Forum community managers are hard workers and they manage the forum everyday. Therefore, I think that forum managers should be paid well if they are doing a great job of managing the community. So, how much compensation do forum community managers deserve?

When I was the Community Manager for Copyblogger, I was paid $1,000 a month. I felt like it was fair for what I did. I welcomed new people, shared small articles, and did a monthly accountability Zoom call with members.

It was a paid community, though.

Good question. And it would depend, heavily, on daily work load. Most of my forum admin gigs were volunteer and a labor of love, though I have had some paid ones too. The latter, however, from what I’ve seen are the exception, rather than the rule.

Their salary “should” be a living wage, though I don’t know how many forums are making that kind of bank these days. Maybe you could give them some stake in the website like a company giving out stocks, so there’s incentive for them to promote and make good, search-friendly content. It’s hard to say.