How to generate money for advertising?

**glennybee** · 09-04-2008, 01:23 AM

Hi folks,

I want to advertise my forum on another site that claims to get 36,000 unique pageviews every day. It's one of the biggest of its kind in the world.

The thing is, they want 120 euro for 4 weeks and a minimum of 2 months - which is way more than I can afford at the moment. Considering that the forum is a hobby for me and I don't make a lot of money out of it.

Do you have any ideas on how to generate money on your forum?

I thought about a raffle. I have things that I could raffle off which are related to the niche of the forum. I could sell 100 tickets at £1 each, the winner would get the prize and the remaining proceeds would go to advertising. Does this sound ok?

What's your strategies and techniques?

Thanks?

**ArnyVee** · 09-04-2008, 03:56 AM

Aside from the obvious pay per click and affiliate advertising money...I use a 'supporter' program to generate the majority of my funds for upgrades or features to be added.

The biggest money maker for me since starting the 'supporter' program has been the mp3 player that I added. You see, although guests can't view the mp3 player (I call it WDB Radio

), the members can. Then, there are four playlists that are setup depending on the level of 'supporter' that you are. For example, I have it set so that the first 10 Disney songs of the full playlist are accessible to the members that are registered. If you are a 1st level supporter ($10/year), you get an additional 10 songs on your playlist. For a 2nd level supporter ($20/year), an additional 20 songs and for a 3rd level supporter ($50) you get a total of 40 songs on your WDB Radio mp3 player

I also had the members participate by recording their own 'station IDs' ("You're listening to WDBRadio on Walt Disney Boards" or something to that effect) and the members love to hear themselves and fellow members. So, I have those uploaded in between every 4 songs or so to break up the music a bit and to generate some nice morale

I'm sure that you can come up with different 'supporter'-based programs, but this something that I use. It's not the only 'perk' that the members get, but it's the most popular one. Good luck!

**glennybee** · 09-04-2008, 04:42 AM

Thanks Arny, that's a good idea! That'll give me a few things to think about.

**Soliloquy** · 09-04-2008, 07:47 AM

I don't know what kind of transaction fees you'll get charged for the raffle tickets, but be sure to take that into account when deciding what to charge...

**stevebullman** · 09-04-2008, 01:29 PM

i dont know about your country but beware raffle laws....i held a charity raffle at my site and checked into licenses...i didnt need one as it was for charity and i wasnt personally receiving any money. something for you to look into

**Brandon Sheley** · 09-04-2008, 08:02 PM

you could add a link directory link we have
it's not really a short term money maker, but once established, it isn't unlikely to make 20$ a month if you have good prices on your featured links.

**Soliloquy** · 09-04-2008, 10:11 PM

Well if local raffle laws prohibit you from trying your idea, you could try telling your members why you want the money and maybe they'll come through for you. Promise them a new feature or something

**ArnyVee** · 09-13-2008, 02:38 PM

glennybee, what did you finally go with? Have you put anything together yet and how is it working for you?