Can you make money off a forum?

[=MGN=RedEagle]

But surely no ad netwrork would accept my website if theres no traffic to start off with? Shouldn't I wait?

Lol I have seen people apply right away on day one and get in... I think its blogs they don't like to disk out adsense accounts for unless they have traffic. If you have a social website which you have put some real work into they will probably let you in right away as they did me.

*If it's clear your site has few members and posts the above may not work.

 

[OverHere]

Thanks - what you say seems logical. Som assuming I have 500 - 1000 unique visitors a day, what ad network, or a combination of ad networks, would you recommend I start off with?

Yes, you mean like my website! But, I think I better wait for some traffic first!

 

[OSS 117]

Not forum per se, but online ventures make anywhere from $4,000-6,000 a month. Hosting and all costs me under $700 and I can do most if not all the admin work myself.

It's a really rough guess, but unless your site makes it into the top 100,000 or 50,000, it's unlikely to have enough traffic to reap rewards.....

As some examples:
http://www.quantcast.com/stripers247.com?country=US
A fishing site with 2500 unique visitors per day. I'd guess a decent living could be made from such as site.

That site is about 30,000 (in US) according to quantcast.

A good study of quantcast might help some determine the type of traffic that is needed to make something from a forum.

For my new hobby site, it seems to be starting to make a little sideline money at about 500 visitors per day. So there is at least a hint on what may be needed to start paying off server costs, software costs and have some beer or coffee money.

I read that URL once and then said "Duh, look at the domain, why wouldn't it be up at the top?" then realized that no, that's a fishing forum and I saw an extra P in there.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

Yes, you mean like my website! But, I think I better wait for some traffic first!

Go with Ad Sense first and last. They pay at least 30% more because of the high fill rate and number of advertisers they have.

 

[craigiri]

Thanks - what you say seems logical. So, assuming I have 500 - 1000 unique visitors a day, what ad network, or a combination of ad networks, would you recommend I start off with?

And what kind of monthly income can one expect from 500 - 1000 unique visitors daily?

Thanks

Totally depends on the subject and other such things....

AND, the networks differs - as I mentioned in a post further back, my new site is making MUCH more from Amazon links than from adsense. My big site (hearth.com) does well with adsense.

In general, adsense is the way to go for straight money making. But the best thing to do is run some tests when your forum is that size - put some Amazon links and some adsense ads and watch what happens.

I am not trying hard yet to monetize my new small forum....I am only at about 450 visitors per day. But if, for instance, that site was at 1000 honest visitors per day each reading 2-3 pages I think I could make $500 a month. Not big money, but $6K a year is nothing to sneeze at either.

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

Can you make money off a forum?

This is a common question and a good thread. The same is often asked about blogging. I think most owners of "hobby sites" would like some money back for providing a good read or service to compensate for overheads. Why not make a modest living out of your hobby if you can?

AdSense is good but it's just one of many online advertising options to choose from which may suit different sites better.

There is definitely money to be made online as a publisher be it blogs or forums and the power of internet advertising is still just in its infancy. Grab your niche, know lots about it, enjoy doing it, and chances are you'll make a reasonable monetary success out of a website - in good time.

 

[craigiri]

Reviving an old thread - but i have something valuable to add to it!

As expressed above, I started a new blog/forum/site in 2013 just as a hobby - to see what it might take to get something going in this day and age (my main forum started in 1995)....

I blogged about the effort and now can share all the tips which got it going. There should be some valuable info in these posts/pdf's for many of you. Please spread the word....

http://www.craigsfire.com/starting-a-successful-web-site-series/

A special update for my XF friends here! I have been spending VERY little time on the drone site - things would obviously be better if I put more effort into it...still, the stats are decent (40K pages per month):
https://www.quantcast.com/droneflyers.com

AND, the income is really starting to be decent. I have no doubt that if someone really put the effort of a couple hours a day into this (or a similar effort) web site, they could make some really nice side money or even a full living. As it stands now, the income from the site is about:
150 month adsense
300 month amazon affiliate
300 month the ebook I created using the same info I posted on the site.

That's not bad, IMHO, and clearly illustrates that it is still possible to make an income producing site - however, as most real webmasters know, the key to making income is that you have to not care about making income! What that means is that the content and community have to be #1 - the income will come later and somewhat naturally....

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

That's great to hear - I like these start up stories of bloggers earning some money from giving surfers a good clean read about something they are interested in. Blogging about something you enjoy is good fun but only if you can get noticed (that's not always easy) and it's nice to see some positive stats and receive feedback for time and effort invested. You've got some good tips there in your series and it's well worth a reading!

 

[billybatz9]

Reviving an old thread - but i have something valuable to add to it!

As expressed above, I started a new blog/forum/site in 2013 just as a hobby - to see what it might take to get something going in this day and age (my main forum started in 1995)....

I blogged about the effort and now can share all the tips which got it going. There should be some valuable info in these posts/pdf's for many of you. Please spread the word....

http://www.craigsfire.com/starting-a-successful-web-site-series/

A special update for my XF friends here! I have been spending VERY little time on the drone site - things would obviously be better if I put more effort into it...still, the stats are decent (40K pages per month):
https://www.quantcast.com/droneflyers.com

AND, the income is really starting to be decent. I have no doubt that if someone really put the effort of a couple hours a day into this (or a similar effort) web site, they could make some really nice side money or even a full living. As it stands now, the income from the site is about:
150 month adsense
300 month amazon affiliate
300 month the ebook I created using the same info I posted on the site.

That's not bad, IMHO, and clearly illustrates that it is still possible to make an income producing site - however, as most real webmasters know, the key to making income is that you have to not care about making income! What that means is that the content and community have to be #1 - the income will come later and somewhat naturally....

Your buyers never got mad that they bought a book when they could have gotten the same info for free on the same website? Lol

 

[craigiri]

Your buyers never got mad that they bought a book when they could have gotten the same info for free on the same website? Lol

Not at all. Some people are "book" people....in fact, many buy the print version at over double the price!

Also, I have given it away free twice (amazon lets you do this for up to 5 days each 90) - and over 1,000 copies were given away.

People don't begrudge spending $2.99 for info they want.....it's less than the cost of one magazine.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

Reviving an old thread - but i have something valuable to add to it!

As expressed above, I started a new blog/forum/site in 2013 just as a hobby - to see what it might take to get something going in this day and age (my main forum started in 1995)....

I blogged about the effort and now can share all the tips which got it going. There should be some valuable info in these posts/pdf's for many of you. Please spread the word....

http://www.craigsfire.com/starting-a-successful-web-site-series/

A special update for my XF friends here! I have been spending VERY little time on the drone site - things would obviously be better if I put more effort into it...still, the stats are decent (40K pages per month):
https://www.quantcast.com/droneflyers.com

AND, the income is really starting to be decent. I have no doubt that if someone really put the effort of a couple hours a day into this (or a similar effort) web site, they could make some really nice side money or even a full living. As it stands now, the income from the site is about:
150 month adsense
300 month amazon affiliate
300 month the ebook I created using the same info I posted on the site.

That's not bad, IMHO, and clearly illustrates that it is still possible to make an income producing site - however, as most real webmasters know, the key to making income is that you have to not care about making income! What that means is that the content and community have to be #1 - the income will come later and somewhat naturally....

Wow! Great job on making good money of a small amount of traffic...

 

[Alpha1]

Not at all. Some people are "book" people....in fact, many buy the print version at over double the price!

Also, I have given it away free twice (amazon lets you do this for up to 5 days each 90) - and over 1,000 copies were given away.

People don't begrudge spending $2.99 for info they want.....it's less than the cost of one magazine.

How does that work; creating an ebook also available in print?

 

[craigiri]

How does that work; creating an ebook also available in print?

http://www.createspace.com
It's owned by Amazon. Works like a charm.

 

[Alpha1]

Ha. I just found that.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

Awesome to see all the votes! What a great divide.

 

[Robby]

Always seeking for other stories from succesfull people. I was wondering who can share another one.

 

[TPerry]

My problem with the poll... is that there are no negative numbers on it.

 

[=MGN=RedEagle]

My problem with the poll... is that there are no negative numbers on it.

I feel your pain.

 

[Robby]

I feel your pain.

Same here.
Are there new members that have exceeded their revenue?
9 who hit 12000? Not bad...

 

[craigiri]

Always seeking for other stories from succesfull people. I was wondering who can share another one.

I can share an update - if you look at my earlier drone post.....

The drone site is going great guns and the book now makes over $1K per month. Other income from affiliates, adsense, etc. has jumped way up.

It is not quite accurate to say I am making all the money from a forum...since the site consists of a WP blog and a XF forum - the blog gets much more action than the forum. However, the site is now up to making real money of a sort. No, I'm not ready to buy a private jet but in my (semi) retirement the income allows us to live better and help our kids out more, etc.

Traffic is up 200% or so in the last year.

It does take some work, but it's fun and I do need things to do to fill up the days and nights....so that's OK. Also, I get to fly drones...which is really cool. Look at my media gallery for some samples - here is one vid.

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