Tuesday, August 6th, 2013
NICOclub.com (Nissan/Infiniti Car Owners) is the largest online resource for Nissan owners. The NICOclub community has been in existence for over 20 years, evolving from a mailing list, to an email list, then a Yahoo! Group and finally to the official NICOclub forum in 2002. Since then, the community has grown to encompass 6 million posts, 300,000 registered members, a network of over 30 car-specific sites, plus over 3,000 unique tech, how-to, news and review articles.
Building the Brand
NICOclub CEO Greg Childs attributes the site’s long-term, successful growth to community engagement and moderator expertise. “As one of the few remaining independently-owned and operated automotive forums, we’ve always followed the simple premise that it’s not about the cars; it’s about the people. There’s a very ‘family-like’ atmosphere to our community, and our moderators work hard to make sure each member feels personally involved.”
In the competitive forum space of automotives, the caliber of NICOclub’s moderators is central to its success. Each NICOclub moderator has expertise and experience building, restoring, modifying, showing and racing cars. That passion, coupled with a commitment to continually foster member loyalty, has been NICOclub’s secret to competing (and succeeding) in its very challenging niche.
Overall quality and attention to detail is also key for NICOclub. The team makes it a priority to use accurate and descriptive thread titles and encourages users to check spelling and grammar in their posts. If terms are not spelled properly or worded correctly, NICOclub’s posts will not appear as they should in search engine results, hindering the opportunity for potential members to visit the forum.
Bonding with Members
NICOclub.com is one of the only forum communities that conduct events across the country, where members can gather and meet in-person. This unique differentiator promotes a true sense of community and is a source for fresh content and new discussions. NICOclub also maintains an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube, where their social media efforts bring in new members and readers each day.
With a diverse audience ranging from the hard-core fabricator who wants to show off his latest automotive creation to the first-time owner looking for basic information on how to maintain her car, Greg and his team feel it is important to cater to both extremes. “We have a fairly strict ‘no-flaming’ policy, and we encourage long-time members and new users alike to get involved and answer questions. Unlike many forums plagued by arrogant long-time users telling new arrivals to ‘SEARCH,’ we feel that if everyone’s searching and no one’s communicating, it’s a library. And libraries are boring. New users find our approach non-threatening and welcoming, which leads them to treat others the same way.”
Driving Business Success
From the beginning, the forum’s revenue strategy has always concentrated on native monetization, deriving revenue from ads and links that are organic to the visitor experience. Because readers aren’t interested in irrelevant advertising, Greg feels that every link and ad should increase the site’s value and convenience for visitors.
NICOclub works with direct vendors, TribalFusion and AdSense for display ads and VigLink for in-text monetization. “Implementation of the VigLink code was unbelievably simple and painless. It literally was a five-minute process. We’ve had remarkable success with VigLink Convert [which converts existing links into affiliate links] and Insert [which automatically links merchants, brands, and products to the most relevant and valuable affiliate]. We initially implemented VigLink in the hopes of generating enough supplemental revenue to fund a small monthly contest prize for members, but quickly found that it was keeping pace with our other monetization strategies, and in some cases, outperforming them.”
Accounting for approximately a third of the site’s revenue stream, VigLink has enabled NICOclub to automatically earn income from its original content, such as product reviews and how-to articles. “We don’t accept advertising or direction from auto manufacturers or recommend any product or vendor to our members that we (the staff) haven’t purchased or done business with, so our content is always objective and honest. Our visitors don’t want to be told what to buy, but they typically have an upcoming purchase in mind when they visit the site. As such, they welcome genuine, reliable advice from experts and people they can trust.”