Most saturated forum niche?

Discussion in 'Managing Your Online Community' started by cpvr, Jul 28, 2012.

  1. Superboy

    Superboy Most Likely, I'm Insane.

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2012
    Messages:
    524
    Likes Received:
    168
    Location:
    New Jersey
    Well you joined my forum the other day :) that is not the same Forum(name, look, feel, vision and directon) I had 9 months ago.
    9 months ago, if you asked me i don't think i'd have a community of nearly 500 members and 70,000 posts.

    the original site was essentially almost identical to my rival site and what not and actually started off as a site that was essentially anti-them :P
    I took what was good about their site and based the original site on that.

    now 9 months later...I have a completely different direction and vision. Both our sites(my rival and my own) still feature the same book...the difference now is their site is strictly surrounding that one book series(It's ending in 2013) and mine is centered around not only multiple book series, but things we as teenagers and young adults find interesting...music, movies, sex lol, social hot topics, ranting, etc :D
     
    cpvr likes this.
  2. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2009
    Messages:
    3,219
    Likes Received:
    823
    Glad to see your forum doing so well. How big is your rival's forum though?
     
  3. Superboy

    Superboy Most Likely, I'm Insane.

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2012
    Messages:
    524
    Likes Received:
    168
    Location:
    New Jersey
    They had a nearly 2 year headstart on us(they began in Jan 2010 and I started in october 2011) so they have nearly 4,000 members.

    The thing is that while they do have overall higher numbers(and I'd hope so), most of those 4,000 members are
    1. People who register and never post
    2. Old members who have quit

    My site has about 1/6 their total memberbase but I've notice(I still am a member of their site) that their site is usually no more active than my site is and at times we have more members online than they do.

    So their stats
    2.5 year
    550K posts
    4,000 members

    My stats
    (Original Site was October 8, 2011 and I rebooted and restarted in Feb 2012)
    500 members
    70,000 Posts

    So I like to think I am doing pretty good for a site that is technically only 7 months old :P

    We are both in the teen niche which I think has alot of competition from other types of forums....but we are also direct competitors because of the Book that the site surrounds but I like to think there is a place for both of us on the internet even though they may hold more of a hold(for now) on traffic and rank higher on Search Engines, I like to think we both offer FANS of the books something unique that allow both of us to co-exist in the same small niche :P
     
    cpvr likes this.
  4. tetutato

    tetutato Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2012
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    1
    General Gaming + Webmaster forums as mentioned.
     
  5. JPM

    JPM Regular Member

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2011
    Messages:
    88
    Likes Received:
    26
    I report threads all the time on DP and nothing ever get's done about it. Just tired of trying to help improve the place when the moderators clearly couldn't care less.

    As for the original question. Admin forums and webmaster forums are everywhere.
     
  6. RobinHood

    RobinHood Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2012
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    3
    Hey Dan! We meet again! :P

    On the flipside, which niches do you guys think are yet untapped to their full potential?
     
    too_cool_3 and Dan Hutter like this.
  7. thenextGeek

    thenextGeek Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2012
    Messages:
    48
    Likes Received:
    17
    ^
    I'm also curious about that. Any webmasters around here mind sharing your ideas regarding that RobinHood's question?
     
  8. webaficionado

    webaficionado Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2012
    Messages:
    149
    Likes Received:
    57
    Location:
    Argentina
    Anime forums! I've seen so, so, so, so many of them that look exactly the same - and I don't even like anime!

    Admin forums would be #2 for me. I've been in too many of them too.
     
  9. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2009
    Messages:
    3,219
    Likes Received:
    823
    I tapped into the "Virtual pets" community, nobody else did. I'm the biggest on the web for this genre. It's a sub genre of "Virtual worlds" really.

    If you have the passion for something, and nobody else is doing it, why not try tapping it? Hardwork, dedication, and the passion for a subject takes you far. @thenextGeek
     
  10. etc

    etc I should be busy.

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2012
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    12
    Location:
    intarnet
    Webmasters and computer tech niche are indeed saturated however, I made my forum not too saturated by simply concentrating to a certain area. Let's say you are in Ohio. If your forum will just be for this single place, this wouldn't be such a saturated right? Say Ohio Travel Guide or Ohio Webmaster Forum :D And its easier to organize a meeting with members :D
     
    DaUnknownAdm!n and cpvr like this.
  11. tetutato

    tetutato Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2012
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    1
    But then it's so much harder to find members for your forum isn't it? Unless you know a lot of willing local guys. :P
     
  12. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2012
    Messages:
    901
    Likes Received:
    500
    Well yes it is. That's how all specialised 'niches'/subjects work. If your site is about something overly specific, you're always going to have less competition but find it more difficult to find new members due to lower interest in the subject area.

    That's the difficult choice you have to make about what subject to choose, you either choose one which is done to death but has a large potential audience, or is smaller but has a far more limited audience.
     
  13. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2009
    Messages:
    3,219
    Likes Received:
    823
    Or if you post up a lot of posters in certain businesses. If they allow you to do so, or ask them to hand out the posters as well. I don't know, maybe they'll charge a certain fee or something?
     
  14. etc

    etc I should be busy.

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2012
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    12
    Location:
    intarnet
    Not really. I find them mostly in yahoo groups. I tried connecting to them and somehow join their cause. They might be asking what is it for you. Well, of course you just don't join to conquer but also to learn more of your craft just like them.
     
    cpvr likes this.
  15. BMR

    BMR Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2012
    Messages:
    35
    Likes Received:
    20
    Location:
    Milwaukee
    Really Gaming and Sports Forums are everywhere. Best way to go about anything now is really to narrow it down a bit and not be so general when going into a saturated fields. A few years back I opened a sports site which has since been sold. Started off as a general sports forum, but moved into based around one state worth of teams based on the memberbase that had joined and it took off after that.
     
  16. dojo

    dojo Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2012
    Messages:
    250
    Likes Received:
    181
    Gaming, sports, money, webmaster/admin. The good thing is that most of them die out in 3-4 months. When I started TA in February there were a bunch of other admin forums started at the same time and few months earlier. Don't think I see too many left, which is a pity since some really seemed to be for the long haul. Creating a site in 2012 and making it active is not easy. It requires a lot of work and some serious investment too, if you want to succeed.
     
    DaUnknownAdm!n likes this.
  17. Shawn Gossman

    Shawn Gossman Regular Member

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2011
    Messages:
    207
    Likes Received:
    96
    Location:
    Illinois
    I would say gaming forums. I have seen way more gaming forum than anything else including admin and webmaster niches.
     
  18. Jura

    Jura Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2012
    Messages:
    108
    Likes Received:
    18
    Two pages and nobody mentioned anime. Anime forums are done to death even with the diverse sub-topics one can think of.
     
  19. too_cool_3

    too_cool_3 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2012
    Messages:
    57
    Likes Received:
    27
    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    :love: FFVII :thumbsup:

    I know there are lot's of automotive communities however quite a few deal only with specific brands, models, and geographic areas. This is great though as the bigger boards usually have a LOT of good info and have been around for quite some time. You see a lot of duplicate boards when new vehicle models are released (i.e. the Scion FR-S/Toyota 86/Subaru BR-Z) but will eventually die off leaving only the best few. The way to succeed in a forum like this is by having acurate information and a variety of content
     
  20. GTB

    GTB Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2009
    Messages:
    1,792
    Likes Received:
    270
    I see that a lot, but the ones who do it tend to run Admin Forums themselves and are just spamming really, "copy and paste job" across multiple admin forums fast - to back-link to their own admin forum.

    There's too many admin forums out there, I see why they all jump on the idea of running one. But.. many are doing nothing. There's even some really nice looking ones out there, but because the niche is so flooded it's more or less impossible to get going and keep going. But think that can be said for most niches today, what's not not been covered now by a mass number of forums?
     

Share This Page