Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

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What`s the call to action?  Why would people sign up for your site?

Forums still work (obviously) but there needs to be something else.  I`m a big blog fan, so I think that could help.  But with such a limited market (motorcycle riders in a certain state) you can`t really expect to see huge revenue from advertising either way. 

If you are intent on keeping the domain name I`d recommend trying to develop it as some kind of "authority" on motorcycle riding in your state.  THE PLACE TO GO to find out about meetups, and whatever else it is that motorcycle enthusiasts do.

Really though, revenue is going to be the hard part.  The only other option you have from e-commerce is to contact all the motorcycle shops and accessory stores in your state and convince them to advertise or sponsor you.

There are a few options, but it really comes down to WHY you want to do it.

Just because you have it doesn`t mean you have to do something with it, or do it right away. It`s like having a nice silk tie hanging in your closet; just because it`s nice, it doesn`t mean you need to search for a new suit to go with it, then try to find a nice public place to wear it.

I own the domain name "worldofblogging.com", which, I think, could be a great domain name with the right site behind it. Right now there is no site, not because I can`t put one up, but because I haven`t determined what, exactly, is the best thing to do with it, although there are many possibilities and ideas I`ve considered. Much like your situation. To me, it makes little sense to create the site when you don`t even know what you want the site to be.

Give it time.



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

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www.searchmarketingsystems.net

Thanks everyone. All your posts are very helpful and what you are saying makes perfect sense. It is a very limited market, I agree. I guess I was just hoping it would be more than what it turned out to be. I`ll sit on the domain for now and possibly park it until I come up with a good way to use it.

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I think forums for the most part are dead.  Except very special interest areas where Q&A are important.  Programming web forums are still active and other sites of that nature (like this one).  How much Q&A action is there for motorcycles?  Probably not as much as here.

About 5 years ago we launched a website with a forum on a radio station.  It was very popular, we had thousands of posts each year, but over the last couple of years it`s started dieing off.  We had to close it recently because it just doesn`t look good having inactive forums (0-3 posts per month)...  We still have the same amount of traffic to our website.
guerillaRed is right that you need more -- but I would probably ditch a full fledge forum.  These systems like phpBB are just too big.  When you`ve only got a few members you don`t need a whole bulletin board system with categories, ect... you just need one forum so people can easily access new posts (and it doesn`t look so inactive).  I`d start with a change there.

Then I`d start introducing features that people want.  Motorcycles, like with cars, have a great interest in a classified ads-like system.  That way they can post parts and accessories for sale, advertise their meetups, ect...
Also, people like to show-off.  Give members an area to easily show off their bikes.
I agree with the blogging.  If you`re frequently at events or work on a motorcycle, or keep up with news (or even TV) then blogging will add a great deal to your website.
I would also recommend a service where members can create a simple homepage for their own bike meetups.  Often these groups don`t know how to have a website, but would benefit from technology that easily allows them to publish meet up dates, photos, stories, ect...  something like www.xxxmaine.com/meetupname
You`ll probably see a greater conversion of your traffic.  But also realize that a lot of people don`t sign up for websites and just use the info.

Also realize that getting members can be a slow process.  Almost impossibly slow for forums because, and here`s the catch-22, if there`s no activity on the forum why would I join?

If you want your forums to be active, you`re going to have to put a lot of work into it. And you could use a few friends to help you. Posting regularly would be important!



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