Critical mass of daily uniques to run a forum

[Strider1973]

Hi - I'm thinking about ways to add more interactivity to my poker strategy site. Even though I have opened all articles to comments, I hardly get any comment. Therefore I am thinking about adding a forum. In the beginning, I would only have about 3-6 forum categories in order to have at least a bit of traffic in these forum categories.

What do you think is the "critical" number of daily visitors on a website that is needed to get a little bit of forums activity?

[cernus11]

Its not so much about "daily uniques" but it is active users. Active users I would say anything from around 75+ and it will begin to run itself.

Once you have 5-10 really active posters the rest will really follow. It is a lot harder than it sounds to bridge that initial gap though. Forums are a great way to make money in the long run but IMO there are better affiliate business models out there.

[Newjabber]

Even though I have opened all articles to comments, I hardly get any comment.

Then you proberly wont get much action in a forum yet eighter.
Anyways, forums are a waste of time 90% of the time and wont earn you any money.

[Skinski]

Then you proberly wont get much action in a forum yet eighter.
Anyways, forums are a waste of time 90% of the time and wont earn you any money.

+1

[Strider1973]

+1

[x] just decided to put the idea of an own forum on hold; thank you for your guidance

[TheGooner]

Do either of the forum "damners" actually have a forum?


I'll agree that an empty forum is a waste of time, but If you can maintain a forum and get regular posters then you do generate a subset of very loyal followers.

Sure, it's more time consuming - but for OUR hard-core readers we've found that it is a valuable community building facility.

Let's face it - PAL is a good case in point.

[Newjabber]

Do either of the forum "damners" actually have a forum?

Yes "we" did untill we found out that its a completely waste of time.
Offcourse its possible, but in 9 out of 10 times your better of spending your time on other stuff.
I assume that you can agree that it take alot of time and commitment to start and run a forum and you need to have a big site with lots of traffic.
If it was worth it, dont you think a lot more members here would have a forum?

Let's face it - PAL is a good case in point.

PAL has nothing to do with a poker player forum and cant really be compared.

[Jeremy]

We will discuss this on the radio tomorrow night. I have ran a few successful forum both in and out of gaming. At the same time, I've had a few duds.

This is actually one of my favorite topics as I love both the aspect of running a forum as well as being a self confessed Vbulletin junkie.

[TheGooner]

If it was worth it, dont you think a lot more members here would have a forum?

Actually I don't think so - because many members are attempting to set up many "mini-sites" scattering efforts far and wide and not building depth.

Many of these sites have a "why bother building it at all?" feel about it.

An active forum can :
- generate repeat visitors and loyalty,
- it can show you what's interesting players in your slice of the market
- it gives you feedback on the pros and cons of your gambling partners
- is a useful (non-affiliate) sounding board for potential new site ideas.
- is a good way to chew the fat

In these days of social networking buzzwords - the forum is the original social network and site has a valid place in bigger sites IMO.

Show me a site generating six figure annual income - and I'd expect it to have some form of interactive ability - most commonly a forum.

[cernus11]

Hey,

Thought I would chime in here. Yes a forum is time consuming, yes does take dedication and its definitely not somthing you can outsource.

You do not need a large site to launch a forum. In fact I built my forum from scratch. The first two members were my business partner and myself and we built it from there. We didn't have any large sites generating traffic towards it. I would now consider it a massive asset to my business, and one that typically grows itself now. I am writing a blog post on how I achieved it and will publish it here later.

- James