Why does it have to be content sites OR forums? How about content sites AND forums (and blogs, and ecommerce, etc) all going at the same time? Like what some people said, the community aspect is most valuable in a forum. But community takes a very long time to build, so the payoff also takes a lot longer to materialize. A content website on the other hand can be profitable as soon as you get a search engine visitor. Put a mix of websites into your 'portoliio'.
Forum sites are "sticky" - but I've found they need alot of tweaking for optimal CTR. On the other hand - if you are not a natural writer, sometimes finding original content is also difficult. The trick is to get your web visitors so fired up over an issue that they write you own content for you. So maybe that would mean a "hybrid" site that is and isnt a forum all at once. Welcome to the matrix. :|
I agree with IamNed... WebbyMedia the question was : "forum or content?" not "forum or content or both"
I've only recently added adsense to one of my forums, which gets 5k-7k impressions a day. The returning visitors (there are about 1485 registered members) don't click ads at all. Unfortunately the niche is low paying ads, but if I get $10 a month from it I'll be happy.
execute, I was just passing on my opinion saying that it doesn't always have to be content vs forums. They're both viable business models and in my book, if something makes money, I'll give it a go. No reason picking one or the other if you have the time/resources to do both. MtraX. One suggestion is to show ads to non-registered visitors only. And then underneath the ad, say something like: "Register to remove these ads". This does two things: 1. Increases your registration rate and helps turn lurkers into members 2. Doesn't show ads to your core members (registered users) who don't click on them anyway I've implemented this strategy on one of my forums and I haven't lost any revenue.
Yea maybe you placed the ads in a wrong place thats why your impressions didnt help. But members would click on ads if they are relevant and close enough to click ;P.
Site is better in general. Forum gets clicks for few months and then dries up because of repeated visitors. In fact, you can have a site and a forum associated with it. That should be better.
According to me. If you have high paying keywords website then Website is best. Forums are also good if u have bunch of traffic every sec