Most saturated forum niche?

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

  1. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    What forum niche do you believe is the most saturated? Meaning, there's a ton of forums in that particular forum - some are big, some are small, but the forum niche is still saturated.

    So, which forum niche would you say is the most saturated? I'd go with admin forums and SEO forums.

    But thats my opinion, what's yours?
     
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  2. Dan Hutter

    Dan Hutter aka Big Dan

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    Webmaster forums in general. Gaming forums seem to be very popular too. Tech forums are another crowded niche.

    There's nothing wrong with being in a crowded niche it's just you need to work that much harder to standout and attract members.
     
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  3. Iconic

    Iconic The Original

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    Admins forums are the worst I think, followed by gaming and sports. I see a lot of them aren't as popular as others because they basically don't have anything to stand out upon.
     
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  4. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Not to mention, they're usually started by people who couldn't stand a forum that they were apart of, so they try to branch into the niche, thinking its easy, and flood the community with so many forums. I've seen admins forums that have the same generic content, but nothin new to offer the users. Such as, creating multiple threads from one same subject. I understand the need though, I just don't understand the want though. It's not like webmaster forums are pulling in a lot of money for those jumping into the niche.'

    @Iconic I'd have to agree with you on that one, but I also think those admin forums that content sucks, will not survive long term, and their users will go searching for better forums - that have better content, and can learn more. A lot of people join admin forums to learn new ways of running an online community, and to network with other forums. Some even join to promote their forums, where others, are there to help people.
     
  5. Dan Hutter

    Dan Hutter aka Big Dan

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    I used moderate on a medium sized Webmaster board. Just keeping the sig spammers and link droppers at bay was a constant job. The endless stream of copycat questions (How do I rank #1 on Google) and stuff was enough for me to get away from it.

    I started my DJ forum thinking I can do it better than other boards out there so I do understand that motivation. The difference is my niche really isn't crowded. In a crowded niche you really need to be on your game.
     
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  6. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

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    General: Webmaster forums. I see the logic behind them (webmasters are the people most likely to use the internet a lot due to obvious reasons and it stands that a forum for them could easily get members), but there are so many of them it's just ridiculous. Same with admin forums. Both suffer from a lack of interesting content.

    Gaming forums: Obvious again. A surprising amount of failures in this niche are by people wanting to become big/run a large gaming related company off the bat and not putting the work in, guess they think they can take on Gamespot and IGN the minute they find a few friends with business degrees and marketing 'experience'.

    Specific: For gaming, Zelda, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Call of Duty. Done to death.

    For other niches, stuff like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Star Trek... basically anything popular with a kids/teens/geek audience has probably way more forums about it than necessary.
     
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  7. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    It is quite ridiculous how some people just copy content to each and every admin forum. I don't see the point in doing that, just be active on the one you like the best and allow the others time to die off.
     
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  8. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

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    Don't see the point? Here's one:

    Each site you post your work on equals another link. For the hoardes of link spammers and self proclaimed SEOs (as well as most people on webmaster forums in general), the more sites they can post on the better.
     
  9. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    You do know that doesn't work if Google sees duplicate content moving around everywhere right? How does a link from duplicate content actually help? I think it does more harm than good.
     
  10. bauss

    bauss Regular Member

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    Admin, Webmaster, General Discussion, and Gaming Forums are the most saturated. I think webmaster forums are more saturated then all of them though.
     
  11. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

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    True, but you're probably giving these types of people too much credit. I assume they either don't care or don't realise that this duplicate content strategy isn't helping them.

    Just like those hoardes of morons using spambot running software don't realise that posting the same message to every forum on pages 1-300 on Google is a terrible way to promote something.
     
  12. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    I'm not giving them credit at all because I don't use that method of advertising. If they like it, so be it, but they're not gaining a lot of quality links from it. Google has been cracking down on spam links for the past few months.
     
  13. Dan Hutter

    Dan Hutter aka Big Dan

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    Look at all the bots and now low-paid humans that spam blogs. They know that maybe 4 or 5 out of a hundred submissions are actually going to get through. I guess for them the 4 or 5% return is enough for them.

    DP is one of them. I bought Shawn's Sphinx Search Plugin. The number of drivel and just plain spam comments on Shawn's blog post about the plugin just amazed me and that place is moderated. I really like DP it has a ginormous audience and a boatload of good content but the spammers ruin it all (for me). Plus all the rules implemented to keep spammers at bay make you walk on eggshells so to speak when you're not an established member. I don't want to get caught up in the spammer net just because I don't know all the rules.
     
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  14. DaUnknownAdm!n

    DaUnknownAdm!n Regular Member

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    I know what you mean as I received an infraction on my very first post. So I won't be starting any new threads anytime soon just so I don't get banned. :ban:
     
  15. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    What type of thread did you post though? Did you include links in the post itself? That's something that would create suspect over there, I would think.
     
  16. DaUnknownAdm!n

    DaUnknownAdm!n Regular Member

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    I didn't post any links, according the the infraction notice "Thread Started In Wrong Category"
    I started the thread in the Google forum, since I was asking how Google would interpt my content I thought it was the "logical" place to post my question, The DP mod didn't and moved my thread over to the XML/RSS forum.

    I guess with the amount of traffic DP gets, the mods are swamped with these types of issues and giving out infractions is probably the most effect way of getting users to be more aware of where they start their threads.

    I'm not upset by it, but I don't think I'll be starting any new threads anytime soon just so I don't lost my posting privileges ;)

    http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2534099
     
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  17. thenextGeek

    thenextGeek Regular Member

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    SEO forums and Money-related forums/How to make money both online and offline are also saturated for me. There are just so many of them that newcomers become split up. Instead of having a big forum where there are going to be tons of new content being created each day, it turns into hundreds of forums where inactivity is rampant among existing members. The smaller forums simply die and former members search for newer forums which will die again in the next year or so.
     
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  18. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Well, if you ever need help, and have a question, feel free to post it here. I'm sure someone will help you.
     
  19. Superboy

    Superboy Most Likely, I'm Insane.

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    that is the whole reason i started my forum 9 months ago...and i'll be the first to admit, it was a copycat forum or a forum that was trying to be better by being 100 percent different.

    9 months later i have found my own identity and uniqueness :)

    I think while there are loads of forums in certain niches, as long as your site is unique and different in some way that being a small fish in big waters shouldn't matter.
     
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  20. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Copycat forum as to what forum were you copying to begin with?
     

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