How much revenue potential does a very active forum have?

i think it depends on the forum software you use. also, most forums recruit the most active members to moderate for them, often for free (depending on the size and income generated). Usually money doesn't need to be involved because a) the moderators are already there using the site as a member anyways, b) most people will jump at the opp to gain more power, even if it's just a silly online forum

 

I think I should be alright on bandwidth/server load for a while.... I have a 6TB monthly transfer limit, and I know that doesn't say much for smilutaneous connections, where the server load might be affected, but as soon as my site gets that big I'll be on a dedicated server, I have a lot of apps and such that require mad bandwidth too.

and I don't anticipate/haven't had any problems finding advertisers? are you referring to what happened to facebook with the UK political parties?

 

One of my friends run a forum that has page rank of 6. A lot of traffic - I think 70k visitors per month. But his forum is for geeks ( Linux, drivers, hack etc ...) . Obviously not a product based forum. He hardly makes $200 a month. He also got $30 a month selling one one way link.

My guess is you should make forum in your area of interest. But do not count on it for you main source of income. Not everyone can become DP.

 

A political forum may not earn as much money as you think it should. Advertising and traffic would increase during election season only to die down after words.

 

Forums are hard to get off the ground. But once they do they tend to explode. I was always curious how DP started? My forum I started with friends helping me. My very first forum tanked after 2 years, of no activity so I tried again with a different topic and now I do well. Not making tons of money but some nice change in my pocket and more every week....
Good Luck with your forum

 

Forums can earn a good deal, it just takes a lot of work. I have a decently active forum but I'm not making big bucks just yet.