Making Money...
 

I have a question.

Lets assume you wish to make money from a vB site.

How popular does it have to be until you actually generate any revenue?

I say that because I have come across a site that the owner says (and I believe him) 50 million hits++ since 2003, and yet he is finding hard to attract advertising (why he doesn't use CPM/CTR/CPA/CPC I don't know) and may have to shut the board down as he can't afford it!!! He has 5000+ users and 0.5 million posts.

Does this sound unusual????

If he can't make any money from this it kinda makes me think how the heck ANYONE makes any money from advertising!!!!

advice appreciated!!!

Well out of pure curiosity, why on earth would he choose to shut the board down with so many users and so much activity. He could sell it instead for a good price I'm bettingas a last resort.

I don't wanna disclose who it is as he told me in confidence. But I think its taking all his time up.

What puzzles me still is how can such a board not make money? With a minimum of $2/CPM that'd be (as we say in the UK... arfur daley bless his soul) "a nice little earner"

Now.. I wonder whether to open my board as I was hoping I might attract revenue.... but I now need to rethink my tactics!!!!

Don't get roped into thinking you can make loads of money from adds by running a forum. Doesn't quite work that way, and if it did everybody who runs a site would be suning it up in Florida 7 months of the year.

If only :)

if his board has 5,000 active members there is no reason why he/she couldn't make 100$ a week easily

Well it would be interesting to see if anybody here has that many hits on there site per week (5,000 uneak users), and uses google adds for example. To let us know if they do make anything like $100 per week.

Those stats are similar to my board. I have 5000 members, but they are not all active. What CPM advertisment systems do you know of? As I don't know of any.

I was under the impression CPM (Cost Per Mile) which is in effect "Cost per 1000 impressions" (not click-thrus) revenue is around $2-5.

Now I just looked at Fleabags site, and find it surprising he has no advertising? Just a question (you can tell me to get lost) but why not put up some ads and get some cash?

Or am I missing the point which is

a) some board owners are not interested

or

b) its a lot more difficult than I thought... which was just enrol with somebody like tradedoubler.com and stick on targeted ads

I am genuinely interested. It seems for example some bloggers are raking it in.. i'd have thought that vB owners would at least be on the same level :)))


ps. nice site btw fleabag!!!

I think this might be some of it. I am planning on launching a site soon. I am currently building up content for it, as it won't be just a forum, and will put no advertisements on there until I can no longer afford it, and even then it will onyl be to cover server costs.

Quite a few of us just do it as a hobby.

^ That's exactly what I do.

People make 100 dollars a week easy (many a lot more than this) on as little as 1300 uniques a day to their forum. I make x,xxx a month among my forums. My biggest one nets about 1200-1500 uniques a day on a normal day. There are people out there that make xx,xxx with forums.

well you've got my interest BamaStangGuy!

care to explain how? I'd be thrilled to make $100/wk! woohoo! I could even feed my dog!

I don't actually have a real dog...can't afford one...

lol...

m1thr0s

If the dude wants to sell his site, PM me :)

whooaaa! money!!!

It takes time, hard work and creativity. But trust me, Bama is right, it can be done.

yo edik ur not the only one wondering. im was i have had my site open for 6 months not a dollar has come in yet we have eveything like 50 members a day alot of posting but no one subscribes should i make a commercail or somthing???

we are starting to bring in some cash.. but its not from advertising.. although we are starting to become more aggressive on advertising..

there are alot of ways to generate funds on a forum.. (well I guess it depends on the forum).. for instance our forum allows us to hold events, meet and greets, contests ect..

my board has been open just over 9 months now and I am seeing about 1mil hits a month.. 12-1300 uniques a month :D

Well the best thing is to start with google adsense and then make some paid subscription so users can buy extra rights.

I myself do it purely for a hobby, all monies earned from my sites is purely to help with the running costs, dont get me wrong, i would love to make money from it but its a lot easier said than done!!

You would be suprised how easy it is.But I don't tell my secrets :)

I say easier said than done, i mean for the likes of me that dont have a clue lol