How Long Does It Really Take to Launch a Community?

[Cedric]

How long does it actually take to launch a community? It's a tricky question, isn't it? Having 20 years experience, you'd think I would have an answer. Well, there isn't a fixed answer. For some, it's a matter of months, and for others, it can stretch into years.

I believe that investing time into building a community is worth it. But this got me thinking, how much time are we really talking about here? What are the different aspects of running a forum that demand our time? And importantly, how do we divide our time between creating enganging content, maintenance, advertising our community, etc.?

If you're a webmaster or someone who has tried to build an online community before, I'd love to hear from you:

1. How long did it take for your community to see significant activity or growth?
2. How did you divide your time between routine maintenance, content creation, member engagement, and promotion?
3. Did you go solo on this endeavor, or do you have a partner in crime to divide your tasks?
4. Do you think your growth would be bigger if you could spend double the time you usually could?

Hoping to fire up a good discussion here. Feel free to share whatever you've got.

 

[Tracy]

To launch... if well prepared... no more than a month to get the site up and running and tweaked near what you want it.
To make it successful/busy... there is no easy answer.

My sites are solely maintained/managed by me.
The biggest issue is getting users TO the site and to participate. My GA stats show a LOT of visits, usually to articles/posts/images that are on the site for consumption... getting folks to actually participate in this day and age is what is the hard part.
As for "dividing the time"... you do stuff as it's needed...

 

[TwitchisMental]

Agreed^

To get the initial forum going can take up to a month.

However getting it active can take a-lot longer. You have to promote and you need a reason for people to join your community. For example, let's say that you are running an Anime Fan Forum. What about your Anime Fan Forum is better than all of the other Anime Fan Forums?

Or let's say that you are running something more niche. How are you going to find members who also enjoy the specific niche? Is there already a Facebook group or Reddit about the same niche? If so, what can people get from your forum that they can't get there?

Time is also a big factor when building a community and if you are not willing to put said time in. It may be a better option to simply join another existing community.

 

[Ravenfreak]

The initial launch of a forum varies depending on the niche. It also depends how how much time the staff are willing to put into a community. Activity can take time to really spike, or in rare cases a community can take off quickly and rapidly. Originally I was doing things on my own on both of my communities, now I have two awesome co-admins on both and that really does help! One could be the technical admin if you're not too familiar with getting plugins, themes, etc added to the community while you focus on content creation and engagement.

 

[Empire]

In the time that I have been dealing with forums what I see is very mixed. Everyone is different regards what they do to their website. Some years ago on FP remember the day when one single person created five sites in a week using the same software XD Seen many that built a site in a day and then opened it up to the public right away.

initial launch is a good idea and not many do that nowadays, only experienced people do that, right? I myself was invited to many to get content going so when she's open to the public all boards are full of good content.

End of the day, you build the site as time goes on, you improve you add or remove and you adjust with the times, with a site that you run is never finished lol You find x-amount of time to get a perfect theme that really fits your site needs.

 

[veloman]

It took me about a month and a half to get velo.chat setup in terms of functionality and design. It's not perfect, but I feel like in terms of the website it's now pretty hands off and I can focus elsewhere (or, rather, just life stuff at the moment - without worrying about if the website is going to fall apart).

In terms of building an actual community... Its hard and I'm nowhere close. I'm getting plenty of visits, and organic traffic, but little engagement.

 

[Cedric]

It took me about a month and a half to get velo.chat setup in terms of functionality and design. It's not perfect, but I feel like in terms of the website it's now pretty hands off and I can focus elsewhere (or, rather, just life stuff at the moment - without worrying about if the website is going to fall apart).

In terms of building an actual community... Its hard and I'm nowhere close. I'm getting plenty of visits, and organic traffic, but little engagement.

Don’t give up. I know it’s easy to say but those who keep pushing prevail. ☺️

 

[Reverie]

1. How long did it take for your community to see significant activity or growth?
2. How did you divide your time between routine maintenance, content creation, member engagement, and promotion?
3. Did you go solo on this endeavor, or do you have a partner in crime to divide your tasks?
4. Do you think your growth would be bigger if you could spend double the time you usually could?

1. My experience was the first 3 months is always the best period - but seeing consistent growth and member activity would probably be around that 6 month mark. That's when people join because they want to join, not just because they know so and so.
2. Having enough staff assisted with this, but honestly this was always my biggest struggle. Content creation/engagement/promotion was my typical thing. I would spend a day doing some promotion, and then other days I would more so focus on the rest, but sometimes I would do extra promotion.
3. I had a partner! Splitting up the work helps, but I get hyper focused on promoting the forum so I mostly worried about that.
4. I know if I had more time to spend I would see more results. I typically hyper focus on things though and I see results, but then have to take a short break because I over do it.