Can you give us a brief background on yourself?

I am 28 years old, happily married to my wife, Amber, of almost 10 years (this coming May), father of 2 beautiful little girls (ages 4 and 6), involved in church, business owner, and so on. I like to have fun and laugh, I enjoy movies about courage, honor, and loyalty, we live in the country in a small town of about 3,000 people, and I have a miniature Schnauzer named Jack.


Do you have a regular routine when you go to work every day or a particular routine when checking your forums?

I do have a bit of a routine in the morning when I come in to the office (which is directly behind our home). I always check email, read through the blog posts in my BlogLines account, approve comments on my blog, and then begin to check in on each of my 7 forums. I read through PMs, check the staff forums, then check the "support" forums to make sure there aren't any issues that need to be addressed. I like to try and make anywhere from 1-5 posts a day on my forums depending on how much time I have and what the needs may be.


Of the time spent working on your forums, how is it divided percentage-wise doing various things such as posting, moderating, resolving disputes, advertising/promoting, troubleshooting/bug-fixing, planning/decision-making, etc.?

10% posting
5% moderating
25% promotion / advertising
5% handling disputes
10% chatting with moderators / members through IM
10% troubleshooting, bugs
30% planning / decision making
5% analyzing stats / earnings


Do you prefer building forums from the ground up or purchasing already developed forums?

These days, I prefer acquiring young to midsized forums that I feel have potential. I have started several forums that have been successful including CruiseLineFans.com and Earners Forum. Due to the fact that it takes so much time to develop a forum from scratch, it makes more business sense for me to acquire a growing forum, than try to do it myself. There are plenty of admin out there looking to move on, so that gives me plenty of opportunities for acquisition.


How many employees (paid persons, not voluntary) do you have to help you maintain and develop your forums?

I have 2 full time employees right now. I have Juan as my project manager and Ken as my coder and vBulletin guy. I also have about 3-4 other part time employees that do various projects like web design, programming, server administration, and promotion.


What is the most important factor for a forum's success?

I think it is the content a forum can provide. When I say content, I mean content in written form, audio forum, video form, or even tools and entertainment associated with that particular niche. I have found that by providing your userbase with valuable / enjoyable tools, you can count on your community growing in to a success.


What will forums look like in 5 years?

No clue. I am not very forward thinking in this area. I am the type of business man that rolls with the punches, which I think is a good thing in the internet business world. We really don't know what the entire internet will look like 5 years from now as it is changing so very rapidly. So hard to tell, but I would guess they will be smarter and even more interactive.


What is your least favorite part about running a forum?

I guess the least favorite part would have to be dealing with trouble makers. I have learned over the past couple of years to not let it bother me. When I first got started in the forum arena, it bothered me a great deal. I wanted to please everyone and quickly (well, kind of) I found that you just can't do that. Finally I came to the point where it didn't bother me so much, but that doesn't mean it is fun.


What do you do to relax, or "get away" from all of your forum work?

I spend time with my wife and kids. I do my best to keep "normal" working hours and leave my weekends open. We try to "get away" periodically, but we aren't big vacationers. I also enjoy spending time with our best friends, the fellowship is sweet.


What is the most common mistake you see other forum owners making?

Lack of research, really. Hundreds of forums each day are thrown up on the web without the admin spending even 15 minutes planning out a course for forum growth. People don't research their desired niche, they don't research the competition, they don't research the main keywords for SEO purposes, they don't research how they can differentiate themselves from their competition, and so on. Simply put, up and coming admins NEED to do more homework FIRST.


What is your biggest source of revenue for your forums (in terms of Adsense, YPN, CPA, Intellitext, donations, private advertisers, etc.)?

The top 3 earners are CPC networks (YPN, Adsense), CPA (mainly Azoogle), and Private Advertisers.


If a webmaster's sole interest is to make money, are forums a good way to go?

I would say so, but many will disagree. I am living proof it can be done. Is it more work, short term it is. Long term it doesn't have to be. If you build correctly in terms of volunteer staff, then you can do well and it not cost you much time. Also, this is the age where communities are valued highly. There is plenty of potential with communities in this day and age.


What has been your biggest regret or mistake as a forum owner?

I think my biggest mistake was not taking advantage of what I had. I went on a buying spree in 2005 and 2006, and rode the wave of what I had acquired. I really should have dug down and put money and effort in to making enhancements to those communities rather than letting them sit and earn.


What does the future hold for Lee Dodd?

Well, the Elite Retreat is a major focus and new project. Outside of that, I really plan to devote resources and brain power to my existing communities and pull back the reigns on acquisitions a bit. I also plan on diving more in to affiliate marketing, which is something I will be speaking about at Elite Retreat conferences this year as well as Affiliate Summit East in July.


Firefox or Internet Explorer?

FireFox....didn't convert until summer of 2006, but I sure am glad I did!


Tell us something we don't already know about you.

I really enjoy video games like Street Fighter and Marvel Vs. Capcom, something Juan and I try to play together on occassion.




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