Ali Allage (SPT)

I get a ton of PM’s (private messages) on the forums and even emails from people asking how they could start their own community forum.    My response back is usually asking what the forum is for (subject/theme).  95% of the time it’s a vague answer.  What they are mostly interested in is the income potential, which really doesn’t surprise me.

Why am I not surprised?  Well mainly because I had four popular community forums and I recently sold them off.  Why did I do it?  Simple answer: I needed change.  Money wasn’t everything and to me there was more to life then being stuck with something you are not passionate about anymore. To me passion is what makes you successful in life.

Notice how I didn’t mention money?  Money is great, don’t get me wrong but I think the way online community forums are being looked are more money machines then passion for what you love.  You can see that with some of the forums that are out there currently.  More people are spending the time to create the forum,  trying to get traffic, and eventually bailing out because they are not making the money they want (also not realizing the amount of work that it takes to keep one running).  It’s a shame really.  Why can’t people just build forums they are passionate about.  There’s nothing wrong with making money, but don’t let it be your only motivation.

I know some will call me a hypocrite but I guess starting from scratch again has really opened my eyes a bit.  I now realize that once you build something to put on the net you have a responsibility to make it good and keep it good for as long as you are running it (commit to it), otherwise it’s a waste of everyones time.  The only way to make a site good is to actually love the subject/theme you are working with.  Your industry will appreciate it and so will your users.

Thanks for reading my rant!!