The site doesn't necessarily have to be popular to have a forum. They're actually very easy to make, and allow people to discuss the articles. Also, even though I've never created an income-generating site before, I would advise against having a paid subscription. For some reason, they just remind me of AOL, and their gated community. I think you should just set up your site with a donation page, and maybe no ads at first, since they will probably generate almost nothing at first. Get your site going, and just bite the bullet for a while, your site is not going to make money from the getgo. I think the sponsorship is a very good idea, but let the potential sponsors know what they are getting into. Let them know that your site won't be getting a million hits a day from the beginning, it'll take a while to get going.
My random $.02 |