Are forums profitable?

Are forums profitable? Are they to competitive? I know the CPM is generally very low, but specifically what type of click through rate can someone with a forum expect?

Thanks,
Kyle

 

When I ran a forum, I was getting somewhere around .40%.

 

It depends on many factors. I do not think there is a set rate for all forums. If you become extremely popular (difficult job), you could make quite a bit of money. Of course, it takes a lot of money to get it going and a lot of time to keep it going. I know a couple of people who have fairly popular forums that barely break even. I honestly think there are easier and quicker ways to make money Online.

 

Yes but you must chose your niche wisely.
Don't chose this niche that saturated and have high competition such as webmaster niche.
Try something new such as cooking forum.The click rate is highly depend on which type of ads is clicked.But i don't suggest you use CPM ads coz it really pay low.Try use some affiliate company.

 

I have owned and operated a couple of large forums, and on the whole they are not worth the effort for the returns. Most members never click the ads as they get so used to seeing them, so adsense is out. If you have a very busy forum then the way to go is CPM ads, but even that does not pay much. You should only run a forum if you really want to, and not solely for profit.

 

Forums used to be profitable. Nowadays everyone and his dog are into it.
I suggest that if you want to start a forum do not start a Webmaster's forum because webmasters do not click ads. Also because there are more webmaster forums than there are webmasters.
This is just my opinion I could be wrong
Thank you for reading my post

 

Popular forums are profitable, unpopular forums with the only direction of the forum being "making money" are not profitable.

 

forums are profitable if you use CPM and affiliate programs.

 

You can easily get ads off of forums

 

10,000 impressions generally results in about < $3.00 on my boards.

 

yes example http://forums.digitalpoint.com/

 

I have for 1 forum.

The CTR and eCPM are poor, but a forum has some advantages too.

The biggest advantage is that users generate fresh content for the forum on daily basis.

I get $1-$2 per 1000 thousand impressions. This may seem a lot to some members, but some of my sites generate $5-$10 per 1000 impressions....

the bad part is forums are time consuming and it is not easy to develop a new forum.

 

you can make the forum profitable when you are completly into it.

there are many webmaster forums try something other than this that will help you get trafic of what product you are making money out of

 

Forums are very difficult to promote and monetize. They may take more than two years to be capable of earning enough.

 

If you can get the startup promotion done right, they're great

 

depends what kind of forums. Besides the usual advertisements, you can monetize by charging them to post in certain forum areas, or make certain sections available only to paying members.

 

Make a good looking forum + find a good niche + promote it well + keep it active = money.

 

for impressions only you get $3 ?
without any click ?!
that would be great !

 

Hey there, I asked the exact same question myself a week ago. From my research, expect to be in the negative or even for the first three months no matter what. Remember that the success of your forum is solely based on your membership count, and how loyal they are... look towards the top forums on the 'net today, esp. DP, and ask the members what keeps them on the forum (good community, topics, expert opinions/advice, etc.) so, hope that helps a bit. (remember, as everone has said there are factors that vary the experience and results: ex. prior knowledge toward managing forums, private investors, etc.)

 

I think the factors that can affect your earnings in a forum are traffic and theme. There are a lot of ways you can profit from forums like banners and selling links.