Starting a unique forum in a popular niche

Lately I've been thinking of starting a forum of my own, but I had several ideas in mind when it came to a niche. Unfortunately, many of the hobbies I'm interested in are in extremely popular niches. For instance, I once figured a small gaming community would be great but there are a countless number of forums in that niche. Because of this, I figured it'd be interested to target a specific portion of that niche "retro gamers" and create a forum for retro gaming. I wasn't so sure that this would be a good idea though because it may be too small a portion of the larger community.

Has anyone else here created a unique forum in a popular niche? Did you target a particular area to differentiate yourself from others?

 

I started a unique forum in the "Virtual pets community", and I currently have one of the largest forums in the niche. I believe if you chase the idea, the sky is the limit to your potential as a forum owner. As long as you strive to have better content than the rest, and keep users happy, I don't see why you can't take the dive in and see where it leads you to.

You can also cover other gaming-related topics as well, not just "Retro" in that perspective.

 

Thanks. I figure it's worth a shot and no matter what road it takes I'll enjoy the ride and learn more as I go along.

 

That's the best part of running an online community, learning new things. I've experienced a lot of set backs on my community, but we re-launched last year after being down for about 8 months. Things are looking up though. Have you decided on a domain name yet?

 

I think the more niche and specific you go with your forum, the better off it will do. I know it sometimes seems counter-intuitive to not cast as large of a net as possible, but in my experience the more specific your subject breadth is, the more users you will get because they will feel like the community specifically caters only to them.

 

There's just some mini problems with that idea though. Like you I also have a forum that caters only the local which the users are just within a single area of the map, its somehow unique but some of them actually would only if there's someone in the forum they knew. So if you get to be popular with that online retro game if theres such it should be better.

 

I haven't decided on one yet. I've been toying with a few names, but I haven't made a decision. Maybe I'll make up my mind soon.

I always thought of it being that there are many fish in the sea, but if something sets you apart it'll be worth looking into. In my own experience, the main game forum I post on has a thriving off topic forum but the gaming boards are mostly dead...the boards dealing with classic games are archived even.

 

That's true. As long as your community offers something different from the others you won't have much issues with growth. Like articles and interviews can set a forum apart from the others because those are unique to your brand.

 

There's a niche for anything two or more people have an interest in. You can always get other people interested. I operate in a highly competitive niche. I find competition to be a waste of time. Some people like the way I set up and operate my forums. Others do not, and they have choices. You will never please everyone so you have to please yourself first and then convince others what you have is unique and cannot be found elsewhere. Or that what you have can be found elsewhere but that you and what you bring to your members is unique and cannot be found elsewhere.

 

If you are passionate about it and think you can offer something to a community of your own that others can't, then go for it.

If you just want to connect with other gamers, though, then joining an already established forum would likely be more suitable instead of dealing with the frustration of starting your own.

 

Passion is one of the reasons why I still run my online community. My passion for the virtual pets community has never gone away and I feel that the longer I run it, the more growth we'll see in the long run. I admit, I've seen a lot of people leave the community because they're no longer interest in pet sites as a whole, but its still big business for a lot of people. Also, people still care about the community so I don't see any reasons as to why not to run it.

 

I think that's going to happen with just about any niche. Even if you're still interested in a topic, the interestx often wax and wane and so it's not uncommon for people to regularly leave. It's almost always the community that keeps people coming back when their interests aren't peak any more.

 

It's better to start a forum in a popular or overcrowded niche, because there is more interest that you can generate for your forum, if you can make your forum stand out from your competition.

 

I made a general chat forum, which, I concede, is a highly-active, over-saturated niche. It worked for a short while, but it eventually faded away into obscurity, unfortunately. General chat communities are very difficult to maintain, though.

 

My suggestion is to stay within the subjects that interest you, no matter how big or small those may be, because writing about things that don't interest you can lead to boredom. Boredom breads mediocre results.

When you first launch the forum you'll cover the basics but in time, if you pay attention to what your members write, you'll get a good feel of what THEY want from your site. Give them what they want, no, become the authority on what they want and the internet shall reward you.