Does running a forum make any money?

[robothouse77]

obviously, this message board is pretty popular.

but other boards, can you make enough money from donations and advertising to offset the overhead of the servers and storage of massive amounts of stored threads?

 

[Mrfrog840]

yes

 

[yobarman]

of course... the ads pay the bills.

 

[robothouse77]

Originally posted by: yobarman
of course... the ads pay the bills.

only if they get enough clicks...right?

 

[talyn00]

Well most forums I do see aren't just stand alone message boards, they are just a part of a larger site. Like the Anandtech isn't just forums, they also do hardware reviews.

 

[Yzzim]

Originally posted by: talyn00
Well most forums I do see aren't just stand alone message boards, they are just a part of a larger site. Like the Anandtech isn't just forums, they also do hardware reviews.

O RLY?

 

[robothouse77]

Originally posted by: talyn00
Well most forums I do see aren't just stand alone message boards, they are just a part of a larger site. Like the Anandtech isn't just forums, they also do hardware reviews.

what about sites like genmay, the offshoot of the general mayhem topic in hardforums?

 

[dartworth]

How To Build A Popular and Profitable Forum Community

Here is a interesting concept...

 

[Xylitol]

You can make money as long as its a popular topic or general stuf like Anandtech

 

[enyce2k9]

thats good, the ads arent even annoying so if thats the way the $ is made then im glad

 

[nakedfrog]

This is a little like asking if you can make money by starting your own business

 

[RossMAN]

First of all very few forums [newer] forums are as large or popular as AnandTech is. So you won't really need dedicated servers or a server to run the message board. Usually a regular web hosting account will suffice until it gets popular. Then you can upgrade to a VPS ($50/mo) then to a semi-dedicated ($100/mo) then a dedicated server ($200). After that it's a cluster of dedicated servers.

Don't forget about the forum software $$$, an experienced server admin, and marketing/advertising the forum.