Hey, I reached 10,000 posts on my webmaster forum! The question: Should I start monetize it with banners in the header?? or should I wait till it is bigger?? The adsense is just there for the members, not for me though Need advise please!
If the banner will be PPC based, you'll find that a banner in the header position will receive a very low CTR on a forum (in my experience less than 0.30%). I'd instead place the ad unit in between posts -- there are plenty of plug-ins for vBulletin that do this. I'd definitely start monetizing now though. You've established a good user base. They won't leave just because you've added a couple of ads.
If I were you, I'd monetize now if: your members are active your members are there because they like your forum (no paid to post people) you think they're loyal BTW, I just joined your forums. Neat!
I think this is the right time to monetize your forum, also I would suggest you to motivate your members too through contest and referral program etc.
Show me the money! I think now is probably a good time for you to m onetize. YOu have a nice active community. Do you know how many a "regular posters". If this is a high percentgae of your users then they will likely stay loyal. Banners ads in forums are pretty much a gimme nowadays. Good Luck
Thanks for the comments, yeah the users are pretty loyal.. I had 2 paid posters in the past, but only for about 1 week or something.. and not much posts.. The forum is online since 4 months, took me 4 months to get here ! Probably the best place to get the banners are on top??? and best would be if they rotate by like.. 3 banners??? Boardwalk, thanks for joining
If it was my forum I would have monetized it from day one. If you do not have many ads then it shouldn't be a problem with getting new uses. If someone really likes a websites content then they would use it if you have a few ads or not I would think as long as the ads are not to much in their faces or slows down the loading of the pages.
Ok, I will check it out.. I am looking for an ad mod for vbulletin.. so i can rotate and track clicks to!! Thanks again guys
hell, it's not pop unders or pop ups, just put some banners in it, i'd still use the same high way to the zoo, even if they put up a few sign boards by the road side~
I think this is the right time to monetize your forum, also I would suggest you to motivate your members too through contest and referral program etc.
It's not likely that you'll get a lot of clicks for the header banner. In most forums, people aren't even looking up there so why would they click up there? I do think you should monetize, but find a better way to do so.