BabeofBusiness.com

This week I have the pleasure of introducing a start-up that sings to the tune of my heart: it’s an online community, it’s for women and it’s run by a gifted entrepreneur. And this entrepreneur is no stranger to online communities. Let’s hear from Martin Reed on his start-up, Female Forum.

Please tell us about Female Forum. What inspired you to start this online community?

MR: Put simply, Female Forum is an online community for women. Online communities are my passion and my largest venture, Just Chat is maturing. This prompted me to look into starting a new project with a large scope and ambitious aims. I wanted to start a community that would meet the wants and needs of a demographic that isn’t currently satisfied with what was currently out there.

One weekend I visited my parents and was speaking to my mother who doesn’t use the Internet all that much. I asked her if she uses any of the large Web sites targeted towards women. She told me she had taken a look at iVillage but found it too confusing. She didn’t bother looking for alternatives – she just presumed that all online communities were this complicated.

When I went home I decided to do some research into online communities for women. My mother was right about iVillage – the site has great content but the way it is presented is a little overwhelming. When I looked for alternatives, I found poorly designed sites, sites with community features that were not well integrated and sites with poor quality content. From this point on, I decided to fill the gap that I felt existed, by setting up my own online community for women that would have a focus on quality and ease of use.

From the outset, my aim was to concentrate on usability and quality. The site had to be easy to use – I wasn’t trying to attract only Web-savvy women to the site; I also wanted to attract those that didn’t normally get involved in online communities.

Female Forum contains original, quality articles that cover a wide range of women’s issues and there is a strong community integration. Visitors see article content alongside community features. Members that post in the forum will see the title of their post hit both the front page of the site, and the relevant category page. This results in members being more directly involved in the site and its community as a whole. Additionally, visitors can see just how seriously we take the community aspect of the site.

I think the mission statement of Female Forum sums up the site pretty well, ‘Our mission is simple – to be the most comprehensive and intuitive online community for women’.

What types of women frequent the forum? College-age, mature?

MR: Female Forum officially launched on September 4, 2008; therefore it is probably too early to give a real indication of the core demographic that is attracted to our site. We currently have 177 members and 2,837 forum posts though and the pattern that is forming suggests that we are attracting members from a huge range of backgrounds. This was precisely my aim – whether you are 16 or 60, Female Forum should provide value.

We have members from all over the world; at this time they are predominantly from Canada, the USA and the UK. In terms of age ranges, we have 19-year-old members and 50-year-old members and many in-betweens. We have stay-at-home mothers, working professionals and college students. It’s a fantastic mix and gives real vitality and diversity to the community.

How do you market a community of this nature?

MR: Good marketing starts at home. Before advertising and promoting the site, it was important to get everything right inside the community. I needed to ensure that I had great content before I even launched the site so I published a good number of articles in advance. I also recruited a few members from other sites I run to get involved in the forums to ensure there was content prior to launch there, too.

I was able to leverage the traffic of my existing Web sites such as Just Chat, Soap Forum and Community Spark to provide an ongoing trickle of traffic. More important though, was keeping hold of members once they registered and encouraging them to get involved. Online communities live and die by their members. System generated ‘Welcome’ emails encourage new members to introduce themselves and I include a link so that when members click it they are taken directly to the page for composing a new thread in the introductions forum.

I also personally welcome every new member by Private Message as well as by replying to any introduction thread they start. I run quirky competitions to raise interest in the community and develop a personality for the site. Last month we gave away a tea making penguin. This month, we are giving away a sushi watch!

I am currently advertising the site using Facebook ads. The beauty of their system is that you can really drill down and specifically target the exact audience you are after. I have also set up a Facebook Page for the site and plan on using this to further spread awareness of Female Forum.

Every now and then I will rewrite an article and submit it to Article Marketer to pick up some backlinks to the site. Elsewhere, I market the site by undertaking interviews such as this one (thank you again for the opportunity), submitting the site to directories and search engines and dropping the site name and URL whenever I get the chance. Every day I wake up and figure out how to get at least one new link pointed to the site.

What is your business model? How do you make money?

MR: At present, Female Forum does not generate any revenue. There are two schools of thought when it comes to publishing advertising on new Web sites: serve ads from day one or wait until you have traffic and an established presence. Proponents of the first strategy argue that by having ads from the start, visitors and members won’t be frustrated if you choose to implement them in the future. I understand this argument but disagree with the strategy.

Every click on an ad is a visitor leaving your Web site. When your site is new it is especially important for you to keep visitors on your Web site for as long as possible. Female Forum does not currently serve ads, but it will in the future. As long as you are sensible, introducing ads on a Web site that has previously had none shouldn’t be a problem.

When the site is ready, I plan on monetizing it in a number of ways; advertorial articles, sponsored forum categories and traditional display ads and affiliate links are all possibilities.

Is this your first start-up venture? What other businesses (communities) have you been involved with?

MW: Good question. Female Forum isn’t my first online community. I developed Just Chat in 2000, however that site sprang from a hobby – I got my first computer and connected to the Internet in 1999 and was just tinkering around. I also own Soap Forum, however I purchased that as a dead community in early 2006 and have turned it into a popular destination for UK soap lovers.

Female Forum is the first online community I have started from scratch with the specific aim of developing into a successful (and eventually profitable) website.

I also spend time writing articles for my blog Community Spark, where I share tips and advice on how to build successful online communities. This has been running since March 2007 and has a great community of readers who get involved through the comment form – people often forget that a blog can be an online community, too: it isn’t all about forums.

Where do you see the future heading for online communities? What does the future hold for you?

MW: Human beings are social creatures – they will always want to socialize and so there will always be online communities. I think online communities will become far more niche-oriented in the future as people start to lose interest in the ‘one size fits all’ communities such as MySpace and Facebook. That’s not to say these sites will fail – they will continue to be popular as a way of keeping in touch with existing friends - but when it comes to discussing specific interests or bringing people of similar backgrounds together, niche communities will come into their own. In this respect, any community can exist alongside the ‘giants’ and be a success in its own right.

As for me, my time is devoted to my existing online communities, particularly Female Forum. I can’t see myself taking on a new project for a while yet – but never say never!

What advice can you offer others looking to start their own businesses?

MW: Have specific goals and know how you are going to achieve them. Do your research. Write down a mission statement to clarify your thoughts and if you are looking to build a business online, consider working on it part time whilst you keep your paid employment – the best of both worlds, and you won’t run into financial difficulties if your online venture doesn’t work out.

Oh, and make sure you read my blog if you want to develop successful online communities!

You can be sure we will, Martin! Keep up the awesome work in this great social space…

Tags: Community Spark, Female Forum, forum, iVillage, Just Chat, Martin Reed, online communities, Soap Forum