You love running your forum, and you enjoy seeing your users interract with each other, and with you. You enjoy running the online community that you’ve built.

But let’s face it, as with everything else in life, running a website isn’t free. Usually, the biggest cost associated with your site is the hosting fees, followed by the license fees for vBulletin. All told, you could be spending at least $300 a year to run your site, if you do everything yourself. You’re only human, after all, and you have bills, too.

So, how do you offset the costs (and maybe make a little profit) without charging your users, who may just go somewhere where they won’t be charged?

Accept advertising!

Ad revenue is like manna from Heaven for many bloggers and webmasters. Fortunately, there are numerous options available to you that can bring much-needed revenue to you by way of check, PayPal, or direct deposit. But, there are a few things you need to know before you start counting those dollars.

1.) Many advertising companies will wait for you to reach a minimal amount before paying you. Depending on how much revenue you make in a month, you could wait for as much as three months before seeing a dime.

2.) If you are based in the United States, you will, for most companies, have to provide taxpayer information, such as your Social Security Number, and this income will have to be reported.

3.) You will need a PayPal account for most companies, or a bank account that can accept ACH transfers. Failing both of those options, you will need to be able to provide a valid mailing address
for paper checks to be mailed to. For webmasters outside of the United States, PayPal may be your only option.

Perhaps the most popular choice for bloggers and webmasters is Google’s Adsense.

It has a $100 threshold before it’ll pay out, but in most countries you can get payment by check or direct deposit. You have numerous choices with Adsense; you can select ads that are based on keywords, or you can choose from specific categories. You can also place “referral ads”, which will plug several of Google’s products, as well as YouTube.

There are numerous other companies out there, and they each have their own minimums, and rules. Some of them include AdEngage, AdBrite, Adster, and Commission Junction, so if one company doesn’t suit your needs or wishes, you can certainly find one that does.

Once you’ve signed up with a company and designed your ad (each company makes it simple, and they walk you through the process), you can cut and paste the code– which will be provided to you–into your vBulletin forum. For that, you will need to go to the Style Manager, and select your active theme. At that point, you simply go into the template editing mode for that theme.

The most popular places to put ads is in the Forum Home template, the SHOWFORUM, and the SHOWTHREAD templates. With the newest version of vBulletin, you can see the commented text that suggests where the ad code should be placed. Really, you can place the ad code anywhere on the pages that you want the ad to appear. Exact placement varies with the theme you’re using. You can also place the ad code in any template, so that ads appear as little or as often as you like. With the proper coding– referred to as “conditionals”– you can also set the code up so that it appears only for guests, but not for paying users, if you have them.

With vBulletin, the opportunities are endless, and with the right plan, you can easily earn back the license fee, and more.

Now you’ve placed the ad code, and the ads are running. Depending on how much traffic you get, and how many clicks you get, you could see money very quickly, or in months. In other words, count on this revenue as a bonus. Consider it to be supplemental income. Perhaps the worst mistake a vBulletin operator can make– until they bring in the volume to justify it– is to assume they’ll immediately bring in enough money to live off of. This is not a “get rich quick” deal, even for the most popular forums.

In any case, the money you earn will help offset the costs associated with your hobby, and by doing so, you can continue to run your forums without going into your own pockets. In these days of ever-increasing gas prices, one can scarce turn away easy (with certain limitations) money.

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