Monetizing a Forum /w Younger Audience

[KevinJB]

Hey, long time no see guys

I have a forum about the videogame Fable 2. There's also a lot of other video game discussion as well, so as you can imagine the traffic is generally gamers, all about 14 - 22 years old. I get between 8,000 and 12,000 pageviews a day. Currently there are no ads of any type on there, nothing... any ideas on how to start generations some money here? I'm not looking to make much, just enough to cover hosting and let me re-invest in the forums, so between 25 and 50 a month would be nice. I'd also like to stay away from adsense or the like as much as possible.

[Tinien]

I have the same question Hope,somebody help us,KevinJB

[JustRetarded]

i guess your best guess would be

-Pay per click since most of them dont have creditcards, as weird as it is though some parents pay for their kids for online items in games ...

-You can also try to contact companies to make them pay / month for an ad spot on your site.

but the best way in my opinion would be PPC.

you might also want to consider Blog companies / video broadcasting companies.

im currently looking for some better affiliate so if i find something that would be good for you ill let you know.

[MrCat]

PPC indeed You have targetted traffic there. These traffic can convert to revenue through PPC. A nice banner for a sponsor gaming site could also work

[Hostnetric]

I would use some PPC such as Google obviously, but I would offer up some ad space for banner rotations and link sales as well to related sites that offer products the kids would be interested in. I would also look at affiliate programs to find products related to gaming that you can place on your site to generate some affiliate commission from and fill in gaps when you do not have advertisers paying for space.

[KevinJB]

What affiliate programs do you all reccomend? Also how should I go about looking for sponsors?

[JustRetarded]

i would recommand exoclick for PPC (it requires a 100click to activate your affiliate membership which passes by fast (its like adsense it shows specific ads)

exoclick.com and if you want to use me as a referral which i'd appreciate lol -

and for looking for sponsors you can try to ask in forums like this one if people have interest in your targeted traffic you cal also try to contact the webmasters by emails (usually sales@domain.com works). Be ready with some proof of your traffic and all though

[chicgeek]

No affiliate/referral links.

[JustRetarded]

oops lol i still got alot to learn from you ohh great chicgeek sorry bout that (and sheesh you are everywhere !! your making God jealous lol) anyways enough of my boring jokes.

By the way i retract my exoclick suggestion it kinda is low on CPC ... i get like 0.01$ / 2 clicks ...

im trying Miva right now i heard alot of good things about it ill give you more info on my result

[Hostnetric]

Originally Posted by KevinJB

What affiliate programs do you all reccomend? Also how should I go about looking for sponsors?

I would do a search for "game affiliate programs" and then go through the different results you get in google. When I ran arcadenerd I used some affiliate programs to sell games and other gaming related items. It all adds up in the end and when I sold it I was making around $600 per month from that site between everything I had on there.

[chicgeek]

Originally Posted by JustRetarded

oops lol i still got alot to learn from you ohh great chicgeek sorry bout that (and sheesh you are every

Of course I'm everywhere. It's my job to be omniscient for v7n.

*waves finger*

[MrCat]

For sponsorship, best try the big names like Nintendo, Sony, Sega, etc., If you get any of these big ones, let's celebrate okay! A few booze and some pizza would be fine.

[MikeIMM]

The reality of selling ad space is a tough one, most smaller sites are not appealing to larger brands. you could add ebay auctions for game related items. Sure they dont have credit cards but their parents do.

If the idea of your age demographic being able to make a purchase concerns you try CPA offers. A win a free xbox offer where they enter their email and complete the path. Or you can find any one of the new social networks popping up like perfspot or takkle who are in CPA networks paying per registration.

A key point to realize is if you add PPC you're adding another affiliates links on your site most of the time who in turn is taking your visitor sending it to a CPA offer and making enough to pay you, and search engine and keep a profit. I would suggest putting adsense up, watching the ads (let google tell you what offers work best) and clicking them to see where the links go and if you can find the same deal in a CPA network run it yourself, you should double your earnings in theory by cutting out the engine. It is a bit more work but another way to squeeze more juice out of the sponge.

Just my most people might disagree with me and be right about it.

[Jeoru]

CPC programs would be excellent, but you might want to consider CPC+CPM in case you get high amounts of traffic.