I have spent probably a little over a $1,000 on the site over the last 2 years but have made a lot more in return. So it's well worth it

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£50 annually for a shared web hosting plan which I use for all three of my websites. I've made about £13.56 from Google's advertising.

Spent $100 approx and made nothing cos i have yet to add advertising. I dont know whether the benefits of a few $$$ over a year is worth being "just like every other site" and having ads plastered everywhere.

A lot of the members appreciate not having any adverts on the site at all.

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I used to think the exact same thing - but the fact is there are lots of forums out there that have adverts and lots of forums that don't. So your forum will be just like every other forum anyway -

your only worry is will the adverts look bad or will users get annoyed?

I think that fourms should put ads on even if they have low traffic.
This is because it's a good way to get experience and introduce them to users on a small scale. Also some adverts add value to users - especially the contextual ads. So you are adding value.
You can add advertisements on archive pages (which with vbulletin are just a white webpage, with a bunch of threads - no colour) So adverts actually add colour and style to a boring page.

I wouldn't be worried about using adverts. Often you can set up mods so that only certain user groups see the adverts. For example people who maintain a post average of 5 posts per week don't see adverts - or unregistered users see advert, registered users don't

I have a few forums. Most have adverts, 1 that I was worried about putting adverts on is now making between $4-$6 a day - so that's $1700 a year that I have been missing out on. That's a new flat screen every Christmas or whatever you're into. Maybe you can spend this money advertising your site to bring even more users to register and contribute?

Looking back I should have started sooner.

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London Student Forums Promotions Database London Universities

For my claims site, we spent only a couple hundred bucks total and we make about $15,000 to $25,000 on an annual basis.

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TheBiggestBoards - See where your forum ranks - Size Matters!

Yep, with financials there's a lot of money to be made - even 3 page minisites can bring in a few hundred a day. Fascinating stuff.

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London Student Forums Promotions Database London Universities

I think ads are beneficial to a site and I hate going to sites that overload the pages and threads with ads. They need to be strategically placed on the site. I have mine at the top, side and bottom of the page. My members know this is how the site makes money, so unless they want to donate on a monthly basis, then they will either accept them or ignore them.

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i spend around $500 and so far has made around $3000+ ,its pretty good i must say.

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MEDICAL STUDENTS NETWORK

Ask A Doctor

Hmm I guess about 300$. Haven't earned anything from it yet.

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http://www.minuscelsius.com

Lat year and a half I have spent about $3000 and have made $300 or so back. I an dying here! I just cant figure it all out how to make the ads work.

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