Can a forum be profitable enough to make decent PT money?

[YourPhillyDj]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but the forum would not allow me to post a thread where I thought this thread should have been.

Hello.

I have what I think would be a GREAT idea for a forum. I could see LOTS of local advertisers wanting to advertise on it - as I bet all of you think that about your forums. But in this instance, people are incredibly passionate about the topic. And if it would work locally, I am sure it could be applied nationally.

I am laid off and have LOTS of time to devote to this. In fact, I may choose never to go back to work. So with that said, can forums eventually make enough money to, say, be equal to part time job money?

Given time, I would love to make money from a forum.

What do you think is reasonable?

[beishe8]

Given time, I would love to make money from a forum.

Don't make a forum to make money.
Make it to have fun.
Nothing to lose.

Later on it could make some money,take it.

[Wayne Luke]

Forums can be profitable. I was managing a forum back in 2000 that was on track to make more than $80,000 that year.

[YourPhillyDj]

Forums can be profitable. I was managing a forum back in 2000 that was on track to make more than $80,000 that year.

Well, that's good to hear, though my hopes were not near that high. I was hoping that given time I might eventually make $20K.... just spending money for my "toys" and family vacation.

[Idiosyncrasy]

Advertisers will want to see how much traffic your forum has, what topics are being discussed, and how well they respond to advertising. One way to start this is with the google tools - webmaster tools, adsense, and analytics. Set everything up and start out with some simple adsense placement. Monitor it for a while, see which categories do well, and which ones have decent click-through rates. This, in itself, will generate some money, but after your forum grows and you have some solid numbers, you can start reaching out to advertisers.

CPM would be most profitable to you, of course, but approach your first advertisers with the idea of only doing CPC, so you only get paid when they get results. Get the fundamentals, and the rest should follow easily.

As Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation, said, "Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself." Focus on building your community, and eventually it will take care of itself.

[anthonyparsons]

Online advertising is a very risky game. To build a website to profit, you have over a 90% chance off failure. Saying this does not mean you shouldn't create your forum, quite the opposite. I would say give it a shot, but be sensible and don't give up your day job just yet. I would still be looking for something to pay the bills and sink your spare time into your development. You will measure after a year the direction its headed.

My sister recently thought she had a million dollar idea and sunk 30k into a business, which has so far sold one item after 6 months. Some of us in the family told her everything not to do, she went and did it regardless and is learning the hard way. She is lucky she has the money to not worry about the consequences, ie. she didn't have to go into debt for it. I would never advise anyone to get into debt for any type off online idea. You develop first, you test the market response, you measure and assess. Some of the strangest things you never though would take off, have online. Then you have a billion+ people online all thinking of ideas to make money, which 99.9% fail.

It took me a couple of years to create a website that made a lot of money... and that at times has dropped off the face of the planet due to Google making changes which you cannot control, thus your traffic dries up, then a year later, bam, things pickup again, economy play a large role, etc. Very risky to invest all effort online nowadays without something else to fall back upon first. Even Google have really tightened up just handing over money for running ads upon your site. If the quality isn't there, they revoke your ability to use their ads. If you have something slightly off in content, they revoke your ads, and the list goes on. Money is tightening all around the world right now... and online advertising is a very niche oriented market when you refer to running ads upon others websites vs. paid contextual advertising via a provider.

[MRGTB]

Forums can be profitable. I was managing a forum back in 2000 that was on track to make more than $80,000 that year.

Was this a site you just helped manage Wayne, or a site you personally owned yourself. You seem to be talking in past tense, so what happened? Does it still make this kind of money today?

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but the forum would not allow me to post a thread where I thought this thread should have been.

Hello.

I have what I think would be a GREAT idea for a forum. I could see LOTS of local advertisers wanting to advertise on it - as I bet all of you think that about your forums. But in this instance, people are incredibly passionate about the topic. And if it would work locally, I am sure it could be applied nationally.

I am laid off and have LOTS of time to devote to this. In fact, I may choose never to go back to work. So with that said, can forums eventually make enough money to, say, be equal to part time job money?

Given time, I would love to make money from a forum.

What do you think is reasonable?

Well good luck with your idea, hope it works for you and makes you loads of money.

[dpunkz]

its all about getting into the right niche to make money from advertisers.

[LynxSI]

You should also check to see if there are already a dozen other forums on the topic. If I see another computer help forum I think I'm going to die. ;-)

Someone else hit it: niche/unique is key to long term success.
- Ben

[MRGTB]

You should also check to see if there are already a dozen other forums on the topic. If I see another computer help forum I think I'm going to die. ;-)

Someone else hit it: niche/unique is key to long term success.
- Ben

I do think also that the "Niche" covered is very important indeed when it comes to making good money from AdSense. You have to look at entering an area where you know Advertisers will pay Google big money to get their Ads displayed on the best forum boards out there (hence you'll get a good payout if clicked). Take Internet Brands on this one, they cover Automotive Vehicles with most of their forums used to make money, and I would guess some of the Big Car manufactures will pay Google well, seeing as competition is quite strong to sell their cars first.

So I totally agree, I think the Niche you cover means everything when it comes to making either peanuts - or good money with AdSense. The only problem though, is your not the first person to think that very same way, and why there's already a million and one well established Car and Bike forums out there already. That's the problem with getting into the best Niche's - you don't really stand a chance because the market is already saturated with Websites, Forums, and Blog's covering it for many years.

[ChopSuey]

Niche forum you shall run and be successful

[Wayne Luke]

Was this a site you just helped manage Wayne, or a site you personally owned yourself. You seem to be talking in past tense, so what happened? Does it still make this kind of money today?

It was a site that I was the Community Administrator on. I didn't own it. I no longer work for the company. I believe it makes more money today than it did back then.

[MRGTB]

Not bad, is that just from Ads alone, or are we talking Advertisers as well paying them to display banners

[Wayne Luke]

Not bad, is that just from Ads alone, or are we talking Advertisers as well paying them to display banners

Well adsense is not going to make you rich unless you have millions of page views and new continuous traffic. It will always be more profitable to manage your own advertising than to rely on a service like Adsense. Adsense was actually developed and designed to make the majority of money for Google, not the individual publishers. That is just incentive to get publishers involved. Google is first and foremost an Advertising company. Everything else is just a variety of methods to get those ads in front of eyeballs.

The income on this site was through the advertising concept of Forum Sponsors. Advertisers would sponsor one or more forums on a monthly basis and be given several key ad locations in forums, emails from those forums and a bi-weekly newsletter. More popular forums had higher sponsorship rates.

[MRGTB]

Yeah, I see your point about AdSense, fools Gold really. Thanks for that, I can see now are they used better methods to make some good money the right way.