Was wondering if anyone owns or has heard of how profitable this genre can be?

I am planning to start some Niche MMORPG forums soon, building up one at a time. If all goes well they will reach 10-30k members(of course thats what we all want, but for the sake of discussion)...

So a forum of this size no matter what niche will make some cash from adsense/ypn but what about other options in the MMORPG genre? Are there some good CPA programs you can promote to this crowd. Maybe competing MMORPGs would want to setup private banner deals, or even CPA for account creation, etc?

In general, how profitable would you say they are(mmorpgers).

PS - I just spent 79 dollars on domains, so I guess I'm already quite invested in this plan I have. (Well thats a heavy investment for me, at this early stage)

Approach gamegold selling sites (i can put you through to a few people if needed) and sort out some affiliate deals with them (or advertising). Also, the majority of mmorpg players will be in their mid teens. Things like free ipod offers will be very attractive to them.

great ideas. do major gold sellers have affiliate programs? or comission?

If not, I wonder if some of the smaller competitors do...would be alot more attractive for me to sell the gold of a company that would give me a small cut.

The gaming forum market is well saturated. Advertising doesn't pay well in this area (comparatively), though that could improve in the future.

The reason that this area is so saturated is because the online gaming niche has been around for a long time (in relative terms), and they are a group of people that naturally forms communities online due to their gaming and their extensive computer knowledge. Forums are a standard for them and have been for quite some time. Then again, there are always new gamers, so if you could snag some of that traffic, you may have better luck.

Not to mention that often major games have manufacturer-sponsored forums.

If you intend to succeed in this area, you need to do what the successful sites are already doing (because what they have done has worked well), but you have to do it BETTER, BIGGER, and FASTER. That's the name of the game if you want to win in an established market you just have to be better - a lot better. People need a really good reason to the leave the site/sites where they have been a member for a long time.

Hope that help,

Laura

Oh, and I am not trying to be a downer - I just try to be realistic since I have experience in this area.

Laura

Originally Posted by NBF

Oh, and I am not trying to be a downer - I just try to be realistic since I have experience in this area.

Laura

Thanks for the advice laura.

I know exactly what you mean and thats the exact response I would have to someone posting a thread stating simply: "I am planning to create a gaming forum!"

There are 10,000 gaming forums out there, and only a handful that are successful.

However, that being said, I still think I have a good forumla and plan on how to succeed in this genre. I also have about 4 years of experience in the MMORPG forums arena and have been quite successful. I will be focusing more specifically on classes within games(niche). See necrotalk in my sig.

That is a forum i created 3 or 4 years ago, and its still going strong despite the fact that the game is no longer considered "cool" by the mmorpg community.

I plan to take this model, improve upon it even more, and knock some of the other class forums out of the water one at a time.

I know i have the ideas, talent, and ability to do it. Hopefully I have the time, and its worth my time(profitable). We'll see, I plan to spend the next few months developing my first forum in this new concept.

To sum up what I'm trying to say: I think I can beat out the competition for each niche if I work hard and am able to implement my unique ideas.

As for the games that have their own company boards, which pretty much all MMOs do - Ive heard this response many times when I discuss my idea with close friends. What most dont understand is this: there are always room for more specific, unique, custom, and simply NON-company run forums. Ive discussed this before in previous posts. Those boards are usually lacking functionality, a real "homey" custom feel, and a strong community. For example, sure everquest has a sub forum called Necromancer forum. But that is ALOT different than a whole community/forum devoted entirely to necromancers. With just necros hanging out discussing necromancy and the game, in an environment that is specifically tailored to them in many ways. Those who say: "Well, everquest already has their own company boards, making your own seperate board makes no sense." are either naive, inexperienced with the concept, or are not too familiar with forum communities and how they work.

Originally Posted by malcolmlo

That is a forum i created 3 or 4 years ago, and its still going strong despite the fact that the game is no longer considered "cool" by the mmorpg community.

See, I think that's where we differ - for 3 or 4 years of work, the member count and post count are low. But again - our definition of "going strong" is just different, that's all.

Originally Posted by malcolmlo

To sum up what I'm trying to say: I think I can beat out the competition for each niche if I work hard and am able to implement my unique ideas.

I say more power to you! Improvement is always a good thing.

Originally Posted by malcolmlo

As for the games that have their own company boards, which pretty much all MMOs do - Ive heard this response many times when I discuss my idea with close friends. What most dont understand is this: there are always room for more specific, unique, custom, and simply NON-company run forums. Ive discussed this before in previous posts. Those boards are usually lacking functionality, a real "homey" custom feel, and a strong community. For example, sure everquest has a sub forum called Necromancer forum. But that is ALOT different than a whole community/forum devoted entirely to necromancers. With just necros hanging out discussing necromancy and the game, in an environment that is specifically tailored to them in many ways. Those who say: "Well, everquest already has their own company boards, making your own seperate board makes no sense." are either naive, inexperienced with the concept, or are not too familiar with forum communities and how they work.

Well of course, there are also LOTS of private boards for current and previous games - those are in addition to the official sites.

My point was really that there isn't really a *need* for more sites. Do you think that you are the first person to think this about current gaming sites? Of the millions of gamers online, I am sure it has been done many times before.

Let me be clear, I am NOT saying you shouldn't do it, but the chance for success is slim compared to other options within the gaming niche. If this is your passion, go for it. If you want to be paid for the time you will be putting in to make it the best, I would find a different angle.

You asked about profitability and I am speaking to that - game-specific forums are not a big money maker - both on time and revenue (this is even more true with general gaming forums). If it were me, I would create a content site for the game/niche, and then if you can get traffic up, add a forum. It would be far more natural and far less work this way.

Laura

Originally Posted by Slevin

Approach gamegold selling sites (i can put you through to a few people if needed) and sort out some affiliate deals with them (or advertising). Also, the majority of mmorpg players will be in their mid teens. Things like free ipod offers will be very attractive to them.

Considering the average gamer is in there 30s.... That is false about the majority in there mid teens. Who do you think keeps the gold selling sites going, surely not the kids.

I'd agree with Laura.

Gaming people aren't really into spending money online - most are teens anyway. If you are interested in online gaming, having a content site with a blog and reviews might be better than just a forum. Just remember that you'll need to work hard for months before you see anything.

Originally Posted by A.N.Onym

I'd agree with Laura.

Gaming people aren't really into spending money online - most are teens anyway. If you are interested in online gaming, having a content site with a blog and reviews might be better than just a forum. Just remember that you'll need to work hard for months before you see anything.

I agree that content will be the way to go. However, I was planning on writing my own content in the form of varioius types of guides and either posting them on the forums directly or in some basic html pages in a guide section of the site. I still, however, want the focus of the site to be a forum. Like Necrotalk. It worked so well for necrotalk, i cant see how it wouldnt be successful for similar games if i worked hard at it.

To be honest I didnt put very much into necrotalk. At the time it was completely for necessity and hobby and the idea of monetization hadnt really even entered my mind. I posted a few guides some i wrote myself and some i credited to other authors. Promoted the site, and eventually it grew on its own and the member base built up quite a bit of usefull guides and information related to the class. Now necrotalk is ranked #1 for "everquest necromancer" in google, and 9th in google overall for "necromancer". This is with 0 SEO, and no work on link exchanging.

So im thinking with an awesome design, new features/custom mods and hacks I have thought of that relate to the game, good content, some time spent on SEO and some time spent getting link exchanges I could beat out the one or two competitors already out there for my specific niche. Then rinse and repeat. It would be a ton of work, but well worth it if I were able to keep up with it.

Originally Posted by Hex

Considering the average gamer is in there 30s.... That is false about the majority in there mid teens. Who do you think keeps the gold selling sites going, surely not the kids.

Not sure if I could see the average for mmorpgers in their 30s. I'm guessing the size of the teen group and the size of the "30s" group are close in size, which would mean the average were in either the low to high 20s depending on if the 30s or the teens are slightly bigger.

However, I think you are right that the 30s group is large and is more likely and willing to spend money(because they have it). That being said, there will be some who spend money and hopefully some who click. The combo could mean, if the sites get big enough $$.