Do You Think Blog and Forums Can Be Still Profitable?

[Nomad]

A couple of years, my websites (blogs and forums) were earning me a good income. However, now my website revenue has drastically dropped. Well, my traffic has not dropped, I am getting the same amount of traffic but the revenue is on constant drop. I was using half a dozen ad networks on my websites and due to drop in revenue, I am now only using Adsense. Even with Adsense, my CPC rate had dropped even though my CTR rate is more or less the same. This has led me to believe that running websites is no longer a profitable business.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Blogs for sure. I'm making a second income from one blog alone. I have been for a few years now. Each year gets better.

The success factor? I treat it like a business and even registered it as an LLC. If you want a business to grow and monetize, you'll treat it like such and do what you have to do to make it profitable.

But a forum? Maybe. If you utilize the premium membership to mimic paid courses and communities of today, there is a possibility to earn a lot of money that way. I'm talking $150+ a month membership costs. But it has to be more than a user title and custom username badge.

I'm the community manager at Copyblogger. We offer discussions, courses, masterclasses, and live webinars to our paid members. You have to value and a lot of it order to retain a paid membership.

You can also sell advertising, use AdSense, and do affiliate marketing to make money but it's only small money really.

You'll make more without own product and service.

 

[Tracy]

You'll make more without own product and service.

I think you mean that you will make more with your own product and service?

And that's the secret sauce to all of business. You have to be able to create a product that people want and are willing to pay for. Hoping for drive-by money from site visitors (which is what most of those ad networks provide) is pretty much dead and gone as a viable business proposition from my understanding. Granted, I don't use them as I will monetize my site in another manner if/when I decide it needs that support structure, so some may pay well.
Having physical products you sell through your site (especially if niche related) and being able to partner with businesses in the niche that are willing to pay for sponsorships is a way now to get ahead.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think you mean that you will make more with your own product and service?

I did mean "with," but my phone said otherwise, LOL.

Yeah. Your own product or service is where the real money is.

I make $$ off AdSense and affiliate marketing - pennies, really. That's because Google and Amazon are doing most of the work, so to be fair, they get most of the pie.

But with my own product, I do it all, and I get it all. No middle person to take a chunk from me.

The idea is choosing the best product or service. Don't make the mistake of assuming what that is. Assuming makes an ass out u and me as they say.

Instead, look to your audience. What are their biggest needs and biggest wants? Analyze their buying behavior and how much they'll spend. It's important to price based on audience economy. If your audience isn't spending $100 a month on services, you're probably not going to get much business if you charge that.

You can always increase the price later after you already have a loyal customer. Just make sure you continue to add benefits. Benefits cater to everyone, feature cater to some.

 

[Heatman]

I know so many bloggers who are very successful and one of the biggest blog that is very popular in my country is known as Linda Ikeji blog. As long as you know exactly what you're doing with your blog and you have it optimized, you will definitely make money and become successful from it. This is because blogs find it easier to rank on Google when compared to forums.

 

[Nomad]

Yes, ranking high on search engines for blogs is little easier than for forums. That's because on blogs, you can do SEO, however, on forums, it is not possible because forum posts are basically user generated content and they might not have any search value. I have been blogging for almost 15 years and I know it can be profitable but indie blogging is getting very difficult day by day.