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Online Community: business idea?

Idea threads

Mad Max

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Hey guys,

I’m keen for some feedback on my latest idea. Any thoughts at all (good, bad & the ugly) are welcome!

I’m basically looking at starting and building an online community around a niche profession. This profession lacks a real proper community where people really share ideas, content and link with one another.

From a monetisation perspective, the main envisaged revenue would come from advertising and a job board.

I’d be particularly keen to hear from others who are in this space.

Whilst I’m grateful for any thoughts or comments, things I would really like to know about include:

- Revenue potential. Many organisations run a community and hence the requirement for revenue isn’t as strong for them as there are ancillary benefits. Many seem to run the community as an expense. Any thoughts on what is realistic?

- Resource requirements. Bit of an open ended difficult to generalise question, but how much resource typically goes into building and maintaining an online community (for a specific industry/profession).

- I realise the main problem is getting initial traction and member engagement. Anyone out there with experience in this?

Looking forward to hearing some thoughts,
Cheers
 
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100k

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Why are you asking us?

Are we your target demo?

Go contact them and find out what they want/need/look for in a community - if they would be willing to pay for a monthly subscription, what content they would want.... etc.
 

RBefort

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Why are you asking us?

Are we your target demo?

Go contact them and find out what they want/need/look for in a community - if they would be willing to pay for a monthly subscription, what content they would want.... etc.

He's asking for advice from those who have done something similar about the pitfalls/special things of interest in creating one. Don't think he's asking about what ideas to put on the website or what the community wants...looks to be more of what it takes to make it the most successful and the revenue streams. I have no experience here, but wanted to clarify the intent of the questions the way I understood it.
 

Mad Max

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Thanks both.

Why am I asking this community? Because I believe the more perspectives I have the better. No matter how much info I glean from surveying/questioning the target community I would imagine that there are people on here that can provide additional insightful advice, things to think about, examples of what is /isn't possible etc etc
 
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Andy Black

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I’m basically looking at starting and building an online community around a niche profession. This profession lacks a real proper community where people really share ideas, content and link with one another.
What problem are you solving?

You might want to read this thread.
 
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Imgal

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Ads can be great for bringing in a degree of income, but if you're looking for something more reliable (as much as you can in an uncertain world!) then I'd be looking to tier your membership - a bit like here. As @Andy Black says it's all about meeting the demand of your audience. It's likely that your ads will have some relevance, but paid membership to a level that is really able to help them level up in their profession etc... that's what people will really pay for.

Resources - Less is more. You're better to start off with some very targeted areas that you know will spark discussion. I'm sure you've done some indepth research of your audience's pain points. Start by building content around those. I've seen so many communities lose themselves trying to cover everything and ending up overwhelmed and having category after category echoing with silence. Again the Fastlane Forum is a great example. Have strong categories and then lock down the real golden ones for paid accounts. The scarcity and fear they are missing out will entice people.

Initial traction is always hard. Maybe have some kind of award system / referral points that gets people a paid membership to start with. See if you can get some big names in the niche to participate and put their golden content behind the "paywall" and just give a snippet free to all. If you haven't read Traction, I'd definitely grab a copy. It's not targeted exactly to your needs, but should spark some ideas
 

theag

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Mad Max

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Thanks guys. Appreciate all feedback.

@Andy Black - Good question! Straight to the point. I'll come back and share my answer following the replies to a customer survey that has been sent out. Nice website btw. We aren't too far from each other actually.

@Imgal - good reply. Thanks for taking the time to post. You've hit the nail on the head - Traction is the major problem. I have some unique ideas to counteract this, but thanks for the book recommendation. Looks like an excellent read.

@theag - thanks for posting. Care to elaborate? From what I can see, online advertising remains big business (otherwise why do we see Google ads, job boards etc etc still in existence). The usual caveats of course apply (how targeted, how willing to spend, ctr).

Cheers.
 

Mad Max

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Ps paid tiered membership is an eventual aim, much further down the line.
 

theag

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From what I can see, online advertising remains big business (otherwise why do we see Google ads, job boards etc etc still in existence).
Yeah, but only for high traffic sites, not niches. You'll get some ad revenue, but it will be peanuts. For you a good monetization would be something like job guides for your niche.
 
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Mad Max

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Yeah, but only for high traffic sites, not niches. You'll get some ad revenue, but it will be peanuts. For you a good monetization would be something like job guides for your niche.

I can see where you are coming from, but don't agree fully. I personally think it depends very much on the niche. Some niches are more lucrative than others and have a much higher propensity to spend etc.

What do you mean by a job guide? Also, open to any other ideas guys. Thanks!
 

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