Before you start a Forum

Forums can be a great place to network with other people and learn more about internet marketing. But they can also be a great tool to expand your business!

Take for instance the StartXchange Traffic Exchange Forum - every day there are new posts, the members are learning how to use the exchange better, and it’s a great tool.

So when is the right time to start a forum? Well it’s hard to say when the right time is, but how do you know it isn’t a good idea to start one?

First, think of what the forum is actually going to do. Is it a tech support forum, is it people meeting people, does it have a general theme?

Second, search for forums that already serve that purpose. If you want to start an internet marketing forum, well you’ll have a quite the number of forums to compete with. If you are starting a tech support forum, think of how many people will actually be using it. It might be more reasonable to do a simple faq page instead of a forum, if you don’t have many people who will be using it.

Third, do you have time to administrate a forum? I’m finding it more and more difficult to administrate the StartXchange forum. Since StartXchange is a big source of my income, I find the time to do it - but if this wasn’t making you any money, would it be worth the time?

So do you still think you have what it takes? Not sure where to start? Well the forum software I always use is completely free, and was actually written by my friend. Check it out: Forum Script.