I don’t read Darren Rowse’s Problogger so much any more, but I just got an email notification that he is launching a new blogging forum on the .com version of his website.

I always wondered why Darren never launched a forum on his blogging website, as I was always sure that it would be successful, because of the popularity of his blog. Most of his posts get a lot of comments, which is a good way to see if a website can support a forum.

I joined the forum, but didn’t pay the fee (sorry Darren!) The introductory fee is $1.97 a month, so I can imagine this will likely rise when the forum is more publicly announced. I couldn’t see any of the posts, but there were around 170 people already on the forum.

I am sure he will get some criticism for charging people to join a forum, but I suppose that is a good way to keep spammers out. Personally I won’t be joining. Forums are good up to a certain extent for learning about making money online, but you can spend too much time on them, which has a negative effect on your ability to make money online.

I wonder if I could charge people for the forums I run? My feeling is that many people would just try to find another forum that they can use for free. I can imagine the forums will make a lot of money for Darren.

Perhaps he took Brian Clarke’s teaching sells course? I can see the email now when the next edition of Teaching Sells comes out, “Darren Rowse makes $1,000,000 from membership site launch”.

Do you plan on joining the forum?