With that many pageviews, I would look for an ad network that pays in CPM -- per thousand pageviews. US$1 CPM per (above fold) ad is not uncommon. That works out to $150/$300/$450 per day for 1 to 3 ads.

Can you have CPM ads on the same pages as AdSense?

ZenArcher, The bulk of my AS earning is from eCPM, not clicks. CTR for forums can typically be under .75%. On good months, like December, I can make a nice sum which many other publishers would give their eyeteeth to have. But then there are months like February where I'm worried if I'll make enough to pay the server costs. I keep thinking there must be a better way to captilize on a forum which consists almost exclusively of adult women with higher than average incomes (and who like to buy online!).

What I wonder is why would an advertiser pay more for a CPM impression ad through another advertising medium like Burst if they can get it cheaper with AdWords?

>>>tricks and tweaks other forum owners have done to minimize ad weariness

I don't think monetizing regular users is a viable strategy. NEW users and guests are, imo, the desirable visitors and the ones you should focus on getting to visit the forum, if you haven't already.

>>>CTR for forums can typically be under .75%.

Doesn't your forum rank for terms that people are querying in the search engines?

Do you moderate your forum titles?

Have you optimized your forum so the topic titles are inserted into the title tags?

All these things make a forum search engine friendly and attract NEW visitors who in turn click on your ads like chickens on feed. However ymmv because of topic. If it's not product related, like celebrities or whatnot, then the problem is not the medium (forums) but the message (i.e. topic).

> I don't think monetizing regular users is a viable strategy.

I'd agree. In fact, you may want to turn off ads for regulars to get higher EPC. Keeping them on could get you smartpriced (underperforming ads).

p/g

Try rotating in other ad programs or affiliate sales for your logged on members.

I have a script that I'm playing with, that will accept a series of affiliate item numbers for each topic. For logged in users, it will rotate through these, mixed with AdSense to reduce ad blindness. For guests it always uses AdSense because it pays better for visitors. You could also easily rotate in ads from a CPM program, or randomize your Adsense block size and placement for logged in users.

I think a nice idea would be to have a different affiliate splash screen when your members log in for example if its all women you could have a jewellery affiliate splash page, maybe open a shop and add in affiliate links of the lastest things they are talking about?

You could try and offer something like what webmasterworld does - subscription for a premium forum / supporters forum.

RJ

I have ads turned off for registered users.

They're contributing valuable content that brings in more visitors.

Turn off ads for them, they're likely blind to them anyway by now!

Separate adsense from social activity. With social base funnel to targeted content with ads.

Remove ads from the forum then create new content areas partly using forum posts to compliment the new keyword targeted content. Use your link popularity and exposure as an advantage to create content that does good with adsense. Promote that targeted content in the search engines and to your visitors (on a limited basis) and focus on creating adsense separate from the social activity. Forum users who do visit the new pages will be targeted, and those new visitors who find you in the search engines will be more likely to click adsense and also participate in your forum as new members. "Content" advertising. Create content that is not forum/social.