Need help. Stuck between 2 ideas...

I discussed in another thread how I wanted to start a forum. The thing is, I have 2 ideas for a forum and I want to get them both going, eventually.

But I am planning to get one of them started first and somehow leverage the next forum's activity from it through contests and stuff.

The problem is, which forums should I get going first?

Forum 1: There is a whole big market for this niche and it will be slightly harder for me to get ranked for the keywords just because there are big-wig companies shelling out a ton of money on Google AdWords. But the thing is, I haven't found a single forum for the niche, for the particular demographic that I've chosen to target. So once I'm able to get the forum going, the returns will be huge!

Forum 2: This is a popular niche among the users and while there is a lot of content already for it in the general sense (the global market), I did not find almost any content in the local market that I plan to target. I'm not sure if advertisers bid high for it but I guess I'll find strength in numbers.

Moreover, although this is a little impossible, I feel that this forum will practically sell itself once I get the ball rolling.

The thing is, which forum should I start first? I was thinking first but the fact that I can get more users and more easily to Forum 2, I'm starting to think otherwise.

Your opinions guys?

 

Do them both if possible. ;-) if there not competing against each other.

 

I'm a little short of budget (and time/manpower, whichever comes first) so, as much as I'd like to, I can't start both forums together.

Now, which one would you recommend I go with?

 

Firstly, I would suggest for you to not start a forum, just because you think you can get "huge returns" or if you think anything can "sell itself". Start-up forums themselves don't make that much money, even with dedicated advertising.

Are you very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter the forums will be about? Or do you have someone who is or (even better) a group of people willing to support you who are very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject matter? If not, forget about starting any forums all together.

If you are very knowledgeable or you have that group of people behind you, then concentrate on creating helpful and good content. Write articles, answer questions, build up a following of users, THEN you might be able to make your forum(s) lucrative. That is the proper series of events to making a forum that might make you some money. And even then, your goal shouldn't be making money, it should be sharing knowledge and content and making your forum as interesting as possible for your users. Then, if you want to have a business around that, you should make sure the business is profitable by managing it correctly.

First comes quality of your service, then comes the quality of your business. Too many business leaders forget that.

Scott

 

Select a niche where your passionate about the topic, because you'll need to be active in the community yourself, and stay motivated.