Donations (the button right next to your profile button in the header) were keeping the forum alive in the first time.
Nowadays, most of the income the forum makes comes from the ad-auctions (forum ads shown between the first and second reply on each site).
One thing I wanted to know related to this is that is there a single owner of this forum ? Again, are some staff members being paid here as well. Also is there a way to apply for the staff positions ? Tried to search about this but could not find any link.