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Some End-of-the-Year Updates
Well, it’s been a few days since my last post, so I thought I’d update you on how things are going in general. Typically I avoid having posts on more than one topic, but posts like this every once in a while aren’t that bad.
Holidays
Christmas was okay, I suppose - no good nor worse than usual. I didn’t really get anything special, but I did get a little cash and some gift cards, which was nice. I ended up buy Lost Season 3 with some of the Christmas money. I spent most of Christmas Eve and Christmas with family and away from the computer. I’m not 100% what I’m doing for New Years Eve, but I know I have to work all morning. I’ll probably go out tomorrow night with friends. New Years day will be more family time. I go back to school the 3rd. 
Lost TV Marathon
During the past three days, my brother and I had a TV marathon in which we watched all 3 season of Lost in 3 days. We ended up getting about 5 hours of sleep a night and watched 52 hours of video in 72 hours. Fun times. I was still online part of the time, but I did a good deal of TV watching. Lost is a spectacular show that I highly recommend. A few questions I’m just dying to have answered: What do the numbers mean? Why do the outside world think everyone is dead? What is the monster/black smoke? Why did the others want Walk? Who/What is Jacob? Why does Jack want to go back to the island in the flashforward?
Site Updates
In the webmaster world, I successfully sold my Heroes forum, though we need to finish transferring the site. The buyer got a real deal since I’m only selling it for 3 times the monthly income. I have some regrets for selling it, but I’m sure the knew owner will run it much better than I did - I didn’t have much time to devote the the forum. AdminAddict.Com has also been unofficially launched, so feel free to register and post on the site. I’m still waiting on a reply from the designer, so until we get a custom design we’ll use the vbulletin default. Once the design is finished we’ll have a custom look for the forum and it’s adjourning site. I’ll make a post later about AdminAddict once the site is better established.
Goals for 2008
2008 is just around the corner, and with it brings new opportunities. Up until the past few weeks I’ve been very unmotivated in my web endeavors, but that will change in 2008. I’m going to college in next fall, hopefully to NYU or Northeastern. Both charge outrageously high tuition, so if that’s not a good motivator I don’t know what is. I intend to pay for the bulk of my college tuition through website revenue.
Some of my goals that aren’t related to specific websites:
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Spend an average of 5 hours a day working online.
Currently, I may or may not be doing this. I’m not sure. I hope to better keep track of my productive hours working online. This may be difficult between schoolwork and my job, but I think I can do it if I remain focused. While I’m easily spending this much time online and then some, I’m not sure all of the time is productive. I need to be more productive in what I do.
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Keep Records
One of my major flaws right now is I don’t keep track of what I do. Recently I’ve started a daily to do list, which has helped. Starting January 1st, I will keep track of 1) Revenues earned, both gross and net, 2) Hours worked, tasks completed, 3) tasks/jobs to complete, 4) short and longterm goals. I think keeping track of these things will help me stay focused. Moreover, I hope to occasionally post in this blog about the progress I’m making; hopefully some readers can keep me accountable.
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Establish a net income of $2000/month by December 2008
I don’t expect to be able to accomplish this right away, but it’s my goal to reach by the end of the year. On average, that’s a little less than $65/day. It’ll be hard, but it is doable. I’m not sure what I’m making currently because I haven’t kept track, but it’s around $6-$7/day. So, in one year, I need to multiply my earnings by 10. Ideally I’ll make between $200 - $400/month on 4-5 sites plus additional revenue through affiliate marketing and miscellaneous income sources.
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Save 100% of the revenue earned for college
As I mentioned above, I’m heading off to college next year. I haven’t been accepted to either of my first two choices yet, New York University and Northeastern University, but I really hope I do. Tuition is around 40K, plus about 10K room & board. That adds up to about $50,000/year. Not cheap for a Midwestern kid from a lower-middle class family with four children. Yikes. No more splurging on new laptop(s), new gadgets, or other unnecessary things. Any earnings I make online will either be reinvested in my sites through new designs, features, and advertising, or will be saved for college. This is something I’m going to be cracking down on this year. If I can manage to make $2000/month, my first goal, that should pay for about 1/2 of my college tuition for each year (if I can keep the earnings consistent).
A Look at the Future
- Real Mad Hatter
This site, my webmaster and personal blog, is still new. However, I think that within a year I could reasonably pull in $250 a month or more through private ad sales. In the next three months I hope to revamp this design and get a custom logo/character for the blog. My RSS subscriber goal for the end of 2008 is 500 readers. I also hope to consistently post 4-5 times a week with productive, intelligent posts.
- Writing Forums
Thus far, WritingForums.Org has been my greatest success. In the next few months I plan to upgrade it to vbulletin 3.7, install a custom review/critique modification, establish more writing contests, and much, much more. I have big plans for the site. It’s currently bringing in just over $100/month. My goal for 2008 is to increase this to $350/month. Currently stats: 6,833 threads; 118,942 posts; 2,665 members. By January 1st, 2009, I intend to have 300,000 posts and 5,000 members. Ideally I would like 500,000 posts and 10,000 members by the end of next year, but I think that may be setting myself up for failure. It’s good to be ambitious, but bad to be unrealistic.
- Admin Addict
This is my newest project. I have high hopes for it. Since I’m still developing it I can’t tell you much about it, but the general idea is that it’s a resource and forum site for forum administrators. Tyler, my partner in this endeavor, and I are currently developing this project. This forum is more for fun and to help other forum administrators, but I don’t think it’d be too hard to image us pulling in $400/month from the site within a year. I intend to have at least 2,500 members and 100,000 posts by the end of next year. For the blog on the main site I hope to have 500 subscribers, as well as many [currently secret] features.
- Daily Movie Reviews
This site is another new one from me. The goal is to provide one new review of a movie I’ve seen every day. This will mostly include newly released movies, but may include others as well. In addition to a movie review each day, I intend to post about additional movie and tv news, sneak peeks, and inside information. I still need to change some settings and create a custom header for the site, but this should be done soon. Most of the revenue here will be from affiliate sales, but also private advertisers and adsense. My goal for this site is $400/month and 250 subscribers.
I have many other goals as well. While I wouldn’t consider this a new year’s resolution, per se, I think it’s important to make goals to accomplish throughout the year. What are your goals for 2008?
Selecting a Good Forum Niche
Choosing the topic of your forum is an important decision. If you have your boards centered around a topic no one wants to talk about, no one will talk about it. There are two things that should be focused on when deciding if your forum niche is appropriate - if you want to talk about it and if others want to talk about it. You need both.
Choose a Discussable Topic
Your topic should be on that can be talked about. You have to be careful not to choose a topic that’s too saturated. If you choose a popular topic, it will be difficult for you to make your forum more appealing that the bigger ones. You’ll have to work much harder, in this case. “you should aim for a niche that’s specific, but not too specific. For example, poetry my be more specific than writing, and thus a good topic; however, Shakespearian poetry is probably too specific. People have to want to talk about your topic. Make sure your topic is not obscure - discussing an unpopular book or creating a forum for the Amish probably won’t generate much activity. :p
Choose a Niche you Enjoy
While still important, choosing a topic you enjoy is still something you should consider. One must enjoy the topic and be knowledgeable in it. Creating a forum, blog, or other website you know nothing about is foolish. You have to personally want to talk about it. Oftentimes, the administrator who runs the forum runs forums on topics they’re passionate about. If you don’t intend to be active in your community, choosing a topic you like isn’t all that important. However, it certainly aids in a forum’s early days and in creating a community.
Heroes Forum For Sale
I’ve decided to sell my Heroes Forum over at DP. The site made over $100 last month and receives more than 10,000 unique visitors/month. Current high bid is $250. The Buy It Now price is $1200. While I still love the show, I’ve lost interest in running the forum and don’t have the time to do so very well.
Vbulletin 3.7 Beta 2 Release
Last Monday, Vbulletin released vbulletin 3.7 as a public beta. Beta 2 includes several bug fixes that were found by users in the first beta version which ran live on their site. This new version of vbulletin is the first version to contain major feature improvements in a few years. Among these new features are user galleries, improved user profiles, thread prefixes, and more.
I’m sure what everyone wants to know is when the gold release will be? Impossible to say as it all depends on bugs and security issues found. However, looking at the past we can make an educated guess. Vbulletin 3.6 beta went gold approximately 2 months after it’s release. We can probably see the first release candidate in around a month.
3.5 beta (Jun 9th) - 3.5 RC1 (Jul 26th) - 3.5 Gold (Sept 28th)
3.6 beta (Jun 8th) - 3.6 RC1 (Jul 7th) - 3.6 Gold (Aug 3rd)
Above are the approximate release dates of the Release Candidates, Gold releases, and Beta versions.
While some people have been bold enough to upgrade their live forum to vbulletin 3.7, it’s recommended that you upgrade only a test forum. I set up my test forum, and though I was tempted to run it live, I decided to wait for at least the first Release Candidate. The admin control panel has sections for the new features; it’d be as one expected. Gallery and Social Bookmarking options listed under vbulletin options, with the thread prefixes and navbar notices having their own section. If you choose to upgrade you should be knowlegeable in how to do so and be able to do frequent upgrades as bug fixes and security updates are found.
The Apathetic Administrator
Is that you? Do you care what happens on your forums? An apathetic administrator isn’t a good administrator, that much is for certain. Forums put out what is put into them. If you don’t post, enforce rules, or improve your forum, you should find a new hobby.
In my previous post, I expressed how important it is for the forum owner to personally post. I would like to stress this yet again - it’s vital. The form owner should post daily and should actively be promoting his forum.
Rules are important in any forum. IF you don’t have a set of boundaries, you can’t fairly punish or ban users when they do something you didn’t like, because you didn’t tell them it was wrong to do. A set of rules tell the members what they can and can’t do. If you let them do what they want, you’re going to have frequent pissing matches. Moreover, no rules basically tell the users its okay to spam, curse, and display adult content.
If you care about your forum, you’ll actively be trying to find new ways to improve it. I make improvements to my forum almost daily - major upgrades every three or four months. I think the feeling that the administrator is actively improving the forums shows the users that the administrator cares - and an admin who cares about the forum is the type of admin that most users desire. In addition to this, constant improvements can also give you an edge on the competition, providing they don’t copy you, which can prove invaluable.
To summarize, be active, have rules, and improve your forum. Doing this shows you care as the forum owner. If you don’t care about your forum, success is unlikely.
Forum Inactivity - Another Forum Killer
There are many things that scare users away from your forum. Perhaps even more than excessive advertising or a poorly design skin, an inactive or empty forum will keep users from participating. Contrary to the popular saying, “if you build it they will come,” an empty forum rarely, if ever, gets posted in. They may come, but they won’t post. Even if your forum has 100,000 posts or more, if it’s inactive, no one will post. Doing so would be like talking to yourself; your post would echo, and no one would hear.
The truth is that unless your forum is active - getting posted in daily, it won’t grow. Even if the admin posts, it’s unlikely a user will post consistently because they’d only be talking to one person.
So, what’s the solution?
Simple. make your forum active.
How? That’s a good question.
Three Ways To Start Your Forum Posting:
- Invite Friends - If you have any real life friends or acquaintances who are interested in the topic of your forum, let them know about it! I never did this myself, but I know that it would have helped my forums in their beginning days significantly. An additional bonus to having your friends post on your forum is that they’re much more likely to stay, simply because they already know at least one person who posts there. This is very beneficial to your forums growth. You want to develop a tight-knit community.
- Talk to Yourself - Create three or four accounts and post on all of them. Make conversation with yourself. This gives off the impression of activity, even if it is fake. This can get tiresome, but it looks better than an empty forum. This is useless if you’re not getting traffic, but if you are getting a steady flow of traffic, your visitors have a much higher chance of actually signing up.
- Post Exchanges - Trade posts with other beginning forums to help initiate conversation, increase activity, and build content. This accomplishes the same thing as you creating multiple accounts, except these accounts are fake. They’re from real people who might stick around after your post exchanges are completed.
The three methods above are only three of many methods of generating posts for your forum. Having an inactive forum is having a useless forum. Even if your forum isn’t active with genuine discussion, you need to, at the very least, give off the impression of activity.
Three Ways Not to Generate Posts:
- Paid Posting - A year or two ago, paid posting was the hype. There were tons of forum posting services promising quality posts for your forum. While there are some legitimate forum posting services out there, most are from 14 year old foreign children who’s first language isn’t English. Most posts are a sentence or two long. Regardless of the quality of posts, paid posting doesn’t do much for your forum. While it does accomplish nearly the same thing as you conversing with yourself, paid posting is temporary; you “talking to yourself” is not.
- Automated Content - Following the paid posting craze was a surge in automated content. I’ll admit, the aspect of having 100,000+ posts automatically was intriguing and I took the bait. It was too good to be true. The software I purchased was buggy and only worked sometimes - a few weeks later it didn’t work at all. On top of this, I was publishing duplicate content. In addition to the technical issues I faced, the idea of having thousands of fake posts also devalues the community. If the forum does get off the ground, it’d be hard to get a community feel from a forum that has a fake majority of posts and users.
- Nothing - The worst possible thing you can do to help your forum grow is nothing. While this may seem obvious to some people, to others it is not. Some people think that if they set it up, a forum will build itself. This is rarely the case. I was fortunate enough to have this happen; I set up the forum and didn’t visit it for months. I returned to it later and was surprised to see it active. This happens less than 1% of the time, so it’s not something you should count on. Keep in mind that typically what you put into it is what you get out of it. If you work hard, you’re likely to get good results. If you slack, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Ads Kill: Good and Bad Methods of Earning Forum Revenue
Ads kill… just like guns. Oh, wait. Guns don’t kill, people do. The same goes for advertisements; it’s not the advertisements themselves that can kill your website, but rather the placement or type of advertisement selected by the webmaster. Chances are that if you’ve created a forum - or a website of any kind, for that matter - you’ve probably intended to make money from it. Let’s face it - we all have monetary motives. Even if this is not the case for you, you probably wouldn’t mind a little pocket change or for the site to pay for it’s own hosting through advertisements.
When dealing with placing ads on your forum, you must be careful, especially since its common knowledge that forums are difficult to successfully monetize. You may feel compelled to place the ugliest ads that make the most money on your forum; oftentimes, these ads make you loose money in the long run by hampering your forum’s growth. I urge you to tread carefully in this area. while some of these methods will make you money, I’ve found that they’re like a poison to a forum - and it can be deadly. Further on in the post I will go into more detail.
When to Implement Ads
Regardless of what ads you choose to use, I strongly recommend they be implemented ASAP. If possible, start advertisements when your forum is small. While this goes against conventional wisdom, that doesn’t make it incorrect. If you have ad-free forum and suddenly get a boatload of banners on your page, it just might be possible some users might get a little angry or frustrated. On one of my forums I had limited advertisements, but because of a hosting upgrade was forced to ad an Adsense Banner below the first post and a small ad united at the bottom. While many users were very understanding about the situation, several also get angry about it - a few enough to leave. Many of the forum members voiced their annoyance. This is with Google banners. Image if I had added in-text advertising; that would have been a nightmare.
Top Worst Advertisement Methods
- In-Text Links
The #1 worst advertising method you can use for your forum is any form of in-text advertising. While I think this is a legitimate form of advertising, I simply don’t think it’s suitable for the forum. Forum users hate them. Though they do bring in a pretty penny (I’ve heard up to three times your current earnings), I think it’s safe to say that it will hurt your forum’s growth. I know that, as a forum member, if any forum I posted on implemented in-text advertising from a ad network such as Kontera, I would leave. The only time I can see using in-text links are if you use them from day 1 so the users are never surprised, or if you display them only to guests. Not only are in-text ads wretchedly ugly, most of the time they’re not useful to the users. They are very intrusive (in posts, forums, profiles, etc). Don’t use intrusive ads!
- Deceitfully Integrated Ads
The word “integrated” in this case is misleading. Integrated ads are good - ads meant to deceive your users are bad. If you make the users think the ads are threads or posts or a menu, you are deceiving your user. Most forum users aren’t stupid; they’ll know you tried to mislead them. In the end, it hurts your forum. Additional related “deceitful” ads are links mingled in with the users profiles/interests or huge Adsense squares in the users actual posts.
- Popups/Popunders
If you don’t know that popups and popunders should never be used on a forum, you shouldn’t be reading this blog.
Top Best Ad methods
- Subscriptions
The #1 best way to bring in money to support your forum is through paid subscriptions. Vbulletin offers a paid subscription system built into their software where you can set prices and payment gateways for users to pay through. Subscriptions are the best way of bringing in revenue because 1) it’s optional; the user doesn’t have to pay unless their willing. With almost all other forms of advertisement the user has no choice in the matter. 2) You can make the payments reoccurring. If you offer the users features they like - and you make supporting your site popular, there’s a very high chance your users will subscribe again. 3) It shows you that you’re doing something right if you can get people to pay money. Typically I give users features like a bigger PM box and a user badge if they become a subscriber. I like to add new features periodically. I’ll likely do a post in a few weeks about forum subscriptions.
- Text Links
Text links are the oldest way to bring money online, and they’re still good at it. Text links are a good method of revenue if they come from a third party that lets you approve the ads or if you sell the text links independently. Text links are a good second method of income for a forum because they’re not intrusive. They’re easy to see, but they don’t get in the users way; furthermore, they typically bring in a steady revenue stream each month.
- Independent, Well-Defined Banner Advertisements
Banner advertisements are impossible to avoid on today’s internet. They can also bring in a decent chuck of revenue. There are a few things I would like to stress about banner advertisements. Most importantly, make sure they’re not too flashy or intrusive. Secondly, keep the position of the banner in mind. Make sure the user knows it’s an advertisement. I like to have a banner either in the header, footer, or sidebar of a forum. This allows the banner to be displayed in a way that is show sitewide but is not deceptive. Keep in mind that banners on forums typically make more money on independent advertisers than through an ad network such as Adsense.
- Strategically placed PPC or Affiliate Banners/Links
I would like to recommend one strays away from Pay-Per-Click and affiliate banners and links in a forum. I’ve tried with them both and haven’t been very successful; with PPC I’ve brought in decent, consistent revenue, but it isn’t anything near what I can make from private advertisers. I’ve had the worst luck with affiliate links on forums also. This isn’t to say they can’t work; I’m sure they do. This is just to say you have to have the right niche; your forum post be about a specific area or field that has affiliate offers users will actually participate in. Affiliate marketing and PPC can be a fantastic forum revenue source if it works for your forum.
In conclusion, be careful what kind of advertisements you use on your forum. What works for some forums might not work for others; this could be because of the size of the forum, the forum’s niche, or even the attitude of the administrator. Moreover, be sure to diversify your earnings. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Remember, ads can kill!
The Importance of Having a Unique Forum Design
The #1 thing that will cause your forum to fail is having a poor design. This is the general consensus, and I’m just reinforcing - it’s true. It has been said that internet users will determine if they’ll stay on or leave your site in less than a second. Because of this, it is increasingly important to have a high-quality and user-friendly design. If you don’t make an impression within the first few seconds you’ve lost that user forever. If your potential members hear fantastic things about your site, it doesn’t matter whatsoever if your site’s look simply, well, sucks. The following are a few basic things that should be considered when thinking about the layout and look of your forum:
General Design
- The actual look, feel, and design of your forum should look clean and professional. Make the look something a large number of users will enjoy instead of the minority. There isn’t anything specific I’d like to pinpoint in regard to this design that isn’t otherwise covered in this post, but overall the general colors and layout of your forum are very important - perhaps the most important. The layout has to be easy to navigate and not straining on the eyes.
Clutter
- Having unnecessary banners and snippets of information might be useful, but it makes your site look bad. This is simply a fact. The cleaner and clearer the site, the more user friendly it will be. Users like designs that are simple. Every additional link, image, and advertisement you have is something that has potential to annoy your user. This is why I discourage the use of large signatures and signatures that have images in them: placing images in signatures litter your forum with unnecessary and distracting images that may upset may potential (and existing) users.
Advertisements
- No one likes ads, but they’re oftentimes necessary to run the site or to make a profit. However, from a user’s point-of-view, the fewer advertisements the better. Moreover, ads should be integrated, yet not intrusive. This is a difficult combination. You want the ads to be effective and get a decent CTR, but you don’t want the users to be significantly distracted or annoyed by them. You want the primary focus of your forum to be on the content posted and on user posting new, additional content. I’ll be making a more detailed post in a few days about the dos and don’ts of advertising on a forum.
But what kind of theme should you get? Should you use a free theme, buy one, make design your own, or purchase an exclusive one? Good themes are rarely free and themes won’t make themselves.
Scratch the Default Theme
While the default themes of most forum software companies are actually good, the fact that every user who uses the software has access to it should be a warning. There are tens of thousands of forums (if not more) on the internet today, and each and every one of those at one point was using a default theme. It’s likely there are still thens of thousands that currently use it today. Using a default theme does nothing to brand your site or make it stand out. It confines you; it makes your forum just another forum. Chances are that more than 50% of users have seen the theme before. This can confuse the users. Moreover, while a default theme is typically well designed, they’re still a long way from fantastic.
Stock and Paid Themes: You’re Getting Warmer
The next step up the totem pole of style is to use a free stock template or buy a better stock skin. While this is certainly better than using the default, it’s still not good enough if you’re serious about being successful. It works for a few, but all the major successful forums are using custom themes or modified default ones. Stock templates make your site look better, but not quite unique. If it’s available elsewhere, chances are it’s used elsewhere. If the theme is used elsewhere, that means users may have seen it elsewhere; if it’s been seen elsewhere, users get confused and annoyed. If you must use a stock template I strongly suggest you customize it to your site; change the colors, give it a custom header, new icons, and other things to make your site different from the original.
Get a Customized Unique Theme
I honestly believe the best thing you can do for your discussion board is to purchase a custom theme. Ideally, if you’re both a good designer and coder, you could do this yourself. However, this isn’t practical for many forum administrators. Usually you can get a high quality, custom theme for under $300. I’ve paid around $200 for mine and am quite satisfied. I don’t recommend you ever pay more than $500 for a theme, unless, of course, you can afford it and think it’s worth it. See my recommended page for some good designers and coders.
Blog Updates
As you may have noticed, I’ve made several changes on the blog today. Most noticeably, I’ve added a new, custom style to the blog. For the most part I’m pleased with this new style, though the change will take some getting used to. As you can see, we have our primary links on the left column, the secondary links on the right column, and the navigation bar in the center with the posts below.
In addition to changes in the style, we’ve totally revamped the about page with details about the site and myself. I’ve also added a recommended page that show you several of the online services I personally use and recommend. Furthermore, I’ve added a contact page if you have any question for me or would like to advertise on the site.
Needless to say, I’ll be making additional changes and tweaks in the next few days, as well as posting more. Stay tuned!