Started a new forum around stocks and stuff. Don't want to mention the name here. I got over 1K members and a great amount of traffic I have no ads now but I am looking into adding adsense but I have two issues/questions. 1) How long should I wait or how many members should I build up to before putting ads on my site? Ads can slow growth as people don't like to signup on a site with ads. 2) How can I estimate earnings? I know stock forums or any forum would have a low CTR. How can I find the average CTR for a stock site and the average eCPM? I hope to make at least $100 per day, what you think? -CF
You really can't make estimates, other than the CTR is generally very low on forums. The amount you are paid per click is going to depend on a number of factors, most importantly, how well those clicks convert for the advertiser when compared to other sites. That's where smart pricing can greatly affect what you will earn. You could try testing with a single 468x60 ad per page and after a couple of weeks, you should have an estimate. A single ad isn't likely to greatly affect your visitors. As a rule, you'll generally get a higher price per click when you first put up ads, and then it will be adjusted based on your conversion.
I used to run a financial forum and got $80-250 cpm.... But those were different days, before the credit crisis and before the economy tanked. I hope I can get to at least $80 cpm this time around. I am getting up to 18K page views in a single day. Average is around 10K. Is a 1% CTR a good number to estimate with these days? thoughts?
your best bet is to place ad and than test it varies alot you might be able to get 150$ a day or just a 50$ a day