Why I don't see any Google Adsense ads or banner ads on this site?

A naive question....

[coolwater]

I'm a newbie and I am just curious why I don't see any ads on this site especially Google Adsense? Any particular reason?

Is it because these kinds of forum or board community sites are not fundamentally fit to generate much revenue via Adsense even if you have tens of thousands of visitors each day?

[tedster]

The decision not to have advertising was made at the very beginning - to create a clean and uncluttered interface for visitors; to be fast, clean, and highly usable with no visual distraction. To back up that approach, the model for WebmasterWorld is a Supporters' contribution model, and not an ad supported model. The idea is to create a resource and knowledge base that is inherently valuable to its users.

It's true that forums are often not the best at generating Adsense income, but that is not the operative factor here. WebmasterWorld went online before there was any such thing as AdSense or even Adwords! And not having any direct advertising also means that there is no pressure to avoid mentioning unflattering truths about any company.

Now - will we be able to stay this way? That's the open question, I guess.

[tangor]

tedster said it right as regards THIS forum. However, high volume forums do work with ads for users willing to accept them. Too many examples of that in the wild.

[coolwater]

Thank you for your reply tedster and tangor. My second question would have been the same--how do you generate enough revenue without any ads?

tangor, can you name a few high volume forums that make enough ad revenue? Maybe we are not allowed to name any specific websites here... then, could you send me a sticky mail and let me know? I'd really want to visit some of those high volume forums and see for myself.

I am planning to create a forum that I expect to become an instant hit... well, I wish... I know it's not that easy and simple, but at least I have to try anyway.

[tangor]

Can't name names per charter, but they are out there. As to whether they are SUCCESSFUL that's also another thing we can't talk about.

If you want an answer you'll have to try it out yourself and see what happens.