Forum is going broke

[Shipside]

Too much traffic vs donations.

Is there a guide to adding advertising properly?

I cannot get users to donate at all.

 

[AndyB]

How you considered using AdSense?

 

[Gregory Lynn]

I had your same problem before friend and Adsense did very little for me and I ended up selling the forum. Hopefully adsense will work for you.

 

[Sandman RSS Feed]

You need to provide more information for someone to guide you properly. How much traffic, content, members, niche etc.

 

[Shipside]

Traffic: 300K unique visit monthly
Content: Programming
Member: 26,000

Most material is reference data that is visited and read, but no comments left.
People have used over ten years and never registered, as they are user not creator level.

 

[M@rc]

Traffic: 300K unique visit monthly
Content: Programming
Member: 26,000

Sent you a PM

 

[Joeychgo]

Too much traffic vs donations.

Is there a guide to adding advertising properly?

I cannot get users to donate at all.

I have ads -- and members who donate don't see the ads as an incentive to get them to donate.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Content: Programming

Possibly because programmers think the web is made solely for them, so they don't believe they need to pay for anything. Open source logic and all that nonsense.

 

[jauburn]

I had your same problem before friend and Adsense did very little for me and I ended up selling the forum. Hopefully adsense will work for you.

I got into the forum admin business for a few reasons: interest in the subjects, concept that addressed needs in the market, and adsense. I wanted to generate passive income, if possible, and I loved the idea of others creating the content on which ads would run.

In the early days (early 2000s), adsense was fantastic. Now, not so much. That's been my experience. Adsense brings in so little for me, in fact, that it makes more sense to create an ad-free zone for users and rely on their generosity through donation, which works.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I switched to Amazon earlier this year... Adsense was just painful. Members complained about certain ads showing for them (forever trying to limit issue ads), many ads are just huge and slow loading (regardless of being async), then random people reporting some type of violation to Google, and trying to implement page specific restrictions to suit that. Too hard overall... went to Amazon.

Amazon have done some good work in allowing you to create country specific affiliate accounts, then link them all together as one under your primary country, so you no longer lose revenue outside of your primary country. That is helping.

I get more from donations and account upgrades, than ads. The end result to all members and guests from me, each year, either reach the limit or I close the site. That simple. Every year the goal is reached and the site stays open. I don't care whether it stays open or closes... I place that responsibility onto the members and guests.

 

[jauburn]

The end result to all members and guests from me, each year, either reach the limit or I close the site. That simple. Every year the goal is reached and the site stays open. I don't care whether it stays open or closes... I place that responsibility onto the members and guests.

I like that approach.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

It became too stressful with donations month to month, so I changed it to annually, pay in advance for everything... and it works for members and guests so far. Way less stress for me, as the funds are raised one year, for the next. So far, so good, for the past few years.