How can I monetize my forum and start making money with it?

New forums are popping up around the net all the time, adding to the thousands of forums on out there already. Many of them will never make it past a few months; some of them become pillars of the ever growing internet community. What makes the difference you ask? The following concepts will explore why some forums become successful and how to turn the success into cash.

Forums are a place for people to exchange ideas. There are two key elements in that simple sentence, people and ideas. You need people in your forum and you need them to be talking about things that matter, things that will get others to join in the fun. This gets you to the first problem, getting people and getting them to talk. People don’t like to join empty forums so you will need to get a few friends together and start posting topic others would be interested in talking about. When your forum is small, you really need to target a niche and get a good core group of regularly posting members. With many huge forums out there you are not likely to succeed with a broad forum. You can always expand later when your users ask you to. Start small with quality content, or if you already have a forum scale it down and find a target group.
If you are good with code or graphically inclined, you should spend some time customizing the forum so people feel like they are part of something special. You need to invest some time into making your forum look professional and inviting to people in your target niche. If you already have a forum maybe it is time for a makeover. Our visual sense is our strongest sense so a redesign will make a big difference.

Traffic, traffic, and more traffic. Every website needs traffic and everybody talks about how to get traffic so we won’t dwell on it too much. We will look at how to make that traffic into cash instead. Now that you have a core group of users and your forum is looking all pretty, let’s see if we can squeeze some ads in there. Affiliate banners such as Adsense probably won’t make you money unless you have massive amounts of traffic so you are better off finding your own sponsors. Since you are targeting a specific niche of people you will have an easier time to find individual sponsors. You can use something like Adbrite where individual sponsors will sign up for your site, commission junction where you can lick niche specific sponsors, or you can implement a custom php solution, what ever you think might work best.

An even better way to make money is if you can directly sell services or products to your members. For example a forum talking about web hosts can offer web hosting directly, a forum talking about travel can offer downloadable wall papers and so on. Also a great idea is to have something like a gift shop where people can order T-shirts, coffee mugs and so on with the forum logo on it. You could also look into maybe a good drop-shipping retailer deal for arts and crafts related forums. The possibilities are so broad that we will discuss it in the next article.
For now the you have lots of work to do, target your forum at a specific niche, get a core group together and start producing some valuable content. If start seeing increase in your traffic you can start looking for advertisers or establish services for sale or get a product line together.

Hawaii Forum: Popular Summer Vacation Activities

I don't know about you, but I live in a place where you can't really do much in summer, except perhaps shed all you clothes, stretch yourself out tight in an air conditioned room, and pant like a dog. Getting out is a punishment, and no one does it unless they are forced to. Your very survival is at stake; activities are out of the question.

But since you have your summer vacation, you'd like to spend it doing something meaningful and fun. Now what are the most popular fun things that people all over the world do during their summer vacations?

In summer, people like to get in or near the water. They look for recreational activities involving water. For example, there is whitewater rafting. What can match the thrill of paddling furiously as your inflatable rubber raft pitches and bobs dangerously, moving swiftly with the turbulent rush of water in the rapids? You have trained and expert guides to take care of you in case you put yourself in any danger. There are canoes and kayaks waiting on the sidelines to pick you up in case you manage to capsize. But still you feel the delicious threat of living life on the edge of safety. Your adrenaline pump works overtime. You feel alive like never before.

But this sort of high-octane, unrelenting extreme sport is not everyone's idea of good fun. What do you do if you are the quiet sort of person, not particularly athletic, and dislike too much physical exertion? Well, there's a popular water-based sport for you too – there's fly fishing. What's more relaxing than watching the float minute after minute as you sit coolly by, perhaps reading a favorite book or perhaps chatting away to your heart's content with like-minded friends or family members? And when a sizable specimen does indeed swallow your bait, the kick that you get out of it is hardly matched in any other sport.
There are many more aquatic activities for your summer delight. If you'd like to get in closer contact with the waves, why not try out scuba diving? There's a whole new world waiting for you down there. If you choose your scuba spot wisely, you'll get rich glimpses of a wholly different level of existence – the world of fish, corals, mollusks and other forms of marine life.
For some who want to really cool it off, water isn't quite enough. They opt for snow and ice. Skiing, skating and snowboarding are some of the most popular activities of the western world. But how do you get snow in summer? The answer is, not cheaply. There are places in Canada and also in Europe where it is possible to indulge in these activities all the year round. But whether in the Rockies or in the Alps, this will be much costlier than any of your other options. Of course, if your budget permits it, then what the heck?

My personal favorite activity during the summer is one that suits my budget best. I simply take a collection of my favorite books and movies, and hole up in an air conditioned room for a few weeks. They push the food in through small hatches, and clear up the dishes at night. Try it sometime, you might even like it!

Give Me a One,Two,Three, and a Forum - Online Forum Etiquette

It seems that every other article or guru tip you read extolls the benefit of one program or another as the absolute best way to enhance your internet marketing business. In reality, there are many ways to boost your business online - writing articles, search engine optimization, acquiring incoming links - the list goes on and on. But what about online forums? Are they really worth the investment of your time, effort and energies?

The answer really is quite simple, YES! If you are looking for effectiveness, looking for ways to enhance your web presence in a significant way, without spending a fortune--then forums are the ticket! One of the best ways which is often overlooked is to find forums relating to your line of business and join as many as reasonabily possible. Being a frequent participant on forums can increase links back to your website, increase your chances of being seen as an expert, increase your mailing list, sell more of your product, get new affiliates to sign up, make you new friends - and the benefits get extensive.

However, there are some things to think about before you get started in a forum. Your purpose is primarily to establish yourself as a knowledgable person (even a guru of sorts). You do this through a careful etiquette and approach. Here are a few helpful hints of good forum etiquette:

Things to Help Your Business (These are the GOOD Ones!):

1. Research each forum before you join. Make sure it's relevant to your business and see if the participants are in your target market. Look at how much traffic the forum gets. How busy is it? There’s no point in joining a dead forum with very few posts.

2. Check the forum rules before you post. Some forums will allow you to post adverts for your business while others will object. Check if you are allowed to add a signature at the end of your posts - adding

a small biography with a web link to your business is a great way to increase incoming links to your site and to get more traffic.

3. Be polite and treat everyone the way you would like to be treated. Even though you don't meet people face to face you will build up some great relationships if you take the time to give good answers to questions, to be helpful and to respect other people's opinions. And every post you answer adds to your reputation. Use your posts to give genuine, useful advice, not just to plug your business and you'll soon be looked on as an expert.

4. Don't be afraid to ask for advice - no-one knows everything and sometimes you will need help.

5. To make the most of your time on the forums, allow yourself only a certain amount of time each day.

6. Read only the posts that are relevant and that interest you and post answers quickly before moving on. It's very easy to spend the whole day on forums and not get anything else done.

Things that will Hurt Your Business (These are the BAD Ones!):

1. Never, ever use a post to blatantly advertise your business, particularly if the forum rules don't allow it. Nothing will damage your reputation faster than spamming a forum.

2. Don't go through the list of forum members, collect email addresses and send them unsolicited mail. At best you'll be banned from the forum and at worst the owners might report you to your ISP.

3. Don't ever get involved in a flame war (this is when a heated conversation on a forum boils over and degenerates into nothing but an exchange of personal insults). It might be really satisfying to say what you think about someone, especially if they've been getting on your nerves, but just imagine what other people will think of you if you do.

In conclusion, treat people online like you treat people in real life. Think of it as a networking event that's taking place on your computer and don't forget that other posts on the forums are made by real people with real feelings. You already know how to make friends and new contacts face to face. Apply what you already know to online networking and you could be enjoying great success with a global audience. Before you know it, you will have gain a tremendous amount of information, knowledge, networking contacts, friendships, and potential business venture partners for the future. You will be amazed at how extensive the list of benefits for forum exchange can be.

Forums - Talk And Make Money

If you have a website about a topic you enjoy, you can make money from discussion forums. Talk, post links to your site, get traffic. Traffic means money, right? If not, try different affiliate programs or Google Adwords. The worst sites should get a couple cents per visitor. Now here's how to talk and make money.

Search "forum" plus the topic of your site on Google or Alta Vista. For my first site, I searched "backpacking + forum" and in the pages of results I found several good forums. I also searched related topics like "hiking" too. You can also check about.com, and other sites that have forums on many topics.

Registration is usually giving your email address and choosing a password. Some forums allow guests to post without registering. Once registered, browse the forum topics, and post a response to anything, just to "learn the ropes".

Income From Discussion Forums

The point of posting in forums is to get readers to come to your web site. Sure it's fun to give advice and discuss things of interest to you, but that's secondary. With that in mind, do the following:

1. Always link to your site. If they don't allow any links, find another forum.

2. Don't "spam." Sales pitches will be removed. Offer honest advice, or express an opinion, then sign off with your name and the link to your site.

3. Ask for help from others. This is an effective and acceptable way to "advertise." Enter a topic like "Can I get some advice?" and post something like, "I just started a meditation site. If some of you would visit and tell me what you think, I'd really appreciate it." Have a link to the site. People love to help, and to give opinions, and they'll click on those ads while they're at your site.

4. Look at total "views." Many forums show the total times each "thread" has been viewed. When you see some with many more than others, get in on those, or start a new thread on the same topic. Go where the traffic is, and get some of it.

I didn't like the idea of forums until I made a few posts, and saw my traffic and revenue climb for days afterwards. That convinced me. Just be polite, offer some value to others, and always have a link to your site. Many other secrets of using forums are covered in my newsletter, but this should be get you started. Talk and make money today.

Forum Posters for Hire

There will be a day when forum posting is not only just fun for people, but also profitable. Profitable for both the forum posters and the forum owners who hire them. Paid forum posting is nothing new, but it just hasn't really caught on in a way that I think it will someday. Many forum posters are loyal to their own forums and simply post there because they enjoy the community and the level of quality that the forum draws. However, if these forum posters knew how much money their hard work was making the forum owners, they might think to themselves that they should be entitled to some of this money. Building constant unique content for a website is no easy task as any webmaster knows. It's tough to be both a technical guru and a prolific writer at the same time.

Forum posting jobs and exchanges are best done out in the open right in a forum itself. There are many forums like this now where exchanges can take place. Finding forum posters who are interested in posting on forums in exchange for links, hosting, or even plain old hard cash is finally becoming common and easier to find. This is a good thing. Forums are one of the best ways to bring authors and readers together in an exchange of knowledge like never before. It's one thing to read someone's opinion in hard copy in a newspaper or magazine and then write to the author via snail mail. It's quite another to engage the author in a discussion forum in near real time.

So, if you have a forum that is just sitting there neglected consider exchange posts with others as way to help build your forum to a state where it becomes attractive with quality content so that others might join and build your community for you. Or, if you have more money than time offer to pay someone to post in your forum. You'll be amazed at how eager some forum posters are to post in your forum for pennies. Of course, the more incentives you can offer forum posters, the higher the quality of content and English Grammar you will attract. Don't expect forum posters to go out of their way for you if you try to low ball them. You want to develop a relationship with your forum poster so that if you need him/her to come back at a later time when activity slows you will have them eagerly awaiting your next forum posting job.