Any advice on building a community forum/ is a community forum website Fastlane?

[Cauli22]

Hi, I'm starting to look for Fastlane ideas and I had one in mind relating to website creation/community forum,
Should I start by focusing on the website alone, or should I gain more knowledge on the idea in itself? I'm wondering what information you'd recommend I pick up or books to read on marketing & creating a community. Thanks,

 

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[Johnny boy]

what would the forum be about?

 

[Cauli22]

what would the forum be about?

Filmmaking and Content Creation,

 

[Johnny boy]

I thought you were going to say you wanted to start an entrepreneurship forum and then I was going to suggest starting a limo renting internet company and then writing a book too.

 

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[Cauli22]

I thought you were going to say you wanted to start an entrepreneurship forum and then I was going to suggest starting a limo renting internet company and then writing a book too.

Seems pretty familiar. Should I write 3 other books relating to the first?

 

[Edgar King]

Hi, I'm starting to look for Fastlane ideas and I had one in mind relating to website creation/community forum,
Should I start by focusing on the website alone, or should I gain more knowledge on the idea in itself? I'm wondering what information you'd recommend I pick up or books to read on marketing & creating a community. Thanks,

Do you have an idea of what problem you'll solve with the forum? Or why people should go to your forum over others online (e.g. in your niche)?

 

[heavy_industry]

Seems pretty familiar. Should I write 3 other books relating to the first?

Yeah, but you should use a metaphor related to speed and fast cars, and should use easy to remember acronyms related to currency, such as cents or something like that.

 

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[Jobless]

Not easy to ”create a community” out of nothing.

Usually, any niche will have a community that is to some degree fragmented between different groups and methods of communication. Instead of trying to steal their members, you should look to arrange a merging of two or more communities, forming a bigger community, that you now control. The fact that is bigger is usually of value (network effect).

 

[Andy Black]

Filmmaking and Content Creation,

Massive demand for this I'd say.

Why not start by creating videos, and not just on YouTube? See what resonates, and build an audience and community on those platforms first?

Focus on serving people where they already are rather than trying to build a platform and get people to it?

Produce so much value people ask for more access to you?

Tactically, I'd look at TikTok and YouTube Shorts for discoverability, speed of video creation and therefore market feedback, and because both platforms are crying out for good short (and long) form content.

 

[Cauli22]

Massive demand for this I'd say.

Why not start by creating videos, and not just on YouTube? See what resonates, and build an audience and community on those platforms first?

Focus on serving people where they already are rather than trying to build a platform and get people to it?

Produce so much value people ask for more access to you?

Tactically, I'd look at TikTok and YouTube Shorts for discoverability, speed of video creation and therefore market feedback, and because both platforms are crying out for good short (and long) form content.

Thanks for the response, I currently upload my own videos on TikTok, I'd thought of creating a forum because as a content creator it's difficult to find others with common interests who are willing to assist or share ideas on, TikTok and youtube can be limiting and informational videos can be a bit confusing to understand. Also, Tiktok and youtube have a commonality of striking and banning users they deem unfit for their platforms.

 

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[Cauli22]

Not easy to ”create a community” out of nothing.

Usually, any niche will have a community that is to some degree fragmented between different groups and methods of communication. Instead of trying to steal their members, you should look to arrange a merging of two or more communities, forming a bigger community, that you now control. The fact that is bigger is usually of value (network effect).

Thanks for the response, Well I've mainly thought of filmmaking, content creation, and art as the main discussion for a community forum because they share many similar ideas but can take various forms.

 

[Jobless]

Thanks for the response, Well I've mainly thought of filmmaking, content creation, and art as the main discussion for a community forum because they share many similar ideas but can take various forms.

Ok. My plan for what to do would be to find smaller communities in these niches and convince them to join together. This means convincing the owners of these communities of the benefits for them and the members, which they can then further convey.

To convince people to join together and form a team, a network etc. is very powerful, but it is not easy. It's way easier than single-handedly forming a large community by yourself though. If you want a small but more dedicated community, it's different though,