Hey I already have a good forum niche. But how do we get people to post ?? How do we advertise forums??
Forum is good for the feel good factor of running a popular website. Not great for making money IMHO. The thing is that most Forum users develop ad blindness and hence the CTR is pretty Low. Having a 728 x 90 Adsense ad on "showthread.php" page works the best as far as i know.
I think you need lots of traffic on your forum to get some decent money from it. And forums have large number of returning members. So you have to keep changing your ads
As others have said, you need to promote it. You could do this by, say, offering something every month, or every two months, such as a competition for a gift card or something similar. Although now you may see it as a waste of money, it may pay off.. If you do it right, you will start to get natural traffic coming in through Google where people see your competitions advertised (Do it properly, not spamming - this will only hurt your forum). Investing is a bit hit and miss, but if you want to make money in a forum that doesn't have a massive audience with little competition, you will have to invest.
Nice guide but I still think fake posting is the way to go before you start advertising. People only want to see activities. IN forums, activities breed activities.
Thanks, I agree that you do need to get some activity on the board also, just forgot to mention that. If you make it active, it will help also.
Write some articles and put a link to your forums in the author bio. You should put adsense as a first step because adsense on forums can make a decent amount per month. You could also put up affiliate links and ads for the niche you are in.
You can post your website on forums, blogs and review sites and drive traffic to your site. I signed up for free at www.fingerscrossed123.com for FREE and I have been getting paid pretty well....
You can add some paid features. For example, do-follow links could work out as a nice feature in a webmaster forum.
Once you get enough traffic, you can start selling ad space to advertisers directly instead of having to go through adsense. But to do that, you need lots of targeted traffic. Selling ads directly is where the real money is at. With ad programs like adsense, there is a middle man that takes a cut of profits from the ad sales. When you get to where you can sell advertising directly, that is when you can start making some real money. And keep in mind, adsense is not for everyone. Google does not want their banners on certain types of sites.
I think that's what it would take and then start making money. You need to have an active forum, with interesting topics that will draw people to return to the forum.
forums are not the best way to earn money if you want to make money from forums then give your site on ad sens they will check your site then may be you earn but beast way is to promote some products on your site and make some money ok...!
I have owned several forums in the past. I own one now. They are a lot of fun but the only way I ever made any real money from them was when I sold them. Get the PR up and the traffic flowing well then sell them to your competitors. As mentioned, many forums today are often just an added feature for the main site. It seems like today you need your main site, a forum, a blog, facebook, myspace, twitter, youtube, and on and on, along with any other linkbait you can think up. To generate activity in your forum you and your friends develop various identities and start enjoying and interacting amongst your various persona. Others will join in if you are having fun or have something of interest.