Darren Rowse of Problogger.net recently announced his brand new Problogger.com forum, open to any and all who are willing to fork over $2 a month.

$2 a month certainly isn’t a very expensive sticker price, being less than the cost of a large plain coffee at many gas stations. However, with most forums being totally free and usually jam packed with people willing to give advice and assistance, is there a reason that you’d actually want to pay to participate in a forum where the owner- the only professional blogger in the group- basically states up front that he won’t be participating himself?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Perhaps you’ve found the people in the comment streams on Problogger’s blog to be helpful and friendly, and you’d like an appropriate area to interact and get to know them better.  That would certainly be a good reason to join up. And I applaud that Darren wants to actually pay his head moderator a salary- many forum owners certainly do not, and I appreciate anyone who doesn’t try to cheapskate his way into larger profits by ripping off those willing to help.

I am curious though- why not pay the moderators with income from advertising. This is where Problogger.com’s income is from, right? Or, perhaps there will be advertising on top of the $2 a month charge. The $2 is, of course, to keep out spammers and pay his mod.

Still, the question is whether the Problogger.com forum is worth paying for or not. Certainly some reviews are more valuable than others. The review linked to above is probably the best that I’ve seen, and the author of that blog gives the best advice on how to make money online. No frills, no pep talks, just straight, solid info.