Growth How Do You Measure the Success of Your Forum (1 Viewer)

[Nomad]

As a forum owner, it is very likely that you want to own a successful forum. But how do you determine the success? Well, it is very important to track the right indicators. Here are a few things that I track to evaluate a forum's success:

User Base: A successful forum means a large user base. Imaging a forum with tens of thousands users. Having more users means you are likely to have engaged user base for sustainable growth.

Activity Levels: Simply having many users isn't enough, your users also need consistent activity and participation within the community. In other words, a forum with thousands of users should be getting hundreds of posts every day.

Traffic: A lot of traffic on your forum also determines your success. registered users are your primary source of traffic but you should also be getting traffic from elsewhere, for instance social media and search engines. More traffic means better exposure and more interaction within your forum.

Revenue: While some may overlook it, I see revenue generation as a key metric for success. A forum without a profitable revenue model might struggle to run for a long time.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I look at the number of members I have and activity levels. I know everyone looks at their community in a different way. If you have at least one other person logging in and replying to threads, I think you're doing something right.

 

[Bawse]

Daily activity and longevity is how I some up the success for forums. If a forum is highly active, and is well-established I consider those successful communities.

 

[InMyOpinion]

I personally measure it by how many conversations/users log onto the forum on a daily basis, currently my forum just got released to the public so I'm not expecting a lot of activity or new sign-ups. Because it's pretty niche I know it'll be a while before it gains traction and becomes more known/active.

However, once the forum is active and there are a lot of members returning daily I would probably measure my success by how many times regular members post.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think success is when you login and see activity on the content you have created.

If you login to your forum and there aren't any replies, but you have real members, then your tactics are not working. If you login and some of the topics have replies, then focus on the topics that are getting replies and create more like those, instead of ones that get no response.

Success is when you have a community.

A forum isn't a community, it's a platform. A community is what is created within a forum when likeminded members keep coming back to discussion topics with their friends.

 

[Cpvr]

I look at the number of members I have and activity levels. I know everyone looks at their community in a different way. If you have at least one other person logging in and replying to threads, I think you're doing something right.

This. I also consider a forum to be successful if it's managed to survive and outlast other forums in its niche, whether there were closed down by their other owners, sold, or just flat out closed down for any other reasons.

The success determination of one forum isn't the same for all owners. Whether it's thousands of members, thousands of posts, or generating income. To me, building a community from the ground up and watering it to be a good place to hang out is a successful one to me. As long as someone says "This community is a nice place to be". I know that the community is/was success. We did our job as a community owner and that is something that'll last forever.

Our goal is always building an everlasting community that'll be a platform for those to enjoy, kick back and connect with everyone. That's a success to me.

Activity levels come and go, but the love for our communities will always remain strong.