It’s been nearly a year since I launched the community forums and we’ve had some great momentum generated, some incredible conversations, and it’s where the BlogX program was born.
The community there has been able to support and help other members achieve some of their blogging goals as well ask candid questions they have about blogging and seek solutions about anything from content to technology.
But it’s slowed a bit and I wanted to reevaluate and reassess the forums before it goes any farther.
Half of me honestly wants to say that it was a “failure” – that’s the negative response as I look at my larger-than-life goals (all my goals are somewhat this way, by the way).
The other half says that it was a definite worth while experiment and it’s time to simply take a look at what worked, what didn’t and decide what needs to change or how it needs to pivot to continue it’s growth.
But whatever which one is ultimately more right doesn’t really matter – what does matter is that you always have to review what you’re doing to see if it’s the most effective. Heck, I just talked about this yesterday!
Registrations
We’ve had a great number of registrations with over 3,000 posts. There was definitely some activity happening!
But it has continued to decline in the last few months and I simply haven’t had time to invest in the community with the growth of 8BIT and Action & Influence, my two startups.
Knowing myself well enough and knowing that I have to constantly be on the alert to strip extraneous things off my long list of To-Dos and projects in an effort to ever simplify my life, the forums were an obvious spot to consider.
So what have I learned from the last year? Here are a few nuggets:
- Invest for a Return – The more time I spent in the forums the more active they became. Being the founder of the forums and first point of culture development it was imperative that I did. Blocking out time daily to engage was part of my strategy. But when I was busy and my time became limited in terms of my engagement the traffic dipped as well. A simple reminder that energy begets energy.
- Delegation – I made it a point to see if I could find passionate individuals to help build the forums and provide energy. I didn’t do as good of a job here and it showed. I wanted to tightly control the experience but didn’t give enough of it away. This was my fault.
- Reviews – I should have had quarterly reviews of the forums, like I do with many other things in my life. I let this one just cruise (because it was doing well enough) and let my review period slip into a year! Not good. I should have reviewed and pivoted earlier.
- Time and Attention – At the time I launched I had time to invest. Things (and life) changes and I didn’t keep this as a senior and top priority. I won’t necessarily apologize for that but I’m sad that I couldn’t keep it near the top. It’s just another reminder that the things that you give time and attention get priority in life. That’s just the way it is.
- Not About Money – As you can see with registrations, the forums were in fact making money. I did a number of giveaways and gave a lot of the net margin back into the group but it as an independent property made money. My decision is not motivated by money but rather of value. It’s always been that way. I want to provide the most value to my readers and community. If it’s not then I’ll stop it even if it’s cash-flow positive.
I’ll be doing some more internal calculations and planning in the next few months as I reconsider the forums but I wanted to put in front of you and see where your heads are (were) at.
Let me know your experience and what you think we should do. How could we make it better? Should we just close it down now? Give it to me straight!
Also, for those that are paying members there is a refund that is available for you – and if you decide to discontinue the membership please feel free to do so! Thanks for your support as I enjoyed it (and continue to enjoy it) immensely. It was for you guys anyway!
You are wise beyond your years, excited to see where they go as forums.
agreed!
John,
Amazing timing with this post.
I am facing the same issue with the community forums I created for my site.
Ironically, my post today is about my “forums” project, even though I do not specifically name it.
I am stepping back and looking at the big picture. Trying to decide if the community site adds value or is too much of a diversion at this point. There are some great people on there, and for that I am grateful. Just not sure about keeping it going for now… or putting the effort into some other high-profile projects I have brewing.
Best wishes,
Craig
My own experience of the Forum was, I signed up. Saw some stuff that I couldn’t access because I wasn’t a premium member. Tried to explore some more of it. Couldn’t seam to come back to the homepage or find anything else and so didn’t really bother to go back. Maybe I was missing something and I should have given them more of a try but I never really used them as a result. I’ll keep a close eye what you do.
Chris
John, I signed up for the premium forums and just recently had to cancel my membership as I have been unemployed for almost a year now and I’m having to cut back on any additional expenses right now because I just can’t afford it.
I signed up for free membership, but couldn’t find anything to look at. I also never saw anything in the posts or tweets talking about the forums–perhaps that would have enticed me to go paid?
I never knew you had a forum on the site…
Hey John, this is interesting cause I was just checking out the forum the other day after a long hiatus. Seems to be a bit of an abandoned ship right now.
Maybe you could re-purpose it? What if it had a narrower focus?
I loved BlogX and planned to go through it again. I would like to get access to that content.
But at the end of the day, go with your intuition. Thanks for all you do!
I didn’t come here to weigh in with my opinion on the forums, per se. But, nonetheless, I felt compelled to comment.
I’m really impressed (and challenged) by your willingness and ability to change/modify/redo/scrap/whatever something that is autonomously profitable because there is some disconnect of excellence. I think this really speaks to your integrity and I want to have that in the work that I do/pursue also.
Thanks for another lesson. Maybe an unintended lesson, but a lesson nonetheless.
Great idea, but……Tentblogger.com is a forum in and of itself.
No need to reinvent the wheel.
Just my $0.02
Good stuff as always!
As a paid member, I loved it at first! As I got busy, my visits there became less frequent and when I would go back to find not much had been updated, my visits became even less frequent. For whatever reason, things just slowed down.
I personally wish it would kick back up, because when things are happening in there, I love it! I love helping people with questions, and I love the feedback I get when I post questions.
Whatever you do though John, I won’t be looking for a refund.
And I finally had something I wanted to post in there today too… doh!
As a blogger on a tight budget I’d love to be part of the forums, but the cost was a little prohibitive.
I was hoping to kick back in too, @Dustin Stout.
John, I’m sure that it’ll be good stuff! I need next level stuff..or maybe first level stuff…Or something! I need to kill it!