Several Questions

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  • horsegoer
    Member
    • Mar 2011
    • 37

    Several Questions

    So I see many forums have moderators to oversee content etc. How would one find a moderator for thier site? What if it becomes very busy? I could see it taking a lot of time to review content before it's posted. I assume they get paid. Thanks
    Last edited by BirdOPrey5; Wed 6 Sep '17, 4:56am.
  • horsegoer
    Member
    • Mar 2011
    • 37

    #2
    It's not main reason at all but I'd like to possibly generated a few bucks via ads if my website becomes popular. How much could forums generate from ads.... Thinking $50-100 bucks a month would help offset some costs. Thanks

    Comment

    • horsegoer
      Member
      • Mar 2011
      • 37

      #3
      Is there a "like" button in v bulletin?

      Comment

      • BirdOPrey5
        Senior Member
        • Jul 2008
        • 9613
        • 5.6.3

        #4
        I have combined your three topics into one.

        Originally posted by horsegoer
        It's not main reason at all but I'd like to possibly generated a few bucks via ads if my website becomes popular. How much could forums generate from ads.... Thinking $50-100 bucks a month would help offset some costs. Thanks
        Depends totally on the content and genre of the forum and the traffic. Some forums make thousands of dollars or more a month in ads. Most make little, if any. Going into this with the hope of making money you need to treat it like a business. If you are doing this for fun or as a hobby you would be very lucky to earn $50 a month in ad revenue.

        Originally posted by horsegoer
        Is there a "like" button in v bulletin?
        Yes, users can "Like" posts of other users. Soon users will be able to like forum content to Facebook or Tweet content to Twitter as well. (If enabled and in a publicly accessible forum.)

        Originally posted by horsegoer
        So I see many forums have moderators to oversee content etc. How would one find a moderator for thier site? What if it becomes very busy? I could see it taking a lot of time to review content before it's posted. I assume they get paid. Thanks
        In most cases Admins get to see some users more dedicated and trustworthy perhaps than others. Users who regularly report spam are often my first choice to be made into moderators. I've never heard of a paid moderator except in rare cases, most are volunteers and are happy to be so even on sites that earn profit for someone.

        Comment

        • Mrs.T
          Senior Member
          • Nov 2007
          • 1210
          • 6.0.X

          #5
          We have run our forum on vBulletin for the last 11 years. We do use adverts and moderators:

          Moderators - We have 3 moderators who help us out, like Joe says they need to be people you trust and the best thing is to begin by getting to know your members, find out who you think would be trustworthy and also tactful because they might have to deal with member to member fall outs or delete posts (members can get a bit irate at that! So tact and diplomacy is needed). We don't pay out moderators but we do treat them to a gift such as an Amazon voucher at Christmas or a bottle of wine if we meet with them, to say thank you for their hard work and support.

          To ensure only genuine members get on the forum we have setting so that their first two posts are moderated, if they are genuine people they understand this need for security and once their posts are allowed through they then move to a different usergroup (the 'promotions' setting is great for this as it is all automatic) after that they can post without moderation. Spammers are banned permanently which means they cannot post or join again with the same email address.

          Once your site is running you will find that other members will become helpful at 'moderating' without being actual moderators, if you tell them how to report posts.


          Advertising - Try not to put too many ads on your site as it can become annoying to members. We put more adverts on that only non-members see as this is an incentive to join. The vBulletin site builder is brilliant for this as you can easily select which usergroup can see which advert. You can also set different size adverts to show on different size devices.

          You might not make a fortune from advertising but anything helps towards running costs. As you get bigger you might even get businesses asking to advertise, it depends on your site content, it's good if you can get a niche market

          Put a notice on the front of you site to tell non registered people to come and join and they will see less adverts, have access to private areas etc. - make it worth their while registering, there is no point joining if they can do everything as a non member that a member can.

          Make member only sections too which also gives some privacy to posts, not everyone want to share their thoughts with the public and you can make sections that are only viewable by certain usergroups with a set number of posts or even by invitation only.


          Good luck, I'm sure you will enjoy setting up and running your forum but it is hard work and can take up a LOT of your time, so you do need to enjoy it.


          Comment

          • horsegoer
            Member
            • Mar 2011
            • 37

            #6
            Originally posted by Joe D.
            I have combined your three topics into one.



            Depends totally on the content and genre of the forum and the traffic. Some forums make thousands of dollars or more a month in ads. Most make little, if any. Going into this with the hope of making money you need to treat it like a business. If you are doing this for fun or as a hobby you would be very lucky to earn $50 a month in ad revenue.



            Yes, users can "Like" posts of other users. Soon users will be able to like forum content to Facebook or Tweet content to Twitter as well. (If enabled and in a publicly accessible forum.)



            In most cases Admins get to see some users more dedicated and trustworthy perhaps than others. Users who regularly report spam are often my first choice to be made into moderators. I've never heard of a paid moderator except in rare cases, most are volunteers and are happy to be so even on sites that earn profit for someone.
            Thanks so how could a forum earn profit for someone besides a membership fee or advertising?

            Comment

            • horsegoer
              Member
              • Mar 2011
              • 37

              #7
              Originally posted by MrsTiggywinkle
              We have run our forum on vBulletin for the last 11 years. We do use adverts and moderators:

              Moderators - We have 3 moderators who help us out, like Joe says they need to be people you trust and the best thing is to begin by getting to know your members, find out who you think would be trustworthy and also tactful because they might have to deal with member to member fall outs or delete posts (members can get a bit irate at that! So tact and diplomacy is needed). We don't pay out moderators but we do treat them to a gift such as an Amazon voucher at Christmas or a bottle of wine if we meet with them, to say thank you for their hard work and support.

              To ensure only genuine members get on the forum we have setting so that their first two posts are moderated, if they are genuine people they understand this need for security and once their posts are allowed through they then move to a different usergroup (the 'promotions' setting is great for this as it is all automatic) after that they can post without moderation. Spammers are banned permanently which means they cannot post or join again with the same email address.

              Once your site is running you will find that other members will become helpful at 'moderating' without being actual moderators, if you tell them how to report posts.


              Advertising - Try not to put too many ads on your site as it can become annoying to members. We put more adverts on that only non-members see as this is an incentive to join. The vBulletin site builder is brilliant for this as you can easily select which usergroup can see which advert. You can also set different size adverts to show on different size devices.

              You might not make a fortune from advertising but anything helps towards running costs. As you get bigger you might even get businesses asking to advertise, it depends on your site content, it's good if you can get a niche market

              Put a notice on the front of you site to tell non registered people to come and join and they will see less adverts, have access to private areas etc. - make it worth their while registering, there is no point joining if they can do everything as a non member that a member can.

              Make member only sections too which also gives some privacy to posts, not everyone want to share their thoughts with the public and you can make sections that are only viewable by certain usergroups with a set number of posts or even by invitation only.


              Good luck, I'm sure you will enjoy setting up and running your forum but it is hard work and can take up a LOT of your time, so you do need to enjoy it.

              Thank you.

              Comment

              • BirdOPrey5
                Senior Member
                • Jul 2008
                • 9613
                • 5.6.3

                #8
                Originally posted by horsegoer

                Thanks so how could a forum earn profit for someone besides a membership fee or advertising?
                Affiliate linking from a company like https://skimlinks.com/ or http://www.viglink.com/ (Either are easily activated by adding a little JavaScript to the footer template) have brought in far more money for my site than advertising from things like Google Adsense. You need to have a forum where you or your members link to items they buy (on Amazon, eBay, and other online retailers) and if anyone else buys from those retailers after following links from your site, you get a percentage.

                Viglink and Skimlink are very similar but both require an active forum with existing links before either will approve you, but if you meet their simple requirements approval is basically guaranteed.

                However, it is very hard to get a forum going from scratch, unless you have unique and in demand content it could be months or years before you have traffic enough to worry about making profit. It's not going to come right away.

                Comment

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