I just bought a forum that is not monetized. Its a semi busy automotive forum.

What im wondering is if I should implement revenue sharing via adsense. This is a non webmaster based forum, so almost none of members have adsense accounts.

Here are my options as im contemplating them:

• Institute revenue sharing with all members -
  
• Create a subscription based (paid) usergroup and Institute revenue sharing with members of that group. there would be other benefits for the group as well; (I charge $30 a year on other forums for this subscription and offer discounts from vendors and other little perks as well)
  
• Institute revenue sharing with the moderators only;
  
• Dont Institute revenue sharing;

If I did institute some forum of revenue sharing I would be giving them my adsense affilliate link to sign up with so I can also earn the referral money.


I am interested in hearing what you all think. I havent tried revenue sharing on my other non webmaster topic forums, so im not sure how well this will work. I dont want to start something and then have to retract it. SO I was hoping for your ideas and experiences.

Well What exactly are you contemplating?

I wasnt clear in my post?

I think he means "obviously do it". You get $250 referral credit for someone who earns $100 within their first 6 months. That could add up quite a bit.

Ok - but which of the three remaining options do you think?

• Institute revenue sharing with all members -
  
• Create a subscription based (paid) usergroup and Institute revenue sharing with members of that group. there would be other benefits for the group as well; (I charge $30 a year on other forums for this subscription and offer discounts from vendors and other little perks as well)
  
• Institute revenue sharing with the moderators only;

Remember, I have the health of the forum to think about also...

My vote would be to share with moderators only. If you open it up to everyone there is too much risk of members going crazy clicking ads. If any one of them gets banned for excessive clicks, you will too along with them if you are sharing a site, so I'd only do it with people I trusted. Even if you use a script where they can't see their own ads, there are always "click circle" thinking kind of people who think they can beat the system.