Considering a merge and after advice

Zakalwe

Zakalwe

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Three weeks ago I started my first new forum in about six or seven years. It's only been three weeks and it's gained just shy of 500 posts. None of those posts are organic. They're a result of post exchanges and a couple of sock puppets. I like the site, I like the look but it's for a game which doesn't launch until sometime in 2021. No release date known and the news is drip fed very slowly so content is difficult to generate at this time.

I know that closer to release activity will improve but I do not know when that will be and currently I'm languishing in no-mans-land with a site not getting a lot of attention despite it looking really good and despite a bit of promotion on my behalf.

One week ago I started another forum. It's also a games forum but covers a wider niche. In a week it's gained 350 posts, many of which are organic from people who have found us and connected with us on social media.

Now I have a crisis. Should I keep site one as a separate entity knowing that it will be a difficult slog but perhaps rewarding in the end when game launches. Or merge them together into the more recent forum which is getting activity and has folk interested. I am moving more towards a merger but wanted to just have the opinion of more experienced admins.

There are no users on the other site which will miss it. There's only really me who still visits. I just feel it could be big next year and don't want to regret merging them when the game hits. Thoughts please?
 
Financially, can you support and maintain the 2 sites?

Maybe just a shift in focus for the time being to the new and more active site is in order, and revisit the unreleased game site as news becomes available to keep those updates regular?
 
Yes financially I’m strong. Not ‘money is no object’ strong but I have enough cash to not worry - and splurge on stuff which takes my fancy.
I ran two forums of a similar nature to forum one previously which I sold for decent cash when the game launched. This is one of them which sold for $3000: https://flippa.com/63103-left-4-dea...n9Kw.1&utm_referrer=https://www.google.co.uk/

The other was dead-island.com which I sold for $2500.

At the time I didn’t have the money to run a big forum or the expertise to monetise successfullly or perhaps I’d be doing this as a full time job!

My intention was always to do the same with forum one but I’m loving being an admin again and if something grows huge I can take a financial hit to keep it going.
 
Zakalwe said:
Yes financially I’m strong. Not ‘money is no object’ strong but I have enough cash to not worry - and splurge on stuff which takes my fancy.
...

My intention was always to do the same with forum one but I’m loving being an admin again and if something grows huge I can take a financial hit to keep it going.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you've just answered your question ;)
 
If the game becomes very popular in the future, your forum can be very popular especially as it is most likely the first one to start and will have a headstart on any others. It may be hard especially as the game is a while away from launching but I would not merge it. Maybe introduce a few more general gaming sections to try and entice some discussions until the game launches?
 
If you're going to merge, encourage your base to join the one for the dedicated niche. Gaming forums start off strong when they have a beginning; but, people quickly lose interest or move on to another community that offers them something that yours cannot. By building on a niche, in this case an individual game, you have the benefit of having one of the better domains early on and can get a good, core community established. You could branch it out or expand as you see fit whilst keeping the core of the community revolving around the game. This way you could possibly kill two birds with one stone - you get members and you increase the chance of encouraging others to check into the game.

This popularity could lead to the developers taking note and giving you 'gift' copies of the game to hand out as possible enticement for people to participate and contribute.

Just my two cents though.
 
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