Anybody earning a decent income from their forum?

Discussion in 'Monetization Techniques' started by NationTalk.us, Aug 15, 2013.

  1. NationTalk.us

    NationTalk.us Regular Member

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    I've read about a few people who made a living off their forum, but I never actually met someone who did it. The forum I'm working on is still fairly new, and I'm wondering what the potential is. Is it just a labor of love?
     
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  2. BamaStangGuy

    BamaStangGuy Administrator

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    I run forums full time. I believe @Joeychgo and @petertdavis among a few others here do as well.
     
  3. Joeychgo

    Joeychgo Regular Member

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  4. andyred

    andyred Regular Member

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    Mines under 3 months old and has no revenue yet, actually im waiting a litte while longer to put ads on it until i get more visitors.
    I believe hard work and determination can at least net you a nice amount of pocket change each month.

    Any extra income is better than none at all though.
     
  5. Gregman

    Gregman Regular Member

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    I respect all of you guys and hope to be there one day myself. I just bought another server and I will have it online next week. And then I plan on building a portfolio from there. And then maybe one day I will be on the beach enjoying a nice ice cold drink and managing my forums. :cool:

    Greg
     
  6. jason29

    jason29 Regular Member

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    I haven't earned much from my forum till now. I have earned total of 3.50$ from adsense from 4 of my sites
     
  7. Cerberus

    Cerberus Admin Talk Staff

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    I have run multiple forums for the sole purpose of making money and I can assure you that if done right you can make lots of money off of your site. It just depends on you, the admin. You have to decide if you want your site to be for fun or for business. Then once you make that choice you stick to it and do not be deterred from it. I know it is hard because you want your members to like you and all, but you kind of have to be an [****][****][****][****][****][****][****] to keep everyone in check, it is kind of inevitable
     
  8. BigJ

    BigJ Regular Member

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    Do you believe in monetization from the start then or would you build up a base first?
     
  9. Zerth

    Zerth Regular Member

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    I haven't earned much to be honest, I used to have adsense, but before I could collect the money I got banned :/
    Now I'm earning literally nothing with my current adverts.
    Been looking for some other ideas to earn money but no hope :/
     
  10. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

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    I wish I did. But at present, the amount of money I make from my sites is basically just some nice pocket change. Albeit potentially enough to just about pay the hosting fees.
     
  11. Cerberus

    Cerberus Admin Talk Staff

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    You would build the site to make money from the start, by using a nicely SEOed domain name containing your money keywords and then also choose forum names that will also make you money when making them. And also use nice money making descriptions. You really have to choose when building it.
     
  12. maksim

    maksim Regular Member

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    I can live on forum income, however I do own and run two other full time businesses. Zero adsense revenue.
     
  13. Clickfinity

    Clickfinity Regular Member

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    I've been working up to full-time for the past couple of years and hope to make the switch next March.
     
  14. Mark.B

    Mark.B Regular Member

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    My forum is a hobby forum and is completely non-profit. It carries no adverts whatsoever.

    I take voluntary donations from members which generally will cover about 50% of the actual costs of running the site. People pay me to carry out my hobby, I'm quite happy with that.
     
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  15. LukeM

    LukeM Regular Member

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    I have never actually had any good success with forums. I've made money off blogs but I've never had any success with forums. I think there's more opportunities with blogs, there's sites like PostLoop which allow you to post articles on your blog and get paid, so you're getting paid $5-$500 just to basically post an article on your blog, which is good money considering you could do multiple a day.
     
  16. Shawn Gossman

    Shawn Gossman Regular Member

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    Mainly through donations and direct advertising sales, I earn about $100 more than what I pay for hosting and domain costs each month. Its not a huge profit but it pays the bills and some. I use the profit mainly to put back into the forums for contests, advertising and so on.
     
  17. Joeychgo

    Joeychgo Regular Member

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    For those reading this and wondering.... The first rule to making money with your forum is TRAFFIC.

    The more traffic you have, the easier it is to make money and the more revenue you can generate. So your first concern always should be how to keep new people coming to your site and keep them coming back.

    That is the magic formula. There are no shortcuts.
     
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  18. Shawn Gossman

    Shawn Gossman Regular Member

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    100% Agreed :)
     
  19. Caddyman

    Caddyman engiwebmastechanic

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    nope, it would be cool, but nope
     
  20. mysiteguy

    mysiteguy Regular Member

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    Been doing it full time since 2000, part time prior to that since 1996.
     

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