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Choosing a Topic/Niche
Published by Ryan
12-20-2005
Choosing a Topic/Niche

Choosing a Topic or Niche for Your Forums


Most webmasters who want to make a new forum often struggle in deciding the forum’s actual topic. As a matter of fact, what I see people do very frequently is make a forum about a very general subject with the hope of being able to attract a wide array of people. While this seems like a perfect idea, thousands of such forums exist – so unless you have a site with plenty or traffic or you are willing to spend much time and money to make your forum succeed, this is not for you.

A careful analysis of a forum’s topic is the crux to success. Making money from forums is a reality, but it is very important that you go to where the money is by choosing good keywords that will bring both traffic and revenue.

In order to choose a good forum niche, you must think about what you enjoy. A forum is a community and it is much harder to pretend being an authority in a forum that in a website because you will be required to answer questions and write long and good posts. So bear in mind that the topic you choose must be something you like – regardless of what it is.

Deciding a niche for your forum will be hard, but I am here to help. I have therefore written a list of steps for you to think about the best possible niche for your forum.
  1. What do you enjoy? Make a list of the things you like the most (the more the better)
  2. Is what you enjoy profitable? Think about products that may be sold based on the list you previously made. For example, if you like jewelry you may make a forum about it as it might bring some good revenue. You may check the overture bidding tool to aid you in this. Cross the items in your list which are not profitable.
  3. Is there much competition? Make a Google search for “[keyword] + forums” in quotes to see how many competitors you would have. If you have too many, keep looking.
  4. How much traffic? I personally use wordtracker.com to see how many people search for a given phrase – use it too! If not many people search it, you might consider something else.
  5. Repeat until you find the right one.
So for example, good niches may include metal detectors, jewelry, etc. Make sure that whatever you choose is something you are familiar with, and more importantly – it’s something which will pay for your hard work.

The bottom note is that you must always try to do something new - something that people are not doing. Niche forums are very powerful because of this and also because they make a real community with a specific purpose which is very important if you wish to succeed. After you have chosen good keywords, you must work as hard as you can to make your forum as active as possible, but that will be discussed in a future article.

© AdminFusion.com 2005-2006

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By Adam on 12-20-2005, 11:40 PM
Very nice article. Very useful!
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  #1  
By demojames on 12-21-2005, 06:29 AM
Great Article Ryan!

Just one question, Are you paying for wordtracker or just the trial?
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  #2  
By Ryan on 12-21-2005, 02:39 PM
That was actually not written by me, but instead written by somebody at Sitepoint who gave us exclusive rights to it
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  #3  
By ProxyFrenzy on 12-25-2005, 06:21 AM
A forum with a single topic won't last long. Later on in the forum's life, it will have added sections with different topics, ect.
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  #4  
By Ryan on 12-25-2005, 05:44 PM
That's not really true at all...Some of the most successful forums out there are on one topic. Take yours for example - I cant see the forums because guests cannot, but I assume it is just about proxies? Take car forums for example...There are many, HUGE forums out there that focus on a single make and model of a car. Take these forums for example...our only topic is forums, nothing else...We even have a member here who runs forums on the demolition industry. This doesn't mean that more general forums cannot be successful...but I do believe that it can sometimes be harder to build general forums than it can be to build some that are more specific.
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  #5  
By adacprogramming on 12-31-2005, 07:49 AM
Some good points made in the article. I'm considering starting a forum on a very niche subject. You've given me some good ideas on how to research the topic better to be sure it will have interest.
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  #6  
By DreamSync on 12-31-2005, 11:31 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan
That's not really true at all...Some of the most successful forums out there are on one topic. Take yours for example - I cant see the forums because guests cannot, but I assume it is just about proxies? Take car forums for example...There are many, HUGE forums out there that focus on a single make and model of a car. Take these forums for example...our only topic is forums, nothing else...We even have a member here who runs forums on the demolition industry. This doesn't mean that more general forums cannot be successful...but I do believe that it can sometimes be harder to build general forums than it can be to build some that are more specific.
Very true indeed. For a while(way before I decided to even give a try at starting up a forum, or even thought of the idea, I was a regular on a forum about Nissan Maximas. Was planning on eventually buying that car one day. It kept me coming back until I lost interest in the car.
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  #7  
By TAshkar18 on 02-20-2006, 09:01 PM
Great Article. I never tried this. But I will from now on.
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