[Spinball]

Growing a forum is hard work, and I think you have to be either lucky or have taken financial investment in order to turn a forum into one which makes you money.
The hardest part is making sure the servers are powerful enough to cope with the traffic. So you have to invest in the hardware *before* you can reap the rewards from advertising or whatever.

If your forum is about a subject that has a market for advertising and you have reasonable traffic then maybe you should clean house and persevere with it.
For example, if your forum is about stamp collecting, DVDs or different types of rocks then it's unlikely that you will make significant revenue. On the other hand if your forum is about cars, electronics or holidays then you may have a whole bunch of companies who want to advertise their products/services on your forum.

One difficult part of running a forum is managing its growth. There is a period in the life of a growing forum when there is a small band of regular users who form a clique. The community spirit that is at the heart of the forum works negatively against those new to the community. Picking on noobs, for example.
This has to be dealt with. New people must be made to feel welcome or your forum will not grow.
I created rules which insist on respectful behaviour towards other forum members. Name calling results in infractions. If you keep your forums civil then they will appeal to the widest audience.

If your forums are going to grow, you need a strong team of moderators who apply the forum rules fairly and justly. You decide the rules. You can and probably should do this with input from your community, but it is your forum so ultimately the decision is yours. If people don't like it they can choose not to participate. You have to take that line.
If the moderators do not agree with your rules, then they can not be moderators any more.
If they do not apply the rules fairly they can not be moderators any more.
If they break the rules they can not be moderators any more.
Moderators are representatives of your forum and must maintain the highest level of integrity and must lead your community by example.
One tip with regard to moderators is not to appoint them on the basis of whether they apply or not, but instead you should choose them based on their behaviour in the forum.
We always ask trusted moderators to nominate other members for moderating positions.

I love running my forum and it generates enough money to keep 6 people in full time work. So I'm very fortunate. If your forum has the potential to earn you a living and it's something you think you can enjoy then take a firm grip of the reigns and steer it into success.

That's my pearl of wisdom for today