Janeth, I wish I could give you a concrete answer that would be correct for everyone in every situation, but that isn't possible based upon your questions.
One problem is that some of your conclusions are not correct. You might have arrived at them by seeing what was the situation with some sites.
Everyone doesn't like PPC better and there are many people who make less money with AdSense than they are with an affiliate program, or maybe even on CPM.
I like AdSense because for my particular situation it gives me the best results. But I don't only depend on AdSense.
This all gets down to the old thing of what works great for one person might not work as well for another person. That is why your question isn't easy to answer.
While there are exceptions, generally speaking AdSense works better with content sites, the more original content you have, the better you can do with AdSense.
There are many people who are having better results with AdSense than they have had with other methods because they have sites that are right for AdSense. But this doesn't mean this will be true for everyone. There are people making lots of money with AdSense and people making lots of money with affiliate programs. Often affiliate programs might require a little more work than is required with AdSense.
Often people will use a combination on a site. They will have AdSense as well as some affiliate programs. Some might also have some CPM programs to get paid based upon impressions.
A lot of times people just need to test and see what works best for them. Sometimes even when something isn't working well a few changes can make it work better. The changes could be things such as placing the ad(s) in a different spot on the page or using a different size ad.
Some people do well with forums, some with blogs and some with what you called normal websites.
Often it will be easier to make more money with the right normal site than with a forum. But there are exceptions.
A lot also depends on what your forum, blog or normal site is about. It also depends on the amount of traffic you have. It could also depend on how much competition you have.
It is always very difficult to talk in general terms. What probably would be very helpful in giving you really helpful answers would be if you could let the membership see the actual website you are talking about as well as your forum and your blog, assuming they aren't of an adult nature or anything against the 5 Star rules.
If you do this, then it will be possible for people to give specific information that would relate to you rather than talking in general terms that can have all types of exceptions. They could suggest what ad networks you might want to consider as well as if you should even consider PPC or something else. They could make many useful suggestions as to if it would be a good idea to do what you are planning or not, based upon seeing exactly what you are talking about rather than trying to talk in general terms.
Both use to be a pr6 but I have not worked with either so they are now a pr4 and the forum is dead.
The reason I want to start here is that I need to get the design business going so I can make money for the next 2 months while I'm trying to get into the affiliate marketing. Once I get this site going again I'll branch out to the other sites.
Knowing there is not one set thing that works helps a lot.
I was thinking about getting rid of the site and making the forum the main site and using the .net for the web design business for the time being.
But the site ranks for a lot of keywords and I hate to mess around and loose that.
JANETH I know you! You used to mod with me over at WebProWorld. I wondered if you were the Janeth I knew when you signed up. Now I know you are because I've seen your forum before.
Larwee - WOW! What a great well thought out answer!
Not sure what I can add except that in general forums are a little tough to monetize and also take a lot of work to build up traffic. I think your forum was pretty busy back when I first looked but I have not been there for a long time.
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WPW has been a long time ago. If you’re the Linda I remember you always wrote nicely written post.
The forum on Geeks was going very well for a couple months and then I got into the PPC and left that site to die a slow death.
Now I’m wanting to breath some life back into it and trying to figure out how to make money with the site without going back into the web design business.
But the more I think about it the more I think the design business will always be part of the business and I should try to run hosting and marketing ads off the site.
Those are two things I don’t want to do.
It’s nice to see your still around the forums Linda.
Even though your PR has decreased to 4 you can build that back up again with good content and linking.
Have you ever thought of just building more content around your theme to draw in more search engine traffic and THEN use that extra traffic to draw attention to your forum? Now you've got the best of both worlds. A decent PR and forum.
I had a forum for a short time on one of my sites, but I learned that it takes a lot of work to get it off the ground and make it active. I admire people like Linda who have such active forums. As far as money, I'd have to echo what others have said. It really depends on the topic, amount of activity, etc.
Even though your PR has decreased to 4 you can build that back up again with good content and linking.
Yes, now that I'm working on the site again I'm hoping to see it go back to a pr6 on the next update.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 5PillarManager
Have you ever thought of just building more content around your theme to draw in more search engine traffic and THEN use that extra traffic to draw attention to your forum? Now you've got the best of both worlds. A decent PR and forum.
I'm thinking you are correct on this and even though the forum is not on the home page I'm thinking if I can get some good enough information on the site it want matter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 5PillarManager
I had a forum for a short time on one of my sites, but I learned that it takes a lot of work to get it off the ground and make it active. I admire people like Linda who have such active forums. As far as money, I'd have to echo what others have said. It really depends on the topic, amount of activity, etc.
Oh thanks Janeth. I spent so much time posting on other forums and moderating them, that I decided it would be smart for me to start my own and put more of my posting energy into my own sites and projects.
It's only a year old so just starting to build up with the help of some REALLY great mods.
FYI all, I started the affiliate forum over at WebProWorld from the ground up over 2 years ago. I'm still listed as a mod there, but never mod any more. They just wanted to keep my name up for consistency and because so many at that forum expect me to be there. With my carpal tunnel I have to be more selective where I post, and once this forum started getting so busy I had to give up something and sadly I gave up modding both Search Engine Watch and WebProWorld forums.
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Making Money With Forums
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