Good tips for starting a forum

[Greg]

I was reading a blog today that had a pretty interesting article. It was interesting to my in particular because it's the same topic Jeremy and I covered in Amsterdam. He makes some good points and gives some realistic estimates for revenue ($60/day for 1000 visits). Our niche is a little different because the commissions are higher. However, as you all know it's hard to build a community of online gamblers and not have it too spammy.

Article Link.

I'd also point out that he mentions TLA (text-link-ads.com) as a way to monitizethe site. This is cool, another alternative would be TNX.net as well. I think both take gambling ppc.

[Randy Ray]

Here's a tip for how to start a successful gambling forum. Target a gambling niche where there aren't any forums. A general gambling forum is going to be hard to start, because there are already several of them. Same think with a general poker forum.

The reason PartyRiches succeeded because it was the first poker affiliate forum on the Internet, and there was a market for such a thing.

[doovde]

The general poker forum market seems pretty saturated at the moment and there are countless sites you visit which just have dead forums on them. Nothing looks worse for a site than a dead forum imo.

I was always thought you would be better off having a high traffic website before launching a forum on it and then building your forum around only a few select sections. Just look at the insane amount of sections there have been on forums like PAP. I know it's for the money but it can't be healthy.

How well do regular forum members convert thourgh banners? I'm guessing they just stop noticing them after a while.

I've been a member for about 5 years at one of the top UK online poker forums and know the owner really well. He's of the opinion that getting a fixed sponsor for the whole forum and playing all your leagues / games on one site is the best way to go.

[Randy Ray]

Forums have some distinct advantages over other types of websites, but high clickthrough rates on ads there isn't one of them.

[Greg]

@RandyRay Great point on click through, forums are not the best vehicle for a 'conversion through creative' site. IE: People on forums don't click on banners.

Forums need leadership to be successful. They also need experts and quality moderators. People come to forums to share ideas and stories as well as gather unbiased feedback. One great thing about a forum (or blog) is that they come across much less 'sales' focused and more personal. Not always, but that's the goal.

I know a few PAL members who run a community on their niche portals. They do very well converting players from their 'personal' reference and advise. They play at a site and post a picture and story. Then they present an offer and encourage others to join with them. It's not rocket science, but it still works. It just takes some patience and time to build that trust and influence.