How to actually make some money!

[Simon Young]

Hi everyone,

I have been running what has developed into a very busy angling / fishing chat forum (OK I have lost the interest of most of you right there!) but before you go please help me to get some revenue from this site. Basically it gets 3000 ish unique visitors a day and over 20K page impressions, 95% of the users are male and aged 20 to 50 - the thing is I can't go down the route of plastering the whole site with adverts as they are the one thing that kills this type of forum, others have tried it in angling and the forum membership just moves over a short period to another forum...

So how can I make some good revenue from all this traffic without plastering loads of adverts all over the forum. The site in question is www.talkangling.co.uk/upload/

[hawash]

use 180 200 ad unit at top left with links in red also put ads between the content

[crankydave]

you most definitely didn't lose me.

There's a lot of differening approaches to this. So, these are my own thoughts...

Keep the forum as clean as you can. A small slot for ads beneath the the initial post is an idea. Use the homepage for the bulk of what you'd like to do. Buttons, banners, adsense, etc.

Generally, I think you'll find that it's the content/discussions taking place that will keep/chase the membership. Keep your boards "fresh" and be creative with ways to get the membership to interact.

Dave

[janeth]

you most definitely didn't lose me.

Generally, I think you'll find that it's the content/discussions taking place that will keep/chase the membership. Keep your boards "fresh" and be creative with ways to get the membership to interact.

Dave

I agree, good content will keep me coming back over a bad design or poor ad placement.

However, I wonder how many people will click on the ads?

We become banner blind to ads on sites we visit day after day.

[crankydave]

I agree, good content will keep me coming back over a bad design or poor ad placement.

However, I wonder how many people will click on the ads?

We become banner blind to ads on sites we visit day after day.

Yeah, it's why I'm more of a fan of rotational ads. Need enough to make them work though. Either from enough different advertisers, or rotate impressions for different ones from the same advertisers to get a "variety" look and feel. It's my personal opinion that static ads are the ones most likely to cause "blindness". Create a fresh look and feel... even with advertising.

Dave

[SteveGerencser]

If you choose to monetize the site with adverts, I would step away from bulk deals like adsense and look at something far more targeted such as commission junction where you can pick and choose your advertisers.. Or better yet, work out deals with advertisers on your own..

You have the page views to start heading that direction..

[janeth]

Yeah, it's why I'm more of a fan of rotational ads.
Dave

And I agree rotational ads help but I think banner blindness goes further in that it affects the whole banner area.

Other words, I had thought WPW no longer showed ads on this site until just now when I looked. They blind in well enough with the site and I have become blind enough to them that I don’t even notice them.

I think flash helps, rotating helps, but the problem is that we become blind to that area of the site.

[edhan]

From the view of your site forum, I think it will be great to utilize CPA type of ads.

You can choose various ads that will be closer to your site and rotate those ads. Generally idea will be having your ads blending together with your current theme.

As suggested, maybe it will be good to have it beneath your post.

[iexin]

Yeah,use text link to promote some affiliate program. It help you site without plastering loads of adverts all over the site.

[Web Templates]

I agree with those who mentioned rotations. What about changing the ad format/placement every 2-3 months that will help ad blindness.