Monetization for a small forum

[Deleted member 4320]

What about a donation drive? Like how Wikipedia does it? Ask people for even a dollar or two. Even if they're not covering the whole cost, some is better than none.

You can ask for donations in return that you never put up ads.

I think that would only work if you have a long standing forum with members that have been around a long time. If you're starting a new forum I think you probably won't find that people are willing to donate so quickly.

 

[Page]

If you're starting a new forum I think you probably won't find that people are willing to donate so quickly.

Most people won't, I myself won't donate to a site that has just not long started. If you do not have the funds to start your own site then what's the point of doing it. I see that only those long term sites that have active members with high traffic get support.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

Most people won't, I myself won't donate to a site that has just not long started. If you do not have the funds to start your own site then what's the point of doing it. I see that only those long term sites that have active members with high traffic get support.

Exactly. Especially if the site hasn’t even launched yet, if they won’t put money into the site then there’s no reason anyone else should too. Good point.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think that would only work if you have a long standing forum with members that have been around a long time. If you're starting a new forum I think you probably won't find that people are willing to donate so quickly.

Very true. This is why it is always important to work on developing a community first before you consider monetization.

I like to spend a year, at least a year trying to create a community before looking at options to monetize it.

A year will usually let me know if the forum is worth continuing and creating new strategies for.