22 Sep
Our first online forum has finally hit 100,000 posts. In terms of internet forums it is still young, and has a fair way to go to be as big as some of the others out there, but for just over a year old it has done very well.
The forum was created in June 2007 as its predecessor disappeared overnight and we needed a replacement. It has been a fast learning experience and I could recommend it to anyone, but a word of warning, there is actually quite a lot of hard work that goes into making a successful forum.
I won’t go into the details of what it takes to succeed in the forum world, that’s for another post, but I will say it is very rewarding when it really takes off.
Stumble it!
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Well done, this is indeed very fast. The ‘total topics’ is also quite impressive. I wish I could afford one of these Z4s.
Please allow me to go off topic for just a while. I saw the link to Roodepoort Property in your sidebar. I find it quite interesting that a British site will have a South African link on it.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Hi Lyndi,
Yes, I have been very happy with how the site has progressed. The Wordpress home page has gone down well too, as has the monthly gallery competition. I have a few things in mind for it over the next 12 months, it’s just finding the time to do it all that is difficult!
The Z4 is a really nice car, but alas our “typical British weather” means it’s not ideal for a convertible at the moment! Please can you send some sunshine over from SA?
Well spotted, indeed roodepoort-property.co.za is one of my creations. My girlfriend lives there and we have been trying to sell the house so she can move over here, but it has been a real struggle. Finally we seem to have got there, and all being well the house is sold.
This was my attempt at marketing it privately on a co.za domain in a short space of time. In the end it didn’t work so well, there is a lot of competition for those keywords. We did get a few people finding it, but mostly it was a showcase site for when agents wanted to show it to their clients.
September 27th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Looking forward to a post on making a successful forum! I’ve wondered about recommending it to a few clients but getting active users looks hard, especially if there are other forums already in the same niche.
I test drove a Z3 a few months ago which was pretty good - not sure they’d let me take a Z4 out, might be a bit out of my price range!
September 28th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
@Piggynap: I will write up a post on making a successful forum as soon as I have chance. You hit the nail on the head though, it’s the active users thing that is the difficult part. Once it gets going it is not too hard.