How can I monetise my directory site?

[MrT]

Hi everyone,
I built a Forum directory at FindAForum.net. It's been running for 5 years now and is my highest traffic site.  But it never makes any money.
How can I monetise it?
I can't put AdSense on because there are a few NSFW forums.
I tried Chitika but the CPM was so low. Chitika is only good for shopping sites.
I tried a few keyword tools/ClickBank products CPA offers but they never convert.
BuySellAds rejected me.
I've now put on links to PostLoop. I've had a lot of referal traffic but so far no referred users have made me any PostLoop cash.
That's it I'm all out of ideas! What can I do?

[Martin]

I notice a lot of sites are out of date on there. The platform they run or whatever has significantly changed. I would go through the list and update them first and foremost as that will likely help bring in even more traffic. After that, maybe try to sell your own advertising via a contact form instead of using a network to do so. The traffic visiting you might have a forum themselves and might be willing to pay $$$ for a banner advertisement or a sponsored link to their forum on your directory as it might bring them visitors and members when people are checking the listings. Might be a useful avenue to explore.

I would maybe also add a blog section, dedicated to helping people set up forums. That way you could give tips on forum creation, which could bring in more traffic and you can monetise that through affiliate links to things such as web hosts, domain registrars, theme shops, etc.

Alternatively remove the NSFW sites and see if you get accepted into an add program.

Hope those tips might help!

[kingcool52]

Are the NSFW sites put in a different section of the site or are they mixed in with the general and normal categories as well? If you can find a way to separate them out, I believe you can tell Google to avoid those particular sections and only have ads on the clean and good sections. You could also try getting some ad sales from customers directly instead of using a middleman service like Adsense.