Best monetization method for a forum

Don't tell me to search this. I've already looked and didn't find anything useful. I'm not talking about ad placement or how to make more with adsense. I currently have adsense and I am making what most forums make with adsense, literally nothing. Would text link ads, affiliate programs, etc. be better route? What method besides adsense or selling memberships can I use to make money through my forum?

 

Affiliate programs are much better than adsense. I earn from 35 cents down to 1/3 a cent on a site with adsense and earn alot more with affiliate links on the same site.

Really tired of adsense never paying well for some sites or clicks. I even took adsense off a few sites and earn more now.

 

I was thinking about affiliates. Just wasn't sure how well it would work on a forum.

 

For a particular niche forum.. with highly targeted niche market.. affiliate program in way of Pay-per-sale/lead/action is the best route AFAIK.

BTW, how many members does your forum have and how much traffic does it generates?

For high traffic forums, a CPM banner program would be an extra.

 

I get about 20-25 visits and anywhere from 150-300 pageviews a day.

 

I'd reccomend you rotate ads with a few diffeerent ad networks, there are plugins for most forum scripts (phpbb, vb etc.) so it rotates your adsense, adbrite, affiliate thangy and some cpm ads (i reccomend canep media)

 

What affiliate program should I use?

 

Revenue sharing is a great way IMO...It attracts more users and makes them post...

 

hmmm i have actually had some good luck with adsense however i also use a fixed width template and i think this is why

 

What is revenue sharing? Are you talking about something like what is on DP?

 

Yes i am....

 

I doubt my visitors know what adsense is.

 

For a new forum, of course you still have few members and low traffic. You wouldn't appreciate Adsense with 150-300 pv/day.

Just a suggestion; try to focus on marketing, building your userbase and content development first... IMO putting a lot of ads on your forum "might" annoy new signups.

 

I would say that is up to you. Find something that is targeted towards your audience, do not use something generic just because it pays well. Find something your users will care about or is useful to them.

 

Yes netPH is correct,try to pump up your userbase and content.When u get arou nd 10,000 pageviews/day ,sign up with CPM programs like burst media.Try a combination of adsense+CPM+affiliates.
For example CPM banners can be displayed below the header while adsense acn be inserted inside or in between posts.
Post some useful reviews about your affiliates products and increase your affiliate sales.

 

Dude work on building up the forum before trying to monetize the site. That's very little traffic.

 

I'd reccomend commision junction and yes that is something you should search for on dp.

 

You may look over at TheAdminZone.com (TAZ). It's a forum for forum admins. They should have some good ideas about that.

 

I would say the best way to monetize a forum is to sell adspace independently to other sites. Charge per month(s). This way, you are always bringing in $$ regardless of click through ratio, which is historically bad in forums.

But I would say the best way to monetize a forum is to make it part of a bigger site and use the forum to drive traffic to your main content and produce sales and adsense revenue on that portion of the site.

 

dpend on what ur site is about. Adsense doesn't convert well for me nor amazon. probably affiliate works for u.