How much revenue does your forum make?

Discussion in 'vBulletin' started by 2ct7, Feb 1, 2008.

  1. #1
    I had an active forum and never monitized it. I shut it down because of the ceaseless bickering of the members. But I am thinking of starting up again, perhaps on a different site. How much can I expect to make with active forum and adsense? How much do you make?
     
    2ct7, Feb 1, 2008 IP
  2. RectangleMan

    RectangleMan Notable Member

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    #2
    You can make pennies a day to hundreds per day. There is no straight answer to your question. Part of it depends on activity and the other on content genre. For instance video game forums get very little per click while webmaster forums such as this one make solid income per click.

    The question arises does your forums make enough to at least pay for it's hosting and your time? Is it a labor of love where revenue doesn't matter or do you just run the site for income?
     
    RectangleMan, Feb 1, 2008 IP
  3. Pandemix

    Pandemix Well-Known Member

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    #3
    It depends for me, I have a supporting member group who pays a different amount of money. But from current supporters, I make $15 monthly. Not much, but it keeps our server up
     
    Pandemix, Feb 1, 2008 IP
  4. ThreeGuineaWatch

    ThreeGuineaWatch Well-Known Member

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    #4
    AdSense is not usually considered the best way to monetize a forum unless it is exceptionally busy - and even then there might be more lucrative options depending on the niche. I am assuming your forum is not knocking out high xx xxx impressions per day or greater so you should look at alternatives like affiliates in your niche, and optimising the design and selling your own advertising space? Just a thought.
     
    ThreeGuineaWatch, Feb 2, 2008 IP
  5. mds

    mds Active Member

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    #5
    Actually generating money from a forum depends on daily participation and where the ads are placed on the forum, you must be careful not to annoy members with too many ads.

    Also create ways for the forum to generate direct ads purchase through banner rotation , static banner placement etc. Generally Adsense is known not to be very successful with forums , you can try out other smaller publishing companies.

    With a forum, sometimes, the month is good but sometimes its bad but as long as it helps you offset the hosting bills, then its worth it.
     
    mds, Feb 6, 2008 IP
  6. Bohol

    Bohol Peon

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    #6
    Forum does not make much money. People come to forum sites to search for information or get connected with knowledgeable individuals. Build your forum out of your passion - for friendship. Money may come from different channels, not necessarily from ads.
     
    Bohol, Feb 6, 2008 IP
  7. LinketySplit

    LinketySplit Peon

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    #7
    I have a forum myself, and I generally make anywhere from $.10 to $1.00 per day. Not too high considering I'm getting over 1000 visitors per day...

    Any more suggestions on alternative advertising options.
     
    LinketySplit, Feb 8, 2008 IP
  8. Kel

    Kel Well-Known Member

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    #8
    My forum isn't very active at the moment. I'm making a HUGE 2c a day so far! My goal is $100 a week so I have a lot of work to do!

    :)
     
    Kel, Feb 8, 2008 IP
  9. IndyaTalk

    IndyaTalk Banned

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    #9
    I made more than 100$ in a month on my site. But afterwards my account was closed. So if you have high traffic than you can earn more than 500$ from it.
     
    IndyaTalk, Feb 11, 2008 IP
  10. NICKY Nitro

    NICKY Nitro Well-Known Member

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    #10
    I wonder what would happen if you have one panel somewhere on the forum with let's say 4-6 positions that read "Place your Ad Here"

    You could try to monetize it the blogger way! I have never seen it before but I it is worth trying I guess. :cool:

    This way you will have guaranteed income each month.
     
    NICKY Nitro, Feb 13, 2008 IP
  11. mark1230

    mark1230 Well-Known Member

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    #11
    well it is quite tough to get monetize through forums.Your forum must be good enough to handle visitors as well as it is typical for forum to be a wise choice due to visitors don't click on ads as they well know that this is a forum and ads dont get mixed up with rest of forum.
     
    mark1230, Feb 14, 2008 IP
  12. Arkserver

    Arkserver Banned

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    #12
    Around 170/190$ average/month but we get more from our blog.
     
    Arkserver, Feb 16, 2008 IP
  13. matt4

    matt4 Well-Known Member

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    #13
    0... We tried on both forums but nada :(
     
    matt4, Feb 16, 2008 IP
  14. profanitytalker

    profanitytalker Well-Known Member

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    #14
    When you first start off a forum, expect little to no revenue. But when your forum gets huge, I say it can range from 10-10,000! Example: Plentyoffish.com . They are making around 5-10 million dollars a year from adsense. It all depends on your niche, activity, and your patience. :)
     
    profanitytalker, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  15. noli_m

    noli_m Active Member

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    #15
    Im thinking of setting up a community forum too... Hoping I can monetize it...
     
    noli_m, Feb 17, 2008 IP
  16. net4earning

    net4earning Peon

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    #16
    i'm making $2-4 daily.
     
    net4earning, Feb 21, 2008 IP
  17. andyba

    andyba Well-Known Member

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    #17
    The thing with forums is very simple.. if someone occupied your forum niche it's almost impossible to start a new forum and make it popular(profitable)... everyone will go to the already existing more popular forums..
    Making a popular forum was easier several years ago before adsense appeared.. now almost every niche is occupied and there are many dead forums hoping to make an income with adsense. :\
     
    andyba, Feb 23, 2008 IP
  18. DaStarBuG

    DaStarBuG Peon

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    #18
    The thing to make a forum work is, that you love what you are doing and that you offer something, that others don't in your niche.

    I run a medical forum for German patients (besides others) and even though there are some very big players in my niche my forum is growing nicely.
    The difference between the big players and my forum is, that my forum is very friendly and open minded.
    It also is very well arranged and does not use hundreds of subforums as other medical forums do.

    I do make a very nice income from adsense with my forum (mid 3 digit income) and it is raising nearly monthly.

    You can check out my ad placements here: www.patientenfragen.net

    If you like the placements you can find them on vbulletin.org, I published them under my Nick StarBuG
     
    DaStarBuG, Feb 24, 2008 IP
  19. -MGS-

    -MGS- Well-Known Member

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    #19
    On a forum i did own it was making $250 a month by myself selling the ad space
     
    -MGS-, Feb 24, 2008 IP