Are people still making money from forums?

[Prebuyer]

Is there still money to be made from forums?

From what I've heared the best money is currently made from "branding" advertising... but that's only on big boards?

[Zachery]

If you have good content, and the ability to market the content, or show you have good traffic. Then yes.

[BirdOPrey5]

making enough money to pay the hosting and software fees is pretty easy... If you want to make real profit through you're going to need to work as hard as any other "real" job in my experience.

[Mark.B]

Does anyone still run a forum for reasons *other* than bombarding people with avalanches of poxy ads to make a swift buck?

[Loco.M]

Does anyone still run a forum for reasons *other* than bombarding people with avalanches of poxy ads to make a swift buck?

sarcasm?

[Sean James]

I have 3 forums which make good income, you need to have good quality content and a sensible amount of ads. I found the top right and after first post to be enough. Alot of visitors will be turned off too many ads.

[funmasti]

1 popup ad is good, wont take space on your forum. Banner Ads makes site ugly + popup gives lot of money.

[Ramsesx]

making enough money to pay the hosting and software fees is pretty easy... If you want to make real profit through you're going to need to work as hard as any other "real" job in my experience.

That's the point, nowadays it's harder than ever before to generate a great income or enough for a living. There are so many people starting new sites and forums.

1 popup ad is good, wont take space on your forum. Banner Ads makes site ugly + popup gives lot of money.

I hate pop-up ads and you can be sure if a site has pop-ups I visit only once and never more again, that may be valid for many people.

[Paul M]

Does anyone still run a forum for reasons *other* than bombarding people with avalanches of poxy ads to make a swift buck?

Yes.

[punchbowl]

Maybe I'm wrong but I presume most people run sites on subjects they have an interest in. I wouldn't keep a site that isn't at least self sufficient though.

[Gaara]

I put them on the blog in nice areas, but keep them off the forum with one or two on the main site. But I personally don't have to worry about them; using firefox with a ad-on that blocks all ads on website.