Recently I have seen an abundance of forum owners who think throwing large amounts of money at their forum will make it successful, What they fail to realize is a forum needs the love and attention of the owner to get anywhere. Money is useless when it comes to getting your forum past the teething stage because at some point you are going to want real members and traffic as opposed to people who are only there for money. That is just my opinion anyways. So what do you think? Does throwing money at a forum make it sucsessful?
Nope, since I have known many a forum running off free forum hosting & free domains, etc. that have all run successfully, including my previous forums!
A little money at the start will be needed to get your forum going but yeah I agree with you about moeny is not everything. Some people think they can buy sucsess but it does not happen that way unfortunately or we would have loads of rich 14 year olds owning sites like Facebook.
I think just throwing money at the forum will not make it successful at all. It does need a lot of attention and love to be able to become a successful forum. Though, having competitions for prizes out of generosity for the Holidays or something is a a different thing.
Honestly, this is a mixed matter. Sure, you can create a successful forum by throwing money at it. Just buy tons of posts, custom themes, forum software, etc. It's not a new thing. The problem is, more and more people realize this, and now the internet is being filled with forums who are fueled by a steady flow of cash, and minimal admin activity. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the forum owner who buys a few things to get his/her site going, and supplements it from time with some ad purchases or things of that nature. Honestly, both types of communities can be successful; I think the real question here is if you want to be a member on that kind of community or not
money isnt everything, its dedicated staff and interesting posts that get a forum going. mines pretty successful, even though i started out on a free host. won my domain in a competition with my forum host, never bought traffic or anything...
Simple answer, yes it can. But not for a long time. I will explain; Using paid posting (E.G. Postloop ect...) will help get your forum stats good. But if it is turned off then it will fail. Paid activity and other paid contests ect... can make your forum active for a short time, but not long term.
No it does not make your forum any better. Its much more likely to fail if you think money is the only thing that can make you suceed.
You are absolutely correct shady... and thats why I am not going to hold contests related to money...
Let's say it's a balanced act. You NEED money to start with: a paid software costs and I will never use free ones for a serious community. So $168 for XF, since I'm from the European Union, so paid extra Then you need the forum to look like something. If you can't make your designs, have someone who does it for you. A beautiful professional look will help. You might need SEO help or editors to help with the initial content. These also cost. Of course the budget can be smaller or bigger, but you will need some sort of investment. And then A LOT OF WORK. It's useless to have paid editors for instance, if you cannot be bothered to chime in and add unique content on a daily basis. If you're playing smart, you'll attract 'regular' members fast and, when the post exchanges and editors end, you're already having a community. If not, you can pay 3 years from now and do nothing. Another aspect: a forum is NOT a sprint. You can't invest for 1 week and then nothing. You need to pace yourself content and money wise. Better have little each day, than all today and nothing for the next month. Working with budgets requires a plan and some smart moves. You can do with 100 bucks more than someone who's throwing 10k recklessly at their forums.
money can't buy love. and certainly, throwing money does not get you loyal users. definitely, you will get members because of the stake, but after the money is given, they will not come back. so a good admin is someone who is active and loves the forum and is devoted.
I think money is needed (for servers and w/e else), but what makes a forum successful is members ^^ Try to listen to your users when they have suggestions and add fun things to your forum ^^
I think that money is great when used wisely, used for a host, to hire designers, to advertise, to have contests.
Yes - if you throw that money at the right things although look at Manchester City, they threw money around but something went wrong and it all went downhill for a spell. Money is not all you need - you cannot buy the effort and commitment required.
Absolutely not! I've been on a fair few forums in my time that are on free hosts, don't have their own domain and use the subdomain the host provides them with, and yet they still manage to do really well. Haven't been on one in the last couple of years but I know this is not an impossible achievement. I've even gone the first couple years of my foruming time without a domain or paid software and I still managed to come out okay. Not ridiculously active but not dreadfully slow either. So it is possible to not have funds and be able to run a successful forum.
