How do you make monetize a web forum? That’s a question I’ve been trying to solve for ages now. I may have the answer for you.

Forums can be a particularly difficult interface to make a profit from. The key is that a forum needs to be analyzed as a web application instead of an article database. You have to remember that a forum is there to allow people with collective interests to ask questions and submit ideas.

With this in mind, be careful when placing ads on a forum. It is up to your how you want to run your community, but a forum is not always the best place to advertise. On some communities I monetize solely from the website and leave the forum ad-free. Each community is different and the member base needs to be considered so.

So, your forum has a high Google PR and gets thousands of page views, but you’re still losing money on it? The solution is variety and placement. The most common form of BBS advertising is niche graphic banners across the top and along the margin of posts. This is a feasible solution, but these banners are often “blind ads” that your forum regulars will skip. Smaller sites may also have trouble finding niche advertisers.

Product placements like Amazon Affiliate Program will hardly get you anywhere unless you run a forum about specific consumer products. You will get a few conversions with this, but once again, they will become blind ads to your forum members.

Turning to pay-per-click programs, AdSense performs above the rest. Since your forum members are already reading and writing posts, they will actually take the time to view text ads. Since they are content-based, the adverts will be relevant to the thread the viewer is reading. Not only is AdSense efficient, but your members will be happy. AdSense ads are non-invasive, clean, and specific.

If AdSense isn’t working out on your forum, try playing around with the colors and placement. You will be surprised at what a difference it can make. Keep things fresh. Since the audience are “regular readers,” you must rotate the ads and colors to catch their eye.

The best results I’ve seen come from placing a good old-fashioned 468×60 borderless banner just below the text of the most recent post. The ad is colored to match the font and bg colors in the post. Combined with a wide unit above the thread, you’re in gold territory.

Good luck with monetizing your forum. It can be a tricky task, but you’ll eventually see a turn if you keep working at it.