Forum Moderator Business Overview
As the internet continues to become a fantastic hub for social networking, it also becomes a viable location to build a business around this phenomenon. The benefits of starting an online business are numerous, and have been covered in several previous posts. In regards to the social aspects of the internet world, the most common is still the forum format.
These forums are locations that have increasing numbers, and because of the sheer volume, a website and forum owner finds themselves in need of moderators. This is the kind of a job that enables a person to work at their pace on their time. This provides a great opportunity for an online home business for you social types.
Forum moderators are often in demand, as many sites are growing rapidly with the surge of online jobs, businesses and other internet opportunities. Communities are built around a forum, so the forum needs to remain a source of valuable conversational and informational exchange.
Moderators assure this by eliminating any non-productive conversations, limiting or eliminating any form of negativity between members, keeping out the spammers and promoting a comfortable virtual atmosphere where people freely exchange ideas specific to the goals of the forum.
This keeps the forum running smoothly, and enables the members to speak freely while knowing what they speak about is in tune with the goals of everyone on the site.
Increasing membership is also an aspect many forums expect from a good moderator. This is easily done by simply being a part of the venue daily, and watching for the more valuable threads, which should be bookmarked. This simply means to sign up with a social bookmarking site, like Stumble or Digg, and select the thread. Once it is up on the screen, the moderator, you, would submit the link to the social bookmarking site.
This will enable people to see what a great forum you are working for, and they will stop in and bring their expertise and experiences with them. There are many other simple ways to promote a forum, that the members themselves will do when there are active and quality moderators on the site. Word of mouth, even online, is the most powerful for of all promotion.
Spam is also a major issue in these forums. At times, people will sign up simply to advertise and bring no value to the site or the forum. After logging in on a daily basis, it will be evident, which posts these are, and how quickly they need to be deleted. To keep them out of view of the active members, a good moderator is going to be watchful of these in every part of the forum. If at all possible, it is also important to remove the spamming members to avoid encouraging them to further diminish the forum and the value it holds for the members.
Getting Started
With the variety of sites online, there is an incredible array of potential venues for forum moderators. This makes the position of forum moderator ideal for a home business.
To find clients, first and foremost, visit forums that you'd have an interest in. You don't to moderate a forum on fly fishing if you're not interested in fishing at all. So check out forums on subjects that interest you. You can find a ton of forums simply by doing a Google search for "forums" or specific subject matter.
The forum owner will often post an ad or comment asking for a moderator. You can then reply to the thread or send the owner an email, outlining your services, schedule availablility and fees. Don't forget that you can't moderate a forum 24/7. You'll have to set a schedule. Because of this limitation, you can optimally only moderate one or two forums at a time.
Setting Your Fee
Now setting your fee can be a bit tricky. You may want to do some research, but I think a good rule of thumb would be to charge a daily, rather than an hourly ratel. Small and home business owners, who make up most of the forum owners, are a little leary of hourly rates... If you can manage to moderate 3 or 4 forums (which you can do with a high-speed internet connection and good computer), then you can bid a little less for the job and get a step up on your competition.
You could reasonably charge $50 a day, for an 8 hour shift. This doesn't sound like much, I know, but you're just watching people post comments online. If you moderate 4 or 5 forums, then you can easily make $200 to $250 a day.
Once you start building a reputation and your business, you could add additional equipment -another computer- and perhaps hire a part-time employee and increase the number of forums you moderate.
Final Word
A home forum moderator business not only gives you the freedom to work at home doing something you enjoy, but will also open doors to other opportunities for similar services. Once your established in a few forums, and once you build your reputation, you'll soon find that all kinds of different income sources open themselves up before you.
So, if you enjoy hanging out in forums, chatting and socializing online, then perhaps a home forum moderator service business is just the type of business for you.
That's it for todays home business idea. Hope it gave you some great ideas. And don't forget.... have fun.
Until tomorrow,
Terry
