Has Anybody Made a Profit from Forums?

**chatterbox** · 23 January, 2010, 00:28 AM

Adsense doesn't bring in much at all - I'm not sure why I bother, but use your forum traffic to guide customers to advertisers.

**alamest** · 23 January, 2010, 18:36 PM

You are write that forum is good way to make money as this netbuilder is nice forum marketing but maintaining this kind of forum is very difficult because I have a forum before but it does not works for me alone so I need a people to maintain and that is way I left and started my own community business. So you want to start a forum, think and plan before to take step.

I hope I have taken a right decision to move.

Thanks
Alam

**Desan** · 30 January, 2010, 16:31 PM

Adsense doesn't work well with forums. It's a good thing Adsense isn't the only way to monetize a website.

If you can get enough active users, you could sell banner ads on the forum. Or links or what ever.
But you could also try putting banners or 125x125 buttons, and promote different affiliate products via them. This works better with some niches than others.

I'm playing with the idea of building a forum. I'm planning it in the back of my mind. And in english that means I may build a forum in the near or distant future. Or maybe I don't build it at all.

**forumer147** · 24 February, 2010, 14:35 PM

Originally Posted by tvkchaitanya

I have created 2-3 forums in 2008 - 2009 and earned only 50$ from three forums.. and decided to stop them .. you cant get more income without huge amount of active members

Good luck

I guess it really depends on what niche your forum is usually if you have some forums it must take a year before you can make more income in it

**texashiker** · 24 February, 2010, 14:40 PM

My main forum, which has over 28,000 members, and over 1.3 million post, barely breaks even at the end of the month.

I lease a quad core server with 8 gigs of memory. Just about everything I make goes into the server and software cost.

**TopDogger** · 24 February, 2010, 14:44 PM

Originally Posted by texashiker

My main forum, which has over 28,000 members, and over 1.3 million post, barely breaks even at the end of the month.

I lease a quad core server with 8 gigs of memory. Just about everything I make goes into the server and software cost.

Wow. It is disappointing that you are not making money. I am a member of your forum. It has a very active membership and I do consider it to be one of the best forums covering your niche.

Perhaps you will eventually make some money if you sell it.

**texashiker** · 24 February, 2010, 14:49 PM

Originally Posted by TopDogger

Wow. It is disappointing that you are not making money. I am a member of your forum. It has a very active membership and I do consider it to be one of the best forums covering your niche.

Thank you.

If I could put adsense on my main forum, things would not be so bad. But since I can not use google adsense, I have to look for other means of revenue, such as selling ads directly, or amazon associates.

Right now I'am using adtoll, but I thinking about mixing in some amazon ads with adtoll.

**Aquarezz** · 25 February, 2010, 16:43 PM

Originally Posted by texashiker

Thank you.

If I could put adsense on my main forum, things would not be so bad. But since I can not use google adsense, I have to look for other means of revenue, such as selling ads directly, or amazon associates.

Right now I'am using adtoll, but I thinking about mixing in some amazon ads with adtoll.

What's your forum? Is it about hiking? Can't you sell hiking stuff? Or eventually put a contest online where you give away one price and link to the company through your affiliate link? Or isn't that possible neither?

**texashiker** · 25 February, 2010, 20:33 PM

Originally Posted by Aquarezz

What's your forum? Is it about hiking?

My main forum - http://www.survivalistboards.com/

Threads: 94,423
Posts: 1,331,206
Members: 28,427
Active Members: 6,348
Most users ever online was 837, 02-03-2010 at 08:19 PM.
The most members online over 24 hours was 2,500, 02-02-2010 at 07:06 PM.

The reason why I can not use google adsense, is because we link to, and promote the sale of weapons and firearms.

Originally Posted by Aquarezz

Can't you sell hiking stuff? Or eventually put a contest online where you give away one price and link to the company through your affiliate link? Or isn't that possible neither?

I sell banners through adtoll and I'am also an Amazon Associate. But I took the amazon banners off a long time ago. However, I'am thinking about putting them back on.

Every month my forum sponsors a contest for a merchant. This month its for some water filters, next month its going to be a big list of stuff.

**vectro** · 26 February, 2010, 01:24 AM

I know of one forum that appears to be very profitable, even in the millions, just not in an honest way

Originally Posted by Aquarezz

Well since users create the content for you, it is good if you can get it an active place. About the low earnings.. it variates from niche to niche.. Create a webmaster / proxy forum and the earnings will be low. Create a health forum and the earnings will be high

Any idea if an exercise forum would have comparable value to a health site?

Originally Posted by 5starpix

I used to run a forum in 2007. I made like $100 the whole year. I took it down in 2009. I had a good user base though

Do you still have the domain and backup of the forum? There are always ways to monetize, though most people I know with forums are lucky to break even. Sounds like you had a good start, though.