Best Ways of Raising Revenue

[Rob B]

In the coming months I think our forum may be facing a move away from shared onto VPS, and as the one who pays the bills at present when this happens I am going to need some financial back up.

I am banned from Adsense for a hiccup a while ago, so that is out of the question, and I don't really want to go down the road of members paying subscriptions for access to features they are already used to having for free just yet.

The option to donate is already available, so I am looking for a good advertisements solution, and the adverts to be relevant to the subject of my forum.

Where should I turn to for the most revenue off adverts?

[MRGTB]

Well I would not rule out members subscriptions to be honest. I would seriously consider that as a real must to help pay for the cost of moving to a VPS. Maybe setup a new subscribed usergroup and give them more upload space and extra options to use in the new members group. Even create a few new boards that can only be viewed and posted on by subscribed users of that new members group, give them a special ranking system etc. Make your members wonder what else is on the site they can't see and post on as a regular member. Feed there curiosity and make them want to join! And if you only charge a small fee to join the subscribed usergroup, they might decide to join because it's so little an expense to them! But every bit helps you pay the bills!!!

You really have to keep all options open to bring money in, you can't put all your eggs in one basket. You need mutiple sources of income as you can, incase one door closes on you. Then it may backfire on you. At the end of the day, if you do create a new subscribed usergroup. It's not as though your forcing your members to have to join and pay. It will just be a new option on the site for them to take advantage off if they wish. If they don't, there no different from before!

Other than that, I see you run a cricket site. Have you not thought about approaching a large online cricket shop who sells over the net. And asking them if they would like you to point people to them via a sponsor banner. Offer them a free trail for a month, and tell them if there not interested after that month you will remove the banner that leads to them and approach another company with the idea. If they know there getting sales via your site in that month. They probabley WILL want to arrange something with you.

[someuser190826]

I am guessing this is for your Cricket forum? Like MRGTB said you should not rule out member subscriptions. What I did with an old forum was market a subscription and provided some material goods (posters, t-shirt and a mug) which cost me less than 20$ to do and gave it out for yearly subscriptions of about $50. Everytime they renewed they'd get something new. It cost me nothing for the profit and they were happy to help grow the site regardless of if they got it or not but the option being available really stimulated more interest.

[Rob B]

Thanks for your feedback.

I must admit I do not fancy putting ads all over the place if I can help it.

I suppose for a 6 monthly fee I could offer:

• Increased PM Storage
• Control of custom title
• Upload Signatures
• Increased Attachments Storage
• Keep a blog without having to reach a certain number of posts.
• The satisfaction of helping out maintaining your community.

And if I ever put any adverts up offer them ad-free browsing etc.

Does £5 recurring every 6 months sound reasonable, or would £10 a year go down better? 50 subscribers then would cover the bulk of the cost.

Another thing, I am looking at ASO's VPS deals (I am with them now on shared and would like to stay with them as they have been excellent) and they have a 256MB one and 512MB deal. Would 256MB be good enough?

[Kurisu]

Increased PM Storage

• Control of custom title
• Upload Signatures
• Increased Attachments Storage
• Keep a blog without having to reach a certain number of posts.

Sorry, but this isn't going to interest ANY user.

[MRGTB]

You really could do with a few other things, how about they can upload animated avatars unlike normal members, a few more boards for subscribed users only.

[Rob B]

My users can already upload animated avatars for free. I don't like the idea of boards for subscribed users only, I am a member on the boards that have them and they are just a waste of time. What would be discussed on them and why shouldn't the non subscribers not be able to discuss those things either?

I am not desperate here, but do need a contingency plan. What would people recommend for other Adsense-like lucrative advertiseing programs?

[Rob B]

Sorry, but this isn't going to interest ANY user.

Ha ha. Thanks for your honesty I probably agree.

I have just remembered that there is a world of cool features at vb.Org that I could make available for premium members.

[briangumble]

These one forums I go to have pop-under advertisements. And they only appear once per day, so they won't annoy members. But since they take up the whole page they're more noticable so they get more clicks and therefore generate more profits.