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Forum as an automated income

Discussion in 'Forum Management' started by shogunmike, Mar 28, 2007.

  1. Noodles25

    Noodles25 Active Member

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    #21
    I've run a few forums where other people are administrating it, I just pay the license/hosting charges and maintain the site. Seems to work quite well in a lot of cases, people are usually more than happy to help out.
     
    Noodles25, Apr 11, 2007 IP
  2. ThatForumPlace

    ThatForumPlace Peon

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    #22
    agreed with this post and similar ones. If you can build up a community that people consider their 'home' website, you'll be amazed at how much help people will offer to help make that 'home' a little better.

    Not to say you should automatically take advantage of these volunteers. For my own forum, I have all intentions of sharing the wealth when we do get to that point that there's enough revenue to pay others.

    If you're going the simple route of building a forum and putting ads in (like Adsense), be prepared for a relatively LOW startup, but if you stick with it, membership builds upon itself and after a few years, you can start to see something significant. As a secondary source of income above the ads, you can also consider two tier memberships. Basic membership is free to all and allows most functions - Premium tier functions can include such things as abilities to put in sigs, avatars, ad-free, rate other users' reputations, free email hosting, larger PM boxes - essentially a bundle of added services that cost you no more than a bit of permissions allowances. Keep the premium membership affordable ($3 or $4 a month) and before you know it, you might see a few hundred members upgrading.
     
    ThatForumPlace, Apr 12, 2007 IP
  3. Golfboards

    Golfboards Peon

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    #23
    Agreed. There is money in forums but you have to work for it. Established forums can and do make money. I just hate seeing people buying brand new forums, or dead forums here on DP for large sums of money with the expectation of "build it and they will come". That's just not the case anymore with forums. You need a good niche and put a lot of effort into growing the membership base and getting people to post.
     
    Golfboards, Apr 12, 2007 IP
  4. shogunmike

    shogunmike Member

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    #24
    Would it not also be a good idea to use a forum to complement a portal in some sense?

    I mean, Slashdot has a good idea. Each news item is another forum topic. Although there is a lot of crap written! ;-)
     
    shogunmike, Apr 12, 2007 IP
  5. ThatForumPlace

    ThatForumPlace Peon

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    #25
    I doubt it would work. You need some specific subject matter to keep bringing people back. Forums work when you've established a sense of community - something that's just plain difficult with a portal.
     
    ThatForumPlace, Apr 12, 2007 IP
  6. devin

    devin Guest

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    #26
    when you guys threw around ideas on monetizing a forum other than adsense, are you having a webmaster forum in mind? in other words, will those work for other niche forums as well?
     
    devin, Apr 14, 2007 IP
  7. ablaye

    ablaye Well-Known Member

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    #27
    If you have a very successfull forum, it is very hard to sit back and let other people in charge of it.
    You would want to keep an eye in the forum, make sure it continues to grow and does not die down.
     
    ablaye, Apr 14, 2007 IP
  8. nickcmp

    nickcmp Peon

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    #28
    hmm forums never work like that, it can't just sit there and spit money into your account, I think if you want to make money from it, you have to do it yourself, always the best way!! :D
     
    nickcmp, Apr 16, 2007 IP
  9. Golfboards

    Golfboards Peon

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    #29
    They're definitely hard work. I have a couple of successful ones and more than a couple of not-so-successful ones. Just try to find something thats about a niche that you love and go for it. Worst case scenario is it fails and you try again later or just have patience and work hard at it in your spare time. Eventually the traffic will come. I've been working (though very very slowly) at one of my almost dead forums (oddly enough, my username here gives that one away as I joined DP as a member a couple of years ago to buy it from someone) and it's slowly getting there. Just a matter of getting the content on there and then waiting the long wait for Google to index it.
     
    Golfboards, Apr 18, 2007 IP
  10. Allen

    Allen Peon

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    #30
    It works on any niche forums.
    It's just about what and how you need to tweak to give you what you want.

    e.g.
    you run an online store, which sell books, electronics, etc.
    Find a niche forums and promote on them.

    1) Register and make yourself trastful, brandable, respective in the niche by posting good and handy stuff. Always help. You see a thread with no replies - make a post.

    I've talked lately about promoting on Forums with one person, and the respect you have on forums is one of the main factors to succeed or fail when promoting your product/service.


    2) make a promotions for forum members.

    The first 5 members will get a 30% discount on any book/hardware they buy if their order will be higher than $50, 75$, etc. Next 5 will get a free delivery to her/his home.

    3) make a contest

    The best review of book/hardware you have to offer on your online business will make its author have a great discount in your online shop or she/he will get a free gift from your store, e.g. book/small hardware + calendar, bag with your Logo, etc.


    4,5,6,7,8...) there's many more to think of. Sky's the limit.
     
    Allen, Apr 30, 2007 IP
  11. amIT29

    amIT29 Banned

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    #31
    I have a celebrity forums...[non adult] running for about 6 months....manily featuring, bollywood , and tv serials and some international content......
    http://100rupess.com/


    till now i used only adsense, but now i want monetize...i need suggestion can one of u with fourms be of help ??
     
    amIT29, Feb 26, 2008 IP
  12. FroDaddy

    FroDaddy Peon

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    #32
    I have a forum in development, so I'm researching right now. I've noticed many threads like this about forums making low revenue, so I go the extra step to see what the person's forum is. Most of the time the forum is a bad DN like political-discussions-4u.com, bad design, or in a saturated niche like gaming or even their halo clan. I'm not claiming my forum will be a success, however. Just making some observations and making a suggestion to go the extra step instead of believing generalities.

    Also another point I've learned is that it takes a while for your forum community to establish itself. In general, it appears that people approach forums because they have "free content creation" from their user base and expect immediate results.

    But one thing that I haven't learned yet.... I've read many threads on forum revenue saying, "it's harder than normal" to make money from them. LOL What does "normal" mean, that there are other kinds of websites out there that are easy? IMO every kind of website is "hard" to make money off of. The "easy" kind of websites are quickly saturated with get-rich-quick minded webmasters, and this flood makes that kind of website hard to make money off of again.
     
    FroDaddy, Feb 27, 2008 IP