I think that in the end you have to play the long game to make money.

I got the money together for my vbulletin and hosting from my main site (I run a job section and this seems to pull the most cash). The forums seem pretty slow to generate funds but I put this down to the myriad of chat forums on which people now spread themselves. I think it is worth remebering that if you are not unique, why would anyone want to join?

From a forum only perspective, the revenue generation through ads is fairly poor. I put this down to the staitc placement of ads, this allows the users to become ad blind and consequently, you lose clicks.

Maybe someone should write an random ad placer which posts a specific ad format to differant locations.... time or cookie driven. If someone does build this, please PM me so I can upload it lol:D oh yeh... dont forgot to mention where you got the idea from, I could use the Unuque hits lol;)

As for how much I specifically make.... I still hold down a day job but there is some left over after paying for everything. :(

I once was making 20 Euro per day with ~5000 Uniques. Thats long ago and I currently just make 2 to 3 dollars a day when I get lucky. :D

If you have spent that much money on your website...How about you invest in a template?!

Ya, most people in forum have become ad bling. Maybe use piture banners rather than text? I make money from my websites. I made so little with the forum, I keep it ad free and as hobby. Do you guys think it's wise to do images? Good thing is now google lets you change the ads from the site. You don't have to change the forum codes all day.

Sorry for my bad english :D

I win only to pay the cost for the servers:

18 dedicated servers:

1 db
1 ads
1 flashcomm
1 backups
6 www
6 media
2 thumbs

Dual processor quad cores, 4 gb ram, 15k scsi

120.000 uniques
Near 1.000 in alexa :p

That's ok

18 dedicated servers; wow. That must cost a fortune to run.
What are you running? Google? :P

Gezzz I am making nada on mine but still trying to learn how to do everything. Guess it just takes time and patience and probably a little knowledge of how to do things which is my excuse :)

Members: 2,876
Threads: 26,782
Posts: 373,079
~750 posts/day
>1000 uniques/day

We were running on donations alone, then recently switched to Auctionads at the top and Adbrite at the bottom. Adbrite is more for stats and to allow one member to advertise/support the site, and I only do CPM ads instead of CPC since few people will actually click anyway.

Auctionads is rocking though, we're dedicated to a specific sport, so it's super easy to target our member's buying habits with the AA keywords. It started out ok, and has built and built. We're already over $350 through the 17th of this month.

Every forum is going to be different though.

started a new forum 1-2 months ago.

has 12k Unique per day. ++++ing new adsense rules gives me measly 7$ daily.
I am setting up sponsor space and gonna sell it.