Entering a Saturated Forum Niche

[Shawn Gossman]

I'm in a fairly saturated forum niche - admin forums.

There are still quite a few admin forums out there, many mixed in with promotion forums.

I try to be different in the content I post. I try to post important topics that resonate with forum owners. I also try to post articles on a regular basis. Maybe in time, as the forum grows, I'll add more benefits to make this place unique. I'm definitely open to your suggestions as well.

But with that being said, let's turn the mic over to you!

If you've entered a forum niche that is saturated or highly competitive, how are you remaining different? How are you preventing your forum from just being another needle in the haystack?

 

[JoelR]

I'm in a fairly saturated forum niche - admin forums.

Me too!

It is a horrible, terrible, strategic mistake LOL. I cannot emphasize enough how bad and irrational of a decision it is. It's a shrinking niche in a shrinking industry with a shrinking audience. From a strategy perspective, it's literally one of the worst target niches you can pursue

 

[AWS]

I have an admin forum also. Biggest mistake I ever made was getting in that niche.

I bought Admin Addict when it was at its peak competing well with TAZ. At the time TAZ and AA were the de facto forums for forum admins. I expanded AA by acquiring Admin Talk. During that time Lisa an admin at TAZ started Admin Extra. It took more traffic from TAZ. AA was not affected. Lisa and I had a good relationship so our 2 communities promoted each other.

The problem with AA and TAZ at the time was the bickering and sniping by the different software fanboys. TAZ was started as a vbulletin fan site. I suggested, when I was admin there, that the site expand it's focus. Howard agreed. Problem was it already was a place for vbulletin admins. When guys from IPB or other software came along they were beat down until they left. I resigned as admin and bought AA to be a more friendly place. It was for a time. Then xenforo v vbulletin started. AA was flooded with anti vbulletin pro xenforo stuff. That's when I sold it. I was lucky I sold it when it was still popular and at the top of the admin forum food chain. Now it's a ghost town. It resides at Admin Talk Forums.

Anyway I'm rambling. I still love forums and always will.

 

[JoelR]

Now it's a ghost town. It resides at Admin Talk Forums.

What happened?? AT is a total ghost town now

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I have an admin forum also. Biggest mistake I ever made was getting in that niche.

I bought Admin Addict when it was at its peak competing well with TAZ. At the time TAZ and AA were the de facto forums for forum admins. I expanded AA by acquiring Admin Talk. During that time Lisa an admin at TAZ started Admin Extra. It took more traffic from TAZ. AA was not affected. Lisa and I had a good relationship so our 2 communities promoted each other.

The problem with AA and TAZ at the time was the bickering and sniping by the different software fanboys. TAZ was started as a vbulletin fan site. I suggested, when I was admin there, that the site expand it's focus. Howard agreed. Problem was it already was a place for vbulletin admins. When guys from IPB or other software came along they were beat down until they left. I resigned as admin and bought AA to be a more friendly place. It was for a time. Then xenforo v vbulletin started. AA was flooded with anti vbulletin pro xenforo stuff. That's when I sold it. I was lucky I sold it when it was still popular and at the top of the admin forum food chain. Now it's a ghost town. It resides at Admin Talk Forums.

Anyway I'm rambling. I still love forums and always will.

Your story brings back a lot of memories, haha. I remember AA, and AE all too well. I loved them all but I also remember the bickering and the aggressive competition by TAZ. TAZ would block the domain of all of them. I actually registered "anotheradminforum.com" because that was a domain replacement that was often used. I remember someone telling me I was smart for that LOL

I remember when TAZ was or bought out Forum Forum. That's even more old school LOL

 

[AWS]

Forum Forum was the first and original admin forum. It was never bought by anyone. I inquired about it when it first went dark. They had a catastrophic database crash and lost everything. The owner wanted an outrageous amount of money for the domain. He did say if any of the data could be recovered he would include it.

The owner held on to the domain for along time. Same message when you visited it.

 

[AWS]

What happened?? AT is a total ghost town now

The group that bought it just left it stagnate. It remained active even with no staff being involved. Then it died and now only gets spam. I tried to get myself removed as admin and the super admin never replies to my requests.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Forum Forum was the first and original admin forum. It was never bought by anyone. I inquired about it when it first went dark. They had a catastrophic database crash and lost everything. The owner wanted an outrageous amount of money for the domain. He did say if any of the data could be recovered he would include it.

The owner held on to the domain for along time. Same message when you visited it.

Now I remember something like that.

I was just a lurker back then. I was still very fresh at forums.

 

[JoelR]

Forum Forum was the first and original admin forum. It was never bought by anyone. I inquired about it when it first went dark. They had a catastrophic database crash and lost everything. The owner wanted an outrageous amount of money for the domain. He did say if any of the data could be recovered he would include it.

The owner held on to the domain for along time. Same message when you visited it.

I tried to Google it, and found ForumsForums! It's like what Reddit would be if it were forums .

What a shame on AT. Literal ghost town. Pretty sure one of ifs most recent posts are my promo posts about Admin Junkies.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

It's kind of like PhpBB v1. They were so plain compared to forums of today. I mainly used PhpBB2, though. Love-Hate relationship with that one!

 

[Cpvr]

The group that bought it just left it stagnate. It remained active even with no staff being involved. Then it died and now only gets spam. I tried to get myself removed as admin and the super admin never replies to my requests.

It’s pretty sad that they let the place rot. It was a lovely place back in the day.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

It’s pretty sad that they let the place rot. It was a lovely place back in the day.

I remember AT. I agree. TAZ is rotting, too. Kind of sad.

 

[AWS]

I remember AT. I agree. TAZ is rotting, too. Kind of sad.

Man I could tell you stories about Sandman. I was a co-admin when TAZ started. Howard and I got along well in the beginning. The original staff that started TAZ were Howard, Wayne Luke, myself and a woman that had a real popular site for women. Don't remember her name.

Things started to deteriorate rather quickly as TAZ and Howards head grew.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Man I could tell you stories about Sandman. I was a co-admin when TAZ started. Howard and I got along well in the beginning. The original staff that started TAZ were Howard, Wayne Luke, myself and a woman that had a real popular site for women. Don't remember her name.

Things started to deteriorate rather quickly as TAZ and Howards head grew.

Yeah. Howard was always nice to me, but I just couldn't get his competitiveness. He'd block URLs of every admin forum. And I was even active on TAZ for quite a while. I posted articles, made new topics, and felt like I was a fairly contributing member. I was a little more of a debater back then, but I was a kid. LOL. But yet he would block any competition. I just felt like that had a hand in hurting forums throughout the years. Competitiveness and jealousy, really.

I definitely remember you all the years.

Lisa and me were good friends at one time. I'm not sure where she is now.

 

[AWS]

Lisa and me were good friends at one time. I'm not sure where she is now.

I heard after she had her daughter that she went offline. She popped up a couple years ago to tell me about one of our mutual friends that passed away. Lisa and I had a great relationship.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I heard after she had her daughter that she went offline. She popped up a couple years ago to tell me about one of our mutual friends that passed away. Lisa and I had a great relationship.

I liked Lisa a lot. We had one bad time. I was a whole different person back then, struggling with heavy drinking. I don't drink anymore, thankfully! But we were cool after that incident. However, she vanished. I hope her and her family are doing well. She started an admin forum, too, I think?

 

[AWS]

Yes she did. Admin Extra. Adnin Addict and Admin Extra were kindred sites. I helped her and she helped me.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Yes she did. Admin Extra. Adnin Addict and Admin Extra were kindred sites. I helped her and she helped me.

Okay, I remember now.

Those were the days! We just have to work on getting those days back

 

[Jason]

I'm in a fairly saturated forum niche - admin forums.

There are still quite a few admin forums out there, many mixed in with promotion forums.

I try to be different in the content I post. I try to post important topics that resonate with forum owners. I also try to post articles on a regular basis. Maybe in time, as the forum grows, I'll add more benefits to make this place unique. I'm definitely open to your suggestions as well.

But with that being said, let's turn the mic over to you!

If you've entered a forum niche that is saturated or highly competitive, how are you remaining different? How are you preventing your forum from just being another needle in the haystack?

I guess it would be throwing in your own personality and being very enthusiastic. I mean, what else is there to say? Well, one thing you could do is provide info that other people don't have, very useful info.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I guess it would be throwing in your own personality and being very enthusiastic. I mean, what else is there to say? Well, one thing you could do is provide info that other people don't have, very useful info.

Make it unique, like you say I do think that can help you stand out.