Maximizing ROI from forum

[vida_llevares]

Hi.

How do you actually maximize the returns from managing a forum? Any tips you can share?

 

[strata12123]

The only thing I can think of is get enough traffic first then apply for Google AdSense.
If that does not work, opt for people who are willing to run ads on your forum and come up with a fair pricing for their ads depending on how long they will advertise on your forum. A prerequisite to this is also lost of traffic otherwise no one will click the ads.

 

[Viktori]

I'm not an expert, but from being a member of many forums throughout the years, I've seen many different forms of monetization and from what I can tell, it may just depend on the type of forum you have since the structure and ads you will be able to put up will all stem from that. As for other ways to profit from a forum, I've seen a lot of forums that offer premium membership and if your structure is good enough and you make it worth it for members, people will gladly pay that amount in exchange for some added benefits.

 

[Yorozuya]

I heared google adsense is not that good for forums because the ads they display depend on the content of the page so CPC (cost per click) can be very low, depending on your niche. As far as I know monetizing a forum can be very hard, but you can always try to put on ads that might interest your audience. Or maybe open a 'sell your services' section and allow users to post their services there for a small fee.

 

[carlalexander]

The subject of forum monetizing is a tricky affair to most webmasters. So should you or should you not monetize your forum, well, it all depends with what you had in mind when you started your forum. Did you start it as a hobby or a source of income. If you started it as a source of income then you should do it from the very start, so that some of your loyal members do not feel betrayed/ used. There are many ways of doing this, such in line advertising (several companies offer this), selling ads directly where a certain company enters into an agreement with you to purchase a certain amount of ad space for a given period of time. The payment can either be fixed per given period, say a month, or PPC, or CPM.

 

[carlalexander]

The only thing I can think of is get enough traffic first then apply for Google AdSense.
If that does not work, opt for people who are willing to run ads on your forum and come up with a fair pricing for their ads depending on how long they will advertise on your forum. A prerequisite to this is also lost of traffic otherwise no one will click the ads.

That's correct, having a good number of members and also good traffic can make your forum to command a high amount of ad fee. Most of time, if you have a well established forum, companies would be approaching you so that you put their ads on your forum. Which is a good thing.

 

[carlalexander]

Hi.

How do you actually maximize the returns from managing a forum? Any tips you can share?

Alternatively, to add on to what I just said. You can use your forum to direct traffic and PR to your main website/site or blog. So apart from monetizing your forum directly, you can use it to funnel traffic and PR to your site, and voila, your monetized site gets free traffic and PR and hopefully conversions.

 

[Nymph]

When it comes to maximizing the ROI on any investment, you're going to need a quality campaign, which, in the case of a forum, translates to an interesting and engaging overall theme or topic, and enough traffic to make any sort of monetization effective enough to meet and surpass your initial investment. Again, traffic in this case when it comes to a forum is vital, but the number of returning members to give your forum life is more essential to the success of the forum, in my opinion.

For any forum dabbling in a major niche like weight loss, SEO, or the like, Google Adsense and other ad programs or even CPA offers are excellent monetization strategies. Once your forum has built enough traction, you can even sell ad space for hundreds to thousands of dollars per month to individuals or via an advertising platform. You need to plan your investments and forum growth very carefully, preferably before you even set the forum up, if you want a good ROI.