Does anyone here make a living off the forums?

[DdmrDdmr]

In my case it’s a clear no. Whatever income I receive from the Signature Campaign is just a bit of play BTC to HODL, and I haven’t given it any thought other than that. The time I manage to scrape to do things on the forum is variable, and depends on my real-life workload which varies from time to time, while currently providing me a certain flexibility to adjust the day how I see fit to some extent (for now).

For it to be considered a source of income it needs to take into consideration the amount/type of crypto one manages to obtain, how they convert it to FIAT (at the end of the day, that’s where we are), and the cost of life in the country of residence.
 
Reading through posts on my local board, some people are struggling to make heads or tail on the path to follow to convert their crypto to FIAT after making some through signature campaigns. Trying to legalize it is not that trivial, and the IRS equivalents seem to lack a clear inner guide on how to deal with these cases, making the step bold, as one does not know the result beforehand too well, and the solution may well be rather dependent on who is on the other end of the desk.

I’ve also read a couple of cases of people going through Localbitcoins and somehow ending up sued by a scammer and/or having real issues with the equivalent of the IRS, to the point that the loss of crypto is nothing in comparison to the personal wear and legal situation that they are facing.

[Pmalek]

I have always wondered how much signature campaign managers earn in a good month. I am talking about bitcoin campaigns and the Top 3 managers that are easily found by just opening the Services section. I doubt they will tell us though 

Earning a couple of $100s a month on the side is surely a plus and in some countries it means doubling their wages.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I have always wondered how much signature campaign managers earn in a good month. I am talking about bitcoin campaigns and the Top 3 managers that are easily found by just opening the Services section. I doubt they will tell us though  

You won't get the answer just by asking them, use this trick contact the project/company they're managing a campaign for and act like you have a project you want the same manager to manage and ask for a price range luckily you'll get a response. In my quest to search for what other altcoin signature campaign managers are  charging I did the same and got an idea of what to charge with few discounts.

You can try asking them directly though like an inquiry and hopefully they'll respond. BTW based on my research (Altcoin though) managers charge differently based on duration of the campaign.

[stompix]

Probably a lot of young people or those that live in countries where 100$ means the difference between poor and middle class.

As for me, no way I could rely on the forum for income.
Lately, as in the last year with the kid growing up, with the wife away for a week every month, I never managed to get to the 50 posts per week mark.
Also, I've stopped being that active during weekends, haven't yet found a deal that would be better than playing with my kid in the park.


I'm in the best-paying campaign (99% sure??) but even so, at current prices, it would be 1/3 of my wage and...that doesn't include health benefits, unemployment insurance, and private pension contribution.

If I were to add those on top of the wage I would probably have to manage 5-6 altcoins campaigns, post my full quota and do some bounty hunting wasting time

I'm comfortable with the extra income that allows me to spend around some coins on various offers with touching my stash.
Some sort of allowance money.

[RapTarX]

I have always wondered how much signature campaign managers earn in a good month. I am talking about bitcoin campaigns and the Top 3 managers that are easily found by just opening the Services section. I doubt they will tell us though  

Earning a couple of $100s a month on the side is surely a plus and in some countries it means doubling their wages.

Yesterday, I had applied in bustadice campaign managed by yahoo62278, I checked the spreadsheet and yahoo62278's name was listed there. It shows he is getting paid $150 per week for managing bustadice signature campaign. I didn't check other campaign spreadsheet, you can check and probably get the info about how much he gets managing per campaign.

[vit05]

I could pay my monthly internet bill with what I receive in one week of my signature campaign. And probably other small things as my dogs food, some beer. Unfortunately it would not be enough to pay for everything.

But what is the mostly interesting thing, is that I visit internet forum since 99, and Bitcoin talk is the only forum that I have received something for posting. I was mod and adm from a forum that was too 50 in Alexa ranking in Brasil. And receive nothing for this.

Even if we do not have many people making enough to live only from what they receive in the forum, I am pretty sure that Bitcoin talk would be eventually study as a new way of spend time with a hobby. Where you do not receive only "thank you" for your efforts in helping others, but receive money. Real money that you could spend on other things.

[cryptovigi]

I guess some people are putting the effort may be due to Merit implementation. I am not going to quit my job and paid campaign in this forum cannot be compared my job income. But earning in this forum just give me satisfaction that I can earn anonymously.
Actually , after coming to this forum I got so many business ideas to implement , I guess , now I have no time to sit idle ( whether I have job or not) because I will be occupied in learning and implementing those ideas.

People put in a lot of effort to get merit, but most of them want to get merit, not only for merit, but to achieve higher rank, and higher rank will allow them to earn more in this forum. Of course, not everyone does that - there are certainly many enthusiasts who want to gain a rank for their own satisfaction, but they are certainly in the minority.

I used to wonder if it is possible to completely dedicate myself to the forum by giving up my job. It is possible that yes, but then you would have to focus only on doing business, finding new services and advertising them ... In other words, all the fun associated with being a poster / reader of this forum would disappear. At least that would have to look like today as a resident of a Central European country.

It would definitely be much different for a resident of a less developed country. For example, the page https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=105 shows 30 countries where the average monthly earnings of a resident is $ 500 and less. In this case, forum earnings in the amount of several hundred dollars per month may turn out to be much higher than the residents of these countries can achieve by working hard in their full-time work.

Code:

        Country                   sallary per month
1	Montenegro			501.19 $
2	Russia				498.99 $
3	Bosnia And Herzegovina		476.11 $
4	Brazil				460.53 $
5	India				459.98 $
6	Peru				452.51 $
7	Belarus				442.19 $
8	Turkey				441.44 $
9	Morocco				411.38 $
10	Serbia				400.29 $
11	Iran				388.00 $
12	Vietnam				383.45 $
13	Macedonia			360.96 $
14	Kazakhstan			360.80 $
15	Indonesia			351.65 $
16	Albania				341.34 $
17	Dominican Republic		330.34 $
18	Armenia				322.18 $
19	Colombia			320.89 $
20	Ukraine				294.39 $
21	Georgia				293.66 $
22	Philippines			288.31 $
23	Algeria				273.06 $
24	Azerbaijan			267.75 $
25	Tunisia				259.26 $
26	Sri Lanka			251.01 $
27	Pakistan		        218.17 $
28	Nepal			        208.99 $
29	Egypt				181.90 $

Please note that this site provides data from only 80 countries, so countries where you earn less than $ 500 per month is definitely more.

In other words, for the residents of developed countries, in most cases, earnings here are an addition to be used, for example, for a hobby. In the case of less developed countries, earnings may turn out to be VERY GOOD work (however, it must be remembered that people in these countries have much worse access to new technology due to their lower standard of living, so access to the forum is limited only to "selected" probably richer people).

...
I'm in the best-paying campaign (99% sure??) but even so, at current prices, it would be 1/3 of my wage and...that doesn't include health benefits, unemployment insurance, and private pension contribution.
...

The world is not fair ... It really depends on the place where you live. For you it's 1/3 or less earnings but If you would live in Nepal or Egypt you could probably feed your whole family only for your signature campaign....

[TheBeardedBaby]

I think for those who live in developed countries the forum is more like a hobby income. They have decent jobs, stable income and some free time to have fun.
For me, big part of what I have as crypo I bought with my money.
The income from the sig. campaigns I'm spending mostly on hardware to upgrade my PC and some get some gadgets without touching the family budget
Happy wife, happy life they say.

[cryptohunter]

Whatever you can make off doing tasks like this, you can make a TON more by using the information the board provides and trading on that information or just sig promoting for them on their ico.

Sure some people are likely making 5k+ per month or greater doing these things.

The BIGGER money is in ESCROW and also SIG campaign managing. Especially if you are holding a HUGE swathe of other peoples BTC when a fork happens to take place. Sig campaign managing depends on the deal they get from the project.

Still as I say.. avid reading and talking with some REAL devs (who also do keep their eyes on new and exciting ideas) will give you some great insights into trading and of course there you can make huge amounts of btc/money.

Some like consistent sig rev  BTC coming in from gambling, mixing, etc. However much more can be gained by picking just some great ALTs that will have a good chance.

For example one could have earned I think about 3 000 000 or it could have been 6 000 000 dollars for just saying a few sentences to promote an alt here previously and quite a few indeed did earn 100's K USD from just saying "i'm in" . So picking the correct one is also very important with airdrops.

Imagine a forum where you can get 6 000 000 USD for saying "hello Im in" - never has there been such place and we worry this place is going to die off  - no chance.  

[Findingnemo]

I have always wondered how much signature campaign managers earn in a good month. I am talking about bitcoin campaigns and the Top 3 managers that are easily found by just opening the Services section. I doubt they will tell us though  

Earning a couple of $100s a month on the side is surely a plus and in some countries it means doubling their wages.

Yesterday, I had applied in bustadice campaign managed by yahoo62278, I checked the spreadsheet and yahoo62278's name was listed there. It shows he is getting paid $150 per week for managing bustadice signature campaign. I didn't check other campaign spreadsheet, you can check and probably get the info about how much he gets managing per campaign.

It is only available for bustadice campaign because yahoo is also getting paid on his busta account,but the other campaigns he is managing on his own escow so by searching the other spreadsheet you can't find anything.

But in my guess yahoo may charge more than $150 per week for other campaigns because bustadice is only having 16 participants but other campaigns were nearly 50 members so the managing fee also will get multiplied,so a project with 50 members he may get $500 per week.(Just my guess though.)

[Steamtyme]

As for myself, no I don't earn my living on this forum.  I just discovered early on that it would be leaving money on the table if I were to be an active poster on a forum that I liked and not join a campaign. 

This here sums up how I got into campaigns in the first place. I got into BTC as it seemed an interesting way for me to earn passive income from mining, should I sell or a way to purchase goods without the potential fees.
I was here a couple of months before I realized that Sig Campaigns were a thing. The way I explained it to my partner at work was I'm doing it anyway, I'd be stupid not to earn at the same time. I still agree with this, as it doesn't change what I do here. Looking at my responsibilities and what I perceive as attainable income through the forum, it could never support me

I'm in a lucky spot, most of my active posting time at the forum is done from work. My career, pays well, but is dull 95% of the time, to the point where I literally just monitor screens looking for issues. When I'm away I generally just scan through the threads or do a lot more reading. So the Sig Campaign earnings are like a shift premium in a way when I'm at work.  

I do try to use the forum and BTC in any way I can, more so to try and create opportunities for a marketplace. I have sales threads up for items I thought may be of interest to users within N.A. So far no bitters from the forum, but maybe that changes. I have also used my earnings to grow my personal home mining farm to nearly capacity for what I'm comfortable allocating. This way if I need to step away from the forum for a while or personal issues arise and I'm not as active, I've invested in my future.

One of the things I like seeing the most is when people begin to develop business ideas through conversations here. Not directly earning from the forum, but helping to grow the number of uses for BTC outside of the exchanges, or payment services.

[pawanjain]

- For money, such as joining campaign, managing campaigns, doing Escrow services, making graphic designs

When I think of people making a living off bitcointalk, usually what comes immediately to mind is signature campaigns.  The other things in that list are kind of specialty work which isn't as common as simply putting advertising in your signature space, which most members here do.

As for myself, no I don't earn my living on this forum.  I just discovered early on that it would be leaving money on the table if I were to be an active poster on a forum that I liked and not join a campaign.  Not only does it provide some extra spending money (which isn't peanuts, by the way), it gives me some bitcoin to play around with.  It's much easier to try my hand at altcoin trading with what I earn from campaigns than to use the cash I have from my real job--I don't even have a way to buy bitcoin with cash unless I do it here with PayPal, and that's often problematic.

OP, I've always had the impression that a lot of people use this forum as their place of work, but I'm betting that most of them won't bother to stop by this thread and tell you about it, likely because they're so busy shitposting in one of the mega spam sections and won't notice a thread like this in Meta.  But I've come across lots of members who are probably relying on the money they earn here to support themselves.  I can't tell you how many PMs I've gotten from people I've negged, telling me how badly they need their account to live, etc., etc.  I don't know if they don't have enough education or skills to hold a real job or what, but I'd say at least half of the bounty-hunting population is doing it as full-time employment.

Agree with you completely as I have a similar story to yours. I had been working on signature campaigns from a long time and I must say that the money I get from it does complement the savings I make from my real job.
To be honest, the money did attract me in the beginning days and but as time passed by and I gained experience on this forum and now I kind of love the forum for whatever it is. It's really a big platform through which anybody can learn so much out of it. These days I concentrate less on the amount of posts and more on the quality of posts because that is what will benefit the forum and it's the only way I can think of right now to make my contribution towards the forum. I would definitely like to contribute more towards the forum but I don't know how should I do that.

Also I have a question:

But I've come across lots of members who are probably relying on the money they earn here to support themselves.  I can't tell you how many PMs I've gotten from people I've negged, telling me how badly they need their account to live, etc., etc. 

What do you feel when these people tell you how important their account is for them ? Doesn't it makes you feel pity or something on them ?

[qwertyup23]

I have been participating in this forum since 2017 and the weekly payments that I receive from campaign signatures helped me support myself as a student, as there are times where I use this money for my daily expenses.

As someone who is part of a family of 7 with a single father raising us, our expenses quickly pile-up as he needs to fulfill his daily obligation to feed us and pay for our individual education. There are times where I have been the least priority (eldest brother) in terms of money allocation and this quite took a toll on me whenever I attend my class with a hungry stomach and less study materials.

I used to receive $4-$5 every week (last 2017 when the price of each bitcoin was around $3700-$3800) and use the money to save for my next month's savings. As time passed by, my forum rank grew with my weekly payments increasing at the same time.

Now that I graduated college with a mindset and will for post-graduate studies, I use the a portion of my bitcoins to purchase books (these books are expensive as hell!) to at least support and mitigate the expenses so my other brothers do not experience what I had experience before while growing up.

I can say at least that this forum not only helped me individually but indirectly helped my family. This may sound exaggerated but without this forum and the convenience of working online, I guess my dream of pursuing my career as a future lawyer would not materialized and be just a goal that would be impossible to reach for the time being.

[Carrelmae10]

..There are a lot of reasons why people are getting involve in bitcointalk forum,,full time or part-time..some of these are:

1. TO EARN MONEY:

people take full time in reading and posting high quality post on this forum epecially those who are involve in signature campaigns and some other bounties.. for the reason that this is their way in earning money. They take this as their full time jobs.

2. TO GAIN/ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE:

some of the members of this forums are wide readers,,they making reading a daily hobby which leads them to acquire and implement what they have understood and learn on the topics which they caught attentions.

3. TO LEARN:

members of this forums are here to learn a lot regarding Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies form them to be able to adopt and become aware on what is happening in the crypto world.

..there are so many reasons to mentions,but I think these three are the most common reason why people are here on bitcointalk..by any means,,I am here in bitcointalk because I want to learn,gain knowledge and also to earn some money because bitcointalk really helps me a lot,,and i did not regret to be get involve in btt and become part of my journey in life..

[r1s2g3]

Imagine a forum where you can get 6 000 000 USD for saying "hello Im in" - never has there been such place and we worry this place is going to die off  - no chance.  

Ahh! Show me the places like this where I should put "I 'm in". Even if I get 1/100 of it , I will run a signature campaign for you ( Cryptohunter for DT, looks good )

[tbct_mt2]

From your table, the monthly salary last from $180 to $500 (from the 29th to 1st positions).
I don't think that people can earn too much money in the forum like this as their full time job.
In average, for my rank (Full Member), the rate of btc campaigns ranged from 0.0012 BTC 0.012 BTC or just higher a little bit. $50 or $75 in some campaigns with bonuses for top merited participants.
Maybe, as their full time jobs, they do same jobs the same time, from signature campaign, to graphic designs, signature designs, Escrow service, as well as campaign managements, but I think that they have to work so intensively to hit such total monthly income.
It's a really hard work.

Code:

        Country                   sallary per month
1	Montenegro			501.19 $
2	Russia				498.99 $
3	Bosnia And Herzegovina		476.11 $
4	Brazil				460.53 $
5	India				459.98 $
6	Peru				452.51 $
7	Belarus				442.19 $
8	Turkey				441.44 $
9	Morocco				411.38 $
10	Serbia				400.29 $
11	Iran				388.00 $
12	Vietnam				383.45 $
13	Macedonia			360.96 $
14	Kazakhstan			360.80 $
15	Indonesia			351.65 $
16	Albania				341.34 $
17	Dominican Republic		330.34 $
18	Armenia				322.18 $
19	Colombia			320.89 $
20	Ukraine				294.39 $
21	Georgia				293.66 $
22	Philippines			288.31 $
23	Algeria				273.06 $
24	Azerbaijan			267.75 $
25	Tunisia				259.26 $
26	Sri Lanka			251.01 $
27	Pakistan		        218.17 $
28	Nepal			        208.99 $
29	Egypt				181.90 $

[RapTarX]

I have always wondered how much signature campaign managers earn in a good month. I am talking about bitcoin campaigns and the Top 3 managers that are easily found by just opening the Services section. I doubt they will tell us though  

Earning a couple of $100s a month on the side is surely a plus and in some countries it means doubling their wages.

Yesterday, I had applied in bustadice campaign managed by yahoo62278, I checked the spreadsheet and yahoo62278's name was listed there. It shows he is getting paid $150 per week for managing bustadice signature campaign. I didn't check other campaign spreadsheet, you can check and probably get the info about how much he gets managing per campaign.

It is only available for bustadice campaign because yahoo is also getting paid on his busta account,but the other campaigns he is managing on his own escow so by searching the other spreadsheet you can't find anything.

But in my guess yahoo may charge more than $150 per week for other campaigns because bustadice is only having 16 participants but other campaigns were nearly 50 members so the managing fee also will get multiplied,so a project with 50 members he may get $500 per week.(Just my guess though.)

Checked another campaign bitsler managed by yahoo62278. As per the spreadsheet, he probably get $300 per week. In spreadsheet, there's an amount written every week below the participants payment. It's BTC +/- 0.07 BTC. That's a passive amount if he manages 3-4 campaign at once.
Nevertheless, it is not only about managing a campaign, it's about his reputation too which took years to build up.

[Techie5879]

I think in most developed, or for that matter, developing countries, it would not be possible to earn from this forum enough to make a living. For that, and I'm talking if you only use signature campaigns, you'd have to spam, which risks you getting banned. If you try out many other freelance jobs on the forum then maybe that would give a decent income, but its difficult to continuously find jobs that fit your niche. Also, a lot signature campaigns end (run only for a limited period of time), so its pretty hard to make a continuous income.

[cryptovigi]

From your table, the monthly salary last from $180 to $500 (from the 29th to 1st positions).
I don't think that people can earn too much money in the forum like this as their full time job.
In average, for my rank (Full Member), the rate of btc campaigns ranged from 0.0012 BTC 0.012 BTC or just higher a little bit. $50 or $75 in some campaigns with bonuses for top merited participants.
Maybe, as their full time jobs, they do same jobs the same time, from signature campaign, to graphic designs, signature designs, Escrow service, as well as campaign managements, but I think that they have to work so intensively to hit such total monthly income.
It's a really hard work.
...

I never said that finding a well-paid campaign is easy but it is possible.
The rates for Members and Full Members are (as you know) not so high but you wrote that in this position you can find a campaign which pays $ 50- $ 75 - when you multiply it for 4 weeks, you reach $ 200 - $ 300 or more than the last ten places from the list I have shown.
Being Sr. With a Memo or Hero you are able to hit an even better $ campaign let's say 75- $ 100 , which means that the potential earnings per month increase to $ 300- $ 400, which means more than 20 bottom places in the table. I am not even talk about the best campaign here, where it gets very difficult to get (but still possible) where you can earn more than in each country I have presented.

Remember also that these calculations were made at the rate of bitcoin at the level of $ 4000 and as you know for a long time it was much higher which means that these payments could also be doubled or even tripled (I'm not talking about the extremely high btc rate in early 2018 when they were up to 5 times higher).

Once again, it is not easy to find a well-paid campaign, but this forum gives people from many countries the opportunity to earn monthly equal or even higher than average wages in their countries, and it still does not take 8 hours a day. If you add other bounty campaigns like Facebook, Twitter and so on to signature campaign (although today it is a very very risky source of income) some people can really treat this forum as a source of income sometimes even better and easier than "real" full-time job in their country.

I think in most developed, or for that matter, developing countries, it would not be possible to earn from this forum enough to make a living. For that, and I'm talking if you only use signature campaigns, you'd have to spam, which risks you getting banned.
...

Signature campaigns NEVER FORCE you to spam! It is always your decision what you post. If you can not write posts that are constructive, meaningful, interesting or at least you should not start the signature campaign - because it is not for you.

...
Now that I graduated college with a mindset and will for post-graduate studies, I use the a portion of my bitcoins to purchase books (these books are expensive as hell!) to at least support and mitigate the expenses so my other brothers do not experience what I had experience before while growing up.

I can say at least that this forum not only helped me individually but indirectly helped my family. This may sound exaggerated but without this forum and the convenience of working online, I guess my dream of pursuing my career as a future lawyer would not materialized and be just a goal that would be impossible to reach for the time being.

this is probably the best example of proper use of earnings from this forum

[LTU_btc]

No, I don't make living off the forum and I'm not planning to do that. I think it would be stupid and even risky. What if campaign will scam you? What if you lose your Bitcointalk account? What if there simply will be no empty spot in campaign for you? There are too many risks. Offcourse, you're providing services here, it's normal to earn for a living here. But it's not easy. For example, we have lot of signature campaign managers and limited number of campaign. Simply it can be not enough job for you.
When Bitcoin was at $15 000 - $20 000, I was able to get from sig campaign more than I get from my main full time job. Now I just earn some extra cash from it. And I withdraw only smart part of my earnings. If I would withdraw more, I would have to fill all these tax declarations. When it comes to crypto, it's complicated thing in my country. There are simply too much hassle. I just hold biggest part of my earnings, some BTC I use for investments and for spending online sometimes.