What is a good niche internet forum?

I operated one of the first Ultimate Bulletin Board sites for computer topics. UBB is the precursor for vBulletin and phpBB. It pioneered the now-common design of flat threads for interest-specific communities. I was a contracted installer of UBB for many of the earliest web-based forums. Why did I stop running that forum? I lost my domain name. :( I plan to buy it back. It's currently on the market for about $25,000. You would need to seed the forum with high quality content to attract the right community. You would setup vBulletin and start posting unique information as threads. Your new forum will be dead for a long time. Eventually, someone will find your information valuable and post about it. Online games have very active forums because the user community needs to communicate outside the game. They already have the audience and that audience naturally finds itself on the forums. I personally participate in many car forums. Forums require critical mass and thrive on longtail SEO. A query like "Replace e36 radiator" will probably bring me to a Bimmerforums post. The key to success for car forums is DIY repair information. I drive a high mileage BMW M3 convertible, which is a fun car that has common design flaws when miles start to accumulate.  Bimmerforums hosts a huge amount of repair information for every BMW. They even have a dedicated subforum just for owners of convertibles of my chassis generation, which is an e36. Renntech is the same for Porsche. EliseTalk is for Lotus drivers. Since my next car is a Lotus, I spend some time there. FerrariChat is for Ferrari drivers. M3forum.net is for BMW M3 drivers like me. It tends to be more social and events oriented. e46Fanatics is for BMW drivers model year 2000 or newer (e46 is chassis code for BMW 3-series from model year 2000).  Notice that BMW forums are highly specialized. Even though Bimmerforums has forums for newer BMWs, e46fanatics tends to be a better source for that. There are even more BMW forums out there. Do the forum members want to talk about how great the cars are? Sure. What attracted them there in the first place? Repair information, followed by local events, and finally ability to purchase some parts in high demand as a group at a discount. I bought from a group buy on Bimmerforums: aluminum radiator, silicone radiator hoses, HID headlights, and from classifieds some interior parts. Group buys are setup by forum sponsors who pay for the privilege of being able to market to us. I spent over $1000 on group buy deals. Notice that the website names are far from ideal. There should be a BMWForum.com, right? Indeed there is, but it redirects to BimmerWerkz, which is not the best possible name. You need either a pent-up demand from existing audience or a lot of quality content that will establish your forum as the source for relevant information. As a business model, this is a lot of work by the community manager. You can only have so many sponsors. Premium accounts for users are not in high demand. Translation: you will likely not make as much money as you think. I am a member at a premium forum ModelMayhem and even there members rarely pay for VIP or Premium memberships. I have special status on that site, so I have a free VIP package. I would not pay for it today. Good luck. :)

If you are looking for an exit, or to maximize asset value, an auto forum is the way to go. Pick a make and maybe a model. Go from there. Consider the longevity of the make and model. Consider the enthusiast nature of the make and model. Is it a car that enthusiasts will buy used? Modify? Buy aftermarket parts for? Porsche Cayman example: http://www.planet-9.com/forums/ Acura NSX example: http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/forum.php Mazda roadster example: http://mazdaroadster.net/forum.php BMW example: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/ But… if you aren't a car person (gear head) you will have trouble maintaining interest. You should go with something you are enthusiastic about. Fishing? Legos? Cycling? Gardening? Of you want to make money, think in terms of the potential pool of advertising sponsors or think in terms of potential google adsense revenue.

I'm not sure of what will click, but personally I'd like a forum with people who are interested to share "the next big thing" in technology or lifestyle and so on.. People need to have an Identity so they don't write frivolous comments and answers. Quora differentiates itself from Yahoo answers because of that 'identity' people create and maintain with their answers. So "the next big thing" could come from geeks or fashionistas, even wedding planners/tour guides and the premise of their arguments will form a large part of the answers. TLike what's going to trend in Tourism ?..and stuff like that. This answer is out of the blue :|

Maybe consider starting an Internet activist forum. You can also start a forum for web aficionados who are interested in finding new services, etc.

You should genuinely check out http://www.buxoff.com/c/ Niche Forum for E-commerce, the first of its kind, http://Bimmerforums.com BMw Forums Then their is Ubuntu Forums http://ubuntuforum.org http://warriorforum.org Online marketing forum Etc Etc, Their are almost every vertical forums existing online.