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Where Does Forum Monetization Begin??

by ThatOneHipHopGuy
17 replies
Well, I'll start this off with a hello fellow warriors, as this is my first post

I do have a question about when and how to monetize my forum.

I wanted to build a forum that brought together all aspects of Hip Hop, which I am sure is probably a big cloud to be under. I have not brought my site up to fruition, and being that it doesn't exist yet I wanted to take some time to ask about potential opportunities and things I must focus on in the short and long term. I know that advertising and promoting my content is a must, and is something I must stay consistent with, regardless of my potential success, but if I can build a sustainable traffic flow with my site, how should I begin monetizing it? I know that I could give ad space for companies to advertise their products, but is there anything more that I could do before the site becomes very successful, given the right circumstances??
#begin #forum #monetization
  • Profile picture of the author ufshane
    Offering a premium membership giving the user more functions on the website, create different levels and payment options. Most forum software have this built in.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paleochora
      Originally Posted by ufshane View Post

      Offering a premium membership giving the user more functions on the website, create different levels and payment options. Most forum software have this built in.
      This is the way to go...get your thinking cap on.
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      • Profile picture of the author AffiliateWaves
        In my view

        At this stage you must think about building a robust and popular forum about hip hop ,you must concentrate on traffic building and quality content of forum.

        Once you have enough traffic then you can think about monetization .No one will buy membership or ad space without any good traffic and content on your forum .

        We all come to warrior forum because we know we will get some good stuff everyday and it applies to all successful forums/blogs and websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author samkadya
    Originally Posted by ThatOneHipHopGuy View Post

    Well, I'll start this off with a hello fellow warriors, as this is my first post

    I do have a question about when and how to monetize my forum.

    I wanted to build a forum that brought together all aspects of Hip Hop, which I am sure is probably a big cloud to be under. I have not brought my site up to fruition, and being that it doesn't exist yet I wanted to take some time to ask about potential opportunities and things I must focus on in the short and long term. I know that advertising and promoting my content is a must, and is something I must stay consistent with, regardless of my potential success, but if I can build a sustainable traffic flow with my site, how should I begin monetizing it? I know that I could give ad space for companies to advertise their products, but is there anything more that I could do before the site becomes very successful, given the right circumstances??
    You can also add google adsense epecially if your traffic heats the 1000s. Adsense is a good source of money especially if your traffic is from the 1st world.
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  • Profile picture of the author ThatOneHipHopGuy
    But do I want to do these things right as I open up my forum?? Or should I wait and let members limited to a small number of maybe 200 use all of the forum functions before introducing a price on it such as a premium membership or creating different levels of membership?
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    • Profile picture of the author ufshane
      Originally Posted by ThatOneHipHopGuy View Post

      But do I want to do these things right as I open up my forum?? Or should I wait and let members limited to a small number of maybe 200 use all of the forum functions before introducing a price on it such as a premium membership or creating different levels of membership?
      I would recommend you start out that way... You may be pleasantly surprised how many may upgrade early on.
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  • Profile picture of the author ZedyDiamond
    Building a forum is not easy. You need a lot of time to build it, after that you need to have some content. You can hire some people who makes some posts or you can create fake accounts. Nobody wants to join an empty forum.

    Anyway, here are some ideas:
    - Text links
    - Banner ads
    - Memberships
    - Selling products (in your case since your niche is hiphop, ''how to write songs'' or ''how to rhyme'')
    - affiliate links
    - Sticky Threads (people pay you to get their threads stickied)
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    • Profile picture of the author ThatOneHipHopGuy
      That's some good ideas. I do wonder however, from reading around here you guys mention building a list when it comes to blogging and forums. What exactly is building a list, and would implementing it into my forum broaden opportunity in terms of making more money??
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  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    Don't even think about monetization until you have at least 50 regular posters on your forum.

    Once you start getting plenty of user registrations, then try to get companies to sponsor sections of the forum - this is used by a lot of the big forums out there.

    AdSense also works OK although you can end up in hot water if your user generated content has adult material or something.

    My friend has a forum and he's forever getting his AdSense suspended, but he chats to them and they reinstate it after he does a bit of a site cleanup. He must have friends in the Googleplex or something!
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    I would never charge for a member to use a forum....

    I considered charging members to use my forum then a few said why should we pay to help others....

    I prefer to sell ad space on one of my forums... yes you have to prove yourself in your niche but its good when you get it right :-)

    I make a bulk of my income from a few of the forums I own :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
    Be careful with AdSense on forums or any site with user generated content. All it takes is someone to post the wrong thing and Google decides they don't want to do business with your site anymore.
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  • Profile picture of the author koreancowboy
    As far as banner ads go, in my personal experience with running a forum, the best place is after the first post (OP).

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author JRJWrites
    1. Google AdSense.
    2. Sell banner ad space.
    3. Sell in-text links like http://digitalpoint.com/
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  • Profile picture of the author Rebeccha Haase
    If your site forum have got a lot of regular user, you can offer ad space to them. Also, adding adsense can be an option.
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  • Profile picture of the author Master of Puppets
    I'm about to start a forum also and a site called Feverbee has helped me quite a bit. Check it out.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    There is a way to make money off forums WITHOUT lots of traffic. Seriously. If your forum becomes the AUTHORITY (albeit low-traffic authority at that) in a particular niche and you attract OPINION LEADERS in your niche, you can pull down some SERIOUS sponsorship cash from your forum.
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    • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
      Originally Posted by writeaway View Post

      There is a way to make money off forums WITHOUT lots of traffic. Seriously. If your forum becomes the AUTHORITY (albeit low-traffic authority at that) in a particular niche and you attract OPINION LEADERS in your niche, you can pull down some SERIOUS sponsorship cash from your forum.
      Nicely put :-)
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