - you should keep everything clear to the visitors, members and contributors. You must take the audience into confidence.

Another proven way is to show them some financial output to be there - a lot of SEO and web development forums are successful because of freelance job board. There people provide quality content to develop their identity. You must know the attitude of your visitors - what they expect from you. A lot of successful forums offer redeemable points for each worthy post. And this is a win-win situation for both of them.

However, one last open question for you to think - Web Master World or Digital Point is already there - why should someone join your Forum on SEO or Web Development!

Online communities are dynamic environments but it also needs consistent management. Members must ne invigorated and reinvigorated by new concepts and ideas so that they will be encouraged to contribute more freely and frequently. Any failed attempts at building an online community must be discarded or altered because they stop a lively community from developing. In line with this, here are 5 steps in building a lively online forum:

Experiment with your rules and procedures – your forum should be seen as a work in progress especially during the initial stages. This will help you determine which rules and procedures would work for your site and which ones wouldn’t. Try to ask and monitor feedback from site visitors to know their opinion.

Identify community leaders – in online communities, there will be leaders that emerge. These are the people who will contribute valuable information voluntarily which will help sustain the community.

Cultivate community leaders – it is important for web owners to encourage these leaders as much as possible so they will be motivated to stay with the community.

Reinforce participation – new members must be welcomed and they must be encouraged to participate in the online community. Their questions and queries must be answered; acknowledging and replying to posts that receive no response will help as well.

Avoid “churn” – churn is a problem on the internet because visitors are continually looking for new and fresh content. Avoid churn by offering fresh material on a consistent basis.

I’m not sure if you know, but I really love forums - The Internet Has “Officially” Gone MAD! Safe to say Forums don’t make Money!

I was recently contacted by Nicu Zara of VumPost pimping his software that captures (scrapes, cough, cough) results from Yahoo Answers.

“I developed a software that captures questions and answers on “Yahoo
Answers” and then turns them into topics and posts for your forum.”

This information can be used by:
- forum owners: to boost forum posts and make users interact more
- writers: to discover hot topics to write about without having to do a lot of
research
- developers: market research

As luck would have it, I have an empty forum that I have never ever marketed (lazy). In the following video I show the software in action.

Here is my forum after I used the software AuctionForum

I’m really in two minds about this type of software and to be perfectly honest it’s a 100% unethical way to build a forum. I’m sure however, lots of lazy forum owners will queue up to buy it!

Do you feel the same way, would you use this software or do you think it is very unethical?

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I have just come away from one of the forums I frequent. It all started a few months ago when I decided I wanted to do something I presumed was a fairly simple procedure.

For business and personal reasons I wanted to do a simple “username” change at the very popular DigitalPoint forums. (I don’t fancy linking to them really)

It was like I was being held to ransom, what the hell is going on in this online world!!? With feable excuses as, “it slows the forum down” “the forum will crash” “we would lose money doing a username change” My eyes are still sore after they rolled out of my head when a Moderator sent me this Private Message, and I quote -

“Your only option for having info removed from DP is to serve the owner of this forum with a court order”

What more can I say…this online world has gone slighty crazy!

Your thoughts are appreciated…

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Forums are great places to chat, have heated debate’s and learn lots of information from. The main point of posting in forums (from a marketing/business point of view) is to get people to visit your website.

Procrastination sets in when you visit forums. If you must visit them, get in and get out, close the browser or tab once you’ve got what you need. You’ll end up wasting even more time consuming sometimes useless information that will take your mind away from what you were mean’t to be achieving for the day.

For a Marketer using forums is a great way to get FREE traffic but I would rather pay someone to leave informative posts which would have my signature/URL at the bottom of it. This leaves me to produce good content for my website. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Marketing and organising a Marketing Campaign but I would rather organise it rather than spend time actually leaving comments for FREE traffic!

The point of this post was to get across the fact that forums don’t make money and I think its fairly safe to say they don’t. When I say don’t I mean not a lot. Hardly enough to live on anyway, they are hard to monetize, they take up lots of time to manage/moderate until you get to stage, way down the road where you can pay a forum moderator to run it for you. This means paying them a wage out of your already small profit.

One good way to run a forum would be to build one up around your content/website not for monetization but for the high Traffic levels your users will generate for you. Eventually getting enough advertising on the site to pay someone to run it for you. You’ll now have the free time to concentrate on your other projects while your forum brings in some great targeted traffic for your website.

This is how I would look to do it anyway….

Do you have a forum that makes a lot of money, by this I mean enough to leave your day job? lets hear from you, prove me wrong.

Two guys I’ve known for a while, Jon and David, have joined together to form a band site the likes of which have never been seen, and they called themselves Tenacious D 6pins Forums.

6pins is a forum geared at professional web developers looking to improve their craft and share their knowledge.

We are geared toward the development side of the web. This means the majority of threads won’t be things like “How do you like my clan design?!”, and threads along those lines. We want users to share and help each other on the journey through the web.

I’m going to try to leave my opinions on the design out of this thread (it’s all “web 2.0″ish but I’m sort of a 1.0 design-minded guy) and just focus on the quality content and memberbase. I’ve known most of the guys posting on this forum for a long while, and they are all very knowledgable about what they’re doing. Whether it’s Jon sharing great examples of guerilla marketing or Digit discussing how to create an active forum community you will most likely find something here worth reading.

The forum has been “live” for a few weeks now but it has gone public just over the last couple of days. Already the forum has over 100 members and almost 1,000 posts. Not too shabby. And with the kind of content being shared over there I only see it growing.

So if you get a chance head on over to 6pins and take a look around. I’m registered as “feros” (which is my usual forum name) and will probably be posting fairly regularly.

Sponsored by: 6pins Forums

The prospect of starting a forum can intimidating, particularly for those who have had little or no experience running one before. Many are also put off by the technical side of developing a forum, or the fact that they have never advertised on the Internet before and as a result have little idea of how to attract members. Regardless of this, forums are becoming more and more commonplace on the web, which has been aided by the increasingly user-friendly systems available with which to build your very own community.

In the past, the vast majority of forums were started by enthusiasts who wished to run their own community based on a topic of their choosing. By getting together a group of like-minded people, they could initiate debate and the sharing of information amongst forum members and ultimately provide an informative resource for anybody else that was interested in learning more about the subject. However, with the development of the web and more focus on the monetisation of forums, many are now being developed with the sole aim of resale or generating significant advertising revenue. In short, many forums are now being run and developed as businesses rather than hobbies.

The advantage of this is that there is now much more scope for starting a forum. Whether you wish to start a community based on a profession or hobby, or would rather develop a forum with the aim of making an income, the decision is entirely up to you.

The main motivation for starting a forum is still out of personal interest. If there isn’t an existing community that deals with a particular passion, then why not start one? If there are existing forums but they have very little to offer and you think you can do better, why not try? Although there are countless forums across the web on a wide range of subjects, relatively few are developed and run properly. This is where you have the opportunity to step in, start your own community and develop it to a standard that will satisfy both you and your target audience. The cost of forum software, hosting and development is as low as it ever has been, and even if you can only dedicate a few hours a week to the project, it is still quite possible to develop an active, successful community.

Not only will you be able to run the community as you see fit and take it in your own direction, you will be able to look back and feel the reward of owning and running your own forum. Knowing that you built a community from scratch and are responsible for the flow of information and ideas between members is immensely rewarding and almost always worth the time and effort spent getting it up and running.

Alternatively, there is no reason why you cannot start a forum with the aim of making money. Whether you are looking to generate income from advertising or wish to sell the forum once it is up and running, there is certainly money to be made from the development of forums. Many choose the best of both worlds, with an increasing number of forums making use of adverts in order to generate income which can be used to advertise and develop their community further. The one disadvantage with starting a forum with the intention of selling it is that you have to choose a fairly mainstream topic, which may or may not fall within your area of expertise. If you choose to target too much of a niche area, it will prove difficult to find a buyer unless it has excellent potential. It should also be remembered that a forum is worth relatively little without a moderately sized, active user base, which takes time, effort and money to build quickly.

Starting a forum is a big commitment that will require time and energy to make it work. You should be prepared for an uphill battle in getting visitors to your site and converting them to active members, and you should also be aware that developing a forum takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor will your forum be! However, the rewards associated with running your own community and being able to tailor it to suit your preferences are immense. Instead of having to make do with what is currently available, you will be able to choose everything from the topic to the forum design. Starting a forum isn’t easy, but it certainly isn’t impossible, and with a little help and guidance from people that have been there and done it before, you will be in an excellent position to start your very own community.

Since I just went on a little rant about paid blog reviews, I figured my next subject might as well be paid forum posting. When I say paid forum posting, it’s a bit different from paid blog reviews in that the forum owner pays a third party to post on his forum (as opposed to bloggers getting paid by a third party to post on their blog). So why would someone pay a company to post on their own forum?

1) Gives the Illusion of Activity

This is the main reason for paid forum posting. One of the hardest hurdles to overcome for a new forum owner is getting those initial visitors to sign up. This is mostly difficult because of the fact that forums are attractive only when they are a thriving community, so when new potential members stumble into your site and see that there is no activity they often leave before giving it a chance. Paid forum posting makes your forums seem active during your posting campaign which may lead visitors to register more quickly.

Keep in mind that this is just an illusion of activity - paid forum posting is never a long-term solution to an inactivity problem. Once your campaign runs out those paid posters on onto their next $0.25 per post (or whatever the hell they charge) job.

2) Inflates the Numbers

Numbers are what make forums valuable. Believe it or not we’re in bubble 2.0 and forums are leading. You know that old 12x monthly revenue formula you apply to most websites? Throw that out when you’re talking about forums. Forums are selling for 24-36x monthly revenue based on little more than posting numbers. Maybe this should be a topic for a new post altogether eh?

In any case, paid forum posting gives you more members, more threads, and more posts. Simple as that. Every penny you invest into paid posting you can use as leverage when you sell ad space or decide to flip your forum.

3) Acts as a Personal Motivater

This is sort of an anectdotal point. When I purchased paid forum posting last year for my infant forum I realized just how inactive it was. The paid forum posters were talking to themselves and no-one else. This acted as a great motivater to get me to get more users in there so I could actually get what I paid for! Why pay for paid posters to chit chat? You have to give them *real* users to get your money’s worth.

Now that I have the “good” aspects of paid posting, lets tackle the bad.

1) Generates Little to No Real Activity

The main reason *to* used paid posting is that it is advertised to be able to help you generate activity. Paid forum posting companies rarely come straight out and say “we will single-handedly jump-start your forum” but almost all of them advertise on the platform that having paid forum posters on your board will help increase registration rate thus growing your forum. Although whether or not they do this is arguable, I personally think they don’t.

One would think that having activity on the board - whether paid or not - would generate a higher % of registrations, but that’s assuming the paid posters are hustling and bustling making the forum seem really active. Companies often include in the wee itty bitty fine print that the average job usually takes 1-3 months to complete. Now if you were buying 100 posts that were all put up in the period of a weekend (say while at the same time you were driving tons of traffic) then I can see how paid posting might work wonders. But when paid posters are posting 1 post a day over the period of 3 months, how is that effective in the slightest?

I’ve used 3 separate companies (all of which were suggested, none of which I’ll disclose, so don’t ask me) and none of them finished on time.

2) Paid Forum Posters Are ***Mostly*** Kids

Before I start, just be sure you notice that I qualified that statement with ***mostly***. Paid forum posting is not only a very low-paying job but it is also a boring one. Often times paid posters are forced to post on boards that they are uninterested in for little more than a few pennies per post. This in turn brings mostly teenagers to the workforce, and we all know how teenagers are. I was one just a few years ago, but it’s amazing how fast you grow up when you’re paying your own bills. Years make a difference. Do not trust your online presence to teenagers.

Note: I’m sure there are many notable teenagers, but I’m speaking in general here so get off my back.

3) Where’d [user] Go?

Another big problem with paid posting is that after the job is done, the posters are gone. You expected that though, and you only wanted to use the initial paid posting to gain registrations. So lets say you actually did get quite a few people to register as a result of your paid posting experiment. Have you ever thought of how your users might react when 20-30 of your most active users magically vanish after a month or two? It isn’t pretty. If you do hire paid forum posters and they actually do somehow work, be ready for some crowd control afterwards.

Conclusion - Is Paid Forum Posting Worth it?

No. It’s expensive and yields very little returns. You’d be better off just begging some of your friends to post for a while, ninja-stealing members from other boards, and maybe even running a forum competition or two. But paid posting? Not cost effective at all.

I’ve just finished a new article over at Forum Rank that goes over the benefits and pitfalls of running forum competitions.

Forum competitions are an increasingly popular way to attract visitors and incite interest in a forum, particularly if you are just getting started or simply need something to freshen up the boards. Many successful forums run regular competitions as a means to generate continued interest in the forum, incite competition between its members, or simply to provide casual visitors with a reason to register. The real beauty of running a competition is that the prize itself does not have to be particularly valuable or difficult to obtain – small cash prizes or vouchers for popular online retailers can generate huge interest and give you an excellent return for the relatively small investment. Services are also popular prizes, and if you can supply them yourself, may be a more cost effective solution depending on what you have to offer.

You can read the rest of the article here. If you enjoy it, it’s also on Digg. Let me know what you guys think of it.