I put Adsense on a forum last week and it's averaged a $0.09 CPM since, which is basically useless. This is the first forum I've managed, it's still profitable because I'm not spending money driving traffic to it, but I'm wondering if it could be improved or if this is about the standard for forum banner ads?
Forum ads
- Thread starter o hai guyz
- Start date
In my post history somewhere is a post about forum traffic being "basically worthless" and citing a .10 cpm, so you have about a 10% margin for improvement.
Adsense + user-generated content is generally fail.
Adsense + user-generated content is generally fail.
I can pretty much confirm this. I own a forum I built from scratch and the Adsense earnings are fucking pathetic even after 8 years of split testing placements and the industry it's in exploding in the past 3 years. That being said, build a list + Amazon associates > Adsense.
The only way people are going to click on your ads in a forum is if you blend them in really well and of course, have them relate to the topics. Even then there's no guarantee, but your chances will be better if you respect your members rather than say, force-infusing their posts with that Infolinks crap.
The only time I think Adsense works in forums is when it's included within the messages. If it's in the sidebar, it's so easy to ignore. I've always found Adsense to get the most clickthroughs shortly after it's been added. If it isn't working yet, it doesn't seem likely that it will. Everyone's mileage varies of course.
If you've got a forum and it has members, you can build a nice list. You can sell to that list, especially if it is in a niche that is exploding. Don't rely on Adsence.
The money is in Paid Subscriptions with forums.
Might be worth checking out this thread on TAZ: How To: Maximizing your Revenue Potential - Admin Zone Forums
Might be worth checking out this thread on TAZ: How To: Maximizing your Revenue Potential - Admin Zone Forums