My forum gets 194k unique visitors per month - How can I make money?

57 replies
I own a decent sized forum:
See screen shot.


I am currently brining in money with:
Adsense
Ebay PArtner Network
Amazon-Affiliate
CJ.com
Vendor banner ads
Subscription memberships


Ad sense and EPM pay me the most income with member subscriptions earning me a bit more.




Does anyone have any suggestionson how I can improve my revenue?
#194k #forum #make #money #month #unique #visitors
  • Profile picture of the author kimkay
    Well...this could go on forever...why don't you try giving us an idea of what your forum is about and then maybe some people could narrow down things a bit.

    Also, your asking a question about monetizing a forum on a forum that is monetized (in my opinion) very well...so look right here for some ideas.
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    • What is the website address? Surely it can't be a secret?
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      • Profile picture of the author artekweb
        Originally Posted by Internet_Corporation View Post

        What is the website address? Surely it can't be a secret?
        i also wana know the website address
        Signature
        Wizhoo.com Social Media Reseller Panel - 30+ Services
        Facebook, Youtube like/dislike/ safe views , Twitter, Instagram
        Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram, Vimeo, Vine​
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        • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
          Originally Posted by darkwizgemz View Post

          What site is it? It sure has a lot of views.
          Originally Posted by DxSEO View Post

          i also wana know the website address
          Post #10 has your answer. He's purposely not linking.

          As for the dilemma, I'm seeing the same thing mentioned over and over again here. "Senior Members". Your problem isn't monetization (you're clearly earning a decent income)...it's the attitude of the old forum members. You see, senior members remember the "good ole anti-capitalism" days" but new members could care less.

          A better question might be, "How do I change old member's attitudes?"
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  • Profile picture of the author Will Perkins
    What kind of forum is it? Discussion wise I mean, that'd be a great place to start.

    Depending on that, create a opt-in email list separate of the sign-ups (weeds out spam).
    *I mean don't just add everyone that registers on the forum to the list.

    Market to those people daily, weekly, by weekly, monthly, whatever you want really.

    Look into private advertising SPECIFIC to your forum's niche. People are much more willing to dump out money to a company for advertisements if it's targeted traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author georgenews
      I'd add some whitelabels and things that will keep surfers coming back.
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    • Profile picture of the author arttse
      Focus on banner ads. Contact an ad agency to source advertisers.

      Check out this forum. They are making a killing.

      www.hotcopper.com.au



      Originally Posted by Will Perkins View Post

      What kind of forum is it? Discussion wise I mean, that'd be a great place to start.

      Depending on that, create a opt-in email list separate of the sign-ups (weeds out spam).
      *I mean don't just add everyone that registers on the forum to the list.

      Market to those people daily, weekly, by weekly, monthly, whatever you want really.

      Look into private advertising SPECIFIC to your forum's niche. People are much more willing to dump out money to a company for advertisements if it's targeted traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gyromite
    It appears you already make some pretty good money on your forum.

    Interested to see what other ideas Warriors have.
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  • Profile picture of the author entrepreneurjay
    With that kind of traffic you should make a killing if it is monetized correctly. Show us a link to your forum maybe we will make a few posts for you and add to its success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Efrain Hernandez
    Search for other forums in your niche, and observe what they use to monetize their forum.

    P.S. You may also pick up some monetizing ideas from the forum your on right now. (WarriorForum)
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by Efrain Hernandez View Post

      Search for other forums in your niche, and observe what they use to monetize their forum.
      My competitors mostly have not done a good job of monotizing theri own sites. I talk with the owner of the largest car audio forum online, and he sometimes asks me for suggestions. I ask him too, but surprisingly his is not monotized all that well. This is why I keep trying to buy up my competitors sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author jamjar919
    Create a sticky post - Title it "Awesome Info & Books" Then add some aff links and other things.

    Add some CPA offers for free stuff related to your forum.
    Signature

    Feel free to ask me any IM related questions or add me on skype :D
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Thank you for hte replies guys
      The forum is diy mobile audio dot com (no spaces obciously)

      I am trying to be discrete here since member of the site already are pissy about me monotizing it. I am sure once one of them stumbles up on this thread, all hell will break lose.
      I bought the forum from the previous owner a few years ago, and took it to a level he was unwilling to take it. For that, the senior members act like little girls every time they see an add or are reminded of my name.

      The site is focused on teh car audio niche, specifically the sound quality part of the nich, not the SPL (loud bass competition type systems).
      Tyring to sell these guys an ebook might be a challenge since they tend to be know-it-alls as it is. I am already working on a resource page that will have a massive collection of data on it. Somewhat of a car audio wiki, with less of the wiki feel. Just good solid articles on the technology and theory behind automotive 12 vold audio system..

      Not sure what Whitelabel is but I am going to look in to that one right now.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
        Originally Posted by pseudonymble View Post

        I am trying to be discrete here since member of the site already are pissy about me monotizing it. I am sure once one of them stumbles up on this thread, all hell will break lose.
        I bought the forum from the previous owner a few years ago, and took it to a level he was unwilling to take it. For that, the senior members act like little girls every time they see an add or are reminded of my name.
        Well, a forum needs to pay for itself somehow. Try offering memberships. For $xx per year, they will be able to see the forum ad-free. For those that don't pay, they'll see ads.

        If they don't like it, they can start their own forum. Most people have no idea what it takes to run a forum and, perhaps nine times out of ten, forums started by disgruntled members of other forums end up failing.

        It's your forum now. If they don't like it, no one is holding a gun to their heads forcing them to stick around. If they cause problems, weed them out. Grow your membership and squeeze out the ones that cause you headaches.
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        Dan's content is irregularly read by handfuls of people. Join the elite few by reading his blog: dcrBlogs.com, following him on Twitter: dcrTweets.com or reading his fiction: dcrWrites.com but NOT by Clicking Here!

        Dan also writes content for hire, but you can't afford him anyway.
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        • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
          Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

          Well, a forum needs to pay for itself somehow. Try offering memberships. For per year, they will be able to see the forum ad-free. For those that don't pay, they'll see ads.

          If they don't like it, they can start their own forum. Most people have no idea what it takes to run a forum and, perhaps nine times out of ten, forums started by disgruntled members of other forums end up failing.

          It's your forum now. If they don't like it, no one is holding a gun to their heads forcing them to stick around. If they cause problems, weed them out. Grow your membership and squeeze out the ones that cause you headaches.

          Certainly understood by me, however many of the senior members resists any change. Really a bunch of cry babies. Ironic that they started their own forums and have ads on them to pay for the servers they require..
          Most of the problem have been banned for trolling, spamming and general misbehvaior..

          I already bring in revenue from member subscriptions
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        • Profile picture of the author Serendipitous
          Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

          Well, a forum needs to pay for itself somehow. Try offering memberships. For per year, they will be able to see the forum ad-free. For those that don't pay, they'll see ads.

          If they don't like it, they can start their own forum. Most people have no idea what it takes to run a forum and, perhaps nine times out of ten, forums started by disgruntled members of other forums end up failing.

          It's your forum now. If they don't like it, no one is holding a gun to their heads forcing them to stick around. If they cause problems, weed them out. Grow your membership and squeeze out the ones that cause you headaches.
          This! All of it! I was thinking the exact same things.
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      • Profile picture of the author Blogmudgeon
        Originally Posted by pseudonymble View Post

        I am trying to be discrete here since member of the site already are pissy about me monotizing it. I am sure once one of them stumbles up on this thread, all hell will break lose.
        I bought the forum from the previous owner a few years ago, and took it to a level he was unwilling to take it. For that, the senior members act like little girls every time they see an add or are reminded of my name.
        A little observation that may actually help the financial dynamic of your site. I am the GM of the largest amateur radio site (430K members) in the world, QRZ.COM. The "pissy little girls" you speak of sometimes need sent off somewhere else--as how they behave will set the tone for other attitudes that may seem unrelated--such as subscription rates and new member participation. It's much better to get rid of some--which will have the added benefit of causing their "cheering team" to drift off as well. New members with new attitudes--and subscriptions. You are already familiar with the fact that the biggest nuisances and loudmouths are rarely subscribers...

        A large successful forum is quite different than an affiliate or clickpay site. These are good cash flow mechanisms--but start thinking about paid advertising (non-affiliate) from retailers and manufacturing entities of the products that are being discussed. Your stats are good enough that this can lead to more income than is currently garnered through the sources you cite. Properly structured, this should comprise approximately 30-35% minimum of your site gross revenue.

        Clubland makes a valid point. Disperse your advertising thoughout the content--every fourth or fifth post should have a banner ad between it and the next post. Same for header and footer. Use a rotating banner module to accomplish this so that ads change and you can present more advertising in the same space.

        There are a lot of other things as well, but these just leap off the page...
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        • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
          Originally Posted by Blogmudgeon View Post

          A little observation that may actually help the financial dynamic of your site. I am the GM of the largest amateur radio site (430K members) in the world, QRZ.COM. The "pissy little girls" you speak of sometimes need sent off somewhere else--as how they behave will set the tone for other attitudes that may seem unrelated--such as subscription rates and new member participation. It's much better to get rid of some--which will have the added benefit of causing their "cheering team" to drift off as well. New members with new attitudes--and subscriptions. You are already familiar with the fact that the biggest nuisances and loudmouths are rarely subscribers...

          A large successful forum is quite different than an affiliate or clickpay site. These are good cash flow mechanisms--but start thinking about paid advertising (non-affiliate) from retailers and manufacturing entities of the products that are being discussed. Your stats are good enough that this can lead to more income than is currently garnered through the sources you cite. Properly structured, this should comprise approximately 30-35% minimum of your site gross revenue.

          Clubland makes a valid point. Disperse your advertising thoughout the content--every fourth or fifth post should have a banner ad between it and the next post. Same for header and footer. Use a rotating banner module to accomplish this so that ads change and you can present more advertising in the same space.

          There are a lot of other things as well, but these just leap off the page...
          Thank you for taking the time to post your reply. Lots of good stuff in there.
          Right now non-affililate banner ads make up less than 5% of my total revenue. Part of the problem is the tone of the site.
          The original owner started this site as a DIY resource that was very ANTI- industry. The senior members tend to bash anyone that is trying to make money off of them. They litterally hate capitolism when it comes to car audio. As such, getting new vendors to sign up is difficutl I have even gone as far as to offer free ad space for a year to several companies, and they turned me known due to the ahrsh rhetoric many of the senior members use. Vendors simply do not want to be a part of a site that does not appreciate them. I have been working on changing this attitude, while still maintaining the DIY aspect of the niche but it is an uphill battle with many.

          I will have my IT guy add banner spots in between ads soon. I think that is a great idea.
          It was suggested that I should have a side banner ad as well. I Am going to look in to that too.
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          • Profile picture of the author francisj
            Originally Posted by pseudonymble View Post

            Thank you for taking the time to post your reply. Lots of good stuff in there.
            Right now non-affililate banner ads make up less than 5% of my total revenue. Part of the problem is the tone of the site.
            The original owner started this site as a DIY resource that was very ANTI- industry. The senior members tend to bash anyone that is trying to make money off of them. They litterally hate capitolism when it comes to car audio. As such, getting new vendors to sign up is difficutl I have even gone as far as to offer free ad space for a year to several companies, and they turned me known due to the ahrsh rhetoric many of the senior members use. Vendors simply do not want to be a part of a site that does not appreciate them. I have been working on changing this attitude, while still maintaining the DIY aspect of the niche but it is an uphill battle with many.

            I will have my IT guy add banner spots in between ads soon. I think that is a great idea.
            It was suggested that I should have a side banner ad as well. I Am going to look in to that too.

            Well who are these senior members, and what will happen if you kick them out or call them out? I think that's the main question to ask.


            all the best,

            f
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        • Profile picture of the author TerrieS
          Originally Posted by Blogmudgeon View Post

          I am the GM of the largest amateur radio site (430K members) in the world, QRZ.COM.
          Very cool to see you here, Patrick!

          Terrie
          KD0HPV
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          • Profile picture of the author Blogmudgeon
            Originally Posted by TerrieS View Post

            Very cool to see you here, Patrick!

            Terrie
            KD0HPV
            Hi Terrie! Gotta make money some way--almost impossible with hams...

            Don't tell anyone on the forum what I am doing. They think that I am retired and sit around all day closing threads and banning people... :p

            Patrick, AE1PT
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  • Profile picture of the author rain21
    did you try tribal fusion, they pay well CPM
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    • Profile picture of the author Clubland
      Firstly, i have numerous forums myself. So, i know a lot about monetizing forums.

      I see the problem with your site.

      The main one is your putting ads all together as they are one.

      This is a wrong way to do things. You need to separate the ads from each other.

      The way i do it is this:

      Banner above at the top, then put adsense ads in a block of three going across.

      Put the ebay ads and amazon going down the right hand side of the forum.

      Adsense ads in block of three always in the thread makers, initial first box, between the thread makers sig and them starting the thread.

      And always put banner ad at the bottom of each page.

      How you do it is, i ain't a clue, as i use smf for all my forums. V.bulletin i ain't a clue. You could try their forum and ask how you do it. At this address: vBulletin Community Forum

      Hope this helps.
      Signature

      "Affiliate marketing has made businesses millions and ordinary people millionaires." - Bo Bennett

      "The Internet is the Viagra of big business." - Jack Welch

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      • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
        Originally Posted by Clubland View Post

        Firstly, i have numerous forums myself. So, i know a lot about monetizing forums.

        I see the problem with your site.

        The main one is your putting ads all together as they are one.

        This is a wrong way to do things. You need to separate the ads from each other.

        The way i do it is this:

        Banner above at the top, then put adsense ads in a block of three going across.

        Put the ebay ads and amazon going down the right hand side of the forum.

        Adsense ads in block of three always in the thread makers, initial first box, between the thread makers sig and them starting the thread.

        And always put banner ad at the bottom of each page.

        How you do it is, i ain't a clue, as i use smf for all my forums. V.bulletin i ain't a clue. You could try their forum and ask how you do it. At this address: vBulletin Community Forum

        Hope this helps.
        Thanks for the suggestions!

        Would you mind sending me a PM (or posting in this thread) a coupld of the forums you own so I can see your layout exactly as you describe it?
        A visual reference would be great!
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by lamberw View Post

      Can't you sell car audio physical products from within the forum and have them drop shipped?
      The car audio industry it trying with all of its balls to hold on to the brick and morter business model. Most manufacturers absolutely refuse to do internet sales.
      Some do, but I am more interested in keeping it simple and making money on clicks..
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  • Profile picture of the author VictorBlack
    psuedonymble wrote:
    I am trying to be discrete here since member of the site already are pissy about me monotizing it. I am sure once one of them stumbles up on this thread, all hell will break lose.
    I'm curious, do you think that if your content and community are strong enough, you might lose a few people, but keep the good ones? Do you want to run a forum that big without making the kind of money you want from it? And, people like to buy things. So if you're selling them something they like to buy, why not?

    Some people will cry and moan and go away. They weren't going to buy anything from you anyway, so is it really any loss? Somehow my guess is that many of them are making money off your site, and don't want any competition from the person who owns it?

    Just a few thoughts. Hope they are worth a few cents to you one way or the other.
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by VictorBlack View Post

      psuedonymble wrote:
      I'm curious, do you think that if your content and community are strong enough, you might lose a few people, but keep the good ones? Do you want to run a forum that big without making the kind of money you want from it? And, people like to buy things. So if you're selling them something they like to buy, why not?

      Some people will cry and moan and go away. They weren't going to buy anything from you anyway, so is it really any loss? Somehow my guess is that many of them are making money off your site, and don't want any competition from the person who owns it?

      Just a few thoughts. Hope they are worth a few cents to you one way or the other.
      Great way to think about it.
      For the passed year or so I have been moving forward with little consideration about what the problem members think about me. Seems to be working out well. Just trying to limit my casualties.

      The content is good, growing and getting better.
      Certainly on the uprise..
      I doubt that losing some of the problem children is oing to hurt me all that much
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  • Profile picture of the author Coleg22
    Just look at how this forum does it
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidTT
    honeslty man, there are just so many good ebooks on the WSO that will teach you just that. Plus they are pretty cheap as well so just pick one up for like 12$, you can't go wrong.
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    • Profile picture of the author Devid Farah
      Looks like you’re doing well so far on your own – and congratulations on that! Your forum is very successful. To make more money, think about your target audience for advertisement: your users. Look for ads targeted to your niche – you can get much more money from companies if they know their advertisements will be hitting their target audience!
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  • Profile picture of the author Leo McMackin
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by Leo McMackin View Post

      Well done on reaching those kinds of traffic levels. Are you encouraging visitors to share your website, e.g on Facebook etc? Maybe hold a contest, give a way a few prizes for people who refer the most friends to your site. If you're struggling to increase revenue increase traffic.
      I do offer promotions.
      Giveaways and such
      This month we are doing a Christmas Promo. Vendors are donating a couple grand worth of car audio gear..
      I'll be kicking in a few hundred dollars worth of free stuff soon too.

      The referrals have never really worked all that well.
      Still trying to increase traffic to increase revenue..
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  • Profile picture of the author donb01
    are you serious all that traffic and your looking for ways to monitize??

    man just sell advertising (banners etc) run surveys, approach large companies in various related niches to your market, forget the nickel and dime stuff
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by donb01 View Post

      are you serious all that traffic and your looking for ways to monitize??

      Is that so hard to beleive?
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  • Profile picture of the author mahesh2010
    Hi ,
    you need a sugesstion on forum software or CMS If Cms I would prefer to have drupal
    And please be clear about what sort of forum is it
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    Are you selling ad space directly? With that kind of traffic, you can easily sell ad space directly. I'm certain vbulletin must have an adserving plugin.

    Look up the "ultimate heatmap". It's free and will open your eyes on ad placement.
    Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author darkwizgemz
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      Well, a forum needs to pay for itself somehow. Try offering memberships. For per year, they will be able to see the forum ad-free. For those that don't pay, they'll see ads.

      If they don't like it, they can start their own forum. Most people have no idea what it takes to run a forum and, perhaps nine times out of ten, forums started by disgruntled members of other forums end up failing.

      It's your forum now. If they don't like it, no one is holding a gun to their heads forcing them to stick around. If they cause problems, weed them out. Grow your membership and squeeze out the ones that cause you headaches.
      I honestly have no research on the matter - but another idea might be to slap up some CPA that needs to be done in order to view the site.

      Where is the list accumulated from this site? Perhaps some other cool stuff for the car could be marketed to them. I for one love those lights that can go around the outside of the car that make it look all electrified. If I were pimping out my music, I would need to have the funky lights, some plush shaggy seat covers, and some proper attachments for my ipod or what ever I was using to source the music. May as well get me some satellite stations device installed while I'm going overboard.

      I'm sure there are lots of other car items that one could segway into.

      There are 2 categories for the DIY person IMO.

      One is looking for the thrill of DIY and wants to be creative. The other is looking to save $.

      Well, I lied - there is the third who is a mix of both.

      Find out which category your audience falls under primarily and you might have a clearer idea of what can be marketed to them.
      Signature

      "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by darkwizgemz View Post

      What site is it? It sure has a lot of views.
      It is posted up in reply # 10
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  • Profile picture of the author max2daz
    How do you get so much traffic?
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  • Profile picture of the author GR Marketing
    Think outside the box with this one man. You can make a boatload of cash from these guys offline.

    Why not use your massive reach in the niche to organize SQL/SPL competitions/car audio shows around the country. I mean you could do one just show a month in the most populous states.

    Charge the guys like $20 to compete/show the cars, and even though they are anti-industry online it is an accepted practice offline to pay for competitions. I mean with your reach you can easily get 200-300 guys to show up for a show out of nearly 200,000 for sure. This is $$$.

    Also since the industry is trying to resist internet sales you can charge a premium to local car audio shops since you'll have hundreds of potential customers in one spot. This is $$$.

    And since no event is complete without food so you can even rent out space to local food vendors. This is $$$.

    Best of all, because of your great position in the niche you don't have to pay for advertising. Just slap a banner at the top of the forum.

    You can net a lot off of these events. And renting out a car lot for an afternoon isn't terribly expensive.

    As far as logistics go, you probably would need to hire 10 people or so to help you.

    You'd need guys to help with getting everyone parked, you'd need guys to collect the money, you'd need guys to help with setup/cleanup.

    As far as other expenses go, you'd probably need a few prizes for the top guys, pay 2-3 guys to be the judges, and other miscellaneous stuff.

    Off the top of my head I think you could do your first one for under $2,000 for sure. Start with your own state and expand from there.

    Then you know what will happen next. All of a sudden instead of being perceived as a faceless greedy webmaster all of the users, even the old ones, love you because you put on these great events for them, you've met them, shook their hands, sat in their cars and listened to their SQL levels personally.

    After the first event suddenly Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Car Audio Blogs, and your own Forum are flooded with pictures and praise for how awesome a time it was.

    Your next event will attract even more guys from your forum and elsewhere since word of mouth will be in full effect, and then the next one after that will attract even more.

    You'd be netting tens of thousands per month, instead of getting pennies for clicks and affiliate referrals. Think big dude...

    It will definitely take some work to do this, but please don't sleep on the power you're sitting on. You can communicate with nearly 200,000 people at will, almost instantly. History shows us that massive empires have been built by men who had fractions of your reach.

    -Garland R
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by GR Marketing View Post

      Think outside the box with this one man. You can make a boatload of cash from these guys offline.

      Why not use your massive reach in the niche to organize SQL/SPL competitions/car audio shows around the country. I mean you could do one just show a month in the most populous states.

      Charge the guys like $20 to compete/show the cars, and even though they are anti-industry online it is an accepted practice offline to pay for competitions. I mean with your reach you can easily get 200-300 guys to show up for a show out of nearly 200,000 for sure. This is $$$.

      Also since the industry is trying to resist internet sales you can charge a premium to local car audio shops since you'll have hundreds of potential customers in one spot. This is $$$.

      And since no event is complete without food so you can even rent out space to local food vendors. This is $$$.

      Best of all, because of your great position in the niche you don't have to pay for advertising. Just slap a banner at the top of the forum.

      You can net a lot off of these events. And renting out a car lot for an afternoon isn't terribly expensive.

      As far as logistics go, you probably would need to hire 10 people or so to help you.

      You'd need guys to help with getting everyone parked, you'd need guys to collect the money, you'd need guys to help with setup/cleanup.

      As far as other expenses go, you'd probably need a few prizes for the top guys, pay 2-3 guys to be the judges, and other miscellaneous stuff.

      Off the top of my head I think you could do your first one for under $2,000 for sure. Start with your own state and expand from there.

      Then you know what will happen next. All of a sudden instead of being perceived as a faceless greedy webmaster all of the users, even the old ones, love you because you put on these great events for them, you've met them, shook their hands, sat in their cars and listened to their SQL levels personally.

      After the first event suddenly Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Car Audio Blogs, and your own Forum are flooded with pictures and praise for how awesome a time it was.

      Your next event will attract even more guys from your forum and elsewhere since word of mouth will be in full effect, and then the next one after that will attract even more.

      You'd be netting tens of thousands per month, instead of getting pennies for clicks and affiliate referrals. Think big dude...

      It will definitely take some work to do this, but please don't sleep on the power you're sitting on. You can communicate with nearly 200,000 people at will, almost instantly. History shows us that massive empires have been built by men who had fractions of your reach.

      -Garland R
      I've done it.
      Not as profitable as one might think..


      I am Anthony... Owner of the company that threw the event. I sold that company earlier this year..
      The event we threw was top notch. Best in years around these parts.
      We did it right, for sure.
      The problem however is I am not interested in being THAT guy.
      I'd rather tbe the guy that pulls $3-500k a year in my spare time.
      On my way back to that point but in a new industry with new methods is an entirely new learning cureve which takes time.
      I like to travel and relax.. Throwing that event was nothing relaxing..
      Fun to do, but not the direction I want my life to go..

      Thank you very much for the lengthy reply though. I do appreciate your input and the time it took you to write it all out for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author ankitnagpal
    once you hit 50k per day, start your own advertising/PPC program
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin_Hutto
    Some sites have some level of visitors, but tough to make good money from... unless you are really into DIY auto, i would look at this as a spoke on the wheel and move on to creating more spokes...
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  • Profile picture of the author VictorBlack
    It may be true that DIY folks are against anyone making money to a point. Often it is part of how they sell themselves on DIY to begin with. They are broke and cannot afford professional work.

    That being said, I agree with Blogmudgeon... Send the prissy little girls to someone else's site. I might even create a fake username and create an uprising, taking as many as I could to a competitor's site. Let it be their problem.

    The simple fact is that offering value is worth a profit. It's what make the world turn, and if your traffic dropped massively down to 150K you can still make a killing.


    Now, all THAT being said, the layout of your site annoys me visually, and I clicked away even though it is actually a topic I am interested in. Specifically, I hate opening a page and being slammed with video advertisements. Secondly, advertisements are placed in the site in places that my eyes like to go naturally, rather than your actual site content.

    I know that a lot of 'experts' give advice to do it that ways, but it annoys me enough that I just leave and never go back. If a site that I was a long-term member of did that, I might feel like it cheapens the site.

    I agree 100% with those who have suggested you take a good look at this site and model it. The quality content is user-friendly and given first, and money is made on the back-end. There is another company that has a similar model of offering quality and user-ability while putting their advertisements tastefully on the side as a Value-Added service, instead of in your face. You may have heard of them, their name is "Google".

    Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps make you some money!
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  • Profile picture of the author Wide
    What a great topic, thanks for all the useful information
    Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author tee_emm
    Silly question - what is DIY?
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    • Profile picture of the author Wide
      Originally Posted by tee_emm View Post

      Silly question - what is DIY?
      Do It Yourself
      Signature
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      • Profile picture of the author iMr
        I Would suggest to use CPAlead..

        protect the forums by placing a Widget over the Content so they have to complete a survey to get access..

        or you could use a Splash Widget which shows a advert for your desired time then disappears.

        "Sponsored By... " <- splash widget


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        • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
          Hm..
          I have been to a few sites like this and I find it rather annoying.
          Never really gets me to register, or fill in the survey.
          How much money can be made with surveys?
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  • Profile picture of the author sadsprite
    what is a whitelabel?
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  • Profile picture of the author gar
    very good traffic that can be monetized to make some pretty great income...
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by gar View Post

      very good traffic that can be monetized to make some pretty great income...

      You don't say?!
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      • Profile picture of the author almondj
        I too, run a forum. While my unique count is about 50k so far this month, my page views are about 600k. It's making some decent cash.

        From reviewing your site, the best way to increase revenue on a forum is to switch up the ad positions. Your long time users which you speak of are so used to your ads. Ideas:

        1. Move the post ad from inside the first post to become a second post (basically the ad looks like a second post.)

        2. Width? Your site is full width. If you make it thinner the people with 21"+ screens are more likely to see your ads that are dead center on your page.

        I firmly believe that it's not the amount of ads you have on your site, it's really their placement. And I promise you, mixing up the ad positions can have a positive effect on your returns.
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas W
    PM me if your willing to sell sticky posts
    Signature

    Established webmaster since 1998. Bought my first domain name for $70 and had to pay $1000 a month for hosting. It was the good life

    Skype: twool9
    Email me at thomasw9 ((((a)))) G mail

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  • Profile picture of the author Asanga
    how about you team up with a local mechanic and and come up with a do it your self tutorial video series on automobiles and promote that.this is more like cross selling these guys might well be black hats at car audio systems but may not be in other areas when it comes to automobiles,but they probably are interested in them.

    and to increase the profit like some one else mentioned have $1 membership option. paid members will have no adds displayed. and they will have your video tutorials either at 75% discount or for free.and try to come up with vedio tutorial series at least one in 3 months covering every aspects or car care from beginner to advanced.

    then do a promotions to bring up more paid members to the site.let you already members of the forum do the work for you.example you have a contest winner will get the most sort after car audio system and the winner will be decided by the most number of new paid members he or she brings to the site.

    and also make sure that membership payments are not made monthly basis but rather like one year or 6 months subscription then you will get enough money to create the video content
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  • Profile picture of the author :Elective-
    Gimme a quote on that forum. I want it
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    • Profile picture of the author pseudonymble
      Originally Posted by :Elective- View Post

      Gimme a quote on that forum. I want it

      Just sent you a PM.
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