How to generate revenue in online forums?

vmgbpo

We have a client who is running a forum on a niche subject. The forum
presently has 18,000 members and receives 3000 visitors per day. The
forum is run on vbulletin software.  The client`s business model has so
far been advertising (adsense). But the earnings from selling these advertisements are very low. They
are now looking for alternative revenue models.  What are some
other ways an online forum can generate revenue?

vmgbpo

Chris

Kontera and widgetbucks definitely look interesting.

Thank you.

Joe3001

Hello, I don`t know much about anything...but I`ve thought about purchasing a small forums type community before, and I came up with the same question.  What`s the point of having it if it doesn`t make any money.  I came up with trying to sell real products to your members.  I don`t know how well received it would be, but maybe you could throw a spin on it you know?  Like don`t throw it in their faces, but make it known on the site that you are now offering products.  Or "We here at Egyptian Table-Top forums support the following products" or something like that and just make sure that you`re selling those products.  That`s what I was thinking anyway.
 
-Joe3001

WebJunky

i have seen many forums as a support to the main website.  so in other words the forums themselves might not earn revenues but they earn the traffic which they direct to the main website.  the main website in turn monetizes the traffic.  that said, all the suggestions above are great.  i believe a forum is best used in conjuction with a website simply because of quality of content/SEO purposes.  a successful website can instantly boost a new forum but i dont think it works exactly as effective when done the other way.  that said, i believe a stand alone forum is also much more difficult to get "up the ranks".  try to use your forum as much as possible to direct visitors to your monetizing sources such as sales pages, downloadable products, free  ebooks with affiliate links etc.
 
good luck

infinique1

You can display Google Ads to get some ad revenue from Adsense.

misobelly

I would say that great way to monetize your forum is kontera and google ads. I think it should be great.

tyang

One of the easiest ways is to place google ads or find CPA offers to put on your site. Your site must be receiving good traffic before any type of money will come in. Good Luck!

kadorcasoo

Just posting thread at regular time. For me, it works.

CIBR

It depends on the niche. Some niches, you can do really well with affiliate programs combining with Adsense. Usually, with that traffic, you can do pretty good with Adsense alone. If you don't do well with Adsense, you might want to try to switch the ads position and do A/B testing.

WebJunky

forums are extremely difficult to monetize in my experience given the motive / purpose of the visitors. the best way i have been able to do this is through private advertisements, not CPC, rather fixed fee. you will get a very poor CPC / click through ratio if that is what you count on

anthonydavis4188

Yes, paid membership
with extra privilege to members would gather good revenue. People actually look
for it. Some more ways are banner advertisement, ads on the forum. All the
best!

imigyjunia

Google Adsense and all kinds of Affiliate programs with large online stores. You may find quite a lot of opportunities at Linkshare.com or JC.

BJ_C

You can place some google ads in your forum.

Marcus60

Yes I agree with Danibanu, you need a lot of traffic.

mmad11

How about starting a blog pertaining to the niche subject and promoting it throughout the board so that you'll get some of your members as followers. Blogs are easier to monetize because you can write out (discreet) advertisements for particular products or services, etc. Then you can build off of that.

devbpo2012

I've never been sold to Facebook. This strategy is only effective your company is quite popular. I think you should make a facebook fanpage and increase more than thousand likes then you could get revenue.