[Question] - Large forum owners

[dmyre]

Do you find it difficult to profit from a large forum? I am considering purchasing one, but wanted some first hand experience first. I wouldn't think adsense would convert very well...

Also, do you find it better to have the forum setup as your index page, or is it better to use a portal as the index page? If you are using this option, please feel free to post your URL, so I can review the layout.

 

[DNjet]

I have only had a couple forums over the last couple years , although not real large , but found it difficult to convert anything on them , I think because its a lot of return visits and they get used to the ads and ignore them, secondly they are more interested in the forum content than anything. But they are great for building traffic and reselling the forum.

 

[RazorNF]

I agree, I ran several city-themed forums and made next to nothing from the banners and ads. After a couple of years of building up traffic, I sold some, and the others I parked and now derive some decent ppc revenue from.

But I guess it aso depends on how popular it is - then you can try and make money by actually selling the adspots or even memberships...

 

[dmyre]

That's what I thought. Thanks for the responses.

Any others?

 

[whydna]

It really depends on the genre. You can make alot of money by selling banner space/sponsors. But I agree that using adsense will probably not be a good monetization method.

 

[falco85]

once you are a well know meeting place and you've got thousands of visits everyday, sponsors will directly contact and pay you to put their own ads

 

[Steen]

What's the forums topic?

Certain ones are cash cows. Many are the lowest CPM rates around.

 

[pelican]

as mention above, you might not earn alot by putting some network ads.

when your forum grows, eventually sponsor will approach you.

and the great thing about forum is, they are recurring traffic. you can use them as a starting point to promote your other sites. since it is a community, your promotion will be spread by words of mouth and from the daily recurring visitors.

build a bond with your forum community and it will grow better.

 

[SouthernTn]

Depends on the forum and what it does now and how the previous owner was making that income.

There are alot of ways to increase the revenue of a forum. One thing it takes is time and patience on your end.

 

[pamela]

I used to own a rap forum in the early days which got very sucessful but it hardly made any revenue. I tried putting casalemedia ads but that also generated $1 daily. If the forum is in the entertainment arena, then its hard to maximize revenue. But there is one advantage while running a forum, you can easily advertise rest of your sites and easily gain traffic to them.

 

[Shaggy]

Well, like steen said, it depends on the topic. I have a huge forum that does well with YPN (around $20 - $30/day) and banner ad sales. Also, the best way to make more money is to create premium accounts, where users donate x amount of money to move up into a higher member bracket, like here at DNF.

I also love the size for free advertising for my other sites.

With the front page, I just have a splash there now, but will be getting a CMS put on. It allows you to have better ad networks that don't usually like you putting their ads on forums. ie (tribal, fastclick, and so on)

 

[dmyre]

Thanks for the feedback. The forums topic is a specific genre of music, so traffic is targetted, but there aren't alot of advertisers for this topic.

 

[Steen]

Music is difficult, unless perhaps it is a very popular "pop" or "hip hop" genre. These can be promoted quite well due to the amount of ringtone advertisers.


If it's classical or something obscure, you may have a hard time. Perhaps try a "donation" by amazon affiliate links scheme. Where you ask your users to purchase their music (in digital or CD form) through your affiliate links in effort to aid the community. The major music sites have affiliate programs (Napster, etc)

 

[dvestors]

Add a Paypal donate button.

 

[csitenet]

i would have said sponsor each forum and use banners + a donate button, but a music forum, i say go with commision programs perhaps with amazon, but the best bet is still publisher networks such as google!

 

[nitronet]

There is only one word to describe owning a large forum.

NIGHTMARE!

Don't do it - You'll be sorry.

 

[linkdomain]

it's tough to make money. having members that have more features for a donation/payment is a good idea. like here. having ads between posts for guests. and having a lkeft side nav for ads/links.


i have two pretty big forums. and it is a lot of work dealing with all the personalities.

 

[SouthernTn]

to make money off of music forums with the majority being 13 - 21 year old members, Yahoo ads targeted towards "health" would work good... 1 Reason why "Depression"

Made an avg of $30 - $40 a day, and some off and on days of $100

 

[RTM.net]

Excellent suggestions above, in particular I echo Shaggy's comments, having managed perhaps 20-30 community sites over the years, with varying amounts of traffic.

CTR is generally abysmal, as mentioned above, since regular members very quickly filter out any sort of ads - text or image.

Donations / premium memberships with perks will get you FAR more revenue.... but keep in mind that you have to do this in a way that is not preferential in detriment to the TOS of your site. What I mean is... just because someone is a contributing member, doesn't mean they can jeer other members and cause trouble in whatever way they choose.

Forums are a lot of work in the beginning, but be creative (and subtle) in your monetization efforts. You get an opt-in mailing list of members... and as mentioned above, if the quality, quantity and overall community vibe is high - high quality sponsors will approach you.

Cheers,

Rob

 

[ColdGin]

I have a forum....and I would like to know what does it mean ´large´? How many daily minimum posts does it mean large?