Earning Money

This is the third installment of a four part series all about a forum. If you have not kept up so far, please go back and read the posts all about picking the right forum software and growing your forum.

Now that you are doing what you need to do and getting your site really rolling, the next thing that you need to determine is how you want to make your money from this site. There are numerous ways to earn from owning a forum and I am going to be very simple when I say that the more ways that you use and the less of Google you use, the better. Use a lot of Google, but there are tons of ways to make a profit and all you need to do is look a little bit and you are bound to find something. But, here are a few tips about making money on your forum.

• Set up two different types of programs right from the getco. The first you want to set it up is a CPC program such as Adsense. The second that you want to set up is a CPM program. Your reason for doing this is because forums can get a lot of traffic, but not always do they get clicks. By having the CPM, you are guaranteeing that your impressions are making you money.
• Consider putting a “sponsored links” after the first thread. This is a theme edit that I found for vB and phpBB. It’s a good thing because it takes the content of that specific page and gives you pretty targeted ads. And since the ads are more in their faces, they are more likely to click the ads. It’s definitely a good thing to use, but some people are always worried that the ads will irritate people. My policy is simple…Do what you must to grow your forum and if they love your site, they won’t care about you making a little extra on the side.
• Find a good place for you to set up the sale of Text-Links. If you can get your site to a minimum of a PR4, selling text-links can be a very good extra income means of making money. Granted, you’re looking to get higher: PR5+, but even at a PR4, selling six or eight links, you could make some extra cash. The thing to remember about this is that the location of the link is optimal. Put it in a place where the advertiser is going to love it. Give them their moneys worth.

This was just a short post on three ways to monetize your site. I wasn’t going to go in and start saying “use adsense” and “use text-link-ads.” You’ve all heard of that before. I wanted you to read some other ways and these are some good ways of making some money on your forums. They take time, but with every passing day, a forum begins to start generating more money. Soon enough, you could really be making some nice pennies (dollars) each day. Good luck with your forum and stay tuned for tomorrow’s post about when you can leave your forum alone.

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