Monetizing a forum

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HellaGood

HellaGood

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Those of you who are running a forum-based business... will you pass along some tips on how it can be monetized?

I have a forum (not the url in my siggy) that I would like to monetize somehow. I am currently awaiting a database fix and beauty makeover from the coders, and raring to go as it is drawing traffic.

How do I get past the obvious Adsense and banner ads and make money from it?
 


What's the URL? The options you have really depend upon your niche. I would be happy to help you brainstorm. :)

Laura
 
Laura said:
What's the URL? The options you have really depend upon your niche. I would be happy to help you brainstorm. :)

Laura
Click to expand...
Thanks, looking forward to brainstormy weather. Here's the url: Prison Unlocked

As I said, I'm awaiting a redo and the coder's going to start on it tomorrow. This site is very, *very* much a niche site, catering to people released from prison looking to rebuild their lives.
 
Kontera is a great way to monetize a forums. You can also put banner ads, or google ads on the top or bottom.

Some of the things I don't like, but have seen include the huge in-your-face surveys and pop up ads.
 
Wow, yes, that's quite a niche!

Okay, so I have a quick suggestion first. Take your forum section count down to maybe 5 (or less). Have an intro forum, a general chat forum, and then maybe 2 or 3 specific forums that cover a range of or time period (whatever works for this niche - not totally sure). And then, once certain kinds of posts start overtaking the sections (ie. there is a fitness thread that turns a mile long), then you can add a fitness section. And then when the fitness section starts to grow, you can break it down into maybe workout support groups, a food section, etc. Hopefully, you get the idea. Fewer forums with more posts make the forum look more active, and generally people will only post in an active forum.

Alrighty, so monetizing... I know that WF is really against digital content/book, but IMO you could create great value by understanding the needs of these people and work on writing content about the different aspects of life after prison. Alternatively, you could write the same content and make it free and monetize the pages. You could even hire ex-cons to write this stuff and it's a win-win for both sides. Just make sure you really understand what these guys need and work from there (this would be a terrible niche for me as I have no clue. lol).

Going from there, I would scour CJ and other networks to see if there is anything already out there that could help them. Stay away from all money making schemes and junk like that. As Jon said, that stuff sells hope, not results. Don't lose focus of trying to provide the most value possible. How you you help them better their chances of staying out of prison for good? Facilitating local support groups? Gathering ex-con-friendly local resources around the country? What factors improve their future outcomes? I am sure there are studies on this.

And of course, good Adsense integration in the forum, banner ads (if the SPM is worth it - otherwise, don't bother) and once you had enough traffic, you could try the Kontera/IntelliTXT route. IMO, these should just be part of your monetizing, not the whole thing.

This doesn't seem like the easiest niche to monetize, but then, I doubt you chose it for that reason. If you aren't totally passionate about helping these people create good lives after prison, I would suggest reconsidering this niche. Instead, build a site + forum around a brand or product - that's far easier to monetize.

I will keep thinking for you. :)

Laura
 
gosu22 said:
Kontera is a great way to monetize a forums. You can also put banner ads, or google ads on the top or bottom.

Some of the things I don't like, but have seen include the huge in-your-face surveys and pop up ads.
Click to expand...

What's the CTR and how much do you roughly earn per click with Kontera? I may put it on my forums aswell if it pays well. Also can you choose how many keywords to put the ads on?
 
john3232 said:
What's the CTR and how much do you roughly earn per click with Kontera? I may put it on my forums aswell if it pays well. Also can you choose how many keywords to put the ads on?
Click to expand...

You are paid CPM with Kontera and IntelliTXT, so CTR doesn't matter. With Kontera, it's counted as a pageview if the page loads with one of their links on it. With IntelliTXT, it's counted as a pageview if one of their links is rolled over.

Neither requires that you actually have anything clicked (as with all CPM advertising, of course).

You can choose how the link replacements look, and how many load per page. Kontera's targeting is horrible (or it was when we tested them last year), but IntelliTXT has done much better. IntelliTXT pays us low to mid $XX CPM, Kontera was more like high $X. Of course, more interaction is required by IntelliTXT to get a pageload counted, but the relevance was sooo much better that there was no contest there.

Hope that helps! :)

Laura
 
Here's an idea:

People who have been in prison for awhile are lacking some important things they'll likely need to get off the ground. Create a list of all these things and relate them to physical products and/or affiliate offers.

Here are some examples:
  • They probably don't have much money and securing a credit card might be of interest. Write an article about improving their financial situation and include links to affiliate programs like credit cards, credit score, etc...
  • To get a job they'll want to look professional on interviews. Maybe buy a suit. Good thing you have a nicely written article on dressing for interviews and being stylish... with links to places that have very affordable clothes.
  • Perhaps they will need a new place to live. Why not hook up an offer with the Rent.com's of the world and have an article about securing affordable housing/apartment.
  • The obvious "staying out of legal trouble" article with references to lawyers and that area could work too.
These articles shouldn't be written as "general" articles. They should focus specifically on your target audience, making specific references to their situation.

Put these articles on an off-shoot blog at your-forum-name.com/blog and use it as an article directory of sorts. I would think about having articles display at random so it always looks fresh.

Within your actual forum, make a STICKY THREAD that bulletpoints these articles and links directly to them.

If you do a really good job at making a comprehensive list of what specific "needs" these people have, you should be pretty golden. They are probably looking for this information anyways and you're essentially showing them "here is a good starting point" by listing answeres to their "common questions" in a sticky thread. They'll probably really appreciate it.
 
On another note, people ALWAYS link to products and such in forums when they are making general conversation. I've THOUGHT about going through posts and changing the links of members to affiliate links.

Then I realized this may be a really dumb idea. Great way to lose trust and respect from your members.

But... INSTEAD of a donate button, why not have a STICKY THREAD saying "SUPPORT MY-FORUM-NAME.COM" and explain that you do have costs and you do want to continually improve the site. But, you also want to keep their site free and there is a very easy way you can help the forum out.

Then, just ask that if they make purchases at "any retailers in the below list", they do so by first clicking on the link. Put all the general affiliates in the lists like Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Ebay.com, etc...

I have never done this but it seems like it could be a REALLY good idea as a donate alternative and, with a sticky thread, it will have maximum visibility but minimum annoyance.

Wuddaya think?
 
Laura said:
You are paid CPM with Kontera and IntelliTXT, so CTR doesn't matter. With Kontera, it's counted as a pageview if the page loads with one of their links on it. With IntelliTXT, it's counted as a pageview if one of their links is rolled over.

Neither requires that you actually have anything clicked (as with all CPM advertising, of course).

You can choose how the link replacements look, and how many load per page. Kontera's targeting is horrible (or it was when we tested them last year), but IntelliTXT has done much better. IntelliTXT pays us low to mid $XX CPM, Kontera was more like high $X. Of course, more interaction is required by IntelliTXT to get a pageload counted, but the relevance was sooo much better that there was no contest there.

Hope that helps! :)

Laura
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will definately look into this and maybe even put the ads on other pages of my sites aswell, as long as I don't cram to many ads I will be fine.

What about the speed. Will it slow the loading of the pages down using these ads?
 
john3232 said:
Thanks, I will definately look into this and maybe even put the ads on other pages of my sites aswell, as long as I don't cram to many ads I will be fine.

What about the speed. Will it slow the loading of the pages down using these ads?
Click to expand...

I don't think it affects loads times. I am a technical tard, but something about it loading after the page does (how/why, I have no idea).

Laura : )
 
Laura said:
You can choose how the link replacements look, and how many load per page. Kontera's targeting is horrible (or it was when we tested them last year), but IntelliTXT has done much better. IntelliTXT pays us low to mid $XX CPM, Kontera was more like high $X. Of course, more interaction is required by IntelliTXT to get a pageload counted, but the relevance was sooo much better that there was no contest there.


Laura
Click to expand...

what kind of traffic does Kontara/IntelliTxt require before they will consider your site?
 
Laura said:
You are paid CPM with Kontera and IntelliTXT, so CTR doesn't matter. With Kontera, it's counted as a pageview if the page loads with one of their links on it. With IntelliTXT, it's counted as a pageview if one of their links is rolled over.

Neither requires that you actually have anything clicked (as with all CPM advertising, of course).

You can choose how the link replacements look, and how many load per page. Kontera's targeting is horrible (or it was when we tested them last year), but IntelliTXT has done much better. IntelliTXT pays us low to mid $XX CPM, Kontera was more like high $X. Of course, more interaction is required by IntelliTXT to get a pageload counted, but the relevance was sooo much better that there was no contest there.

Hope that helps! :)

Laura
Click to expand...

How trusty are these when it comes to paying their affiliates. I have alot of people currently posting on my forums, but not clicking on many ads mainly due to the fact that it is not indexed by the major search engines all that well yet, but is slowly getting there.
 
People who have been in prison for awhile are lacking some important things they'll likely need to get off the ground.
Click to expand...

That's a good point. My girlfriend works with women in prison on a weekly basis. She's said at times, it's like the women have been locked in a time capsule (which they kind of have I guess) and they really have no clue as to what goes on in the real world anymore. That being said, it's likely many prisoners have not ever used the Internet or even a computer in some cases. So, you're dealing with a lot of problems that you might face with the baby boomer market. They have no idea what right-click means and think Google IS the Internet. I think my point's clear but if not, I think Laura said it best when she said unless you're passionate about helping these people, it may be something too difficult to pull off. That's not to say it's a bad idea or that it can't work. Just my thoughts.

Have you ever looked into the whole prison pen pal thing (i.e. http://www.prisonpenpals.com/)? Maybe there are some avenues hidden there?
 
Gutted. I just checked and I have to have at least 500,000 pageviews per month for IntelliTXT and 250,000 pageviews per month for Kontera. My forums was only started last week. lol

I guess I better wait a few months then.
 
Kontera and affiliate sales (books guides, podcasts, anything targeted). Adsense works well if your number of new visitors beats the number of repeated vistors pretty much. If not, it´s uselsess, the regular visitors most likely will not click
 
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