Forum

[KassandraTB]

I have a few profitable business but one of them has been growing that I would like to find a way to monetize it further. However, I don't mind doing the research in attempting to find the right technology platform to hit the vision goals, but need some assistance on finding a direction.

The story of the start of this adventure:
I started doing speaking engagements to help find new customers and establish my main company as the expert and find leads. It went well for a while but it didn't create the right engagement that I was hoping. So I re-branded the events and changed the tone and Wala! I now have 600 members and 80-100 people attending the events and now other offices in CA and WA are starting the group in their local area. I then created a (simple website) and started posting forms and documents that the people can downloard....Wala again it worked and it made sales. Then I made a webinar and got 50 rsvp on the first attempt....so at least it is of interest.

Anyways...here comes to my next thoughts. At the event last week, I realized that only 1/4 of the group found the event via facebook...the other 1/4 was meetup.com...and the 1/2 was word of mouth.....So I realized I was smart in using meetup.com and facebook to get started but only on facebook am I on a group platform to engage 1/4 of the members. So how can I engage on a platform that most will participate in?

I reached out for some marketing people and they put me in touch with a company called (Far Shore). They help build the background platform to build the website, app, and plugins. The phase 1 is blueprint and that cost is around $2500. Then they said that will determine how much the build out will cost. I'm on a budget because I'm not sure how far I can take this concept and still make sales.

Anyways after research....
I think I can make a forum....use tapatalk to make the apps and ads...and use a program for sales on forms and documents. The closest person out in the world that I found was kinda similar to the vision ended up making their own plaform because they grew fast and out paced the word press sites with plugins. So I would need a platform that can start...but then be able to change it if the concept does grow around America into other cities. Keep In mind I'm in three states right now. I'll also need a "contributer" platform that could assist in driving engagement, post their approved items for sale..and we split in the costs.

Any help or thoughts is greatly appreciated!

 

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[KassandraTB]

Was my question to long? Sorry about that. How about this....anyone ever used forums as a form of engagement and actually made money.

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[Vigilante]

Was my question to long? Sorry about that. How about this....anyone ever used forums as a form of engagement and actually made money.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk

Most forums never make money.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The phase 1 is blueprint and that cost is around $2500.

What you desire doesn't require a $2,500 solution. Wordpress is free. Some forum software is free, and Xenforo is less than $200.

 

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[jon.a]

Was my question to long? Sorry about that. How about this....anyone ever used forums as a form of engagement and actually made money.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk

I think that we all know at least one guy.

 

[ZeroTo100]

Was my question to long? Sorry about that. How about this....anyone ever used forums as a form of engagement and actually made money.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk

I guess the trick would be to build the community first then offer them something valuable that could potentially change their life...like a book(or 2), a course, or an INSIDERS subscription...

 

[JAJT]

Instead of a forum, have you considered charging for access to a closed facebook group?

It would be an easy up-sell after any speaking engagements or other sales and such. Also everyone already has a facebook account and uses it. A surprising number of people have never touched a forum in their lives.

 

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[Utopia]

I have a few profitable business but one of them has been growing that I would like to find a way to monetize it further. However, I don't mind doing the research in attempting to find the right technology platform to hit the vision goals, but need some assistance on finding a direction.

The story of the start of this adventure:
I started doing speaking engagements to help find new customers and establish my main company as the expert and find leads. It went well for a while but it didn't create the right engagement that I was hoping. So I re-branded the events and changed the tone and Wala! I now have 600 members and 80-100 people attending the events and now other offices in CA and WA are starting the group in their local area. I then created a (simple website) and started posting forms and documents that the people can downloard....Wala again it worked and it made sales. Then I made a webinar and got 50 rsvp on the first attempt....so at least it is of interest.

Anyways...here comes to my next thoughts. At the event last week, I realized that only 1/4 of the group found the event via facebook...the other 1/4 was meetup.com...and the 1/2 was word of mouth.....So I realized I was smart in using meetup.com and facebook to get started but only on facebook am I on a group platform to engage 1/4 of the members. So how can I engage on a platform that most will participate in?

I reached out for some marketing people and they put me in touch with a company called (Far Shore). They help build the background platform to build the website, app, and plugins. The phase 1 is blueprint and that cost is around $2500. Then they said that will determine how much the build out will cost. I'm on a budget because I'm not sure how far I can take this concept and still make sales.

Anyways after research....
I think I can make a forum....use tapatalk to make the apps and ads...and use a program for sales on forms and documents. The closest person out in the world that I found was kinda similar to the vision ended up making their own plaform because they grew fast and out paced the word press sites with plugins. So I would need a platform that can start...but then be able to change it if the concept does grow around America into other cities. Keep In mind I'm in three states right now. I'll also need a "contributer" platform that could assist in driving engagement, post their approved items for sale..and we split in the costs.

Any help or thoughts is greatly appreciated!

Please don't spend $2500 on this marketing company. This was the old way people did marketing, it's inefficient costs a lot, and those people don't care about your business and leads as much as you do.

Drive more traffic with facebook ads.

 

[GameOver]

Was my question to long? Sorry about that. How about this....anyone ever used forums as a form of engagement and actually made money.

I have not, but I have given it some thought. One common theme I have read in MJ's book and others is that if you can create some content that people are interested in, they are willing to give up their email addresses to you to see or participate in that content. That email list you end up building is valuable - you can use it to communicate with people and tell them about your products and sell them.

A million years ago when I worked in a sales-based pre-internet business, companies were really big on buying "Dun and Bradstreet" or other similar databases of company names, contact information, SIC codes, etc. They'd then slice and dice this data to try and figure-out who their potential customers were, and hand over call lists to the sales folks to go and make cold calls all day and try to drum up business. It's really low tech, but people have done this and still do it today because it works.

So in a way it is kind of shocking to me that more people don't look at email lists and such in the exact same way as these old school methods of yesteryear and realize there is money to be made there. You don't even have to do any pre-qualifying... they've given-up their email address because they are interested in whatever the topic is.

Will the message board itself you are thinking of setting-up make you some money? Probably not. Maybe a little. But... if your content is compelling and you are creating a reason for people to get-together and discuss something... maybe a specific hobby for example... and they are all gladly giving-up their email address to log into your website... it sure seems to me like the real money to be had is around that email list. In which case who cares if the message board is a loss leader. If you can offer something that can scale, where you are at the top of the food chain, that is of direct interest to that captive audience, then you're in the fast lane right?