Choosing your Genre

[Cedric]

Speaking from experience (and with a lot of failed forums), pretty much the hardest thing to do (other than starting an active community) is choosing the genre of your new forum.

How do you figure out the genre of the new forum?

Basically what interests me. I always loved resources and services so I always aim for that. I know from experience that General Chat / Gaming boards is something I easily get bored with. Every general chat board always offer the same topics. The generic forum games, age topics, favorite topics, etc. While that's not a bad thing, a general chat board should aim for interesting topics like OffTopix does. They are doing a fantastic job.

Activity isn't something that should represent success on a board. Every board can have 500 + posts average a day; but if it's mainly in the forum games and some generic topics, then I ask myself where's your success?

 

[ZandraJoi]

My niche is holistic health in a secular setting. I wanted something that is not out there & that was also personal to me. To learn & grow with others holistically.
I honestly believe in today’s age if you want your forum to succeed, you have to have a multi-niche. We have to compete with social media & then we have to compete with other forums. When I started mine, I truly wanted mine to be JUST holistic in a secular setting. I would not have been able to grow it if I stayed on that single-niche path.
I see many forums where the most popular threads are the Games. While I play them every so often, I want to have actual discussions.

 

[Nomad]

I have three criteria for choosing forum genres, one, a topic I am passionate about, two, a topic I have the knowledge of, and three, a topic that has the potential to make a lot of money. I have a crypto niche forum because I am passionate about crypto, and I have a business form because this topic can make a lot of money.

 

[Phabbyfundz]

I go for what I am truly interested in, I can't be really good at make money and decides to open a forum that surrounds health or other topic.

When picking a genre It has to be something I would be really interested in talking about as well even though I am not going to be the only visitor there and there are other people who would be interested in it at least I should be able to contribute some meaningful topics to the forum.

 

[ClicketyKat]

For the Christian forum I run, I asked around for it and it took a few times before someone actually agreed to set it up for me. I knew I wanted a Christian forum because I didn't like the other ones out there.

For my craft forum, I wanted a place where I could keep track of crafts that I'd done and wanted to do...as well as giving others the opportunity to do the same.

 

[Cory]

I have created three types of forums that I can recall; forum service forums, a Yu-Gi-Oh forum, and a general discussion forum. The general discussion forum was kind of a subset forum of the forum service forum and we ended up combining it back with the forum service forum due to the little activity the general discussion forum was receiving. Forum services are something I've always been pretty well at offering, so it is like a strong suit that made me decide to build and maintain one. Yu-Gi-Oh, on the other hand, was a primary interest of mine at the time. So, in the end I'd say your strong suit and what you're passionate about can really play a roll in what you decide your forum genre will be.

 

[Shortie]

In the past I had created around 3 forums all built around different genres such as gaming, movies and TV and finally general discussion. In the end I found that general discussion was something I could fit all genres into without the need to leave anything out and I found that was the better option for me. I could have discussions about anything from movies, TV, music to sports, gaming and even just general life and it would all fit in. If I was to ever bring a forum back it would more than likely be a general discussion forum again with something for everyone to discuss what they enjoy.

 

[Reverie]

I go based on what interests me. What could I be interested in day to day, and it not just get boring for me. I found that general forums were interesting because that could evolve with the community in a way. They could change based on the communities interests were within. I like other forums as well though, but me personally when I create a forum that was the direction I went. I liked having resource areas as well though because I enjoyed having a creative side to the community. I used to write a lot so I enjoyed showing my pieces back in the day.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I typically will pick a niche that interests me and that I know well. Whenever I do have a forum that's based around one niche, it's usually based around a game franchise I love or a show I enjoy watching. I also enjoy working on general discussion forums because then you can talk about whatever you'd like, and anyone can contribute not just people who enjoy playing video games, or watching anime.

 

[Jason]

I have three criteria for choosing forum genres, one, a topic I am passionate about, two, a topic I have the knowledge of, and three, a topic that has the potential to make a lot of money. I have a crypto niche forum because I am passionate about crypto, and I have a business form because this topic can make a lot of money.

I am passionate and knowledgeable about drumming. However, making it profitable is a bit difficult. Since, I can't sell stuff, I might as well not annoy visitors, so it's just for fun.

 

[Nomad]

Running a forum or a blog just for fun and a hobby is not my thing. When I start running websites, they have to make money for me. I cannot contin ue to pay server costs from my pocket.