Is creating a forums still a good business?

[That Guy T]

Hey guys,

Do you think creating a forums is still a viable/good business? Honestly 90% of forums sort of dead. BlackHatWorld is the only forums I know of that I'm actually "excited" to login. There is always new content, new offers for my business, new connections to be made, etc.

When I type in forums on Google trends it looks like it's slowly a dying trend.



The decline obviously has something to do with social media. You have Facebook groups, discord, whatsapp groups, skool, etc that all host communities.

What if those communities where too limiting though? I personally tried creating a forums for my specific industry (wholesale & distribution) and I got to work reaching out to everyone I knew.

50 or so people signed up but when it came time to post nobody really knew how or what they where doing. My industry has a lot of non-tech savy people and historically they've done well just using linkedin, facebook groups. They're used to those layouts and a forums IMO is wayyy more organized but a little more complicated to navigate.

That was on Xenforo and I guess looking at it, it's a little overwhelming. So I'm currently redeveloping the site and honestly trying to figure out what the most "simple" social media feeling community app is to build it on.

I love vbulletin, xenforo, mybb, but it might be overkill for what i'm trying to accomplish. Anyone ever experiment with Discourse or Flarum.

Do you guys think there is still a place for super niche targeted forums? I'm talking maybe 100,000 potential members in the world for my industry.

What makes you login to BlackHatWorld everyday? Is it people you've met, or checking on your sales or making new connections?
Why do you like a forums versus lets say a Facebook group.

 

[xiaoxingdt]

i'm not so sure about a business or note, but i tried looking for some forums for various stuff, back then, as i googled, tons and tons of active forums will come out, but now... its getting little to none

 

[india]

Forums are places where like-minded people can share their knowledge and experiences. Twitter is also like a forum; you see, there are a lot of users there. You need to find people who can have some time to share their experiences. and knowledge.

 

[That Guy T]

Forums are places where like-minded people can share their knowledge and experiences. Twitter is also like a forum; you see, there are a lot of users there. You need to find people who can have some time to share their experiences. and knowledge.

That and from a marketplace perspective I like BHW versus let's say Twitter for posting offers. For people with smaller audiences it's as simple as paying a little money and being able to promote.

BHW brings a big targeted audience to people with good products. It's a huge part of why they're successful. They've also created an amazing eco-system like for instance you're able to rent your signature space. That is awesome that this place generates so internet marketing related traffic that even signature spaces hold advertising value.

I think very large general forums are pretty much dead but forums that cater to niche markets and do it in a good way still have a place.

I'm now looking into Discourse, it looks like a hybrid forums/social media solution. It might be what I need.

i'm not so sure about a business or note, but i tried looking for some forums for various stuff, back then, as i googled, tons and tons of active forums will come out, but now... its getting little to none

Yeah exactly what I mean... Some of the big ones I really liked for underworld gaming (botting, gold selling, etc) all died out and got replaced with Discord groups for the most part.

 

[tezirth]

Depends on skills, talent, loyalty...........

 

[Project Limitless]

With endless FB groups and sub-reddits for every niche, forums are very difficult to scale. But it's not completely a lost cause. It all depends on the content on your forum.

 

[MyNameIsJonas]

Unless it's a niche that you can't find on Facebook or Reddit, it's unlikely that a forum will take off these days.

 

[That Guy T]

Unless it's a niche that you can't find on Facebook or Reddit, it's unlikely that a forum will take off these days.

So for my niche there is groups but they are full of scammers. Everyone on my forums would be vetted by a VA I hire to ensure they have a legal business, legit place of business, etc. It won't catch all the scammers but I'm going to put the barrier of entry so high that it eliminates 99% of them.

 

[seoways]

No exact reasons why I login to BHW every day, but I feel like connected to large audience, get different views and opinions, new learnings everyday, new clients, cehck whats trending today and there is much more reasons.

BHW is more like an emotion to me.

 

[That Guy T]

No exact reasons why I login to BHW every day, but I feel like connected to large audience, get different views and opinions, new learnings everyday, new clients, cehck whats trending today and there is much more reasons.

BHW is more like an emotion to me.

Exactly - BHW is my version of a social media site. If I scroll through BHW for a hour I feel like I learned stuff, probably talked to a few like minded people and maybe even found a new service I can use for my business. There is lots of instant "dopamine" hits that this forums provides. Very similar to how a social media addict can't wait to scroll to the next post.

Don't confuse the two though I'd say time spent on this forums is farrrr more valuable then any time you spend on social media (I do love my software support groups though)

 

[Dopious]

Why do you like a forums versus lets say a Facebook group.

I´m old-school, but I don´t have a FB account at all, so forums is nice.

 

[Venusaur]

Very hard to build a forum from zero in 2024
The few successful forums that we have right now were built years ago

 

[SilverClouds]

Hey guys,

Do you think creating a forums is still a viable/good business? Honestly 90% of forums sort of dead. BlackHatWorld is the only forums I know of that I'm actually "excited" to login. There is always new content, new offers for my business, new connections to be made, etc.

When I type in forums on Google trends it looks like it's slowly a dying trend.

View attachment 393448

The decline obviously has something to do with social media. You have Facebook groups, discord, whatsapp groups, skool, etc that all host communities.

What if those communities where too limiting though? I personally tried creating a forums for my specific industry (wholesale & distribution) and I got to work reaching out to everyone I knew.

50 or so people signed up but when it came time to post nobody really knew how or what they where doing. My industry has a lot of non-tech savy people and historically they've done well just using linkedin, facebook groups. They're used to those layouts and a forums IMO is wayyy more organized but a little more complicated to navigate.

That was on Xenforo and I guess looking at it, it's a little overwhelming. So I'm currently redeveloping the site and honestly trying to figure out what the most "simple" social media feeling community app is to build it on.

I love vbulletin, xenforo, mybb, but it might be overkill for what i'm trying to accomplish. Anyone ever experiment with Discourse or Flarum.

Do you guys think there is still a place for super niche targeted forums? I'm talking maybe 100,000 potential members in the world for my industry.

What makes you login to BlackHatWorld everyday? Is it people you've met, or checking on your sales or making new connections?
Why do you like a forums versus lets say a Facebook group.

Ahahahah, yes, normies love facebook... Honestly I'm thinking you'd do better with squeezing out everything you can from facebook if you want non-technical people.

 

[xReminisce]

would DD still have BHW up and running if he was running a loss?

 

[XrumerGeek]

We would only enter the forums industry now if we found a niche model that relied on paid subscriptions with a convincing offering to convert.