I run a forum and I just started using adsense a month ago (on the 3rd of July so I am missing 2 days of revenue). Before this we survived on donations.. about $1,300 average we get a month. I spent a lot of time reading up on best placements and best ads to use, and still experimenting. 4,121,027 Impressions, 1,689 clicks, $403.48. (low clicks ) It just got finalized for payment yay! The most clicks I get are from people viewing the video section with a 250x250 block. Next is right above the thread lists (not below it like default vbulletin ad placement) on forumdisplay with a 728x90. I just added another one below the thread list today so we will see how that goes. And the 3rd best clicks are from people viewing threads, under the 1st and the 9th posts as 728x90. I tried using the squares and rectangles but it looks really ugly. We don't pay to advertise our forum or anything like that. We just spend money on server upgrades and maintenance.
This is not good at all. Basically, what you are doing is for every 2,440 views only 1 click which worth a maximum average of $0.02. You should be doing this, for every 2,440 views at least 200 clicks with a maximum average of $0.05. Putting all of these together this is your result: 4,121,027 impressions, 487,984 clicks, $24,399. So please I want to heard next month the good news. If you need help we are here to help.
That's about 24-25 cents per click, which is a level most people would be satisfied with. If that's your first month then things should improve as you gain in experience. Not a bad result to begin with, so keep up the good work.
That's awesome! What platform are you using for your forum? and what theme to go along with it? If you don't mind sharing with us. Thanks GC
good show, I run a forum as well and was just about to say likewise, 728x90 works far better than 300x250, although I do run a rotating video 300 x 250 ad on the right on my vbulletin setup, its actually from someone who approached me about advertising on my forum, and your stats are bigger than mine, so it should be a good addition. PM me and I will send you their details, don't send me the URL in the PM as unlike others who will ask for it I do my own thing and not copy others
200 clicks from 2,440 views (hahahh) - If you can show the rest of us forum owners how to generate a 10% CTR you should be able to sell the ebook for around $1000+ a time, it is widely known that forums have a notoriously low CTR 1-3% often consider good, although obviously some do better, but most much less than that. After all the big block has the best CTR but do you see it anywhere in this forum? And I would imagine the owner has just done a bit of split testing.....
With 4m impressions a month if it was you and someone asked this question would you seriously give out the url??Not a chance
Last month (July) I'm averaging $13.45 per day, now I'm averaging $17.74 per day, but it's only been 8 days in, so hopefully it gets better not lower. But whatever the case may be, this is EXTRA income on top of the $1,200-$1,500 we get from donations a month. We collected enough donations to last us till November. I would guess forums have lower CTR because people browse through the threads pretty quickly and ignore the banner ads, since I don't place mine directly into the content (posts).
That's amazing considering most people don't even make that much money in their first month. In fact, most of them don't even make any. Good luck to you and keep working on new sites and improvements, you'll make that much in a day soon!