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Before we indulge in making money using forum websites, first let's try and understand what are these online forums.
Online forum websites, also known as message boards or discussion boards, are platforms where users can engage in online discussions, share information, and build communities around specific topics or interests.
Online forums facilitate asynchronous conversations, meaning users can post messages and replies at their convenience, rather than real-time chat.
Forums are often organized into categories or subforums, allowing users to find discussions related to their interests.
These online forums are different from chatrooms as the information is well-categorized and archived for future reference. Their ability to safeguard communications makes forums unique as people can enrich the information even after some time, which enables the forums to be evergreen and with updated information.
If you are part of a community, it is always better to have your forum as it makes discussions easier and well-structured.
You can easily make your forum website using different forum software. I have designed the World Net Forum from scratch, so the way it looks might be different, but more or less functions are similar.
If you want this layout, you can register and drop a comment below and I will connect with you to help you out.
But if you want to go ahead with forum software, I suggest you try phpBB or something like that. You can easily find them under the applications area in your hosting. Both Godaddy and Hostinger provide some forum software, which you can later customize as per your needs.
I wanted to build my forum from scratch because over the years forum software has been disappearing and developers have stopped updating plugins or software for forums, still there are a few popular forum software that are still being updated.
Once you have installed the forum software, you can then start customizing it with your logo and other details.
The most important part is to ask your friends to create their accounts and start posting content as per your niche. They can post questions, threads, or anything that will make your forum look alive.
Now that you have set up your forum website, you can monetize the same using several tried and tested ways, some of which are as follows;
If you already have your products or services, you can start selling the same or can even provide support for the same to your customers using an online forum. This will foster a sense of community and your customers will know where to find you in case they are stuck somewhere.
Plus, you will not have to do tech support 24/7 as your customers will help each other if the issues are small and might require some minor guidance. This is what a community is all about, helping each other, and forums help foster that environment.
Let's say your forum is about cosmetics products and that you have content concerning cosmetic ingredients and raw materials. These articles have been written by experts or even people who have joined your website. You can sell badges that will say that a person is a "Formulation Scientist" or "Raw Material Vendor" etc to help people know whom to connect with in case they want something.
Professionals working in Research and Development will love to have a badge saying "Formulation Scientist", and they will also be dedicating their time to new research and updating or sharing innovations on your forum.
These badges can be given for a subscription fee and after verifying their qualifications. You can charge anywhere between INR 2000 to INR 8000 per year for these badges depending upon the access that they will be provided. For example, people with having "Power Member" badge can also be allowed to use Market Place in your forum which will help them sell their products or services much more easily as it will be visible on almost all the pages of your forum.
Being an affiliate means that you promote a product or service to your website's visitors in return for a commission if a purchase occurs through your link. I have seen domain providers like Hostinger provide affiliate links, and you can even register in an Amazon affiliate program.
If a user visiting your website clicks on the link and purchases their products or services, then you will receive a commission, which is again a great way to make money because you don't have to sell anything directly.
Ad Networks like Google Adsense or Media.Net are some of the networks that manage ads for your website. You just need to sign up with these networks and provide proof of ownership of your website, then they will provide a link that you can use on your website.
On this page also, you will see, that several Google Ads are being displayed which are automated. I have just added the code that Google Adsense has provided, and then Google optimizes these ads as per the best views on this website.
These ads also change according to the screen resolution, so some people who are visiting using a mobile might see a different ad format and someone browsing this website using a computer might see a different ad format.
This ensures that the ads don't become disturbing for the visitors that come and they can even scroll through the content without any trouble.
I have seen people making anywhere from $100 to $1000 per day using ad networks.
Sponsored posts, sometimes known as advertorials, are adverts in the form of an article, usually containing the advertiser's link. Advertisers usually send us the articles, but if they ask you to write an article for them, then that means you can even charge them per hour or word for writing an article, so it will be a dual income as you will get money to post their articles and also charge for the article to make money. But this usually requires you to have good traffic to your forum website or even if there are fewer people, at least they should be active.
Set up a business directory page, where companies pay you a set fee to have their business listed. You could charge a monthly or annual listing fee and charge anything between INR 2000 to INR 10000 (and beyond) per year, depending on your site's traffic levels.
For example, if you have an online forum for cosmetic professionals, you can set up a simple directory or search page for raw material or packaging vendors. This will be a niche because there are not many cosmetic raw material directories out there. People now also usually connect via WhatsApp groups, which limits the worldwide audience.
Add a simple donation button on your forum website and ask people to donate a couple of cents if they like your content. You could also link to your "Buy Me A Coffee" page if you have one. Some of the biggest websites out there run either partly or solely on donations, including Wikipedia. So, just try adding a small donate button and you will see some money come in to cover the costs of your website running.
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