Who here is making a full time living with their forum or has plans to?
id imagine thatd be pretty hard....unless u get tons of traffic.
Its very unlikely you will make a living from a single site.
Also note forums generally have alot lower cost per click, which means earnings are generally lower than websites.
This is due to recurring non-unique traffic.
Most people are lucky if they manage to scrape their hosting/domain costs.
Hum. I know a guy that has an R/C helicopter site and pulls in about thirty grand a month. We are projecting that my site will do about $16k per month by this time next year. We don't charge based on clicks or impressions. It's x amount per month to have a banner <period>. I was just curious if others were having success.
My forum doesn't use banner promos but as a writing forum we are setting up a bookstore to sell Anthologies. This will cover the hosting costs.
I'm too lazy to. My forum has about 6 thousand members but I'm just not good with money. The most i'll do is put up adsense. Members donate for a supporting member status but that's bout it.
Gosh, my forum doesn't even have ads. :P
Haha, but I plan to maybe use Adsense or something else in the future. The first step is getting the traffic though. Later hopefully the money will come. ;) My website does not only have a forum though, and there is more to it than that. Anyway, whether or not I make (a lot of) money doesn't really matter. As long as I'm not always losing money I will continue doing this because I enjoy it.
I plan to release a guide on how to make money with a SMF forum/site. The trouble is I don't know if it's better to it as an eBook or webpage. Do most people here know what an eBook is or how to read/open one? I don't want to make it sound like I think people are dumb, I just want to reach/help as many people as possible. What do you think?
+ In answer to the main question, I don't make a living on my forum. Those with better member and post counts can probably. But I've made enough money to easily pay for hosting over the next 20 years or so. lol. I already have a job that I make a living from, the money I make from my forum just pays for great days out and a decent christmas for my family :)
These days most sites will not make you a fortune. Never mind a living.
Alot of the buzz around making sites and having ad income is a scam. There maybe the odd one in a niche area who is making mega bucks. But for 99.99% of publishers, its a sparce living.
It's about about having the right idea and putting in mega hours in just like any other entrepreneur or small business owner. Scratching for members 1 at a time of you have to. Sometimes it can take years before you see money in your pocket. Small business owners know about that one. It can however pay off big. I've seen it many times.
I think it's definately possible to make enough money to pay for hosting. There are just SO many ways of making money these days online.
The guide I was proposing wasn't guaranteeing to make everyone a millionaire. lol. Far from it, but you can still make a decent amount of cash to make it worthwhile implementing.
Quote from: karlbenson on December 17, 2007, 08:02:24 AM
These days most sites will not make you a fortune. Never mind a living.
Alot of the buzz around making sites and having ad income is a scam. There maybe the odd one in a niche area who is making mega bucks. But for 99.99% of publishers, its a sparce living.
I agree with this statment and really it applies to the internet in general. If you are setting up a forum or site just to make money,Odds are it will not pan out.
However if you are setting up a forum or website for your "Passion" then just paying the hosting bills would be reward enough.
tumble
I think you are missing the point. One of the forums I have was setup "just to make money" and for no other reason. That particular forum happens to be the one that's growing the most and making the most money. Why? Because the community forum is being run like a business with specific goals in mind and a business plan. We do marketing, sales, merchandising, etc and spend an enormous amount of time working for it's success. It started with a good idea and an opportunity. Not only that, I don't have any personal attachment with the subject of the forum other than I enjoy the pure concept of community forums in general.
The second forum I have is actually a passion of mine and I treat it as my "baby." It does ok and is growing but I doubt I'll ever make much money with it. My third venture into community forums is new and not even officially launched although I'm taking on a few members here and there. This particular forum is the other one that is being built with the express intention of generating revenue. How's this, enough income to support two or more people full time. It's subject is also a passion of mine but it to will be run like a full fledged business. Marketing, sales, merchandising, the whole ball of wax.
It's all in the quality of the idea, how seriously you approach it and the amount of time and effort you put into it. There's a difference between a person who digs games and decides to start a forum and after awhile makes enough money to pay for hosting and a person that develops a business plan on a quality idea and executes it to success.
Congrats on your forums success.
Do you use SMF for all of your forums?
If you do i am sure you make big donations to SMF for all of their hard work they put into the program that has made you so successful :)
tumble
I do use SMF for our forums but I'm not sure what the later has to do with this particular discussion. My point is, no matter what software you are using free or not free, forums can be a successful model for earning a living depending on how it's executed and of course the subject matter of the community. Personally I think SMF should be charging for their software. ;)
Why should they charge? Open source software is one of the greatest things to grace the internet.
+if you think they should get money for their work, why dont you donate as tumbleweed said? :P
Quote from: wk38 on December 17, 2007, 04:24:28 PM
Personally I think SMF should be charging for their software. ;)
And this will never happen, This is one of there core values.
I was hoping to get a discussion going about making a living with community forums and who's trying to make a run at it full time. Maybe some of their secrets for success. All I got back was you really can't and why don't I donate to SMF.
Never mind.
We love discussion here.
If you want to find some tips see http://forums.digitalpoint.com
But many of the stuff you'll find there from full time professionals will be like whats i've said
- Don't make sites/forums just for advertising potential (Known as Made-For-Adsense)
- Never pay for advertising tips/ebooks (they are scams)
- Don't expect to make a living. If you do great, but its unlikely.
But if I had the secrets for success I doubt I would share them. I'd be earning ;)
I agree with the 1st one. You can't make any real money with Adsense. But you can build a forum just for advertising potential.
The way you make money is very simple (so to speak). Have a business plan, some capitol to work with, the right idea, market, drive traffic, create particapation, sell banner ads to those who would benefit specifically from your traffic. Keep your advertising specific. If you have a photography site, don't run banners for dating services. Forget about Adsense.
Unless you have a site that takes millions of hits a month, don't sell ads based on impressions or click throughs. Charge a fixed monthly fee for your banners. Less for button ads, more for larger forum banners.
Create reasons why advertisers want, need or must be on your site. Sell those reasons. Once you have traffic, you need to sell. If you aren't a salesman, you're not going to get anywhere. Like photography, selling is about 90% taking photos is about 10%.
I'll give you some examples. runryder.com is a site for model helicopters. Took him about 3 years and mega amounts of work before he saw success. Now he's full time and trust me when I say.. the money is gooooood. Here's more. rcgroups.com, helifreak.com, wattflyer.com, rcuniverse.com. All the same subject, making good money, run like a business, not a hobby. I can name many many more that are making great money, full time and in many different subjects.
It can be done but like any business, it aint easy.
I certainly think it's possible to make a living, but I guess too many people have the wrong attitude going into it. I think you really need to look at your long-term goals and not only try to focus on making a quick buck today. Haha, but then again I haven't made a cent as yet since I don't have any ads on my forum. ::)
Anyway, I'm willing to put myself out on the line and say that I believe I can make a living either directly or indirectly because of my website/s. The reason I said indirectly is because I look at my forum more as a networking tool which can open up many other opportunities based on the trust my community should garner. Of course I don't have any secret for success. As far as I know the easiest way to success is hard work and perseverance. I really think once I get two more things working perfectly on my forum that I can attract many more members.
Haha, well since I'm still a newbie in terms of forums it will be hard for anyone to believe that I can be successful, but I'm confident that I can at least be successful in terms of traffic. Whether or not I can properly monetarize(sp?) that traffic remains to be seen. ;)
Quote from: karlbenson on December 18, 2007, 10:33:06 AM
But if I had the secrets for success I doubt I would share them. I'd be earning ;)
thanks karl... ima use that on my MSN <personal message> now hehehe
Making a living with my site was my goal but i don't think that's realistic.
I do get a high $$ or low/med $$$ amount from donators on my site but thats not enough to live from. Now i just help people with their programming and occasionally get paid by people that need me to do their programming homework or projects.
Quote from: Noddegamra on December 17, 2007, 06:01:12 AM
I plan to release a guide on how to make money with a SMF forum/site. The trouble is I don't know if it's better to it as an eBook or webpage.
Do both, :)
I make enough to cover my hosting and domain cost plus advertise the site on some others. I have banner ad's and do it by packages, one packages offers more than the other. I currently have 6 sponsors and my site has been up 1 month. All I plan on is having a great site for everyone to enjoy and with the extra money go out and have a good time or buy more accessories for my toys. my site is www.polarisrangerforum.com
I Dont think it would be easy making a living off one forum alone.
You would need other content on the site or more than one forum.
I cover my hosting costs easly Last year we donated about £500 ish to charity as well
www.superbikeforums.co.uk
google ads are pants but the $100 every 2-3mths makes good beer money ;D
It seems like the point is flying over people's heads no matter how many times it is reiterated.
1. Have a forum related to something that has some commercial value, preferably something with a good cost per unit (like the rc hobbyist examples)
2. Drive traffic to your forum to create a customer base (potential value)
3. Sell adds to people who produce items related to your forum that said customer base would be interested in.
= Happy customers, Happy Vendors, Happy you.
Then of course there's always
4. Spend time worrying that said vendors will just set up their own forums and skip you altogether at some point in the future.
My sites are currently still not making *enough* money to cover on its own, but I have seen some really big sites which make big money from advertising, so my goal is towards that.
However, I don't think I want to be money/profit orientated. It makes running a forum tiresome and will very quickly get fedup.
Well lurking through this discussion there is some really great advice here. Thanks all of you for sharing your ideas a experiences. I've set up several forums in the past and found that just because you make it doesn't mean they will come. As stated above if you want to make money off your forum you really need to have a plan in mind. And, just like anything else in business it takes time and money to start.
I started my latest forum, The Grey Hair Forum, because I am was to find a way to rid my home of my unwanted son-in-law and couldn't find any information on the internet.
As for making money with it. We shall see what the future has.