rogerd - 3:31 pm on Feb 6, 2003 (gmt 0)

that ($10) membership got you NO BANNER ADS

Hmmm, maybe what you should do is install some really annoying popups and charge $25 to get rid of them... ;)

Seriously, I think most users just tune out regular banners and wouldn't pay to get rid of them. I think you need a better "value add" to make a fee work. A private forum like the one here would be one idea. And if you got popular enough, perhaps a fee to post might work. You'd lose some visitors, but if your traffic was high people might think it worth a few bucks to be able to make the kind of announcement posts you mention.

If you are in a specialty topic, some kind of affiliate links could work, too, although it might call your neutrality/impartiality into question. As noted in my earlier posts, monetizing a forum is tough. The percentage of forums that can be profitable on their own (i.e., as opposed to being a community-builder on an otherwise profitable website) is probably similar to the ratio of successful movie actors or concert musicians. Lots of people try, but very, very few succeed.