Regarding Online forums?

[kid]

Hello:

I am planning to start an online forum. I am writing down all the questions needed to ask before actually doing it. Some of which are:

Does it require programming knowledge or high tech skills to be an administrator of a forum?
What privileges should never be given to a moderator?
When hiring online freelancers in future, what information/access is given to them and what should never be given?
Whenever we visit forums, there is a page with lot of info asking at the end do you agree (The forum Guidelines/rules). Do I have to write this whole thing up? Do I have to speak to an Attorney for the forum guidelines?
Your valuable advice and feedback will be highly appreciated.
Thanks a lot

[Brian Altenhofel]

Does it require programming knowledge or high tech skills to be an administrator of a forum?

Generally, no. When you get into high traffic loads (several million pageviews/month) or odd features unique to your target market, it might help. But that expertise can always be hired out.



What privileges should never be given to a moderator?

Any privilege that overrides an administrator.



When hiring online freelancers in future, what information/access is given to them and what should never be given?

For 99% of the work that you'll probably need, a competent freelancer can perform it without credentials for the site.



Whenever we visit forums, there is a page with lot of info asking at the end do you agree (The forum Guidelines/rules). Do I have to write this whole thing up? Do I have to speak to an Attorney for the forum guidelines?

Most forums just use what comes bundled with the software. However, if you ever intend on actually enforcing Terms of Service, find yourself the subject of a Privacy Policy dispute, and foresee any potential legal interaction, it's best to consult an attorney to help you write those for your specific needs. As for general forum posting guidelines, that's a completely different matter.

[Freelancier]

I hope you're not planning to do it as a way to make money, because there's no money in forums and you'll spend a bunch of your time trying to rid yourself of spam-bots and their abusive postings.

[Brian Altenhofel]

I hope you're not planning to do it as a way to make money, because there's no money in forums and you'll spend a bunch of your time trying to rid yourself of spam-bots and their abusive postings.

There is... but you have to grow enough to generate enough recurring traffic to attract and retain advertisers who also target that niche.

Your niche also determines how much spam you'll attract and how you can deal with it. I run a gun forum that gets 100K visits per day and ~900K page views per day. We might deal with 1-2 spam posts per week. Every now and then we'll get a spike of 6-8 in one day, but that spike will come from the same C block. If the C block is outside of our target market, we just block the C block at the firewall.

[Patrysha]

There's plenty of money in the two paid forums I'm a member of...

[Business Attorney]

I agree with Brian and Patrysha that there can be money in forums but I imagine that less that 1% of the forums that are out make any money, and probably less than 0.1% make anything that is worthwhile. I participate in a couple of legal forums that I am pretty sure do well enough for the owners. I have read some health forums that also seem very active.

On the other hand, when I am searching a topic on Google, I continually come across forums that seem to have little activity. I remember when I was having a problem with my last phone, a Samsung Galaxy S, I was looking for answers to a common problem and there were a lot of Android forums where the question was asked but no one ever responded. Some had a a very active community and others were sparsely populated. Perhaps if you have an Android forum, you get enough clicks on ads and the cost-per-click is high enough that you can do well.

[ajointventure]

I think one of the biggest hurdles for anyone starting a forum, or any self help website for that matter, is defining their expectation. I mean, what is it you expect potential forum members to do? What are they looking for and how are they going about trying to find answers? Personally, I find it incredible that there are still a tremendous number of people who retain a "Social Media (Forums) is supposed to be free" mindset.

In my opinion there are hundreds of thousands of people coming on-line every day looking for information. I agree that much of that information is indeed free but specific help, education and assistance isn't free anymore. Or, is it?

[FlyPizzaGuy]

If your hosting yourself it can be a bit of a pain especially if you don't know what your getting yourself into. Servers. programming, review consulting etc. However there are companies on the Internet that host multiple forums and its free. Proboards.com is one place is probably the safest system implemented in my opinion on Internet today. Due to the Login area being SSL Protected. Security first is always key.

Just do a little Googling for "free forum hosting" and that should give you a general idea.

[FlyPizzaGuy]

There's plenty of money in the two paid forums I'm a member of...

Just wondering could you provide some links to these so called Honey Pots? Just asking.

[Patrysha]

Just wondering could you provide some links to these so called Honey Pots? Just asking.

I would not call them honey pots so much as paid forums that I know to be making money and providing value to members.

One was restaurantowners.com - I'm no longer a member there as I no longer work with the client that led to me joining. I believe the monthly fee on that one was $20 a month.

The other is solomasterminds.com -which I've been a member of so long that I've been grandfathered in as it's changed over the years (it was mommasterminds when I joined.) I think the membership is in the $30/month range now...but you just pay for one year and then stay on free as a legacy member.

Another one that I know of but was never a paid member of is the Ilovephotography forum. They have a tiered-membership there with some areas being paid members only.

[Brian Altenhofel]

Just wondering could you provide some links to these so called Honey Pots? Just asking.

One that I run is OKShooters.com. All revenue is generated off of sponsors, and banners aren't the only thing we sell to sponsors. We also sell our reach on other networks (as in actively promoting sponsors via Facebook), and we have an opt-in mailing list that we use for sending advertisements on behalf of sponsors.

We've toyed with the idea of making certain parts of the forums paid-only in the past, but so far our analysis has shown that we generate more revenue as a free forum.

[FlyPizzaGuy]

I would not call them honey pots so much as paid forums that I know to be making money and providing value to members.

One was restaurantowners.com - I'm no longer a member there as I no longer work with the client that led to me joining. I believe the monthly fee on that one was $20 a month.

The other is solomasterminds.com -which I've been a member of so long that I've been grandfathered in as it's changed over the years (it was mommasterminds when I joined.) I think the membership is in the $30/month range now...but you just pay for one year and then stay on free as a legacy member.

Another one that I know of but was never a paid member of is the Ilovephotography forum. They have a tiered-membership there with some areas being paid members only.

Thanks for the 411.

[FlyPizzaGuy]

I would not call them honey pots so much as paid forums that I know to be making money and providing value to members.

One was restaurantowners.com - I'm no longer a member there as I no longer work with the client that led to me joining. I believe the monthly fee on that one was $20 a month.

The other is solomasterminds.com -which I've been a member of so long that I've been grandfathered in as it's changed over the years (it was mommasterminds when I joined.) I think the membership is in the $30/month range now...but you just pay for one year and then stay on free as a legacy member.

Another one that I know of but was never a paid member of is the Ilovephotography forum. They have a tiered-membership there with some areas being paid members only.

Much Thanks for the links. I can't even afford none of those right now but when I do. I'll have to give them a try and see what they have hidden down in their website. Thanks again.