Forum/Website Profit Statistics Needed

[DamagedShadows]

Hello everyone, I am needing some information for research and to show investors and I am hoping some of you can help me out with this.
I am needing some statistics on how much, roughly, your average website/forums makes from memberships paid per month.
If anyone could give me some insight on this that would be amazing

 

[Mr D]

Average? Not sure an investor would find that relevant to your idea.

 

[DamagedShadows]

Average? Not sure an investor would find that relevant to your idea.

Average or not so long as I can find out how much certain websites make maybe it will help

 

[Mr D]

Perhaps if you named particular good and not so good websites in the area concerned to your investors. If you can get the data.

 

[DamagedShadows]

Perhaps if you named particular good and not so good websites in the area concerned to your investors. If you can get the data.

You mean get the data bout their profits? How would one do that? Most of the time people aren't willing to give up information like that are they?

 

[Mr D]

Same way as the average figure you wanted.

 

[DamagedShadows]

Same way as the average figure you wanted.

Care to eloberate?

 

[fisicx]

I am needing some statistics on how much, roughly, your average website/forums makes from memberships paid per month.

There are no stats on this because every forum is different. Some have paid memberships (like UKBF) and some don't. Some require you to be a paid up member of an organisation but the forum is free. Some make all their money through advertising.

So if UKBF had 500 full members paying £40/year that's £2000 per annum or just over £160/month. But I don't know if UKBF has more or less than 500.

 

[DamagedShadows]

There are no stats on this because every forum is different. Some have paid memberships (like UKBF) and some don't. Some require you to be a paid up member of an organisation but the forum is free. Some make all their money through advertising.

So if UKBF had 500 full members paying £40/year that's £2000 per annum or just over £160/month. But I don't know if UKBF has more or less than 500.

Alright so how would I convince someone to give up that information? Most people aren't just going to want to give it up for the hell of it.

 

[fisicx]

You could offer money. But I doubt many would even respond to your request.

I asked the moderator of a car forum I use and he would want at least £1000 for membership data.

 

[Mr D]

Care to eloberate?

You wanted information on average income from memberships.
The same places that would give you that information can give you the profits.

 

[DamagedShadows]

You wanted information on average income from memberships.
The same places that would give you that information can give you the profits.

Ah ya true

 

[DamagedShadows]

You could offer money. But I doubt many would even respond to your request.

I asked the moderator of a car forum I use and he would want at least £1000 for membership data.

Jesus that's expensive just for a bit of information

 

[fisicx]

It's not that expensive when you consider a forum may have spent a number of years and huge amount if investment getting to their current position and aren't going to give away all their secrets for free.

 

[DamagedShadows]

It's not that expensive when you consider a forum may have spent a number of years and huge amount if investment getting to their current position and aren't going to give away all their secrets for free.

True

 

[Mr D]

You may find some information in academic or media sources, though how accurate is another matter.

 

[DamagedShadows]

You may find some information in academic or media sources, though how accurate is another matter.

I've tried looking everywhere but can't find anything... Gonna have to ask website owners and that's if they will even give me the info

 

[fisicx]

And you will no way of validating the info they do give. They could be lying.

Bin the idea of getting membership stats and develop your own business plan. Once you have the visitor numbers (after a couple of years) you can then start talking to investors about financial contributions.

 

[Scott@KarmaContent]

@DamagedShadows if you look hard enough, some forums may have rate cards or media kits that may have some of the information you're looking for (or at least give you an idea about page views and number of members)

Here's the one for this site: https://www.sift.com/our-brands/uk-business-forums/

 

[AllUpHere]

So if UKBF had 500 full members paying £40/year that's £2000 per annum or just over £160/month. But I don't know if UKBF has more or less than 500.

Can't argue with those kind of maths skills.

 

[DamagedShadows]

And you will no way of validating the info they do give. They could be lying.

Bin the idea of getting membership stats and develop your own business plan. Once you have the visitor numbers (after a couple of years) you can then start talking to investors about financial contributions.

I'll just have to sell the idea to them without that information then. Either way I need investors if I'm going to start this project

 

[DamagedShadows]

@DamagedShadows if you look hard enough, some forums may have rate cards or media kits that may have some of the information you're looking for (or at least give you an idea about page views and number of members)

Awesome thank you so much I'll try and look for others

 

[shabbadoof13]

Not sure if this helps at all but I run a forum and use a dynamic media kit with updates on the fly based on social media numbers and various other Google metrics

I can't post links yet but if you google 'webfluential themoneyshed' you will see it all there

 

[Nighthawk Software]

Any figure you quote is going to be meaningless, it varies enormously based on the target market of the forum.

Take two forums, each with a million hits a month, one targeting software pirates, the other targeting forex investors. Your income could be £5 for one and £50,000 for the other.

There's no way of knowing, other than finding a similar forum and asking the owner, or starting off with a small proof of concept forum and getting a decent size following. But given that you will be a rival, they're very unlikely to offer up that information.

But as someone that has run forums in the past, and currently runs a community site , I can tell you it is a hell of a lot lower than you think it is. You'll be hard pressed to run a forum as a business. The problem with forums is they are incredibly easy and cheap to set up - as soon as you start charging, someone will make a rival site overnight and steal all your traffic.