placing ads: is it worth to bother?

i'd like to ask some advice from more experienced users regarding possible monetization of my forum. it has started some three years ago by accident and i've run it all this time on pure enthusiasm but now i feel that i just don't want to do this anymore. i want to get some cash back, if only to cover hosting fees and maybe some cool additions to the forum, like vbseo or even vb4.
anyway, i never did that before and i just don't know if it's worth the bother. my awstats report that in this october my forum took around 5.4m hits and there were 17.3k unique visitors, i don't know if these numbers mean anything and what else to check. can this site generate any visible income, how'd you think? i mean, if it can bring something like $10/month i'd probably just spend my time on something more rewarding...

well, frankly i tried to place banners on my other site with somewhat comparable traffic and i earned $10 in half an year. that's why i'm so skeptical this time, but on the other hand, it wasn't forum and it was a couple years ago... maybe i just did something wrong that time...

 

nohuhu, you definitely need to have a Google Adsense account and place some ads for at least the guests (unless you wanted to show ads to members too). With those traffic numbers, you can definitely pull at least $50/month if not more.

 

ArnyVee,

thanks, i went and did that. got myself a google adsense account and placed some ads for guests, that is. in half a day it got two clicks worth $.11, yeehaw! i'll get rich!

 

What is the subject of the forum?

Are there retailers that would find your user base appealing?

 

gnatster,

it's an automotive forum, dedicated mostly to technical matters, diagnostics, repairs and such. i guess the most traffic is generated by registered users but can't prove it since awstats doesn't show me any difference.
and yes, i think there are retailers that could find my user base appealing, in fact they're already there, at least part of them. not only retailers but service shops as well. i can understand what you're talking about, but i don't know how to really approach this. i mean, people are used to ad-free forum. and also there're the questions of pricing and rule enforcement. i just don't know what would be a fair price for a retailer to pay me for their advertising, and so on - i never did this before, i have too many questions and too few answers. i'll figure it out somehow, i think, but it also needs time. a lot of it.

 

nohuhu, it won't happen overnight. Took me six months before getting consistent levels of click throughs on those ads. But, it works. Test out by displaying them to all, then display them to only guests or only members, etc. Just work out how things work for you on your site and then adjust as you go. You always have to evaluate the effectiveness of both the location of the ads and who you display them to.

As far as the retailer ads, simply explain to your members that you need to take on some ads to help with the costs of running the site. Offer 'prime' location ad spots such as top right of header and under navbar to those retailers and sell them based on the traffic that you receive and the potential sales as a result.

Also, you should do some "supporter" donations as well. Offer your members additional PM space or personalized email @yoursite.com, etc. Just think of the different ways to generate some revenue and determine how you'd like to introduce and display it on the site. Good luck!

 

Ok, so whats the address to the site?

 

yeah, i realize this too. i was joking.

yeah, i have a lot of bright ideas. premium memberships, gold memberships - twice as much but with some fancy things threwn in - merchant memberships, selling merchandise like logoed apparel, mugs and custom license plates and such, a lot of it. wish i had time for it all. my full-time job is really full time these days, new year rush already starting and all that. also there are a lot of screwy practicalities like how to accept payments - it's not as easy in this part of the world, where credit cards are not that common and even paypal doesn't allow to accept payments on one's account. :mad2:

well, no point in whining. i think i'll do it all or parts of it, just need time. now i think my site's potential is quite high, if properly developed...

 

Ford Trucks Club - Ãëàâíàÿ ñòðàíèöà it's all in russian for unregistered users, i can't find time and rewrite that browser-language-detection plugin i've found on vbulletin.org, right now it's quire screwy but can be made to work.
i didn't sign it in for reviewing 'cause i already know it's bad. whadda ye want, i did the skin myself... well, except for the logo, i'm not that adept with photoshop so i had to ask one of my moderators, who is.

 

Nice site, so do guys have any Harley Edition F150s over there in Russia?

 

Good looking clean site. A few well placed banner adds would not muck it up and could bring in more than a few rubles. Working with local and regional shops, parts sellers and dealers would be the key I would think. I've always thought it was important to have the advertiser be a part of the community. Works as a win win win situation. The advertiser wins with more sale, the members win with good (hopefully) response from the advertiser and you win with a long term advertiser.

 

not sure about one-fifties, i guess they're not too practical in our climate. supercharged 2wd, you know. at least, there is none on my forum, or i'd know. we have one harley two-fifty, though. sexy beast, none better.

 

well, it could be better. crowded forumhome and skin that doesn't handle long last post titles all too well, it streches and screws the whole page - try viewing it with browser window shrinked horizontally, you'll see. same thing with forumdisplay and postbits, though better than it was with phpbb - it's the same very problem that affects most of table-column-based skins. also many of my users complained that it's too dark and on the whole i'm inclined to agree with them. well, it's easily explained: first i found a ford advertising that the logo is made from, it looked so sexy i just couldn't resist, and after that the skin was made to complement it. results are moderate at best, i'm no designer. can't afford professionally made skin just yet, though, and have no time to redo it myself.

yeah, i think this is the best way too. i guess i'll do just this.

 

17.3K unique visitors, 5.4 million impressions, $50 a month...

Something seems wrong here. You can sell your own advertising for $10-$50 a month per slot with those numbers. Probably more if you have a specific niche market. Why do people insist on making Google rich when they can pocket some of that themselves. At the very bottom, you should be shooting for 1 cent in ad revenue per visitor per month. The money is out there, you have to find it. With 17,300 uniques, your goal should be $173.00 a month.

To do this, you need a mix of your own ads, affiliate programs, and filler. Google Adsense is filler. It is designed to make people right but those people are not site owners. It is designed to make those sitting in the Googleplex money.

 

Wayne,

that's why i asked for advice. thanks, now i know what to strive for.

 

Well here is how i secured my hosting costs and upgrade monies...

The first thing i did was setup a VIP forum. Within that forum, is special stuff. Basically, very light moderation, area for inappropriate pictures/conversations and a slew of other type of off the wall stuff. $10/yr to the members for one year access.. They get an increase in PMs, Custom Title, Custom Usergroup Color, etc. I also offer other things to VIPs i dont care to document online, but the bottom line is, i get an easy $500-900 a month. Since im a niche, my vendors pay $50-$125/mo to do their business on my site. Im very small to my competitors but i do specialize in one certain portion of my market. I found that being a bit unorthordoxed as a niche, makes my site that more interesting.

I also dont clog my site up with google ads, post bit ads, etc. It really does piss off your users.