Generating revenue?

Other than charging for membership how else can I make revenue using Dolphin are there any built in or add-on modules etc for things like Google AdSense, affiliate banner management stuff like that and/or anything else for generating revenue?

You can use the banners tool to embed affiliate banners/advertisements, as well as embed advertisements in HTML blocks on certain pages.

There must be 20 ways if you think about it. The problem is, you have to stop you site lookin like a cash cow or it can scare people off.

We have the usual standard free membership. Then we have a premium membership that costs less than the price of a coffee per month. Then we took the clubs module and rebranded it "Crews" for street crews which costs a little more. We then have a group membership for organisations which is a little more, and then a professional membership.

Wh have had (what we believe to be the best dolphin contest) built. Paid memberships can enter, but we have also had a self promotion scroller made that ties into the contest. You enter a video into the contest and everyone can vote for Your video using a slider. The results go into a top-30 results column. But if you want more votes you can "Self Promote" your video using the self promotion mod we had built. The user pays a fee $3 and a thumbnail of tehir video scrolls along the top of the page continualy for 24 hours. If a visitor clicks on the thumbail it takes them to the video so they can vote on it and the member climbs up the charts.

We are in the process of having another contest made to tie into the system too.

The site does not launch unyil sept 1st, but we can see from what we have made that it is going to be a very good revenue earner. Even if we give 10 000 premium memberships away free using "voucher codes" and just 10% of those members used self promotion once a month that would be an income £3000 per month.

Our site is dance based. We have taken the gifts module and we are currently producing a range of virtual "Dance" gifts that users can spend their credits on too.

Our site is highly but discreetly monetised. Its a case of being inventive.

The beta test for this month has finnished, but I will be setting another one up thisafternoon. If you wish to take a look around the site, join and enter the contest and then self promote so you can see how it all works, message me and i will arrange it for you. I will give you a voucher code so you can upgrade to premium for free and then enter the contest.

I will also transfur some credits to your account so you can try the self promotion.

Regards,

Nathan

If you can gain traffic and google pagerank for your site there are a lot of opportunities if you do some exploring. I don't know that you will get rich, but it is possible to make a few hundred dollars per month if you play your cards right. You need to gain popularity, rank, and traffic for starters though. Without it you aren't going to make much if any. Depends on how motivated you are and how much you want to push things. I know some folks that make only a few bucks per month, and others that make around 500 all on shared hosting. Some are dolphin sites others are something else. It is not impossible, but it does take a bit of work, research and willingness to learn.

I have friend that generates a good income from his site (non dolphin) by recording the conversations in messenger and chat and the forums.

What he will do is start a subject - "the latest nokia phone" he then records all the information for a month and sells it to the manufacturer for a tidy sum.

hey... I guess if the chineese are going to spam us we may as well spam ourselves lol.

My community has potential for this, can you offer any information on how your friend approaches said manufacturer with these details?

I would also be interested in knowing about that. All i am doing is starting a local social community for our State or even just the 3 larger cities around us. I see businesses advertisements on billboards, radio, newspapers, etc. Prob is, billboards are to decorated plus needless to say out of site out of mind. Radio and TV commercials people tune out.

So why wouldnt businesses pay to have their businesses featured some where to have their business staring at their potential customers faces. Kind of like placemats advertising in a Restaurant.

I have a deal where i get free movie passes to give away at our local cinema theatres. An advertising trade plus once the UPS brings my small yard signs, i will be able to post a few of them up there for coming and going traffic. I just need a bunch of locals to be on our site then i wont have a prob with getting local businesses to advertise. Not only is cheaper for them but hits their target audience.

I have so many ideas i just right them down fast enough but hope that i helped give you an idea or two.

Daniel

I will have a word with him this week if I can get hold of him. Apparently this is quite a wide spread practice, even amongst the larger social networks (though I doubt they would admit it).

It is an Idea that has intrigued me since I have known about it. Im my dealings with corporations in the past I have always looked for a back door - someone down the chain of commant with a need to impress their piers. This normaly get a foot in the door, But I will ask the question.