Which has more work? What about past the first 2-3 months? Can you set up a forum on auto-pilot? Can you just convert a blog into a niche encyclopedia type site with articles people browse but not expecting new content?

I think that neither blogs nor forums can be put on "auto-pilot" if you want them to be really successful. If studied both types and can only say that if you want them to be succed, you will have to work hard... A blog that doesn't have fresh content isn't really a blog, as well as a forum which isn't moderated and taken in a particular direction isn't a community.

In the case of the forum, you may find people willing to moderate it on your behalf. If you setup a set of rules for the community which they can reference when making decisions (lets say banning for example) I think you can get away with not having to directly moderate it. Although, you need to be active in promotion and ad optimization as well as marketing in general.

For example, my girlfriend runs a Harry Potter forum she started years ago. It's the most successful forum in that niche in our country. She has a team of moderators that really love doing their jobs. The project isn't made to be profitable, so that's a big difference between that and what I think you want to do. If you want to profit from a forum (or a blog) you can't go auto-pilot...

Great answer fortius! Much appreciated.

You make a good point about the moderating. I remember volunteering hours and hours a week a few years ago, for a hip-hop forum. (I'd like to moderate here too, if anyone's listening).

What sort of marketing would you need to do to promote a forum and gain members? And how much work would it take/involve?

No problem, BW-S...

Talking about forum promotion, I'm sure you should check out Lee's dedicated forum-focused sites, AdminFusion.com and ForumTrends.com (they have an excellent podcast)...

As for me, and keep in mind I'm not an expert but have been a moderator as well as active member of various forums (oh wait, I seem to be qualified ), I think you should start with a team of people who really know the subject of the forum and can give advice to "newbies" and also help grow the community. I'm sure that in the beginning it will be important to start discussions yourself (or someone from your team) to get everything going.

Gaining members in that regards isn't as important if you have a solid number of active members. Make people want to post... People need to feel welcomed in order to participate. There are two extrems that can drive off people. The first being a forum where there are no experienced people with knowledge on the topic to help those who want to learn. The second is a forum where there is an elitistic feel which drives potential members away.

As for promotion, you should try to first get your forum going, get some discussions, some posts,... Then start promotion via viral marketing. I think social networking sites like del.icio.us could work if you can get some "brand-name-people" to write about your forum. For example, when I came to this forum via Darren Rowse's Problogger. I respect Darren and knew that if he says that the forum is good, it couldn't be half bad... That the value of blogger trust, but now I'm going a little offtopic.

I can't speak for forums, but as far as blogs go, it could work for what you want to do. Yes a blog not updated isn't really a blog, but that doens't mean people won't visit it and you won't make money.

I haven't had a chance to update some of my blogs much and one of them that I get around to maybe once a month if im lucky makes me daily money on AdSense, without me doing anything to the site.

Also, another alternative you might want to look into is a Wiki.

blogs are easier

Well, blogs are easier in the regard that you are have 100% control over the variables that can result in a success or failure... So year, I prefer blogs too

Yeah a blog would be good here, but I think a Wiki would be more appropriate for what is being proposed.

What kind of work goes into building a wiki? Is the community building similar as with a forum? How would you promote a wiki?

Oh, and again, some great points there Fortius. Where did you moderate? Incidentally, I can tell you're someone with his fair share of net knowledge, so if you have a blog you'd like to do blogroll exchanges for, PM me and let me know.

Net tony, I also like your points about still making money from remote sites. What is it that makes you Adsense dollars with little updating?

The makers of wiki at wikipedia.com have some great software.

As far as making money on my inactive blog, I'm just making money through AdSense clicks and AdSense searches.

Originally Posted by Bookworm-SEO

Oh, and again, some great points there Fortius. Where did you moderate? Incidentally, I can tell you're someone with his fair share of net knowledge, so if you have a blog you'd like to do blogroll exchanges for, PM me and let me know.

Thanks BW-S ... I moderated the hardware/software sections of the Gamer.hr forums, the biggest gamming forums in Croatia. As for my blog, I'm unfortunately a perfectionist, and I like to think my projects through a tad bit too much. I am at the moment developing a niche blog that could prove interesting

Originally Posted by MyNet-Tony

The makers of wiki at wikipedia.com have some great software.

Agreed, MediaWiki is a powerfull piece of software... I would also suggest DokuWiki(it has nice features and is standard compliant as far as web standards go). A good wiki that I've come across is Wookieepedia...