If you are an online marketer, you can easily make money with online forums by following a few simple strategies. Online forums provide a medium for people who have similar interests to discuss issues and find solutions to problems.
There are several of these websites on the internet and some of them get a lot of traffic. This platform can be used to make your online business known to a larger number of people. Here are some of the informations you need to make money
- The purpose of a forum
- Availability of targeted traffic
- Share relevant information
- Post on forums regularly
- Link building
- How to Monetize it
The purpose of a forum
A forum can be a website or a section in an existing website that provides interactivity among the users. Registration is usually required before you can join in discussions. Members can asks questions and discuss issues that are important to them.
Read Also: Quick Tips On How To Earn Income Testing Websites
A lot of online marketers have realized the value of forums and they have been able to harness the opportunities that are provided. The following are some of the popular ways to make money with online forums.
Availability of targeted traffic
The targeted traffic that is available on forums makes it easy to make money. People who visit forums are there to search for information about specific topics. This targeted traffic offers a lot of benefits to the average online marketer.
It is possible to attract forum visitors to your website by becoming part of the discussions about your niche. They can be referred to your website where they can get more information.
Share relevant information
People visit forums mostly to get information. They may want to know about the cheapest car insurance, best weight loss method, latest video game cheats and so on. You can easily attract the attention of these people by sharing valuable tips and insights that are useful to them.
Sharing valuable information will attract more visitors to your website that are likely to buy products. It will take time to build a good reputation on a forum, but the rewards make the effort worthwhile. When you have built trust among the membership, they will start to rely on you for more information.
Post on forums regularly
When you open a new account on a forum, it will take some time to build your reputation. This means that you have to post regularly over a period of time. Do not make it too obvious that you have joined the discussion so as to market your online business.
Most established forums are closed communities and they frown on strangers that want to take advantage of their members. If you start posting links the minute you join a forum, the moderators will penalize you and can even ban your account. There is a minimum number of posts that you have to make before you can post links.
Link building
Making money with online forums is about providing links that brings targeted traffic to your website. These links can be in your signature and can also be inserted directly in your posts. You can open several accounts in sizeable forums in order to get more traffic. Forum marketing is still a very reliable means of getting targeted traffic.
How to Monetize it
Direct Advertisers and Premium CPM Advertising
CPM advertising networks require a minimum traffic level before they accept sites.
Unless you have 100k visitors per month, you should avoid looking for CPM advertising network for forums. It will be nothing more than just a waste of time.
Remember before applying for any CPM advertising network go through their site requirements to see if they accept un-moderated content sites like forums because most CPM Ad networks don’t accept forums.
Once approved for a CPM Ad network along with Adsense, you will need to manage your ad inventory efficiently to maximize revenue.
- Use Google Ad Manager for CPM ad network with a minimum eCPM floor value if Adsense can better that eCPM, Ad Manager shows Adsense or else CPM Ad network ads.
- The other way to manage Ad inventory is to opt for Adsense for unsold CPM ad inventory.
Whatever you deploy, don’t focus too much on making the most of ads, work on building the community.
Google Adsense
Adsense is one of the easier ways to make money from websites, especially forums. There is very little work required in getting started with Adsense, and so you can concentrate on things that matter more, i.e., generating content and building community.
When you start using Adsense, you can be distracted for getting your Ad placement right for maximum revenue generation.
One thing to understand here is that if you have 1000 people visiting your forum, you will not make more than a few dollars per day in Adsense no matter how hard you try. So instead of focusing on tweaking Ad placement, you should focus more on generating more conversations and traffic.
Once you have decent traffic, you can worry about tweaking Adsense placement for better revenue.
Premium Membership
As your forum grows, you can start premium membership where you offer some extra stuff that people want.
Remember that you should offer things that members want, but how do you know what people want?
Read Also: Tips To Make Huge Income Online With Website Design
Use forum suggestion sub-forum to get the idea about what members are looking for?
- Are they looking for extra PM space?
- Are they looking for a badge as forum supporter?
- Asking for Personal Blogs/Groups …
- Access to an exclusive private forum …
Then use them to offer a premium membership package for members.
Forum/Sub-Forum Sponsorship
You probably have multiple forums on your site, and each forum is different from the other.
Offer a complete sponsorship, but often in a diverse set of topics, advertisers may not consider it. So, instead of offering a complete forum sponsorship package, allow an advertiser to sponsor a specific subforum. You will be amazed to see how many advertisers opt for a particular forum sponsorship at a premium rate than complete forum sponsorship for a lower price.
You can use Adsense to backfill non-sponsored forums. To further increase bidding/revenue in Adsense, create targeted placements for each subforum throughout your site.
The aim of forum sponsorship is to Maximum advertiser’s ROI, so they keep coming back to your site for advertising opportunities.
For a forum to work, you have to focus more on things which are used by people. If people keep coming back to your site because of the excellent experience and quality of communication within the community, advertisers surely will.
It is just a matter of time.
Be creative to monetize your forum… Some things might be unique to your forum, so it’s impossible to say there’s one right or wrong way to do it.
