Training for forum administrators

I'd agree with this as well. However, the developer has to go into it with the right mindset. You have a few people who develop forums and websites to monetize for income then you have large amount of folks who build forums off the cuff maybe to eventually earn an income from it.

Also we have to keep in mind that many of us, myself included will open a forum that we have a keen interest in as a hobby and we allow ourselves to get personally involved and sometimes this goes well, other times it does not.

I guess I wouldn't say that forums aren't money makers because that's wrong indeed. However, the amount of time for the average Joe opening a new forum, setting it, fighting the spam, settling the bickering amongst members and staff members, dealing with the egos, maintenance, backups, and all that put together... Linear dollars per hour, forums take a long time to build and take a lot of time and effort.

Again, it would all depend on your mindset and plan.

Oh hey, I would also like to read an article on this. The best way to monetize a forum.

 

My forum is very small yet (20000 posts and 1000 members), but I already earn a 3 digit number of dollars per month from Adsense. I am going to add banner ads soon, which will bring me even more money.

I think by the time I retire, I will have a nice automatic income from my forum.

I know another Croatian forum, which is very big and popular, which earns several thousand dollars on Adsense plus the banners. All together at least 20 000 $ a month.

No, they don't have paid membership.

Probably there are ways to earn money faster and with a better ROI. I guess, affiliate programs fall into this category.

 

I am interested too!

 

Thanks for the link Nick! Just picked that one up from half.com. They also have it on Amazon. << in case anyone else needed one...

I think for under 5 dollars, its worth a look.

@Brandon Shelley >> If you get around to doing that article, then please post a link here.

 

Doh.

So far nobody has mentioned the pure fact that you're on a forum that's better than a book as there is a lot to read here but you can ask questions too! I never had anybody to ask how to do it, I just hit the wrong buttons and then worked backwards to sort the problem out.

I think a big thing with good admins is the way they manage the team behind it, and it's not just the moderators, the regular members are the guys you'd be choosing as moderators if it was 10 or 100 times bigger. So you need to NOT be a hitler, NOT always express your own views, and ALWAYS allow eveything that's not insulting to be said.

I'd like to see a book that would apply to here, and my forum (totally different category) and then a military forum and whatnot. I really do think it could only really scan over forum features as much as the developer help files and FAQ could.

I think you just have to go for it, and the longer you've been doing it, and the more problems you've got yourself through, the better you are when you do another forum.