i want to open somewhere for my everyday mutterings and ramblings, either it will be a forum with a general chat area...or a blog i am erring on the side of blogging as it kinda seems made exactly for that, but which makes more financial sense? forum/blog? Tia.... James.
Blog more then forum as people will develop ad blindness quickly with a forum and most of them are there for the messages and not the ads or any links devoiding them off the forum.
Blog is suitable because it gives you more money than forum in usual cases but there are acceptional cases alot in forums too. I suggest to start with blog!
if you go with a forum, do how like DP does it. Put it after the first post. OR right below the last post above the quick reply.
Why not both? you can put your ideas in a blog and then have a forum for people to discuss similar topics. This may be more than you want to take on all at once but it should be a pretty good way to keep some repeat visitors on your blog.
If you do decide to put AdSense on both a blog and a forum be sure to watch click thru rates on the forum very closely. I have heard advertisers say that AdSense CTR is so low on forums that smart pricing lowered payouts for their blogs.