Since I began the overhaul of my working holidays site I’ve been 100% convinced that I wanted a forum. I was so into the whole forum idea that I was even going to spring $160 for the grand daddy of them all, vBulletin, rather than a free option. I figured that if I was going to spend the time nurturing it I might as well have a platform with all the bells and whistles.
Now as I think about it more and more I’m wondering if a forum is really the way forward. I’ve set money aside to buy it so that’s not the issue. I’m more concerned about whether the time it takes to get a forum up and running will be worth the potential payoff.
Forums don’t tend to be big money earners from what I’ve heard. A good one will increase a site’s page views drastically but whether this traffic converts or not is up for debate. Plus there’s the effort involved in getting it off the ground, maintaining and policing it. In the early days, starting a forum usually involves the creation of multiple personalities and a lot of talking to yourself online. I’d also have to do a lot of question answering from those rare legitimate posters and, because of the nature of the website, this could mean a lot of time spent researching answers.
Once people start visiting the forum more regularly, so do the spammers and keeping on top of dodgy posts is a huge headache. I’m sure there are things that will reduce spam but I’m not sure if they’re 100% effective and I would think I’d still have to spend some time zapping the porno posts etc.
But on the other hand, forums are great for building a sense of community and could act as a place for any contacts I make through the blog to go for a chat amongst themselves. It would also allow people to ask questions that I’d never have thought of and give me new ideas for what I can add to my site. Plus it gives people a chance to solve each other’s problems and free content is always good!
So I guess I’m in a bit of a dilemma. I’m doubting my choice to add a forum because I’m not sure if an active forum will be worth the time it takes to get it up and running. What do you think? Do forums add overall value to a site in your opinion? Is the site’s topic one that you think would be served well with a forum?
Just to clarify, I’m think of adding a forum to Working Holiday Info, not Nerdy Nomad. There’s already a successful forum about travelling on web earnings over at Working Nomad.
