Floris
1st October 2006, 08:36 PM
Running a Forum for Profit
When attempting to run a bulletin board for profit, there’s a much different approach that should be taken by both administrators and staff members in order to achieve profitability. Some of these things have been outlined here in this article.
I) Initial Setup
Your forum should be setup with professional forum software. Invest in something like vBulletin (vbulletin.com) instead of a free package like phpBB. This makes your site look much more professional. Ensure you also invest in a decent or even catchy top level domain name that people will recognize. No advertisers will want to invest in a site such as mychatforums.freeboards.freehosting.com. The very fact that the administration cannot invest $8-10 initially for a real domain name will turn away potential advertisers.
II) Hosting
Professional hosting is highly recommended. Look in our vB marketplace for offers on hosting and other various services. With unreliable hosting, your website will frequently be down and it’s hard to turn a profit when your website is unavailable
III) Professionalism
In no situation would it not be good to always a good to have a professional team of staff members, but it’s even more important when running a forum for profit. Potential advertisers will pay close attention to the actions of your staff members, how they treat users, and how you resolve user complaints. This is because the actions of you and your staff indirectly reflect on those advertisers. Advertisers do not wish to be associated with illegal content, piracy, poor treatment of users. Also try a bit harder to ensure that advertisers’ products are not slammed on your forum. While this may draw accusations of censorship, it’s unavoidable if you wish to maintain good relations with advertisers. Instead, maybe encourage constructive criticism that may even benefit your advertisers.
IV) Clear Cut Terms of Service, AUP etc.
A clear cut terms of service or acceptable use policy becomes very important when trying to make a profit. Communities that are non-profit are usually held less responsible for their content and their actions due to their nature. They’re considered a discussion group and not a business. When your community begins making money, it’s considered more of a business and opens itself up to potential lawsuits and legal action. Make sure you have a very clear terms of service and privacy policy that outlines exactly what’s allowed, what’s disallowed. Sometimes it’s needed to be exceptionally brutal in your AUP to protect against lawusuits. For example, “members may be banned at forum’s discretion for any reason’. While it does sound rather harsh, this is one way to ensure that no one sues your community because they were banned – you can just point to this.
These are just some steps that need to be taking in order to turn your community into a business. A business takes more time, effort, and in some cases opens up new legalities. For legal advice, always make sure to contact a lawyer and to follow all applicable tax laws or business laws in your country/state of residence.
Copyright 2006 vBulletin Fans Network & MidnightPyro http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/
When attempting to run a bulletin board for profit, there’s a much different approach that should be taken by both administrators and staff members in order to achieve profitability. Some of these things have been outlined here in this article.
I) Initial Setup
Your forum should be setup with professional forum software. Invest in something like vBulletin (vbulletin.com) instead of a free package like phpBB. This makes your site look much more professional. Ensure you also invest in a decent or even catchy top level domain name that people will recognize. No advertisers will want to invest in a site such as mychatforums.freeboards.freehosting.com. The very fact that the administration cannot invest $8-10 initially for a real domain name will turn away potential advertisers.
II) Hosting
Professional hosting is highly recommended. Look in our vB marketplace for offers on hosting and other various services. With unreliable hosting, your website will frequently be down and it’s hard to turn a profit when your website is unavailable
III) Professionalism
In no situation would it not be good to always a good to have a professional team of staff members, but it’s even more important when running a forum for profit. Potential advertisers will pay close attention to the actions of your staff members, how they treat users, and how you resolve user complaints. This is because the actions of you and your staff indirectly reflect on those advertisers. Advertisers do not wish to be associated with illegal content, piracy, poor treatment of users. Also try a bit harder to ensure that advertisers’ products are not slammed on your forum. While this may draw accusations of censorship, it’s unavoidable if you wish to maintain good relations with advertisers. Instead, maybe encourage constructive criticism that may even benefit your advertisers.
IV) Clear Cut Terms of Service, AUP etc.
A clear cut terms of service or acceptable use policy becomes very important when trying to make a profit. Communities that are non-profit are usually held less responsible for their content and their actions due to their nature. They’re considered a discussion group and not a business. When your community begins making money, it’s considered more of a business and opens itself up to potential lawsuits and legal action. Make sure you have a very clear terms of service and privacy policy that outlines exactly what’s allowed, what’s disallowed. Sometimes it’s needed to be exceptionally brutal in your AUP to protect against lawusuits. For example, “members may be banned at forum’s discretion for any reason’. While it does sound rather harsh, this is one way to ensure that no one sues your community because they were banned – you can just point to this.
These are just some steps that need to be taking in order to turn your community into a business. A business takes more time, effort, and in some cases opens up new legalities. For legal advice, always make sure to contact a lawyer and to follow all applicable tax laws or business laws in your country/state of residence.
Copyright 2006 vBulletin Fans Network & MidnightPyro http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/