Anybody earning a decent income from their forum?

I wouldn't start a forum if you really didn't have an interest in it other than making money from it, it is a labour of love. However, you can make a decent amount if you are doing everything correctly. I haven't been able to make a living off of my forum/sites yet but a couple hundred dollars extra a month, minus hosting/domain fees, makes it easier to pay for those unexpected expenses that come up now and again.

 

I am tired of giving attempts to earn from my forum.
So, this time, I am concentrating on visitors, which eventually convert into revenue as I move ahead!

 

Which I could find the way to do this. I thought to develop a nice community around my personal hobby watching how the community was really engaged with my ideas, but never succeeded getting any donation from them, so I had to start including ads that eventually scared away people :\

 

If you don't put too many ads, no body gonna be scared !

 

I've never used banners or any type of advertisments in my sites before. Have read many posts around saying "If you have traffic, then you can earn money etc etc". My question is rather simple: "How many hits must have a site so the webmaster can earn let's say $500 a month".

 

This is the best advice. My opinion is that content is what ultimately drives traffic. Everything else is a stop-gap measure (buying views, advertising, SEO, and the like won't help if you have crap content).

 

Depends on the subject of the forum, as well as ad placement and size. Having said that, an automotive forum can do that with 2000 - 3000 uniques a day.

Your mileage may vary