Evolution of a Niche

July 2nd, 2006 by Chris

In 2003 when I started this site I noticed a distinct lack of websites catering to website publishers. This was pre-Adsense, advertising rates were just starting to climb back up from their lows, and the industry wasn’t nearly as widely publicized as it is now.

However things changed. Now you’re always seeing stores in the mainstream press about independent publishers making money online, and of course there are the big stories about operations starting very small and making it huge and being bought for obscene amounts of money (see MySpace).

The result of all this extra attention is that I am not the only one in this niche anymore, the me-toos have come. In the last few weeks no less than 4 forums have been launched competing with this site. The owners of two of these forums are throwing large amounts of money, and if you ask me some pretty wild claims, around trying to entice people to join.

Another interesting tidbit of information, a couple months ago Developer’s Shed offered to buy this site. So they too must see this as a niche worth exploring.

The growth of these new forums has been phenomenal, money certainly acts as a nice carrot. So why don’t I follow suite and bribe people to come invigorate my forum?

Well, I don’t think that bribing is necessarily the best method of enticing people to a business forum. If your goal with a business forum is to attract successful business people then you’re really not striving towards that goal by offering prizes that are most attractive to the least successful. Lets face it, people who are capable of making their own money do not need yours.

I also think that rapid growth, especially in a new forum, isn’t necessarily a good thing. I feel that forums have personalities, like people. Also like people I feel that it is the early life of a forum that shapes it’s personality. If the early life of your forum is a bunch of juvenile space rangers who walk around with rulers dropping their pants erm… opening their checkbooks at a moment’s notice to measure who is the winner of some inane contest. Well, I think that is going to permanently shape the atmosphere and personality of your forum.

Website Publisher has never been a meant as a very profitable enterprise. I like to make money off it sure, but I don’t need to. I created it because I needed a place to dump a bunch of content I had already written for a book that was not going to be published. I hope that one day it is successful and I can see off my other sites (for millions of course) and just have this one, but for the time being I am fine with letting it grow slowly, and hoping that that slow growth will be a more solid foundation for the future.

I do like the people (mostly) who are now competing with me, and I’m not ashamed to say I’m threatened by their new sites. Any competitor can be a threat, especially if they are putting so many resources into competing with you.
So, they have inspired me in a way to fight back and defend my niche, but I won’t be using the same weapons they use. I will not be hosting a contest with this site, although I do think contests can work for some sites, just not when you’re trying to attract a certain type of person who is the least likely type to join your contest. I’ll also not be offering any guarantees about people who read my material here making X amount per month, the only guarantee I can offer is that you won’t make anything if you don’t work hard at it.

Rather, what I plan on doing is just to write more content, specifically revamp my guide and add some new in depth parts to it. Basically I plan on writing the book I was supposed to write for SitePoint and publish it here instead. No marketing hype, no bold claims, just down to earth practical content that I try to make as useful as possible.

If in the end these other forums blow past me in readership, and with the bribes being offered they probably well, I won’t mind. The beautiful thing about the Internet is that you do not need to be #1 to be successful. There is plenty of money in #2, and if I have to content myself with 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th) place I will be glad, so long as I maintain the type of community I want to run.

So I post this to my members, to let them know that despite competition I do not plan to change the atmosphere of this site.

To Jon and Lee and Tyler and the other people, I wish you good luck.

10 Responses to “Evolution of a Niche”

  1. Andrew Johnson  Says:

    I’m a member of a lot of forums and this one hands down is my favorite community to be a part of.

    I think the biggest mistake a forum owner can make is trying to be the same as another forum. I believe both Jon and Lee are doing things different enough to appeal another segment of an already niche audience.

  2. Alan  Says:

    I’m very glad to hear that you won’t be following the herd on these issues Chris. I’ve gotten more information and knowledge from WSP forums since I joined here than anywhere else online and the “family” appeal of it still brings me back every day.

    The battle of the web publishing “gurus” has begun but I know where I’ll be spending my forum time for now.

  3. Paul  Says:

    Thank you. I didn’t enjoy the boys locker room 45 years ago and try not to visit places which remind me of it. It’s nice to visit a site where the posters are capable of developing content themselves.

  4. John  Says:

    I was wondering if you’d eventually post here about all of the other forums popping up lately with their post count contests that encourage pages and pages of pointless filler posts.

    As far as I’m concerned Websitepublisher.net is the best site for independent web publishers and always will be. This site is what got me started making money from websites. Now after two years of hard work I’m working from home full-time doing something that I love. Thanks Chris and everyone else here who’s given me support, motivation, and advice over the last two years!

    What I believe makes this site so great is that Chris realizes we’re not interested in him throwing his money around, we’re interested in him throwing his knowledge around. If you ever do consider a contest think about giving away some one-on-one consulting time as a prize. The kind of people you want posting here will realize that this is worth much more in the long run that a few thousand in prize money.

  5. James  Says:

    My favorite site for this type of content. Keep up the good work.

  6. Peach  Says:

    And keep us posted about how the book is going!

    I’m glad it’s not being sold through sitepoint, I like the of keeping the trade secrets to a smaller group like WP frequenters

  7. Tyler Cruz  Says:

    I just wanted to comment that I’m not offering any contests on mine to entice posters.

    Just wanted to clear that up as it may have been inadvertantly connected with me.

  8. Jon  Says:

    Chris – I originally wrote a comment here on this post, but as you know, I like to write, and it’s pretty big.

    I also addressed Lee’s forum, Tyler’s upcoming forum, and of course, yours. This is more of a personal letter to all of you about our new forums and how we differ. I’m not looking for a fight or competitors.

    Anyhow check out the thread here, and comment back or email me back on what you think of it.

    http://www.wickedfire.com/showthread.php?p=13457

  9. Chris  Says:

    Well Jon you know there is no character limit to comments.

    But we’re still competing, even if the sites are not exactly the same, we’re all aiming for the same audience. Which is people who make money through the ownership of websites. This audience is not infinite and so we are all competing for a finite resource. I think that is the textbook definition of competition.

    And while I’m flattered with your mentorship offer, I really do not have time to contribute at other forums. Plus it would only serve to hurt the growth of this forum as people wouldn’t necessarily need to come here for my advice.

  10. Ken Barbalace  Says:

    The thing I like about this site and forums is the quality of the articles and forum members. I participate in many forums, and even though these forums aren’t the most active, I think that they provide the most valuable information. I’m only sad it took me so long to start using this site.

Leave a Response








(Email field must be filled in)

Top of page...