I think it would be kind of tacky to launch a new forum with little content and ads everywhere - so I'm holding off for now... what time generally is right? Is it when you hit 100 members, 1000 posts, is there a general rule of thumb?

I would like to offset my costs and start to generate some revenue but I want to do it at "the right time."

I almost always monetize new sites immediately. When I don't want too many ads at the start when there is little content, I will usually program the sites so that each article/thread/post/blog/content item will show ads after it has been viewed 100 times. Then the ads start showing up naturally on the busiest posts/articles. And you can always adjust the number lately. Requires a bit of programming but works well for me.

I would agree that monetizing can start right away if it doesn't hit people over the head. I really like Elemak's idea of displaying ads after the 100th view of an article.

One of the parameters we have in our system is to specify how many pop-over ads to include per page. That way, people aren't overloaded with ads and they only get contextually relevant messages.

I personally like inline ads because they don't take up any space on your site.

Just don't run people off by flooding the site with adverts. People aren't on your forums normally to buy things, if you stuff the ads in relevant areas you'll do much better.

As long as the ads aren't in-your-face I think it's best to start monetizing straight away.

Originally Posted by sezerb

As long as the ads aren't in-your-face I think it's best to start monetizing straight away.

Absolutely! That's why contextual in-line ads are the way to go. They take up no space and pop over when the visitor shows interest.