So...You have $7000 to go into developing a site based on a forum, what do YOU do

[John D]

Hey,
This is actually a situation I am in right now.

I am putting $7000 towards the development of one of my sites, www.DeuceAce.com

The site is a poker forum mainly with a few extra things, articles, reviews, directory etc. but nothing else major.

The forum isn't exactly new, there are 200+ members and just under 3000 posts, but I would still consider it as very new and will be working on it as if I just launched it.

I am starting to budget what I will use the $7000 on.
I just sent off a payment of $800 to vbulletinskinz.com for a new custom design - I think they are one of the best in the forum design industry.

So..you have just over $6000 to build up a poker forum, it’s a highly competitive industry but I feel there is still space for another, quality forum.

The money can be spent on development, content advertising/marketing or anything you think would help improve and develop the community.

So...what are your first steps and what do you use the money for?

[sandrodz]

I think that is allot money to invest... :) I would recommend spending it in some other way... I don't think you'll need more than 2K to get started. Indeed some most popular forums started from 0...

[Banana]

ya, I think the most important thing is to create a member base, I haven't spent money on anything except invision and my forum has been doing quite well, it is even on a subdomain on free hosting. The idea being to vreate a large member base then add text ads and move to a domain so the forum can self-fund it's expansion :D

[Mikey]

I would buy an existing forum.

[Tekster]

I would buy an existing forum.

For once I agree with Mikey. Scary. If I had that much, I would acquire another forum (active forum) that is based around the same topic

[SoftWareRevue]

Aquiring a similar property would seem a worthwhile investment, provided you could get something that would make an immediate impact for that price.

I certainly wouldn't expect a lot for 6k if I were buying an established poker forum.

Since you are focusing on "a few extra things, articles, reviews, directory etc," you might want to think of some google adwords for things like "poker articles," "poker directory," etc. However, as you stated, it's a highly competive industry and even some creative adwords purchases will likely cost.

Articles seem like they can be a good draw for this. I would have to spend some of the 6k on some well written articles.

I'd budget some to build up backlinks by purchasing cheap advertising. FU ain't the only place you can get a banner for ten bucks. There's plenty around. And the more incoming links, the better. :)

Good luck. Sounds like a fun project.

[TheDPQ]

I'd make a plan for what you feel you'd spend the money on in the entire year. Count what costs what an how often, how much you plan on spending on advertising or forum promotions/contests. Add in est costs on custom hacks you may want. Add in skin and coding as well.

If it comes to 7k then spend 7k.

For a business venture 7k isn't all that much. However you better have a good plan on making that money back and spaming people with ads isn't a way to build a new community. :)

[UKJosh]

Heres my checklist..
some i have put a <#> next to becasue there what you already have.

Software $0.00 <#>
Design $30.00 <#>
Adverts $20.00
Trusted Staff $0.00
Incentive $50.00
Domain $2.95 <#>
Hosting $150.00 <#>

Sums it up really :D

[adb22791]

I was going to suggest a custom theme, but it seems you have already thought of that :). Putting a lot of work into a nice custom theme can really make your forum more appealing for your users.
Investing some of the money into something that is guaranteed (like a CD) might be a good idea too, as then you will always have a good source of funding for your forum (for when you need to upgrade servers, renew software, etc).
I also agree with looking into buying another property, and merging it into your forum.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do,
Alex

[D'Godown]

I guess your budget for skin is ridiculously high, Just steal some time and see many skins are available in 1 fifths of this amount.

I guess a very big part will be on adverts on various other poker forums. Good plans with a cool budget.

Its correct some of popular things started with "0" there were times, Fine but now we see floods of forums on poker and everytopic, So without a good budget and a balanced Campaign, I doubt sucess is far.

Within this much budget a very successfull campaign can be created with organised distribution of bucks in a balanced way.

The opening post was done in March this year and today i see stats of this forum as 600+ members, Can you now pop in and explain what was your mao of spending?

[John D]

Hey,

Sorry for not replying sooner, been busy spending the budget :D

I have been putting a lot into working with poker rooms to fund tournaments that are free to enter for members, I have been running them every week for a good while now.

I ran a few contests but that was more for fun (Still had a prize fund for it though) - For example members guessing when we would reach x posts.

Poker is a pretty hard market for running contests really, that or my brain cant come up with anything good :)

I am building up a network now with poker or related sites so I'm hoping that will bring a lot of members, I have 2 sites up so far and a lot in development right now.

Should help drive traffic between them anyway :)