How Much Traffic To Website?

[Kevin90]

I have an idea for a niche community based website. The niche is within a specific sport that is played worldwide. The plan is to create a website that focuses on this niche and allows people to be part of a free community that shares the same interest. The plan is to provide products that solve problems associated with the niche.

I believe the website has the potential to generate a lot of traffic with the traffic being mostly active participants in the sport. As a result, online retailers would be wise to market directly to the traffic on my site in hopes to get them to their online store to order their products.

My question is: How much traffic is needed in order for the online retailers to be willing and have the desire to pay me to advertise on my site?

Is there a generic number or formula in the online advertising industry that makes it worth their while to advertise on a certain website?

This is all new to me, so I apologize for my unfamiliarity.

 

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[harerace]

Whew.

This is all new to me, so I apologize for my unfamiliarity.

I see. Well, you would setup a ad platform strictly for your site so potentials advertisers can setup their ads and you get paid. Since CTR is < 1% you will need a min of a few hundred thousand unique visitors a month to make it worth their wild. I suggest going with ad sense at first to get some money in your pocket to cover hosting costs.

Build a forum within 2 days at max. Launch it as quick as possible to see how it does. DO NOT SPEND MORE THEN 2 DAYS GETTING THE FORUM ONLINE. You need to test your idea as quick as possible. I can say its going to be a bitch getting users that play sports to your forum because SPORTS is mostly an outdoor activity. I don't think their going to be sitting at home much to use your site.

 

[codo3500]

Building a passionate and active userbase all stems from getting some highly knowledgable people active to begin with; generally this all starts with the owner of the forum. Forums are a LONG slog. You need to build up a critical mass of content before it becomes worthwhile for a visitor to stay on the site and sign up, and it takes engaging posts to make them even consider posting. What this means is, it's all the hardest at the start. It's a very hard thing to validate, and there is no easy way.

Google Adsense will be the best way, then allow for direct media buys down the track. How much they pay will depend heavily on the niche.

I know in some spaces you need 20k+ unique page visits a month to be worth anything at all, and this takes some time to get up to. Forums heavily rely on SEO, and this means getting heaps of content up, and to start with, it'll just be you making the content.

 

[funkj25]

Whew.



I see. Well, you would setup a ad platform strictly for your site so potentials advertisers can setup their ads and you get paid. Since CTR is < 1% you will need a min of a few hundred thousand unique visitors a month to make it worth their wild. I suggest going with ad sense at first to get some money in your pocket to cover hosting costs.

Build a forum within 2 days at max. Launch it as quick as possible to see how it does. DO NOT SPEND MORE THEN 2 DAYS GETTING THE FORUM ONLINE. You need to test your idea as quick as possible. I can say its going to be a bitch getting users that play sports to your forum because SPORTS is mostly an outdoor activity. I don't think their going to be sitting at home much to use your site.

I agree to some degree here especially with the launching aspect; get that puppy up and running.

However, I disagree that people won't spend time on a forum for sports. A great example of a sports forum that does well is beginnertriathlete.com. I do some mentoring on that forum so I know there's plenty of activity going on and triathlon is a pretty hours intensive sport.

 

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[codo3500]

People will contribute to forums for sport if it's the right sport. It seriously comes down to that - you'll get a lot more activity on a Golf Forum than a Table Tennis Forum.

 

[Kevin90]

Thank you all for the responses so far.

To clarify my idea, it is not a forum based community. It is more of me providing content to visitors and encouraging them to comment. Also, the website will allow visitors to upload their own pictures so they can comment using their own contribution. The goal is to get the visitors interacting with each other through a common interest.

Maybe community is not the correct word to use?

 

[Kevin90]

The niche does not have products specifically marketed to them that will benefit their interest (problem/need).

My goal is to provide products to them that will only encourage them to interact with the website even more so.

The sport is a very close knit community that creates almost a "brotherhood" bond among participants. This includes the local level as well as international level.

 

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