Share your revenue sources

**CultZero** · 11-30-2007, 02:11 PM

As forum owners, the majority of us I think are looking for ways to bring in some revenue. Even after a few years of looking there are bound to be methods that people are using that I've not come across or not properly understood enough to try. So maybe it would be a good idea to share what we know with a view to improving all our knowledge.

Here's some of the things I've done with brief descriptions and pros and cons (although I have not included any figures).

Google Adsense:
Standard PPC ads:The most obvious and in my experience the best payer on my forums.
Google referals:Used across my forums I had no success with these, they made me far less than standard ppc google ads. Used in the right place though these can be surprisingly successful. E.g. I have a page that gets around 200 visitors per day from search engines for a specific term. I have placed a 300x250 referal unit for a specific product that people searching for this term would be highly interested in. The clickthrough rate on this unit is around 17% with a signup rate of up to 10 out of those 200 visitors. This single unit with 200 visitors a day is earning more than the ppc google ads across all my forums that have 50k daily impressions.

Text links:
Private sales: This makes a small but not pointless ammount of money. I have sold a lot of text links to private advertisers via the digitalpoint forums some of which have become regular subscribers. This forum specifically has been great for selling links.
ZTMC:This is a company that pays to have DigitalPoint Co-op text ads on your site. They've pay upfront each month without fail. If you have any PR and pages in the google index this pays ok. There is a potential downside; while not proven the DP co-op I believe can cause penalties for your site in search engines so my advice is to not use this on a site that relies on search traffic.

CPM Networks:
The only CPM networks I could get my gaming forums accepted into are those generally termed as tier 3. They are not concerned very much with quality of content or the quality of traffic so forums and international traffic is accepted. They also pay very low (4 cents cpm + or - on my sites). If your forum is very busy the total ammount made can be worthwhile even for a 468x60. The big downside to these networks and I've tried a lot of them is without fail they all have little control over what gets delivered via their banner code. By this I don't mean adult vs non adult etc, I mean attached malware. Despite trying to work with each network to prevent it, inevitably more bad code comes eventually, potentially infecting your members pcs with spyware. For this reason alone I stopped using them all.

Selling banners to private advertisers:
This can work well when you can get them. One way of getting advertisers I've used which I posted on another thread was to search google for terms related to my site content and see what ads show up with the results. I contacted the site owners of those ads and offered them space at less than I believe they pay for google clicks. The response rate is low but 1 advertiser is better than none. I've also sold banner space on the DP forums.

That's all that comes to mind atm, what other methods have you used to bring in some income?

**BamaStangGuy** · 11-30-2007, 02:24 PM

Google Adsense
Vibrant Media
ADSDAQ
Tribal Fusion
Link Connector
Commission Junction

**Caddyman** · 11-30-2007, 02:32 PM

adbrite
text-link-ads
ZTMC or something like that (link ads)
Azoogle
Kontera
Widgetbucks (still iffy on them)
Auction Ads
Google Ads
commision junction

**cpvr** · 11-30-2007, 05:10 PM

Google adsense
Kontera
In-house banner ads (selling to advertisers)

**Flashgear** · 11-30-2007, 05:32 PM

I don't actually have any at the moment, but i'm going to be using Adsense, and going to try some text link ads.

**Zeggy** · 11-30-2007, 06:42 PM

Adsense
ValueClick Media
AdsToGo
Clicksor
Bidvertiser

**Rocket 442** · 11-30-2007, 06:53 PM

Adsense
ADSDAQ
Banner Rotations by me

**AzH** · 12-01-2007, 05:17 PM

I only use adsense. Nothing else. I'm not all that bothered about making money off my forums and I think many of my users would be turned off from a heavily monetized forum.

**Ryan** · 12-01-2007, 10:06 PM

We have 4 main revenue sources at AF. Our revenue typically comes in in these proportions:

75% - Private/in-house ads
10% - Affiliate offers
10% - Donations
5% - PPC (Adsense)

**lpxxfaintxx** · 12-02-2007, 07:30 AM

TribalFusion is currently making up 90% of my revenue right now, with a CPM of $1.30+.

11-30-2007, 02:11 PM	#1
CultZero Apprentice Join Date: May 2006 Location: UK Posts: 213	Share your revenue sources As forum owners, the majority of us I think are looking for ways to bring in some revenue. Even after a few years of looking there are bound to be methods that people are using that I've not come across or not properly understood enough to try. So maybe it would be a good idea to share what we know with a view to improving all our knowledge. Here's some of the things I've done with brief descriptions and pros and cons (although I have not included any figures). Google Adsense: Standard PPC ads:The most obvious and in my experience the best payer on my forums. Google referals:Used across my forums I had no success with these, they made me far less than standard ppc google ads. Used in the right place though these can be surprisingly successful. E.g. I have a page that gets around 200 visitors per day from search engines for a specific term. I have placed a 300x250 referal unit for a specific product that people searching for this term would be highly interested in. The clickthrough rate on this unit is around 17% with a signup rate of up to 10 out of those 200 visitors. This single unit with 200 visitors a day is earning more than the ppc google ads across all my forums that have 50k daily impressions. Text links: Private sales: This makes a small but not pointless ammount of money. I have sold a lot of text links to private advertisers via the digitalpoint forums some of which have become regular subscribers. This forum specifically has been great for selling links. ZTMC:This is a company that pays to have DigitalPoint Co-op text ads on your site. They've pay upfront each month without fail. If you have any PR and pages in the google index this pays ok. There is a potential downside; while not proven the DP co-op I believe can cause penalties for your site in search engines so my advice is to not use this on a site that relies on search traffic. CPM Networks: The only CPM networks I could get my gaming forums accepted into are those generally termed as tier 3. They are not concerned very much with quality of content or the quality of traffic so forums and international traffic is accepted. They also pay very low (4 cents cpm + or - on my sites). If your forum is very busy the total ammount made can be worthwhile even for a 468x60. The big downside to these networks and I've tried a lot of them is without fail they all have little control over what gets delivered via their banner code. By this I don't mean adult vs non adult etc, I mean attached malware. Despite trying to work with each network to prevent it, inevitably more bad code comes eventually, potentially infecting your members pcs with spyware. For this reason alone I stopped using them all. Selling banners to private advertisers: This can work well when you can get them. One way of getting advertisers I've used which I posted on another thread was to search google for terms related to my site content and see what ads show up with the results. I contacted the site owners of those ads and offered them space at less than I believe they pay for google clicks. The response rate is low but 1 advertiser is better than none. I've also sold banner space on the DP forums. That's all that comes to mind atm, what other methods have you used to bring in some income? __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. - Probably the best MMORPG list in the world. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Guru.com News - Digg for MMORPGs. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Database.

11-30-2007, 02:24 PM	#2
BamaStangGuy Forum Enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,483	Google Adsense Vibrant Media ADSDAQ Tribal Fusion Link Connector Commission Junction __________________ *To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.* More to be listed soon.

11-30-2007, 02:32 PM	#3
Caddyman Forum Addict Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Delaware Posts: 1,342	adbrite text-link-ads ZTMC or something like that (link ads) Azoogle Kontera Widgetbucks (still iffy on them) Auction Ads Google Ads commision junction __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. boomshockalacka

11-30-2007, 05:10 PM	#4
cpvr Forum Addict Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Spring, Texas Posts: 1,356	Google adsense Kontera In-house banner ads (selling to advertisers) __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

11-30-2007, 05:32 PM	#5
Flashgear Super Moderator Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 1,390	I don't actually have any at the moment, but i'm going to be using Adsense, and going to try some text link ads. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. - Where Innovation Meets Design

11-30-2007, 06:42 PM	#6
Zeggy Rookie Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 21	Adsense ValueClick Media AdsToGo Clicksor Bidvertiser

11-30-2007, 06:53 PM	#7
Rocket 442 Apprentice Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 496	Adsense ADSDAQ Banner Rotations by me __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. \|\| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Check out To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. for all your vBulletin SEO Questions & Tips There is always someone faster, and in your case, that someone is Me To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

12-01-2007, 05:17 PM	#8
AzH Veteran Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 612	I only use adsense. Nothing else. I'm not all that bothered about making money off my forums and I think many of my users would be turned off from a heavily monetized forum. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. \| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. \| To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

12-01-2007, 10:06 PM	#9
Ryan Forum Guru Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 10,256	We have 4 main revenue sources at AF. Our revenue typically comes in in these proportions: 75% - Private/in-house ads 10% - Affiliate offers 10% - Donations 5% - PPC (Adsense) __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. - Professional vBulletin Skins

12-02-2007, 07:30 AM	#10
lpxxfaintxx Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Southern California Posts: 143	TribalFusion is currently making up 90% of my revenue right now, with a CPM of $1.30+.

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