Am I doing something wrong?

[itrsteez]

So far the community development has been absolutely amazing, it has grown very fast just via sheer word of mouth and has swept through our sub-culture like crazy

In less than 2.5 years we've managed to get over 7,000 members and 1.1 million posts (plus a whole front end resource site), the post per user count is 149 which by big boards is ranked within the top 300.

The target audience is a hot one right now, it's late-teen/early twenties photographers, videographers, web designers, video editors, etc.... and most importantly it all revolves around the skateboard/snowboard media world, which I would come to think is an extremely hard niche to market.

It's the only place like it around and growing rapidly everyday.

Everything is going good, except for ad revenue........ It's literrally terrible, I'm not gonna say what I run but it starts with a G and i'm lucky if I can break $500 a month with 2.5 million pageviews, I'm pretty sure these are pathetic numbers... I've had many people tell me this..

Should I be seeking out advertisers myself and selling space that way or take another route..... Any insight would be appreciated.

[DevonWright]

Test ad locations. Have them in one place one month, and another for another month, and another for the 3rd month.

Stick with whatever has the highest return.

Maybe come up with something other than advertising that can generate revenue. Charging your visitors is always an option, but see if there's a way that you can get them to want to be charge $50/year or something.

[callon]

I have always noticed slightly higher returns from CPA. If you have 2.5 million page views, wouldnt selling adspace be better?

[petertdavis]

Wow, yea! I have advertisers approach me directly on forums I own that are much, much smaller than yours.

If I can extrapolate from what you've posted..... your forum grows by your members recommending it (which is great, btw), but not through people showing up from searches in Google and other search engines? Perhaps potential advertisers just don't know about your forums yet.

I'd recommend (assuming this is true) two goals to set for yourself.

First, start a marketing campaign directly to the people who would buy advertising on your site. Identify the top 30 companies (number piced arbitrarily, could be 10, or 100, whatever you want) and identify the person at them who does ad buys, and see what you can do to get them interested in your site.

Second, I'd recommend raising your forum's profile with the search engines. This may, or may not be easy for you. Forums can be easier to get links to, than commercial sites, but sometimes I think we're operating with a handicap in the search engines.

[Inf1nity]

I have similar problems as you. I receive about 3 mil. hits and can barely make $150 through adsense (high ctr, low bids). I've tried applying for various other advertisers however have been rejected for a reason not told.

I hope you have success finding a good market, if I stumble upon a good spot for revenue I'll send you the link