Adding a forum

I'm thinking about adding a forum to my blog/site but I have a couple concerns:

- I'd probably get less comments on each post because people would be commenting/talking on the forum instead. That would take away from my pageviews and general activity of the site as a whole
- I could put ads on the forum too, but are the costs of forum ads a lot less because (it seems to me that) less people are likely to click them because they'll have seen them so many times already?

My only goal is to maximize revenue. Any ideas would be appreciated!

 

Forums are free content, and content can pull in some heavy SERP and traffic. The cost of running a forum within an existing site is not all that much, so the ROI is likely worth it overall, however, you are correct. There is not a lot of revenue to be had with forums.

Ad blindness is the biggest killer in such a situation. Rotate ad colors, swap out sizes and placement. Alternate between text & image ads... all those things can assist in curing ad blindness.

For information on ad placement check out: Forum Ad Placement

Most other information can be had right from the adsence dashboard.

 

I agree forums are great in getting content generated once you can attract the members.

 

you will get more saturation, more free content, more traffic if your forum runs well......ad placement requires R&D....do it earn more

 

Thanks, that site was pretty informative.

What about just displaying CPM ads and not caring if anyone clicks them?

 

Good luck finding a network thats A) worth it, and B) accepts forums.

 

Yeah DP and Sitepoint should just get rid of their forums...not a lot of revenue at all.

Forums if developed properly can be HUGE earners. The reasons is not because of the forums themselves but because of the community you generate and in some ways...control. Communities are valuable....look at Myspace, Facebook, and heck...even Youtube is a community.

 

I know what you're saying but how would you go about doing that?

 

Adding a forum section to my site was the best thing i ever did as far as building content and traffic.. BUT, the Adsense earnings were very (VERY) low.. I added Kontera about a year ago, and now it's earning the same or more in my forums than Adsense does at the rest of my site..

 

i added a forum to my website and now 75% of traffic goes to forum , and due to the forum traffic has also shoot up 4-5 times
so i suggest you to add forum

 

Thanks, I'll definitely check it out

 

Forum is simple the Best Idea....in the starting ull be dissapointed ..but wen ull b gettin More members...ull b in Charge..
Best of Luck

 

If I had to start over, I wouldn't start a forum for one of my college site. I get very low adsense earning. I guess that's just the way it is for forums. Instead, I'd try to build social network type site for my college. It's too late now as the forum has been online since 2003.

 

Its really a wise idea to add a forum for your site. It brings more new content and traffic.
But, forums are hard to monetize as it have very low CTR.

 

I think it will be a good idea

 

For those talking about low CTR...try concentrating on CPM (adbrite) which can actually outperform adsense if done properly. At least it's steadier imho.

 

Hey, I was reading your blog, lots of good stuff, you should definitely update more often.

 

yes,,
forums will drive traffic and income

But need good moderator

 

The forum can drive up SERP. Google rankings give alot of weight to forums....Try using in text ads and banners on the side of the forum page. I think most forums do a bad job at ad placements. GET creative and it will pay big dividends.

 

Big Boards excluded of course...

Anyplace with repeat members will have a very low CTR, this includes bigboards and massive social sites. Of course, when you are talking about millions or even thousands, that is a BIG difference between dozens of hundreds that most smaller sites will have. So yes, generally Forums are not cash cows.