Which would you start: a Blog or Online Community?

[Kevin Lee]

Hi Everyone,

I'm interested in experimenting with a new business opportunity by starting up either a tennis blog or online forum community, but I can't decide between the two. I know that Blogs have a higher ad click through potential, but I'm worried that those I play tennis with wouldn't necessarily want to hear stories or accounts of how I or someone else beat them in a match. At the end of the day, I feel that a tennis Blog would be more profitable and easier to start, while an online tennis forum community would be more fun to use with my friends.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[negotiations]

It is a difficult decision to make.

Lets start it this way - What are you more interested in? Money? or Friends? or Both?

If its purely Money, then Blog might be an appropriate answer. But consider this - It will be people (visitors) that will bring traffic to your blog and then Money will follow. This will be possible after a time and during this time it will be your friends who will be the starters.

If you are looking for friends only, then its true that not many will be interested in knowing how you have beaten them in the game or the other way round. So it will be preferable to have a Forum where they can share ideas with you and others.

But you can share your insider knowledge with them and invite comments from your Blog. You can also put up information on what others (including your friends) don't know about Tennis. The blog you create can provide News, Inside Information and also Techniques that can be used by the new entrants in the world of Tennis.

[beautyfan]

But tennis blog you may not have much completion, than an online forum community


http://www.awakies.com

[litekepr]

Why not start a blog and authorize various friends to be guest bloggers? THat would give you a wider variety of content which would appeal to more people. Of course, you can always just allow anyone to post comments to your blog posts, but guest bloggers can add a great new dimension. Or, you can interview friends or invite them to share particular stories and post these from time to time. Any of those things will give you more variety and gives other people a chance to participate. If there's a lot of participation, ask if they are interested in a forum and go from there. If you want a really interesting format which has ways to feature each member, blogging, pictures, trailers, PM3's and much more - look into the ning.com network. Lots of promotional and networking opportunities.

Shri

[TheAnonymousMan]

Hi Kevin

I would firstly weigh up the amount of time you wish to spend each day on the projects and then work out how much time that would actually be required to achieve your goals for each project.

Personally I would recommend starting with the tennis forum as it's more of an interactive community than a blog in my opinion. If you promote your forum well enough there may also be a time when you do not even have to make postings every day as other regular forum members can do this for you, similar to the way this forum operates.

Another advantage of forums is search engine indexing once you have forum members creating threads. When other members create threads they will eventually be indexed by search engines which means you can have an unlimited number of authors creating an unlimited number of content rich threads. On the other hand if you chose to have a blog you would be responsible for creating ALL of the content that is published and it would take longer to attract the same amount of visitors from search engines in comparison with forums.

[OmnivoreInk]

Why not do both???

A blog shouldn't take that much extra time to write, and with the use of guest writers, could really take off.

[Kevin Lee]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the helpful and informative comments! I've decided to start a tennis forum rather than a tennis blog for the reason that it'd be more difficult to build up a brand for myself/blog following, since I'm not a tennis pro (and don't even compete in club tournaments). Aside from those I play tennis with, I don't think anyone else would want to read my tennis blog or take product reviews from me.

In addition, I want to make my tennis forum very niche specific, possibly only for Torontonians. Would that be a mistake? I just think it's very easy to get caught up in trying to be something for everyone and then attract no one. Even Facebook started with a very small niche market before opening their doors to everyone.

Lastly, tennis is a seasonal sport (despite the fact that there are indoor courts), so do you think my forums would suffer too much once the public court nets are taken down in the fall? If so, is this tennis forum idea even worth pursuing?

Let me know what you guys think!

[litekepr]

You could focus on tennis players from Toronto - but encourage tennis players from other areas to visit. I was thinking about the seasonal issue, it might be nice to have a place to congregate and talk about the sport you all enjoy when its snowing and cold and not conducive to a game on the outdoor courts

Shri

[Kevin Lee]

By the way, what are the rules/laws about using other people's images on forums on blogs? Is it ok to use copyrighted images on your blogs/forums because you're essentially using them for "review" purposes or writing "critical articles" about them?

Has anyone ever had any complaints about using copyrighted images?

[TheAnonymousMan]

Hi Kevin

I believe Getty Images are now trying to get people to pay for the images they have used in websites without permission. See this thread for more information.

You may also find some use in Free Stock Photography thread here.

Let me know if these resources help you.

[Kevin Lee]

Hi TheAnonymousMan,

From the resources you've provided, it looks like I'll just have to take my own set of pictures at live tennis events for my site.

But The Canadian Intellectual Property Office's A Guide To Copyrights states that "The Copyright Act provides that any 'fair dealing' with a work for purposes of private study or research, or for criticism, review or news reporting is not infringement. However, in the case of criticism, review, or news reporting, the user is required to give the source and the author's, performer's, sound recording maker's or broadcaster's name, if known" (6).

So if I wanted to report news on Maria Sharapova or make a comment about her, would using an image from her official website be ok if I simply attached a link back to her site (i.e. I gave credit to wherever I got the image)?

[OmnivoreInk]

So if I wanted to report news on Maria Sharapova or make a comment about her, would using an image from her official website be ok if I simply attached a link back to her site

I think this would be fine as you'd be covered by fair use.

However, a nice thing to do is simply email the websites of any people whose photos you want to use, and ask their permission.

If your site is all set to go so that you can send them the URL, so that they can see what you're doing with the photo, 99 times out of a hundred they'll say, yes, sure.

You might even be able to establish a rapport with the site developer and through them the athlete, who might give you exclusive news for your site. Okay, that might be a stretch, but anyway, they'll appreciate that you asked...

[Kevin Lee]

Hi OmnivoreInk,

From personal experience, do you find that many sites actually write back to give you permission to use their images? OR do they just treat your request as spam and delete it? I don't want to have to wait for an email permission that may never even come. For instance, a large organization like Tennis.com may not care to build rapport with a "small fry" like myself who wants to use their images.

Is the rule to use the image(s) first and then ask for permission or vice versa? (If they say "no" later, then you'd obviously take it down).