Foundation How hard do you find it to build a target audience?

[Cedric]

Let’s talk about building a target audience—it can be tricky, right? For some, it clicks right away, while for others, it can take some time to figure out who you’re really connecting with.

Have you had any challenges finding your audience, or maybe growing it once you’ve got one? What’s worked for you, and what hasn’t?

I’d love to hear your experiences—feel free to share your thoughts and ideas below!

 

[Cory]

I closed down a Yu-Gi-Oh TCG board on two separate occasions because I couldn't find a targeted audience. It's tough to find a targeted audience for specific niches like that. You'd probably have to depend primarily on social media to find an audience since that's where most people go these days for such specific niches. My resource board's targeted audience is on the platform itself, so as long as I advertise my board on similar niches on the platform and keep on doing what I'm doing by building up my resource empire, people will follow.

 

[Bryn]

In late August, I launched a forum to do with social sciences, and that flopped miserably (especially when I don't think many people out there, or at least those I know, would know anything to do with them).

On the flip side though, I knew someone that ran a forum to do with a very obscure video game series called Keitai Denjuu Telefang and he managed to find moderate success with it.

 

[InMyOpinion]

Currently not too difficult because almost everyone uses ChatGPT or AI technology however if I had more of a niche forum than yes I would find it difficult to build a target audience. But seeing as though there are so many ChatGPT users I'm not scared that we won't have a big target audience.

 

[Bawse]

One of the most difficult challenges is building a target audience. If you have key incentives to appeal to those users, they'll come.

 

[2TonWaffle]

The challenge of the independent creator and gaming space is that many potential members are fully ingrained in places like Discord or social networks, that trying to bring them into a forum is pretty daunting.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

If you can do it, try to have a target audience before you even start your forum.

Finding your target audience is best done in the planning phase. This allows you to create a community based on their needs, wants, and pain points without trying to figure it out after you've launched and effectively giving yourself more work after you discover it.

 

[Nomad]

Many years ago, I was running a crypto niche forum. When I launched the forum, crypto was becoming very popular and it was being accepted by the traditional market. Therefore, I though I would easily grow it. But sadly it did not happen. I could not find target audience, therefore, I ended up creating a lot of posts myself and hiring paid writer for the forum.

 

[CTS]

I agree with everybody, but I am left with the question: What exactly is the granular definition of a target audience? I mean, every niche has an audience otherwise it wouldn't exist. I may have missed the point of the thread and responses, but I was thinking that finding your target audience was more like finding out how to get your name in front of their eyes where they may be looking.