Is posting on forums entirely useless because of the fact that the same view put onto 5 different forums gets seen as 5 entirely different views? Well that does suggest that the forum world is not a place for ordered discussion, for formal analysis etc. Which makes it all the more shocking that so much modern consumer behaviour analysis (being done by the same people who like to know what tv we watch) is focusing on the forum and blog universe. I myself see this part of the world wide web as very ripe for profit, for say 2 or 3 years, but absolutely not after that. Google has its own network growing now, of google groups, which will put order into this mess, and within 3 years most people will be having their conversations within that context and the web-based php-driven very badly programmed world of forums will vanish into non-traffic land - more domains with a generic directory and a paid ad, belonging to a webhost.

http://www.ukusers4u.com/blogs_messageboards_web.0.html

What are the profits of forums like? I have read statistics showing that the average revenue per 1000 page impressions on the mainstream market ranges from $1 to $5 depending on quality. Do forums tend to either end of the range? Or maybe they have a much higher rpm (revenue per 1000 impressions) than the mainstream $1 to $5 spectrum? Some sub-industries out here, certain ways of building and selling content, have considerably higher rpms than just $5

The article doesn't mention facebook and the huge barrage of messy information on facebook and maybe other sites like it, which are a good example of what the overall mass of all forums really is. Just lots of rants, flirts, bullying, general human relationships, using information sharing as a pretext rather than seeing it as the real point.

I suppose there is potential for compromise and if Google really does manage to bring order to the chaos of 'opinion' which is often not even legitimate or real opinion, then I expect forum owners everywhere will be 'brought in' and made rich, rather than wiping them out and taking their market.

That's probably what differentiates Google from people like Microsoft.

I hope there is very less demand for forums and blogs ...They are not in boom ...they are at saturation point ...

Need to get new concept right now

Forums commonly have a very low CTR, so if anyone wishes to make the max amount of money, they'd be best off going for CPM ads.

I haven't made too much off my forum right now (about $5 or so with adsense), but my main goal is not monetization ATM, it is community building and establishing great discussions and debates. I have a feeling other forums may feel the same way, and not make money a primary goal right off the bat.

I say forums will still exist and not go away anytime soon as long as their are dedicated posters and members who enjoy discussing topics there, and ideas continue to grow and develop.

Same goes for blogs and other communities. As long as the blogger loves to write and people still read the writings, they won't go away anytime soon.

I agree with your ethos, and I think the article is pointing the finger at the application not the ethos.

But if we, the IT developers, don't secure our position with lots of cash, then 100s of 1000s of desperate capitalists fleeing from the housing and banking crash will take our money and then screw up our market too. Look at Yahoo - pure capitalists with no technological longterm goals are trying to take yahoo away from inspired technological leadership and dump it in the hands of e-shipbreakers... all that can save yahoo is big money - like google's.

The social networks part of my title is probably where the biggest boom/bubble is. I think that video-social-networking is going to destroy things like facebook and it will start in one of two places - google's realm, or the realm of forums (forums are largely modular programming thingies, so adding new functionality to existing forums/fora is probably dead easy... video forums in a world with far more webcams, phonecams etc, will displace the silly social networking sites which aren't really very intelligent programming structures and offer nothing new which forums and blogs don't already offer)

It is unclear what will happen to social networks, but i agree that it is certain that the forums world will move on to the next level, whatever that is - google-centricity, video-messaging, or whatever.

I have been on newsgroups since I was 16, 16 years ago, and I obviously do believe in the ethos of the forums, newsgroups, etc - whatever they evolve into next. It is amazing that google's groups.google.com enables me to dig up stuff i posted 16 years ago! amazing, eh?

The theory about a blog/forum boom is based on the fact that currently lots of big companies are very interested in buying analysis of blogs/forums etc all over the web (even these posts we are writing are read by analysts in case they can sell our observations to big companies whose markets or products we discuss - i know first hand that car companies, oil companies and many others are already paying, particularly in the USA, to get consultant-produced analyses of big batches of forums and blogs).

That boom is what I think is the key subject in my mind - right now online consumer activity is a hotbed of moneymaking info and activity. And on top of that, in the UK 17% of all transactions are now internet-driven. So 'cgm' (consumer generated media) like blogs and forums and worst of all social networks are being given big priority by commercial organisations. They are making money in that sense, plus the owners, owing to rising traffic, no doubt more in the social networks than here, are also making a surge of money - and that is the boom I am saying I think well end in 3 years at most.