Should i get rid of the forum ?

[s2kinteg916]

Im thinking of getting rid of the forum on http://www.carphotoalbums.com . Alot of the visitors are here to look at photos and arent really looking to discuss topics.

I have bought carspecinfo.com and that will be my main automotive site and carphotoalbums.com will be like a subsite of it.

[MarkB]

Why did you add the forum? (Did you think it was the next step?)

Do people comment on the photos? (Are comments open?)

I'd take your community in baby steps to begin with; you already have them looking at (and submitting?) photos. If they're commenting on them, try and increase that side of things.

Once the comments are building up, reconsider adding the forum again. Forums aren't perfect for every site - yours just might not need one!

[incka]

Forums never worked on games2go... But my literatureforums is quite busy now, just about 7 daily posters, but they post 10 times each so...

[s2kinteg916]

MarkB Great Recommendations....

im really unsure why i wanted forums i was hoping to build a small userbase and grow overall in time...

[Peter T Davis]

It's really a lot of work to build up a forum, and you can't do it overnight. Your forum is far from the worst I've seen, you have it concise, not dozens of empty forums, and it fits well with your site design. I wouldn't necessarily give up on it right away. A year ago, I was ready to give up on my forum, www.cointalk.org and posted it up for sale, now it's starting to take off and I'm glad I didn't find an eager buyer. ;)

[Ramzy]

Forums aren't really a matter of how many visitors your site gets or anything, but if there is a key motivation for the member to register. A forum shop helps, RPG system and interesting topics of discussion.

Try and get your moderators to pretend they are members and soon enough some members will hop in the bandwagon and see for themselves. :)

[Athorn4941]

Rpg shop type things are overused in forums. I would advise against things like what Ramzy mentioned but, Interesting topics of discussion work well. I would move the forum to your car specs site because I personally think people will post in that forum more to ask questions on car specs. But, One thing I have to say at least your forum has posts in it so when I went there it didnt look dead.

[Yoda]

A dedicated community is invaluable. If you think you can build one, do it. A group of loyal regulars beats raw numbers any day in terms of conversion and ad targetting.

[Percept]

A dedicated community is invaluable. If you think you can build one, do it. A group of loyal regulars beats raw numbers any day in terms of conversion and ad targetting.

A domain like www.movieforums.com can also help :)

[ozgression]

A group of loyal regulars beats raw numbers any day in terms of conversion and ad targetting.

I disagree. Advertisers always prefer unique traffic, as opposed to return traffic.
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[Yoda]

That completely depends on what you mean when you say "advertisers." Based on the context, I would presume that you're thinking of ad networks, which are volatile, and not generally all that targetted. Think of someone like Paul Harvey, Howard Stern, Oprah, of Rush Limbaugh. Their personal endorsement is enough to send a product skyrocketing, not just because of audience size, but because of audience loyalty.

This is why I added the "in terms of conversion and ad targetting" qualifier. People are more likely to buy from a sponsor approved by the site they know and trust than they are some random place they stumbled into from a search engine.

So if you're in search of raw impressions to boost earnings with an ad network, then sure, repeat visitors aren't that hot. If you're looking for actual leads, sales, and conversions, then a close-knit community of consumers can be incredibly valuable. It all depends on your goals. The difference is that raw traffic is far easier to buy and sell, whereas regular visitors require a genuinely interesting, quality site.

[Athorn4941]

My loyal visitors are more apt to buying expensive things that I endorse or advise as good products. and my uniques that dont come back don't generally buy things unless its on an impulse.

Thats my 2 cents.

[ozgression]

That completely depends on what you mean when you say "advertisers." Based on the context, I would presume that you're thinking of ad networks, which are volatile, and not generally all that targetted. Think of someone like Paul Harvey, Howard Stern, Oprah, of Rush Limbaugh. Their personal endorsement is enough to send a product skyrocketing, not just because of audience size, but because of audience loyalty.

This is why I added the "in terms of conversion and ad targetting" qualifier. People are more likely to buy from a sponsor approved by the site they know and trust than they are some random place they stumbled into from a search engine.

So if you're in search of raw impressions to boost earnings with an ad network, then sure, repeat visitors aren't that hot. If you're looking for actual leads, sales, and conversions, then a close-knit community of consumers can be incredibly valuable. It all depends on your goals. The difference is that raw traffic is far easier to buy and sell, whereas regular visitors require a genuinely interesting, quality site.

No, I am talking about advertising, fullstop. Not just ad networks.

If you have a website that pushes an affiliate via cpa, would you rather have unqiue visitors visiting you site (more and more people exposed to the product) or the same people? Afterall, as loyal as your "close-knit community" may be, there is a limit on how many sales/conversions you can make. You then run into the problem of having to constantly find new products to push to your audience to maintain a decent eCPM. After a while, your loyal users tend to block out advetising/product placement anyway.

The affiliate/advertiser would also enjoy the opportunity for branding - getting their name out to a larger audience.

I mean, sure, if you are doing movie reviews/opinions and saying "don't see this one" or "go see this one" you have a point (as you loyal members respect you opinion), but if you are talking purely about advertising services/products then it is better to have unique people to advertise to.

It seems that you assume that unique traffic is low quality and untargetted. In my experience, this isn't the case.
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