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Originally Posted by feckit
Strange question [ and may be wrong thread] to ask Ian and if you dont want to answer it thats fine, but is the site cost efficent, did you set it up as a business or as someone with an interest in IT, do you try to break even. The reason i ask is that a friend is thinking of starting up a forum for the industry he is in & we got chatting about pc review and how well it is run.
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Probably best to ask specifics in the feedback forum or PM (i'll split this thread there once you're read it).
I set the site up waaaaaaaay back in 1999 as a hobby - made a loss for the first 4 years on hosting, but got review samples instead (so balances out). The site has only recently started to pay its own way for the servers, and I'm quite happy to keep it like that as at the end of the day this is just a serious hobby

I couldn't afford to host the site myself now as it takes up 2 servers, so there are some adverts on the site (although I try to keep this to an absolute minimum, and only to related items).
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Originally Posted by feckit
...how well it is run.
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This is thanks to the team of mods
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Originally Posted by feckit
The reason i ask is that a friend is thinking of starting up a forum for the industry he is in
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I think forums can be profitable, but you may need to resort to popup's etc... and affiliate schemes. If it is in a niche industry it may be possible, worth a shot at least!