Ya, that's revenue but take into consideration the operational cost of those sites. When you have like 500,000 members or more and thousands of people online all the time, you have to pay mods, servers, DDOS protection, etc..etc. So the admin might only profit 50-100k. I know with my site that I am selling I bring in about 90k a month and it cost me around 55-60k per month in expenses. Plus I usually throw around 10k into adword/other advertising of the site.
Well no, but there are ways that non contributors can be profitable. With a few mods, Brett could make it so that non contributors see google adsense or some other form of advertising. I have spoke to Brett and he doesn't run this site as a business, it's more of a hobby. That is probally what makes this the great site that it is. I guess it's just the part of me who knows that with the traffic this site gets, it could be really profitable. Being new here I am not trying to change things, just thought that I would throw in my 2 cents whatever they are worth. Also advertisements don't have to be a pain in the butt. We all see them daily online and most of us, expierenced surfers, basically ignore them. Site's that look more like a billboard then a community turn people off. So that is not what I am saying. However, a few well placed banners/google ads could make some decent money, that could be used to give back to the members. Think of it this way, if Brett threw some adsense up on the forum and then ran a competition that gave away seasons tickets to LSU football, basketball and baseball. Would that be such a bad thing?
You guys that are listing forums that make 100k a month are forgetting how many forums never take off. Listing those forums as examples of how much people make in forums is like listing Google and Yahoo as examples of how to make money with search engines...My guess is that 5% of the forums started make it and of those that make it, 20% make any money, none the less 100k a month...
Brett had Google ads on TF for a while, but they didn't create enough revenue to be worth it. Those sites that make 100K a month get LOTS more hits than a small, niche site like Tigerforums. Tigerforums was 100% free until the site's expenses required asking for the modest contributions that float the operation now.
Had being the key word here. I have been here a short amount of time and with 200 people always online that is the key. When did Brett have Adsense? What was the average traffic then compared to now? Just because it didn't bring revenue then, doesn't mean it wouldn't now. I make a nice check from google monthly so I possibly I know what I am talking about?
