Do forums work without content?

[Mike]

Do forums work without content? Do you have to have content to attract members, get posts etc? Or could you be successful still by just starting off with no content?

I'm thinking about starting a forum but haven't got time to write any content at the moment. I'm thinking to create a plain forum, then add content in a few months.

What do you think?

Also, how do forums make money?

Thanks,
Mike

[incka]

Literature forums doesn't have content, it's had over 2000 posts so far, and recently had a day with over 200 posts...

Forums on good topics can get into Burst. Others have to settle for adsense and smaller ad networks. Fastclick do allow popups and invues and interstitials on forums, but no image-based ads.

[Chris]

There are plenty of forum only sites out there. WebHostingTalk comes to mind. It is going to be harder to get started though.

[incka]

Would I have come to this site without articles? Yes.

Would my referrer have come to this site without articles? I don't think so.

Therefore would I have truely come to the site without articles? No.

[chromate]

Yeah, but remember; I would bet you came to this site because of Chris's reputation for knowing what he's talking about. So there's that initial pulling factor. I think it would be hard to get a pure forum site off the ground with no real content.

I really need to get a forum together for my diet sites. I get a few emails a week from people asking me various questions. I wouldn't like to do it without that initial traffic though.

People also have major hassle making money from forums. For a forum, where you rely on return visitors to build a community, the last thing you want is popunders / popups etc.

[thebillionaire]

I didn't enter the forums until I read all of the information on getting a site started I saw the link but didn't bother until read all the info and had questions, but once here all I do is go on the forum.

[Percept]

Mike, you might want to check out www.theadminzone.com . It's an admins community with a lot of interesting articles on how to run a forum.

[Nick]

one of my favorite sites f*ckedgaijin.com (http://www.f*ckedgaijin.com) is forum only. It looks like it is full of content however, due to the portal script which publishes new posts on the front page.

[Mike]

Yeah saw that link on sitepoint Percept, looks an interesting idea and it's quite busy as well.

It would need a lot of content my idea and wouldn't really make that much money - but I would really enjoy doing it. I think what I will do is finish off the sites I have bought domains for, then work in the late summer on this.

Thanks for all the replies :)

[incka]

Originally posted by chromate
Yeah, but remember; I would bet you came to this site because of Chris's reputation for knowing what he's talking about. So there's that initial pulling factor. I think it would be hard to get a pure forum site off the ground with no real content.

I really need to get a forum together for my diet sites. I get a few emails a week from people asking me various questions. I wouldn't like to do it without that initial traffic though.

People also have major hassle making money from forums. For a forum, where you rely on return visitors to build a community, the last thing you want is popunders / popups etc.


100% Incorrect :p


I came while searching for my only website at the time, games2go... Mike had asked how he could help me get more visitors and more money from it...

[MarkB]

Chromate, if you want to have your users participate in your site but don't want to make the leap to a forum without knowing if the traffic is there, then there are other ways of doing it. You could have a site 'mailbag', where you answer people's emails (and offer other people to post follow-up responses!). As that builds up, and people see that you can not only offer advice, but there are other people offering advice as well, a forum would be a fine next logical step.

As for making money from forums, it IS possible. With a targetted niche, you could get a forum sponsor - and if your users love you enough, then having paid memberships (in exchange for extra benefits) also works for many forums.