[Fergal]

Intro / About
Founder and owner of ForumCoin
Live in Ireland
Software QA Consultant by day


Ask me some questions

Sorry, but I probably won't answer personal questions relating to family.

[skysnap]

I have plenty of questions but for now just two which are more related to business

What are some of the business models online that have worked for you?

And what are some of the offline business models that you have tried?

[sherryinutah]

Ask me some questions

Sorry, but I probably won't answer personal questions relating to family.

Come on, Fergal. We want all kinds of personal stuff. Let's get it all out on the table.

Just kidding.

Are you a computer programmer?

What made you decide to own and manage this forum?

[Lexi]

To Fergal,

Have you ever kissed the Blarney Stone and do you believe in leprechauns?

Just for fun..

[oldbuddy]

How long will you be willing to keep Forum Coin if it's in the red?

And what can we do to help?

[Fergal]

Thanks everyone for your interesting questions.

What are some of the business models online that have worked for you?

My interest has been in forums and especially those with an online currency element. I purchased a small (approx 1,700 posts) forum in 2004 called HostBidder. After buying it we added a forum currency called HB, which members could use to purchase website hosting and domain names. This was long before BitCoin, which wasn't released until Jan 2009.

The next forum I owned was ForumPromotion, which is where I met CyberFreak. We grew that to the point where it had over one million posts and it had a forum currency called FP which members could use to purchase content, promotion and other services for their forums.

I also created and grew BusinessAdviceForum (BAF) which had a forum currency called BAF Cash. BAF was not the most active forum but it did very well in the search engines for competitive business related search terms and became an excellent source of advice for anyone starting or running a small business.

What made you decide to own and manage this forum?

My interest in forums that included a forum currency lead to the idea of ForumCoin, when CyberFreak agreed to help with starting the forum it was a great help as he had a lot of the required technical knowledge, which I lacked.

And what are some of the offline business models that you have tried?

Any business I had has been online, other than that I have worked in call centre, property development and IT businesses. I also had the pleasure of working for four years with a government and EU funded enterprise development agency which supported small businesses.

Are you a computer programmer?

Not yet, but I am improving my knowledge in this area. At work I do automated software testing and as part of that I am using and continually learning C# to write automated test scripts. I also have some knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript and Java but unfortunately not enough to confidently describe myself as a computer programmer. However, I plan on changing that within the next two years.

Have you ever kissed the Blarney Stone...

Yes when I was about 2 years old, I was quite chatty when I was younger, but much quieter now, perhaps I should revisit it to get the gift of the gab again

...do you believe in leprechauns?

Definitely, they are great for our tourism industry, especially for an area quite local to me called Carlingford

How long will you be willing to keep Forum Coin if it's in the red?

I love ForumCoin and we have plans to continue growing steadily in the future, the costs of running the site are low and advertising revenue increases as we grow, so I don't see any issues in that area. Online currencies are a hugely growing area and a currency such as ForumCoin, which can be earned without any complicated mining has excellent potential.

And what can we do to help?

Just keep doing what you are doing, posting quality content, suggesting features and improvements for the site and referring others. If everybody does that it will greatly help the community and we will continue to grow.

Thanks again everyone for those great questions.

[Angie10]

Thanks for all the answers, Fergal I'm so happy to learn you're planning to take ForumCoin as far as you can. I'm sure I speak for the whole community when I say we'll stick it out with you for as long as you'll have us. It's not easy to find an online community that embraces everyone, where everyone feels right at home and for me, ForumCoin is one of those special sites. Keep up the good work that you and CyberFreak are doing

My question to you, which you may or may not want to answer; seeing as ForumCoin is enjoying relative success and has been going for quite a while, do you have any other online ventures in the pipeline?

[sprite1950]

How much time do you actually need to spend here to keep it running smoothly? I'm sure there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.

[IcyFirefly]

Do you read all the threads that were posted on ForumCoin?

And are you pleased with your users?

[kisser]

if you go back to the moment you decided to start up forumcoin and it was decision time would you open it ?

[darrensurrey]

Do you have change for a fiver?

[skysnap]

Thank you Fergal for the answers.

[Fergal]

Thanks everyone for the great questions.

do you have any other online ventures in the pipeline?

No not at all, I am focusing more and more on ForumCoin. In the past one of my problems has been that I spread myself too thinly and didn't focus enough. I still do that to some extent but am getting better at focusing on doing a small number of things to completion. As a result ForumCoin is the only site I am doing any work on or spending any time on and that's the way it will be for some time.

I also own http://proudirish.com (the first site I ever created) and http://bannerslam.com. However, I don't spend any time on them and actually rarely visit them, which shows as they are neglected.

How much time do you actually need to spend here to keep it running smoothly? I'm sure there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't know about.

CyberFreak does the more technical work on ForumCoin so that saves me a lot of time, as does the good work done by our forum Moderators. I try to work on the site every day, responding to PMs, reading and responding to posts etc. On weekends I spend time doing work such as developing ideas to grow the community.

As we grow, I spend more and more time on the site. On most weeks it is probably about 7 - 20 hours per week and as previously mentioned that is growing as the site grows and I clear other tasks to focus more on ForumCoin.

Do you read all the threads that were posted on ForumCoin?

And are you pleased with your users?

Yes, I read all threads and am very happy with our users. We have a lot of great posts on the community and there are countless examples of where members have made a great effort to help, support and advise other members. It's very encouraging to see this and it is a good example of how strong the ForumCoin community is.

if you go back to the moment you decided to start up forumcoin and it was decision time would you open it ?

Most definitely, the time I spend here is always a pleasure and with the growth of online currencies together with how easy and straight-forward ForumCoin is in comparison to others, I believe we have a great future.

Do you have change for a fiver?

Absolutely, I always have spare change lying around, I could probably even change a fiver Sterling. However, if you are looking for change for larger currency denominations I might run into difficulty

[darrensurrey]

I'll post you a fiver, you post me a fiver in 2p pieces.

Serious hat on, tell me about this: I also had the pleasure of working for four years with a government and EU funded enterprise development agency which supported small businesses.

[Happyland]

Hi Fergal, I like forum coin and would like to see it continue to succeed. My question-- could there be a time when membership growth outpaces the growth in revenue? Is there a certain number of members that the site/ad revenue no longer could support? Thanks.

-- 17 Sep 2016, 11:25 --

How did you come up with the name ForumCoin? Were there other names you had in mind?

[Fergal]

Thanks everyone for your questions and kind words.

tell me about this: I also had the pleasure of working for four years with a government and EU funded enterprise development agency which supported small businesses.

I worked for what was at the time called Louth County Enterprise Board. We supported small businesses employing less than ten people, through training, mentoring, advice and grant aid. My role included planning and organising training courses, meeting clients, and dealing with grant applications. I'm a big fan of small business so the job really was a pleasure. I moved from there to work in a local property development business, during the boom years, but unfortunately that boom was followed by a bust

could there be a time when membership growth outpaces the growth in revenue? Is there a certain number of members that the site/ad revenue no longer could support?

There are many sites which have much larger memberships that ForumCoin and I don't see any limit on the number of members we have. The more members we have the more valuable and useful the ForumCoin currency will become which would be great for all our members. Ad revenue grows with membership and traffic to the site, so as membership increases so will revenue. It really is a case of the more the merrier, whilst quality moderation of the forum is maintained.

How did you come up with the name ForumCoin? Were there other names you had in mind?

The previous forums I owned had an element of forum currency and I was keen to grow the role of a forum currency and make it widely acceptable for purchasing a large range of products and services. Hence, the name ForumCoin, which was fortunately still available for registration. I really can't remember considering any other name, ForumCoin seemed like the perfect name for this type of site.

[darrensurrey]

Sorry to hear about the bust part of your property business.

The small business thing sounds like it would have been helpful to relevant businesses. Wonder if there's something near me. Hm.

[dasok]

How profitable is forumcoin?

[suny]

@fergal- Admin- would it make any difference if I change my avatar?

[Fergal]

Sorry to hear about the bust part of your property business.

The small business thing sounds like it would have been helpful to relevant businesses. Wonder if there's something near me. Hm.

Thanks Darren, just to clarify it wasn't my business, I was an employee there and the whole industry went from boom to bust

The organisation I worked for was very similar to the Local Enterprise Agencies in the UK. You may be able to find one near you from this link.

How profitable is forumcoin?

ForumCoin costs more to run than it makes from ad revenue. However, the costs aren't huge and I really enjoy the time I spend here. Hopefully ad revenue will outgrow costs as we continue to grow and become more popular.

@fergal- Admin- would it make any difference if I change my avatar?

You are more than welcome to change your avatar, it might just take me a little time to become familiar with your new one and recognise you on the forum

Thanks everyone for the questions and please keep them coming.