Admin Well-being How much are you willing to lose before you cut your losses?

[joelr]

A touchy but important subject because it's about 💲

Most of us are willing to spend money on our forum. Most of us are willing to spend time on our forum. We understand those are the "costs" to run the forum.

Have you planned out how much you are willing to spend on your forum per month, up to a certain point? For example, are you willing to spend $100 / mo or $1200 / per year. Or are you willing to spend $250 / mo or $3000 per year. What is your threshold when you realize your forum is not sustainable?

 

[Al]

The way I see it is that my forum is my hobby and I have no issue with spending money on a hobby. Some people go out drinking or play golf, as an example (I was talking to a guy today who had £2500 worth of golf clubs stolen from his car). Some people do motor cycles, others have a season ticket to their favourite sports team.

This is not about sustainability. I don't run my forum to make a profit. I gave up on the notion of that years ago!

 

[Tracy]

I have to agree with @Al.
For me, my site is an extension of my hobby. It grants me somewhere to post my content for my use in a format I am comfortable with. It just so happens that the script I choose to do it with is a forum based one. That allows me to open it up for the easy participation of others if they choose to partake.
I buy new toys to play with (either mini PC, filters or such) and then I document my thoughts on it for others to find.
Instead of keeping certain hard to find programs on a local hard drive, which is only easily available to me when I am at home) I use a resource add-on to allow me easy access to it from anywhere I have internet access. It just so happens to allow others to access them also (none are paid programs).
I learned a long time ago... hobbies take money usually. So it is either doing this or out buying equipment to fish or hunt then the associated long term costs that go with them.

I DO have a set maximum limit that I will allocate for the internet portion of the hobby... and that's $250 a month (which with license renewals and hosting I'm already about 1/3 way there). Once it gets to that point, I may be looking at a method of monetization if the site continues to grow. But I don't see that happening for a LONG time as the niche it involves can be a rather expensive one to play in once you jump down that rabbit hole. 😉

 

[Shortie]

At the moment I don't run the forums I have to make money but more as a hobby. Would I like to make money from them if I could? Of course, but I know that takes a lot and will not happen over night.

I feel if someone wants to invest in hopes of making money from their website or forum, they should only put in what they know they can afford, if money is coming in from the site, invest a little more if you can but never get too in over your head.

 

[Henrywrites]

The way I see it is that my forum is my hobby and I have no issue with spending money on a hobby. Some people go out drinking or play golf, as an example (I was talking to a guy today who had £2500 worth of golf clubs stolen from his car). Some people do motor cycles, others have a season ticket to their favourite sports team.

This is not about sustainability. I don't run my forum to make a profit. I gave up on the notion of that years ago!

Having this mindset reduces the pressure that forum owners place on themselves. Running a forum should be for fun and as long as you have the money available, you should spend it when it is right for the growth of the forum and not necessarily looking at making quick profits from the beginning.

 

[Nomad]

I make money from blogs, so when I started creating forums I was looking to make money from forums as well. However, after running forums for a couple of years, I have come to realize that forums can only be run as a hobby project. I fund my forums through other projects and I can spend $20-$30 per month running a forum. If I end up spending more than that, I will have to shut my forums