As the title says. Those who are unfamiliar with message boards, it’s simple. A bunch of people who are interested in a topic of choice get together to share opinions, products, experiences, etc.  I am personally on two message boards. The first one that i ever joined:

www.jk-forum.com

is essentially a Jeep forum.  It covers products, installation, reviews of wheeling locations, pictures, video, podcast, everything really. I expanded my knowledge about Jeeps through this message board tenfold. I learned every part that goes into building a suspension system on a Jeep. Now, i wont say i can go out and pop on a $3,000 suspension system, but i probably could figure in out eventually with the knowledge I’ve gained.

To get to the point, the people on that forum were the most well educated amateurs at building Jeeps. These guys could take apart a Jeep and put it back together in a day. Where do you do think the members of the forum go to get reviews on new products? Exactly! They came to the forum because that is where the real world builders were. Members created installation instructions that you could actually follow. So where do companies come to promote their product? The message board! They would give insight when people had questions. They interacted with the customer. That message board today probably has over 100 sponsors paying to be members on that message board. The creator figured out a way profit immensely from this outlet. A company in the Jeep aftermarket industry would be foolish not to jump on this bandwagon. How else can a company interact socially with its customers and get real feedback?

So what does the CASH COW mean? Two reasons. First, the creator of that message board targeted a specific genre (JK=Jeep Wranglers ranging from 2007-present) and capitalized on it. He did it through quality. A sister website was created to give product reviews by this one man. He then went out and videoed the products in use to show how they perform in real world tests. That created a following on that site. Then a message board was created to discuss those products. Then companies wanted to give their help to the customers. Instead of letting these companies spam the site, the creator made them pay a fee to speak, essentially. In the end, it has worked out for both the companies and the creator. The cash cow for the company is that they can do giveaways, showcase products, give feeback, answer customer questions. Then, the customer in turn, is the marketing for the company. Win, Win.

A new message board that I’m on is doing the same thing, kinda.

www.theblackkeysfanlounge.com/forum

This is a message board just for The Black Keys fans to discuss shows, songs, reviews, equipment, photography, merchandise; anything related to The Black Keys. The fans on this site are the dihard fans. The ones willing to spend the most money on tickets, merch.etc.  This creator is going through the the beginning phase of what JK-forum went through. Now, finding a way to capitalize on the community is something both the band and the creator needs to do. This could just be part one of a multiple part blog series on how to profit from a message board.