[ryan85k]

Hi,

Forums are funny things, somebody sets them up, they get big and thrive and moderators appear.

But what happens to the owner? a smart owner would google adsense this busy forum and sit back.

A not so smart owner would get bored of this busy forum and dissapear, leaving a moderator or two.... sometimes no moderators. Yesterday I 'stole' a forum. I will tell you which one, but not yet, I dont want the forum members to get disgruntled and scare them off. It took days of searching, over a few weeks.

It has about 300 very active users and about 40 to 60 new threads a day (74 users online at same time last night), is full of idiots (pretentious music types), but its an old style free forum (an old web 1.0 type). It has the ability to add adsense, which I have duly done. In 24 hours I have made about $5.

How did I do this?
1) Observe forum, see if it has active admin, determine age of forum.
2) Make a thread, asking who owner is.
3) They tell you username of owner, and either a) that they dissapeared ages ago b) that they are around occassionally.
4) If (a) is given as a response then move onto step 5, if (b) is given as answer then move to next forum.
5) Step 5 - this is where it gets exciting. Search old posts from like 2 years, 3 years ago, try and find email address of forum owner. If found then bingo.
6) This email address is likely to be either a free provider, such as hotmail, yahoo etc.... sometimes it is affiliated to a domain name. ie.
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7) If registered to hotmail, yahoo etc..... try setting up a new email account, using the SAME EMAIL ADDRESS. Why? After a certain period of inactivity (normally 1 year or 2 years) an email address goes back into the pot for people to select! If registered to a domain, try and obtain that domain (this is cheap if expired and not owned, too expensive if used) if you can obtain the domain, then set up an email account that matches the old admin's email address.
8) Request your 'lost' password from forum.
9) Bingo you are now the owner of a busy, unwanted forum. (Must change password at this stage!!!)
10) Hopefully this forum will have the capability for adsense revenue.

= Revenue forever, without the need to set up and promote a forum. The members think that the ads have appeared because of the host!

This might seem like a lot of work, and it is, I lurked on probably about 100 forums picking targets. Found that 4 were abandoned and managed to become the admin of 1..... which was a hotmail email address that had not been used in a long time (dont know if its 1 year or 2 that it becomes available)

I might not ever be able to pull it off again, but I will be trying, if I keep up this revenue then that thats $1825 per year. If anybody thinks that this is too hard, then try setting up and establishing a forum with over 300 active users, that visit religously everyday! It would take you years and the forum has being going since 2002!

Regards,


Ryan.

[jazwazzler]

Excellent post Ryan, how do i nominate?

[ryan85k]

Havent got a clue mate! lol.

[bushwakka]

that is well interesting, esp the hotmail bit, well all of it really, i had never heard of adsense till i joined here and if you made $5 in 24 hours then it sounds likeit will be right up my street.

[ryan85k]

Originally Posted by jazwazzler
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Excellent post Ryan, how do i nominate?

You could always rate it 5 stars instead
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[maniac95]

thats really amazing :P

[dave6859]

Good post ryan.....Keep em comin
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Regards

[ryan85k]

Thanks ;-)

[Steel Froggy]

That's a really clever idea!!
I wouldn't have thought about recreating another email address under the admin's old one..
I'm gonna have to remember this idea for the future. =B

[jazwazzler]

5 star rating has been added. keep up the good work