Do you regret selling forum licenses?

[Jason]

I sort of do, but in the last case, I simply don't have enough money to market and get content for my forum. Also, and more importantly, I was in urgent need of money due to emergencies. Anyway, XF licenses are easy to get back, assuming you got good employment and plenty of free software is out there.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think the free platforms are good enough for forums.

SMF for example has some HUGE forums out there. Forums are forums. Most of the people saying only go with x-software are just fan boys (or girls).

I've never sold any of my licenses. I have a few. They expire and I renew when I'm ready to use them.

 

[AWS]

When i shutdown my sites last year I never expected to return. I sold off all the licenses and let the domains expire. When I was given a clean bill of health I kicked myself for selling the licenses and letting the domains expire. I have since rebounded nicely.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

When i shutdown my sites last year I never expected to return. I sold off all the licenses and let the domains expire. When I was given a clean bill of health I kicked myself for selling the licenses and letting the domains expire. I have since rebounded nicely.

You can check out of forums any time you want, but you can never leave LOL

 

[Jason]

Getting a community going is tough challenge these days. As of the last months, I've had no time for it, having a full-time job. However, things could be different in the future as I could make time, even with a full-time job, somehow.

As of now, I'm just into blogs, but I've been thinking of adding some free forum software on the side.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Getting a community going is tough challenge these days. As of the last months, I've had no time for it, having a full-time job. However, things could be different in the future as I could make time, even with a full-time job, somehow.

As of now, I'm just into blogs, but I've been thinking of adding some free forum software on the side.

Might as well. You can always upgrade later down the road.

 

[frm]

When i shutdown my sites last year I never expected to return. I sold off all the licenses and let the domains expire. When I was given a clean bill of health I kicked myself for selling the licenses and letting the domains expire. I have since rebounded nicely.

Glad to hear.

My main regret is not stocking up on XF forum licenses when they were $120 (I think they had one sale that took them from $140 to $120).

That way, I'd be in the 11+ license category, and purchasing a new one would essentially be inflation-free today at $165.



Still not bad at $175 and still seeking licenses to buy though. *Hint hint*

But, no, I have never sold a forum license.

I still have my vB 4.2.5 (the latest I can download) with blogs & CMS license. I used that on the very first forum I made and took a huge L on it.

I dropped $10,000~ on my vB4 forum in order to get into a highly competitive niche with $20-30 CPC keywords (including the domain purchase which was quite large for exact match which mattered at that time, vB SEO, a ton of Dragon-Byte brand-free add-ons, and paid content writing). I was lucky enough to recoup 30-50% of my initial investment from ads and a paid sponsor. Still an L.

That's why my #1 advice to anyone starting a forum now is to only do it in a niche that you can create content for. The forum I made was for forex, and at that time, I didn't even know how to trade stocks (I mean with technical analysis and reading financials, I was always adding to my portfolio). The $20+ clicks looked too juicy to turn down and I was already doing quite well with criminal justice (but blogs) at $3-7, so I figured I'd step my game up.

 

[AWS]

I still have my vB 4.2.5 (the latest I can download) with blogs & CMS license. I used that on the very first forum I made and took a huge L on it.

I remember your forex forum. I also remember you on the vbulletin forums. I see you're making a comeback too.

I still have a few vbulletin licenses including 1 for vbulletin 5. Couldn't give them away when I was moving to xenforo.

I think I now have 11 xenforo licenses. You could say I came back with a vengeance.

 

[frm]

I remember your forex forum. I also remember you on the vbulletin forums. I see you're making a comeback too.

I actually came back in 2018 or so and made a geo-forum. It didn't do so badly, with a couple of advertisers that paid for it and then some. However, C19 hit, and I couldn't be "the one" that promoted going out when the Governor was essentially telling people to stay in. In doing so, I would've muddied my name and brought shame to my family (different country, different societal rules).