[$fresh$]

is the only way a forum can make money by advertising with things like banners and google adsense?

[bbalfour]

If you had a niche of people where coming together and discussing topics would be extremely valuable and worth it too them you could probably charge to be part of the forum.

However this would probably be a group of "elite" people which means you would need some sort of access to them to seed the forum.

This definitely would not be easy.

[Slevin]

Donations... Affilates... Many a big forum has sold their own merchandise such as T-Shirts Undergarments etc. It really depends on your member base, and who your average member actually is, and ofcourse what they want/are recieving from your forum

[kotor]

it depends on what the subject of your forum is. offtopic.com is probably the biggest forum on the web and they charge to become an instant member to have have special feautres like an avatar and signature. other forums like dnforum.com charge to post, but it is free to view most forums.

I wouldn't start charging people to become members until you're forum is massively successful

[F360]

Yes once your forum is large and successfull, you can begin charging people to become members. You can also open a special section on the forum that people who pay can only see.

You can also do other things like charging for avatars, signitures, access to chatroom etc.

One forum im a member at charges $40 a year and you get an avatar, chatroom access, a bold name, and access to a different area on the forums.
It seems people are doing it, because the owner of the forum has bought a Ferrari.

[NeeJam]

No, there are many things you can do and some of them are listed above.

[yourhostingspot.com]

Yes, You can make money off of banners and adsense on forums. But there are some good ideas above to make some good money.

[DaVinci]

Forums are traditionally hard to monetize - But the traffic is slowly built for you once you get your forum rocking... We just launched a forum for forum starters and owners to help people withthis kind of stuff and other forum related issues. Forums are a lot of fun.

Have mdest goals for the income at first. Focus on building a great community. The money will follow. And sometimes some of the other bennies are far more important than money. Once you have a huge forum you get a voice in the industry and that can really open some unexpected doors.
Good luck.