I set up a forum using Invisionfree three years ago, unexpectedly it has snowballed and it now has 6500 members (albeit many will be one time or occasional rather than regulars), and I also have two informal advertisers with banners in the forum index in return for a discount on a couple of products. It also generates a small amount of cash via donations. Presently the only cost to me is opting out of the advertising arranged by Invisionfree.

The forum comes up on the first page of Google when someone searches for the manufacturer, and occupies the first three results if someone searches for specifically for a forum, so there are always a high level of guests browsing as well.

Are there any forum hosts out there (I would expect to have to pay) that will allow me to ‘port’ over the content and members with minimal disruption, and then allow me to earn the income from google ads? Is there anywhere that will tell me what to expect in terms of income from this number of users?

yes, bloke who used to run Visordown. It was sold to a motorbike mag. For a decent chunk of change too. (6 figures)

the Google ads etc seems to pay for less than 20% of the overall hosting costs according to another forum owner i know.

Thanks, bit more research required I think 🙂

Yea I was thinking of Ben who started Visordown- 6 figure- good on him

you wern’t silentmemory on VD were you? 🙂

No mate, i was ksy amazingly 🙂

I had the same sort of post count. We all moved to Revcounter.com I have almost 30,000 on there. I do know SM though having met him at London drinks once upon a time.

Good lad was Ben… i liked him 🙂 Saw him at the NEC a few years back… gave me a beer 🙂

Do STW get much “click-through” revenue for internet purchases which start via the ads on here?

One (non-bike) forum I frequent runs on next to no proper adverts (like the banners and right hand side here) because of all the revenue it gets on click-though on “bargain-watch” lists/pages for three big online retailers and a few smaller ones.

Google ads revenue easily covers the web hosting costs of a forum I help run. Haven’t seen the stats for a year but we were pulling in approx $100 / month.

Anyone managed to make some cash out of a forum?

iDave

That shouty bold type fella that was here the other week selling stuff that didn’t exist.

allthepies, do you mind me asking what sort of member numbers we are talking?

There is a van forum who’s current membership/trade membership creates a turnover of £65,000+ per year.

That’s before any advertising revenue from click through stuff.

So it’s totally possible to make decent money from an online forum.

blimey think i know which one to especially of you have/had a sparkly van…
🙂

remember when that started…

I know Dave (PetrolTed) who founded Pistonheads and did very well when he sold that to Haymarket although he was doing pretty well from it before it sold.

And there was me celebrating my forum reaching the lofty heights of 303 after only 4 years 🙁