Monetizing Forums with XenForo ... mobile, affiliate inserts, subscriptions, etc.

[Lohengrin]

Considering XenForo for new forum based site and would like feedback from current users on ease of various monetization methods:

1. Affiliate Inserts on Keywords/Links.

Would like user posts to automatically be scanned and have Keywords like "Amazon" augmented with links to Amazon.
Would like affiliate info to be added (replacing other affiliate if needed) to user links (for example to an Amazon product).

2. Mobile Experience

More and more users will be visiting from mobile obviously. Any issues with various ad programs not playing well with different screen display dimensions, static sized ads breaking out of responsive design, etc? How are others dealing with mobile view and ads for their forums -- just letting mobile browser self-adjust? Does XenForo self-adjust?

3. Subscriptions

Any feature or add-on to easily handle selling subscriptions with enhanced experiences for users? Is it proving worthwhile or too much of a headache with XenForo?

4. Etc.

Any other monetization issues we should be considering?

Thanks!

 

[djbaxter]

1. Affiliate Inserts on Keywords/Links
@AndyB has some addons for affiliate ads ($35 gets you all you want of 300+ addons):

Amazon parser

Premium upgrade: This XF2 add-on along with the entire collection can be purchased for $35.00 USD. Your Premium upgrade will allow you to download as many XF2 add-ons as you like for one year. Please see the entire collection located in the...

xenforo.com

Amazon parser all [Paid]

AndyB submitted a new resource: Amazon parser all - Adds Amazon affiliate ID to links in all messages. Description: Adds Amazon affiliate ID to links in all messages. The Amazon parser all add-on will update existing Amazon links to links which include your Amazon affiliate ID number. This...

xenforo.com

Affiliate parser [Deleted]

AndyB submitted a new resource: Affiliate parser - Adds an affiliate ID to the end of URLs. Premium upgrade: This XF2 add-on along with the entire collection can be purchased for $35.00 USD. Your Premium upgrade will allow you to download as many XF2 add-ons as you like for one year. Please...

xenforo.com

2. Mobile Experience
Xenforo itself is fully responsive but you need to be careful to use responsive ads for mobile.

Two options:

• you can wrap the ad code in a DIV and use CSS to autosize it:
  

   <img src="ad.jpg" alt="" class="ad_responsive">
  
  CSS in extra.less
  
  .ad-responsive {
  max-width: 100%;
  height: auto;
  }

• you can use this addon which takes care of making all your ads responsive:
  
  

  Ads Manager 2 Lite by Siropu

  Ads Manager 2 Lite has everything that Ads Manager 2 has except for the options that allows you to sell ads and promo threads. You can upgrade your license to Ads Manager 2 anytime by paying the difference but you won't be able to downgrade the...

  xenforo.com

3. Subscriptions
Built in to Xenforo and easy to set up and use. No addons needed.

 

[Ozzy47]

There is also a free Amazon/eBay parser addon,

Amazon/eBay Parser

This is a direct conversion of the [SolidMean] Amazon and eBay Parser by @SneakyDave done with his permission. It uses 99% of his code. I was not going to include the eBay parser in the beginning, but decided to include it for those that use...

xenforo.com

 

[djbaxter]

^^^ I'd forgotten about that one, @ozzy47

The only forum I'm using parsers on currently hasn't yet been converted to Xenforo.