Forums have always been valuable resources for online marketers. They provide a meeting place where people with like minds can exchange information about different topics, seek advice and provide help to other members.

They can really be a great place to learn and to improve your business on the internet. The following are vital tips for individuals who want to make money from the best online forums.

• How do You Monetize Forums?
• How do Online Forums Make Money?
• How do I Make my Forum Popular?
• Can You Make Money on a Forum?
• How do I Participate in a Forum?
• Top 5 Make Money Online Forums
• Make Money Building Your Own Community
• Make Money Online Forum USA
• Money Making Ideas Forum
• Money Making Message Boards
• Making Money Online Forum List in Nigeria
• How to Make Money Online Forums
• How do You Monetize Online Communities?
• How do I Create a Paid Forum Membership?
• How do You Promote a Forum Website?

How do You Monetize Forums?

Choose The Right Forums

If you want to maximize your time and your ability to make money from forums, you should choose the best websites where you can get better returns for your efforts. Search for the top forums in your niche that have a sizeable membership and a lot of activity. You can easily know how vibrant a forum is by checking the number of new posts that it has.

Build A Valuable Reputation

After joining a number of forums, you have to take time to build a valuable reputation. This is done by making valuable posts that will help you to gain respect. This might take some time but if the site has a lot of traffic, you will soon start reaping the rewards of your efforts. Frequent informative posts make it easy to get quick recognition and to increase your reputation.

Sell Services

If you have a service that you offer, you can increase the number of clients that you have by advertising on forums. These could be services such as article writing, link building, website design, graphic design and so on.

Read Also: The Most ideal Approach To Escape Your Auto Rent

You will find it easier to get new clients when you have built a reputation on the forum. You should also consider putting up a blog where prospective clients can go to see samples of your work.

Product Promotion

Another way to make money from the best online forums is to promote a product. You can either create your own product or become an affiliate for a product that sells. The easiest way to promote your product is to place a link in your signature. This could be a direct link to an affiliate landing page (if the website allows it) or a link to your website where you have a review of the product.

How do Online Forums Make Money?

A forum is no different from other websites in this regard. It can make money by showing advertisements, by providing affiliate links, by selling a product, or similar ways.

Not all forums exist simply to make money. Some companies set up forums as a vehicle for supporting their products, or simply to promote discussion. But the above methods can still be useful, if only to pay the development and hosting costs.

As for how much a forum can make, that would depend on the number of members, the subject matter of the forum, and on how hard the site owners are prepared to work at it.

Some forum sites have public and then ‘paid for’ thread areas. The ‘paid for’ areas generally have support staff that address the questions promptly and with definite knowledge regarding the product or service represented in the thread area.

Forum owner can sale links and articles with links , can make money by partner websites (online magazines , referrals or other way ) , or by Google ads . There are a million ways to make a money , there isn’t any different you have forum or website , you just need traffic .

Are Online Forums Profitable?

They use to be and it depends if you have value added info that your users will pay $$$ for eventually. Adsense is going to give you a pump but the forum has to be hoping all the time.

The forum also has to be in Google’s TOS as you know in order to keep Adsense, but still a busy forum can make money around 100k uniques a month for most topics. Remember they are a bit of work, mods and the server expense factor in worth for me.

Firstly, you can create special member areas. These areas require people to pay for access and reveal special secrets or allow more personal / deeper discussions. Exactly how you will do this will depend on your target market, but remember, it needs to be something worth the money they are paying to enter.

Secondly, you can put some adverts on your forum and make sure they are discreet and do not interfere too much in the use of the forum and people will respond to the ads. You can use something like Google Adsense in this case to display the ads.

Thirdly, recommended products. As the forum owner, you are a trusted expert in your field, so you can recommend products and services (as an affiliate) to your visitors. Obviously you need to make sure that these are suitable and of good enough quality to maintain your reputation as an expert.

Fourth, you can email the forum members with special offers, discounts and deals that are only available to them. Select suitable products that are of high quality and send the offer out. Again, obviously do not bombard them with emails every day otherwise they will leave your forum in droves. If you are sensible and send occasion carefully chosen offers you will get a response.

And fifth, you can sell advertising space. There are always people who are willing to buy advertising space. If you have a vibrant and lively forum then you may find that you can sell advertising space through private ads or through the bigger advertising companies.

How do I Make my Forum Popular?

Below are some recommendations we’ve found useful for increasing the popularity and visitors of our forum.

Increase popularity of your site

As your site becomes popular, more users begin to use your forum. If you have not already read through our promoting your web page section, we highly recommend you start there. This page has a wealth of good information on promoting your web page.

Enable guest posting

Not all forums have guest posting enabled by default. Not all users enjoy the thought of having to register to post messages on the forum. Enabling this feature can increase the popularity and use of your forums dramatically. If you start to notice an increase of abuse from guests, guest posting can be disabled at a later time.

Allow guests to view the forums

Always keep your forums public if you want new people to join. It is very unlikely for someone who doesn’t know what the forum is about to register as a member. Also, make sure search engine crawlers can index pages on your forum.

Mention the forum on all your pages

Your forum should be a focal point on your web page, which is why it should also be mentioned on your web pages. Mentioning the forum on your homepage is good, but not all visitors are going to get to your web page through the homepage.

Make sure your visitors can also get back to your homepage from your forums.

Create posts for popular topics

You can’t expect visitors to create all the posts on your forum, especially when it is first starting. Therefore, it is up to you to create some of the initial interesting, controversial, or otherwise provoking posts that encourage responses and conversation. It is also a good idea to set a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule to visit the forums and create an interesting post.

Start small

It is a common mistake for many users who create a forum to create too many topics or channels. Don’t overwhelm the user, especially if it’s not needed. Start with a forum with only a few channels (4-6) and then as more channels become needed, create those channels.

Participate on your forums

Forums require lots of maintenance and should be a place you frequently visit to create posts, respond to other posts, and make sure everything is running smoothly.

Participate in related forums

Try to visit forums that relate to yours, and participate in them. However, do not use another forum as a platform to advertise. Instead, develop relationships with other users through contributing to that forum. When you feel comfortable, and think the other users would be receptive, you can always link to your forum in the signature line of your posts.

Keep your forum header small

As mentioned on our page about promoting a web page, the average person gives each page they visit 4 or less seconds. If your forum has a large header (e.g., a large advertisement, logo, or picture) requiring users to scroll to view the forum channels, users may not read any posts or subscribe.

Hold competitions or give out prizes

A great way to bring in more subscribers is to give away awards and prizes to visitors who are participating on the forum.

It takes time

No site can expect to create a forum and instantly get thousands of users and posts. It takes time for users to visit, register, and participate on the forum. Keep working at each of the above suggestions and users begin to visit more and bring their friends with them.

Can You Make Money on a Forum?

Free open source-powered forums driven by applications such as phpBB, vBulletan and IceBB can become moneymakers through one of three possible sources for revenue: advertising, membership or sponsorship. All you need are willing participants, reliable advertisers or loyal sponsors. Add these elements to a strong niche and mix in some technical expertise to obtain consistent earnings.

Generating a reliable income by uniting a free forum with ad networks, sponsor ad spots or subscriber gateways may require significant code modifications and costly customization by a Web designer. But if your plan is sound and your skills are proficient, you can succeed with minimal additional expense.

1. Earn ad revenue by incorporating an advertising network into your free forum. Advertising networks offer payments based on pay-per-click and pay-per-view. Choose an ad network with clients that are most likely to attract the attention of your forum participants.

Inform your Web designer of your choice so that she can install the ad network’s code into your free forum. Then advertise your forum in print and online to generate traffic. Your free forum will earn fluctuating revenue as its visitors click ad links, banners or ad boxes.

2. Collect fees from an exclusive sponsor or multiple ones who are wiling to pay for visibility in your free forum. Potential sponsors, outside of those in known online ad networks, can be found in your local community and online. These businesses may expect you to discuss its products and pictures.

Free forums that feature discussions on a niche topic such as auto repair, pets or gardening may appeal to auto, pet or gardening supply companies, for example. Present your niche-oriented forum to potential sponsors after enough traffic and activity exists and win the confidence of businesses and fixed earnings.

3. Gather people from a common interest area and collect membership fees. People will pay for one-stop access to a collection of discussions on relevant issues, such as new laws, news stories and trends.

Membership forums of value to potential subscribers may feature areas to discuss problems and obtain solutions from peers. Successful membership forum earnings don’t have a cap, and you can earn an increasing amount of money from them as word spreads about your forum.

How do I Participate in a Forum?

In order to participate in discussion forums and newsgroups, it is important to be familiar with standard and accepted Internet forum etiquette. Here are some tips to help make your forum participation more productive and beneficial…

1. Terms-Of-Service

Read the forum rules and terms-of-service before you begin posting. This way, you can avoid having your “introduction” to the forum being an accidental breaking of a rule or other misconduct.

2. Worthy Comments

Don’t simply post “I agree” in response to something already posted. If you are going to participate, make the effort to add something extra to the conversation. Provide details, and know what you are talking about. Other participants will welcome posts that contain additional and valuable information.

3. Notification

If you participate in a conversation, make an effort to follow the conversation through. If you don’t plan to monitor the group regularly, try to use an email notification feature if available, or subscribe to an RSS feed of the group. It will seem rude if someone asks a question about something you posted, and you are not around to respond with an answer. Follow any threads that you have posted to.

4. Signature

Include a signature on all your posts. If you include links in your signature, take advantage of controlling the anchor text for those links. This is particularly important in forums that provide “dofollow” links. This will help your overall search marketing strategy.

5. Avoid Spam

Participants will not welcome forum spam. Provide valuable, respectful comments, and avoid the temptation to post blatant commercial messages that simply hype and promote your products and services.

6. Post In The Proper Forums

Most discussion groups are organized by specific topics or subjects, so make the effort to post in the forum most appropriate for your subject. Moderators may become frustrated if you consistently open threads in the wrong forum. If you are unsure of where a certain topic might belong, contact the forum moderator and ask which forum would be most appropriate.

7. Apologize For Mistakes

If a post is perceived as spam and deleted, or posted in the wrong forum and moved, you should apologize to the moderator right away. Believe it or not, an apology for an accidental inappropriate post can go a long way in getting back into the moderator’s good graces.

8. Regular Participation

Try to post in forums on a regular basis. Create a routine for the forums you monitor, so that participation is regular and routine instead of sporadic and random.

9. Proper Grammar And Punctuation

Forums are not nearly the same as instant messaging systems! It is important that forum messages contain proper capitalization, spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

10. Understand The Culture

Understand the culture of the forum before you begin posting. It is often best to observe the forum for a short while, in order to gain an understanding of the forums unwritten rules, and what the community will allow and not allow.

11. Humor Does Not Always Translate

Keep in mind that, like email, forums are a flat medium, and communication can often be misconstrued. Humor may not always go over well because it may not be understood, or even be clear that it is humor. Forums often have an international audience, and you will not want to alienate fellow posters by posting something that may be funny to you, but insulting or indecent in another culture.

12. Avoid Sensitive Subjects

If you are posting in a professional business forum, avoid subjects that are controversial. The Internet is global in scope, and there will likely be forum participants that have a differing view point or perspective than yours. Stick to safe subjects, so that your personal opinions on controversial or sensitive subjects don’t alienate your potential customers.

Top 5 Make Money Online Forums

Let us have a look on top 5 best forum posting websites that target people involved in various businesses & that talk about make money online:

If you are an internet marketer or someone who is making money online or looking for the best ways of making money than you must visit some or all these top 10 forums which discusses about online earning opportunities. You will find virtually any money making topic on these forums.

1. DigitalPoint Forum

DigitalPoint is one of the best make money online forum. DigitalPoint offers forum and discussion platform related to search engines and optimization, marketing, tools and technical aspects related to this.

To make money online is not an easy task, but DigitalPoint would be ultimate forum to participate for beginners. DigitalPoint is merely unmatched with any other forums in respect to quality and content. You can find information on varied domain with least spamming.

You need not have to pay any charges to start with, however, they also offer premium membership. They follow strict membership policy. They have secured payment policy via PayPal where PayPal membership is must for joining DigitalPoint.

2. WarriorForum

WarriorForum is a forum where entrepreneurs are educated through online working process making maximum profit. You can learn to become successful online from the experienced people who took years to learn.

As you gain knowledge and experience, start sharing your experience with others. It is a repository of online money making marketing. It offers free membership, however, need to pay some fees for advanced location in the forum.

Premium membership also offers benefits and discounts. WarriorForum is the best forum posting website for internet marketers with lot of revealing video tutorials and information to become a successful online entrepreneur is the edge of the forum.

Some other features like Internet Marketing Signature, searching of friends and instant messaging are also major attractions where members can build a niche community very fast.

3. Google AdSense Forum

Google Adsense forum run by Google and this is one of the best make money forum where you will get the complete idea of AdSense strategies. If you are an AdSense publisher, this is must for you.

You will find thousands of top contributors who are making big money from AdSense. All your AdSense related queries can be solved immediately there are if you don’t find the answer, you can post your query to be solved by other top members.

4. AdsenseExperts Forum

AdsenseExperts is the forum designed to target professional Adsense publisher community. Typically, people who use Google Adsense or intending to use Google Adsense are the members of AdsenseExperts.

They can get most useful and important information right from basics of Google Adsense to more advanced AdSense tips and trick to increase their revenue. You can even take to network with Adsense publisher experts. In one line, you will get each little information to turn your online content into cash.

5. WickedFire Forum

WickedFire is a highly admired and appreciated webmaster forum for various types of internet marketers. It offers real time news and advice from niche people who do not beat around bush. WickedFire is the forum designed especially for affiliate marketers. It is different from DigitalPoint and WarriorForum where people stay polite to sell you their products.

It is very hard to survive if you are involved with the forum to push a certain agenda like this. People who are trying to scam people can be pulled out without making a single penny. But it is one of the best top 5 forums where you could really make serious money.

Make Money Building Your Own Community

Before you take steps to start monetizing your online community, you want to make sure you’re ready for the transition. Below are some tips to help you build your community before you start making money from it.

1. Start with (and keep providing) great content

People have to find your community valuable enough to engage with before it makes sense to monetize. To provide that value, make sure you’re creating useful content relevant to their interests.

Tal Shelef, Co-founder of CondoWizard, explains that “users are more willing to support businesses that offer value to their lives.” To be that business for them, “offer educational content about the niche you are in. If you are into beauty, then teach makeup. If you’re into sneakers, then give them weekly news about recent trends.”

By showing your willingness to help them before you start selling to them, you develop a relationship that builds trust. Then when the time comes for a sales pitch, you won’t seem like a slimy salesperson.

2. Make sure your audience is well defined

Part of what makes a community valuable to its members is that they share something in common that makes it easy to relate. That’s valuable to you too, because knowing who your audience is makes it easier to create content (and sell products) that are relevant to their interests.

“Define your dream customers,” suggests Ashley Taylor, founder of Build Your Empire University, “know them inside out and make every piece of content with their success in mind.”

3. Make sure your audience is big enough

No matter what monetization method you choose, your community needs enough members for you to make money from it. But figuring out how big is big enough is a complicated question—and different experts offer different guidelines for this.

Sergei Belous, Founder and CEO of UpFlip says “You don’t need a large community to start monetizing. It really depends on your niche and how dedicated your following is. In some segments, you can monetize a community as small as 100 people.”

In contrast, Eden Cheng of WeInvoice suggests that “your community needs hundreds if not thousands of visitors each month for you to even be able to monetize it.”

Answers vary because the truth is it really depends on you and your business model. Michael Knight, Co-Founder and Head of Marketing at Incorporation Insight, advises that size should be “determined by your overhead and the amount of revenue you desire.

If you have 20 people in your community who pay you $5 per month for membership and your business can survive on that income while still turning a profit, that is the right size for you.”

4. Make sure your audience is engaged

Size matters, but it’s not the only measure to consider when weighing if your community is ready to monetize. “While you do need a sizable and strong community base to effectively deploy a monetization strategy, the first focus should be on gauging the community’s level of engagement and satisfaction,” recommends Stepheni Hass, Director of Marketing Operations for Formulatedby.

Engagement can take a number of different forms. Monica Lent, who runs the Blogging for Devs Pro community says “You have to show up every single day to form connections, facilitate discussions, or even bring up topics people don’t yet know are relevant for their goals.”

And to make sure people keep coming back to your community, she suggests using email digests and newsletters to remind people to re-engage.

Sid Bharath, CEO and Founder of Broca encourages getting conversations started by “seeding conversations with questions to kickstart discussions.” Do the work to get conversations started and help give members topics to think about and questions to answer.

But don’t forget that the point of community is helping others connect to each other. Andrew Latham, the Managing Editor of SuperMoney, points out “The human need to be needed and help others is underrated. Help your members find ways to provide real value to others,” he urges. “People will engage and give of their time and resources if they truly feel their contribution is valued.”

Make Money Online Forum USA

Once you’re confident that you’re ready to start making money, you need to figure out how to start monetizing. There are a few main methods to consider.

1. Run ads

One of the easiest ways to start monetizing your online community is by running ads on it. Jeff Neal of CritterFam started monetizing their community of over 8,000 reptile owners in part by running Adsense ads.

But Adsense is just one option. According to Belous, you can find an ad network to partner with. “Adthrive is one example that’s been beneficial for us.” Or, put it right on your site that you accept advertisements “so anyone who’s interested in purchasing ad space can do so easily.”

Knight suggests a third option of going straight to relevant companies. “Locate companies in your niche that are willing to pay you to sell their products to members of your online community.”

2. Charge for membership

Another way to monetize is by creating a paid membership level to your community. Michael Keenan, Co-founder of Peak Freelance uses this method. “Members pay a monthly or yearly fee and get access to on-demand tools, content, bi-weekly strategy calls, and a private Slack group.”

With this monetization strategy, you have to make sure you’re providing enough value to be worth the cost. “Offer content that members cannot find anywhere else,” Keenan suggests. And provide unique opportunities. “In Peak Freelance, we also set up 1:1 calls between members so they can meet each other and hang out virtually.”

3. Charge for sponsored content

Brands work hard to try to reach specific audiences, and getting people’s attention online is an uphill battle. Building a community means you already have an audience in place, one that many brands will want to reach. You can leverage that by charging brands for sponsored content. Janice Wald of Mostly Blogging built up her website’s domain authority, and now “people offer me money to publish their content.”

As long as you mark it clearly and make sure it’s useful to your audience, sponsored content is a win-win. You get paid to post it, and you get more valuable content to share with your community. But making sure the sponsored content is right for your audience is important here.

Content Strategist Jodie Coher explains, “Make your sales posts as natural and consistent with your other posts as possible.” You want them to be a fit with everything else you post.

4. Sell products to your community members

If you already have a business, or have ideas for relevant products, you don’t need to be the middleman for advertisers. You can sell your own products to your community. Anatolii Ulitovskyi, the founder of SEOtools.TV has used multiple monetization methods, and says selling products to the community is by far the most profitable.

“I tried… paid ads (YouTube), referral links, and selling products. In my case, paid ads provide 1x revenue, referral – 10x, my products – 100x” he says.

But for selling products to your community to make sense, you have to make sure the products you’re selling match the audience you’ve developed. “Make sure that what you are selling to your community is in some way relevant, or at least not offensive to the community you are building,” advises Thomas Fullz, CEO and Founder of Coffeeble.

5. Do affiliate marketing

“Once you grow a good audience, you can affiliate sales by collaborating with other businesses,” says Christian Velitchkov, Co-founder for Twiz LLC. Affiliate marketing is a form of advertising where, instead of getting paid simply to run an ad on your site, you get a share of the profits every time one of your members makes a purchase.

It makes the most sense for products that you’re confident your members will be interested in. If you’re helping match your audience with a type of product they need, you’ll provide value to both the community and the business you partner with, while making a profit for yourself at the same time.

6. Provide exclusive content to paid subscribers

“As websites like Patreon have shown us,” says Saksham Sharda, CIO of Outgrow, “a simple way of monetizing a community is by exclusivizing a part, but not the entirety, of your service.” That could mean creating courses and training modules for paying members of the community, or providing additional content similar to what you offer for free to paying subscribers (such as special podcast episodes or newsletters).

Community members that love your free content will often be willing to pay extra to receive exclusive content as well. But you have to make sure that the paid content packs enough value to be worth the price tag to your members.

7. Organize events

Events double both as a way to bring your community closer, and an opportunity to generate more income. “You can organize small meet-ups that bring certain attendees in your community together and let them interact in person around a topic that matters to them,” says Cheng. Charge a fee for attending, and you have a new income stream.

Or to make the events go even further, you can use them to “market products and merchandise by outreaching to third-party brands and retailers that may be interested in selling their products to your community.”

If smaller events take off, you can consider upgrading over time to something larger, like a conference.

8. Sell merchandise

A devoted community will often be glad to wear their membership on their sleeve (literally, in some cases). “A fantastic way for creators to monetize their community is through selling merchandise,” says Bryan Philips, Head of Marketing for InMotion Marketing. “This can be nearly anything done with your distinct brand, based on what kind of community you have built. From shirts, to coffee mugs to make up kits, merchandise is one of the best ways to convert viewers to consumers.”

Merchandise can be as simple as adding your logo to some t-shirts and mugs, or it can be an opportunity to reference in-jokes that community members will understand and relate to. It gives you a way to make some extra profit, and your members a way to feel that much more like they belong.

Money Making Ideas Forum

1. Tendri | Make Money Forum

Make money forum for online money making, paid survey forum, affiliate forum, business forum, internet marketing forum, investment, loans, insurance forum, Money forum app, bitcoin & Fast ways to earn money online.

2. BeerMoneyForum.com | We Help Each Other to Make Money Online

The website includes make money forum, crypto forum, investing forum, internet marketing forum, and many more that help you to make money.

3. The Money Shed

UK The UK’s largest community based forum dedicated to earning money from home online. Make money now, save money and share ideas!

4. Money Maker Discussion

The best place to learn about internet marketing, affiliate marketing, ebook selling, and home-based business to make money online.

5. Webmaster Sun » Make Money Online

If you are bloggers or internet marketers and finding ways to make money online. This is the section to discuss monetizing your website, product, or service.

Money Making Message Boards

Forums, bulletin boards, internet forums, and all the names that go with message boards have undergone a sort of a revolution in the past few years. These terms are now very popular among many people, children and adults alike.

The number of those people who are joining this new form of web application has exploded, and the number of tools and features available for the forumatics has risen. The profile of “foruming” in wider culture has even increased.

Along with these developments, there is an increase in the focus of making money from posting on the message boards. The concept of “money making message boards” then emerged and this is now becoming one of the most well-known trends that are happening across all levels of “foruming”.

Money making message boards, also known as opportunity message boards, can be found anywhere online these days. Hundreds of business minded people are joining in these hubs; all of them want to make money. Well, money makes the world go round, so to say, thus who doesn’t want to have more of it?

Well, money making message boards are also great places to learn. Here, you can find out what home businesses are the most lucrative, what business opportunities are legitimate, and you can even find out how to run and market your own business. These forums become “money making” in sense when you start posting result in sales. This happens quite a bit, however.

There are some sorts of rules to consider before you participate in any money making message boards. First, you need to know the proper netiquette. Otherwise, you can easily and quickly destroy your reputation and lose your credibility. According to some experts, that way helps you to kiss your business or your future business, good bye. Note that everyone is paying attention to the money making message boards.

Second, never use all the capital letters in the subject line or the posts you are to make. Note that online, this is considered shouting online, and it is unacceptable. Another thing is that before hitting that submit button, try to read over your post a couple of times.

Look for some typos to make sure that your spelling is correct, and that you have used a proper grammar. In posting messages on the money making message board, especially if you are marketing your own business, such pointer is very essential. The improper spelling and grammar in fact makes you look highly unprofessional.

When participating on money making message boards, never flame people. Flaming is the act of attacking someone else, verbally. If you disagree, say it in a polite manner. Don’t start screaming at another forum member.

In this kind of environment, everyone has an opinion and they are almost different. This is what actually makes these message boards valuable. So, just leave the flaming to the unprofessional members.

Finally, never use foul language in the forums. You probably don’t think that this needs to be said, but unfortunately it does. Saying foul language in the money making message boards is unprofessional and you may offend many. What’s worse is that the people you are offending may be potential customers, and they will remember your language indeed!

Making Money Online Forum List in Nigeria

Nigerian discussion forums are quite popular among web users in the country. There are numerous websites that you can visit to find out some information, but not all of them are widespread and therefore your chances to get a decent solution to your problem decrease. Thus, here is the list of the top most popular Nigerian forums you should know about.

1. Nairaland

Nairaland forum is the ultimate winner by recognition. It hosts millions of users and has an answer almost to any request. Here users can create discussions on a wide range of topics.

What makes it also a leader in the business is the quality of searching that allows users to find the necessary information quickly. Following the current trends, Nairaland has a mobile version, which makes access to the forum quite easy.

2. GistMania

This active Nigerian forum offers a great range of topics about entertainment, news, and gist. The website has various headings and a list of trending gists. You can always find something worth your time to read or discuss here. And interestingly enough, GistMania is linked with another well-known Naija forum – NaijaPals.

3. NaijaPals

NaijaPals focuses mainly on Nigerian music, films, and news. If you join the website, you get plenty of movies to watch for free, Nigerian music to download and like-minded people to talk to. NaijaPals combines features of the social network, media, and a discussion forum. Together with GistMania, you get everything you might need.

4. Jackobian

The Nigerian forum Jackobian hosts mainly young people, students. It is full of information on cryptocurrency, IT, investment opportunities, but also has news and entertainment gists to read. Jackobian is a relatively new and promising forum.

5. AskNaij

AskNaij is a rapidly developing platform, where users exchange experience and give answers on topical issues as well as general questions. The forum is simple and user-friendly, offers lots of categories and focuses mainly on exchanging knowledge.

How to Make Money Online Forums

Here are the top posting forums that target people from different industries and talk about making money.

1. AdsenseExperts Forum

Publishers use AdsenseExperts as a forum. Users of Google Adsense and those planning to use it seek out AdsenseExperts quite frequently.

Learn both the basics and advanced skills of Google Adsense, and improve your revenue. Experts in AdSense can also be contacted. In one line, information can be made into cash.

2. Blogging Forum

According to its name, Blogger Forum aims to help bloggers develop their communities. Blogging issues, information, and advice can be discussed here, including WordPress, Blogger, etc.

Even blogging tips can help you improve your website. Discuss search engine optimization (SEO), (SEP), strategy linking, and money-making opportunities with Adsense.

3. WickedFire Forum

It is admired and popular among webmasters that WickedFire exists. You can get real-time suggestions in real-time and niche-specific knowledge. WickedFire is a forum specifically for affiliate marketers and bloggers. While WarriorForum sells products, Digital Point does not. 

Being successful on such a platform is nearly impossible. Scammers can make millions without ever earning a penny. You can therefore earn real money in ten forums. 

4. WarriorForum

WarriorsForum is an online collaboration platform for entrepreneurs. They have been learning how to succeed online for years. Discounts and benefits are offered to premium members.

A video tutorial shared on WarriorForum is the best tool for online business owners to publish a website. 

As you learn, share your ideas with others. This is an archive of cash marketing. You must, however, pay in advance. It is free to join.

5. DigitalPoint Forum

It is a reputable online forum. Search engines and their optimization are discussed in the DigitalPoint forum. Beginners can participate in online cash through DigitalPoint. DigitalPoint’s quality and content cannot be compared with other forums. Several domains are spam-free.

Even though there is no fee, they offer exclusive access. Your membership policy is strict. DigitalPoint requires a PayPal member to make payments.

6. MTurk Forum

Mturk provides two forums on MTurk.com. Experienced employees and new hires alike can often find valuable information in MTurk’s forum.

The forums on mTurk are a good place to learn more about mTurk’s tips and tricks for working with Turkish workers. MTurk’s free platform offers infinite learning opportunities. It has an intuitive interface.

Participation is easy. Create your account, accept the guidelines, and get active. MTurk is also available in a Turkish forum for news, information, and views.

7. Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Forum

Multi-Level Marketing Forum (MLM) members include network advertisers, industry associates, and homeowners. This is a superb resource that is of great value to the MLM community.

Access to the information is free. This is a genuine, trustworthy, thorough networker for Multi-Level Marketing (MLM). Additionally, it offers new marketing tools that are free of charge. 

How do You Monetize Online Communities?

The question for most companies is how can they monetize their online community successfully. The following 7 strategies will set you on the right track.

Create a membership site

This is one of the best ways to monetize an online community. Membership sites allow you to leverage the interest your people already have in your content.

You can start by creating free content for your website that captures audience attention and gets them hooked. Once you see demand for your content growing, you add a paywall into the mix. This means that people will need to sign up for paid memberships to access certain pieces of exclusive content.

You can easily add payment options for subscriptions to your site through Tribe and Zapier, giving your fans the chance to pay through Stripe or PayPal.

The key is finding the right value to offer to your paid subscribers and one of the best ways to determine your content strategy is by surveying your community members.

For instance, the Harley Owners Group offers members not just “Insider” content, but also archive access, roadside assistance, and a “touring handbook”.

Options for your members may include:

• Access to bonus information or content
• Premium eBooks, webinars, and videos
• Discounted event and course prices
• Profile customization options
• Extensive archive access

Sell an online course

Running an online course is another great way to monetize your community. The online e-learning market was estimated to be worth around $101 billion in 2019. In 2026, it is projected to reach $167 billion.

Courses allow you to curate valuable knowledge into a useful tool for your audience. If your customers already love the tips and tricks that you share in your community, they’ll appreciate the chance to learn more.

The key to success with online courses is picking the right idea. Start by looking at your website analytics and finding out which topics your customers visit most often.

You can also think about the kind of issues that people in your industry face and examine what your competitors are doing to help customers just like yours.

The more you know about your audience, the better.

Remember, when creating an online course, it’s important to go beyond high-level overviews of topics. Get deep into a specific issue or concern that your customer has and deliver the value they can’t get anywhere else.

Extra resources like videos, quizzes, and tools that your audience can use to increase their understanding can be very helpful.

Start a coaching program

Similar to online courses, coaching programs are an excellent way to monetize your expertise. Self-development is a trending concept in the digital world, and your community is sure to have skills they’d like to improve with your help.

If you have expertise in a certain area, you can offer coaching without even having to create a product upfront. Like consulting, coaching means that you listen to the unique needs of your customer and offer advice specific to them.

You can start with one-on-one interactions where people pay for a snippet of your time to help them with a specific problem.

If you find a lot of your followers have similar problems, you may decide to begin a group coaching format instead, where people can sign up for larger webinar-style classes. Group coaching is a great way to generate more income at once, and you can even offer one-on-one sessions at the same time.

Promote products as an affiliate

Affiliate marketing stands out as one of the simplest strategies for monetizing your online presence. About 81% of brands use affiliate marketing to drive more sales to their store, which makes it easy to find a company you can work with.

The key to making your fortune here is choosing the products that appeal most to your community. Search for items that you know your followers will be interested in.

Basically, you should stick to products that are relevant to your niche and target audience as this will help you appear more authentic compared to other advertisers online.

The great thing about affiliate marketing is that you can advertise several products at once. Plus, you can add affiliate marketing as an extra avenue of profit to any other strategies you’re using to monetize your online audience. Affiliate marketing works brilliantly alongside content marketing, online courses, and more.

Advertising

Native advertising is another excellent solution for generating revenue from a community. These days, companies of all sizes want to strengthen their connection with their audience by advertising on various platforms.

If you already have a strong following for your website or magazine, then you can appeal to a lot of brands in search of promotional reach.

There are various ways to advertise on your website and create cash as a result. For instance, you can have the companies that want to work with you pay for you to place a banner ad inside your community.

This is the most popular advertising option and Tribe allows you to easily display a banner at the top of your community’s home page feed.

Another option could be to have sponsored content added to your site. For instance, if you run a community that’s all about SEO, and a marketing agency wants to advertise on it, they could write a blog post for your community with the top tips on what to look for in an SEO agency.

This sponsored post would link back to the other company’s website, and make the brand look good to your customers.

Sell branded merchandise

If you gain a significant following online, then there’s a chance that your community will begin to feel an emotional connection with you. This could mean that they’re keen to show their support of your brand by purchasing products with your logo or colors on them.

If you’ve ever proudly worn a customized t-shirt with the name of a podcast company you love on it, you’ll know how valuable branded merchandise can be.

Thanks to print-on-demand tools, you can allow your customers to choose from a range of different branded products, from mugs and hoodies to pieces of home artwork.

Branded merchandise is excellent for making your followers feel like a more dedicated part of the community.

For instance, the CouchSurfing store allows customers to show their appreciation of the brand through t-shirts, journals, and more. The products they sell are all relevant to the company’s focus on travel too, such as hoodies, and stickers that you can place on your car.

How do I Create a Paid Forum Membership?

Use an on-site forum platform

When it comes to the community side of membership sites, the biggest question we get is about which platform to use.

More specifically – should I use a Facebook group, or an online forum?

While a Facebook group may be the easiest and more attractive option there are several reasons why having an online forum is preferable.

Members having immediate access to the community, as well as the ability to more closely integrate forum solutions such as bbPress or IPBoard into the member experience are key to actually getting your members taking part.

Use a “Seed group”

When creating your membership site, you’ll reach a point shortly before launching where you should be running a “beta test”, enrolling a small group of members at either a reduced rate or for free, with the purpose of having them extensively test everything on your site.

These testers could essentially become a “seed group” for your community too – tasked with starting and participating in discussions, so that when the doors to your site open there’s already momentum within the community.

Even if you’re not running a beta test you could recruit a seed group from your network, existing clients or people on your waitlist.

Start small in terms of forum sections

There’s a temptation when setting up your membership forum to go crazy with the number of forum sections you set up.

Our tip is to start small and scale up as needed – rather than creating a separate section for every conceivable topic your community may want to discuss.

And don’t be “all business” either – create a section for off-topic conversation too; as those more relaxed, casual conversations will often be an easier “in-road” for new members to jump into and start posting.

In terms of quantity, you should be going for no more than 6-8 sections to begin with (unless you’re putting all of your membership content, courses and so on inside your community – which is a different topic entirely!)

Have realistic expectations

Success and failure are all relative.

Often people will view their efforts as being unsuccessful based on unrealistic expectations, and the same goes for building your membership community.

Usually this will manifest itself in thinking things like: “I have 100 members but only 9 or 10 are posting, where am I going wrong?!”

There’s a general rule of thumb when it comes to community engagement:

It’s called “The 90-9-1 Rule”

And this roughly states the following:

• 1% of your members will be “power users” – visiting your site several times a day, starting discussions and helping to drive the community.
• 9% will be “regular users” – visiting two or three times a week, replying to topics more than posting
• 90% will be “lurkers” – regularly visiting and consuming, but rarely (if ever) participating

Keep this in mind when assessing how well your community is going.

Lead by example and drive the community

As the founder and standard bearer for your community, it stands to reason that you should be the ultimate “power user”

If you can’t be bothered posting in your forum, why should others?

“Showing up” is one of the most impactful things a membership site owner can do, and that goes double for your community.

This doesn’t mean you need to live in your forum 24/7, but making it part of your daily routing to visit at least twice a day, start new topics, reply to posts and answer questions will go a long way to ensuring the future success of your membership.

Make it a key part of your membership content

A great way of encouraging community participation is to find ways to have your forum cross-over with your core membership.

This could involve setting up specific topics or forum sections for discussion of courses and specific content, or even putting some or all of your courses into the forum itself.

Maybe it’s having a regular forum thread where people submit their questions for your live training; or encouraging members to start introduction threads and progress logs or diaries as part of your initial onboarding strategy.

Enable community-building features

Some of the more advanced forum platforms such as IPBoard or Xenforo come with some extremely useful features for enhancing the user experience within your community.

These include things like:

• Private messaging: enabling your members to have private one on one conversations amongst themselves
• Member tagging: allowing you to “tag” another member in a discussion, which will then not only automatically link to that members profile but will also notify them that they’ve been mentioned
• Member Profiles: where members can fill in a bit of information about themselves and find out more about others in the community
• Status updates: these allow members to post short notes on their profiles about what they’re working on, what’s on their mind and so on.

Many of these features are inspired by popular social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter; and as such will help make your community more modern and interactive – ultimately encouraging participation.

Get your team involved

If you have staff working for you, even if it’s just subcontractors such as virtual assistants; or if you are running your membership in partnership with someone else – then having all team members take part in your forum is a no-brainer.

Not only does it make for more discussion and more activity within your community; but having everyone onboard representing your business and your brand goes a long way towards increasing your presence and visibility as well as increasing the chances that members will have their questions answered in a timely fashion.

If you don’t have team members, you may consider hiring a virtual assistant for the sole purpose of being a “community manager”, whose role will include participating daily in the community.

Keep a list of questions and inspiration for discussions

As the founder of your membership, you’re expected to set the pace; and particularly in the early days, this means you’re going to have to be the one to start most of the discussions.

After time this will change and your members will increasingly post new topics themselves, but until then you’re going to come up with a continuous source of ideas for topics to discuss.

To that end, using a tool such as Evernote or Trello to build an “idea bank” for discussions will prove invaluable.

Any time you see someone asking a question – whether it’s on social media, in your blog comments, people emailing your for support, in other communities or even within existing discussions on your own forum; take note of the question.

Doing this, you will quickly build up a list of fresh, relevant topics that you can start within your community when you find yourself running out of ideas.

This “crowdsourcing” strategy works well for blog articles, podcasts or even membership content too.

Regularly share blog content from yourself and others

If you’re publishing regular blogs, podcasts, videos or other content as part of your marketing for your membership site; it’s worth sharing that within your membership community.

Not only is it a good excuse for creating a new topic, but it’s also providing convenience to your paying members – something which is extremely valuable and often overlooked.

Again during those early days of the forum where the pressure is on you to regularly start discussions; this is something that eases that burden and gives an “easy-in” for people to participate.

Email members the best bits

If you’re relying on your members to proactively visit your forum every day or several times a week without being prompted, then you’re going to find it very difficult to build momentum.

You need to regularly remind people that your community exists and give them a reason to take part.

Sending out a weekly digest – via email – of some hand-picked discussions is a great way to get people interested who otherwise may not have bothered with the community.

Read Also: How To Significantly Boost Your Memorial Day Sales

If someone sees a topic they have an interest in or knowledge of is being discussed – by way of a weekly roundup of conversations – then they’re more likely to hop in and give their input.

How do You Promote a Forum Website?

Here are 10 tried and tested ways to promote your internet forum for maximum exposure.

1. Promote Yourself

In the early stages of the growth of a forum, the forum owner’s credibility plays a key role in attracting new members. The forum owner needs make their presence felt in different forums by contributing heavily. A link to the forum must also be attached to their name always.


2. Social Media

The popular social media platforms are considered an enemy that steals its audience by many forum owners. But, it can be used to bring in a lot of new users to the forum. Using Reddit and Quora, one can build a loyal following who can be the invited to the forum.


3. Create a Blog

Having a blog in the same domain as that of your forum is a great advantage for forum owners. It becomes a great source for the right type of audience for the forum. The blog has the additional advantage of getting high in the search rankings and advertising the forum for free.


4. Post on other Forums

Many forums have a special section called ‘Website Showcase’. This is a place where forum owners share the link to their forums and invite people to visit it. The forum explorers use this space to find interesting new forums to try out.


5. Forum Networking

Networking opens up numerous opportunities for increasing your forum audience. Interact with forum moderators, admins and invite them to give feedback about your forum. Many will end up becoming regular members and also invite their friends/community members.


6. Forum Contests

A great way to get more users to try out your forum is to conduct a contest for your existing users. Ask them to invite the maximum number of users and they get to win merchandise, special access or gift cards. Organize and promote it well and you get loads of new users.


7. Facebook Groups

Facebook groups can be leveraged to channel users to your forum. Facebook groups is a great way to build an audience quickly. Start multiple groups around different subtopics from your domain, get the group running and then get them to visit the forum.


8. Cross Promotion

These are numerous forums that are in your domain but don’t clash with the topics your forum is known for. You can get in touch with the owners of these forums and talk about link exchanges. You promote their forum on your forum and vice versa. Both get SEO benefit and new users.


9. Advertise Smart

Yes. I know it is a controversial thing to say, but there is no harm in trying. If you get an audience that you think is perfect for your niche, you can use short bursts of advertising to get their attention. You can try with ads on different forums or even experiment with Facebook ads.


10. Offline Events

Well, this is not a way to promote your forum on the internet. But it is a great way to build your brand and increase the awareness of your forum, both online and offline. You can sponsor events in your domain or conduct them yourself which is great opportunity to get new users.

Summary

Growing an audience for a forum is not as simple as it seems. After all, your forum is just a tiny particle in the internet galaxy. Relying on word of mouth is just not enough to bring in the numbers.

First, the forum owner needs to know exactly who their audience is and where they are present on the internet. Then they need to pitch their forum to these users and invite them to their forum.

Before going out there into the internet world to promote your forum, it is important to have a small community of members who are active participants. Only then will the visitors to the forum see the value and even think about giving it a try, which will ultimately help you to start making money with your forum.