Basics: Monetizing your web site

[greeneagle]

I would like to open up a general discussion on how to monetize a website.

Many Site owners could use practical advise on whether a Site is a good candidate and how to go about making a website profitable.

Tips, tools, services, experiences and questions are all welcome. Let's keep it general and split off any topics you choose.

Let's look at the basics to kick the thread off.

"Basics: Monetizing your web site"

Ken

[Heal3r]

Link selling is an opportunity for income. An excellent one I think. Thank you gogle for the PR bar! pretty much the only method that doesn't require traffic.

Parking domains is a possibility on sites like sedo. com. and others.

Pretty much all these other methods require getting traffic to your site, qualified traffic, tweaking and testing and revising. Not that there is anything wrong with that...

[bhartzer]

Link selling is an opportunity for income. An excellent one I think. Thank you gogle for the PR bar!

If you're a buyer, I would be very cautious--PageRank can easily be faked. Buyer beware.

To properly monetize a site, the first thing you need to do is figure out whether the page can be monetized. Some topics just do not lend themselves to being monetized. I found that out recently when a page on one of my news sites got over 1,000,000 visitors in one day--I made a whopping $8 from AdSense on that day on that page.

If you think it can be monetized, determine which programs are available (e.g., an affiliate program, lead generation, YPN or AdSense, selling ad space). Then, test each one. For example, test the affiliate program for a week, test YPN for a week, test AdSense for a week, etc. You'll quickly be able to determine which monetization technique pays the best for your site and, most imporantly, that page.

[greeneagle]

Bill,

Great comments, especially about testing the different monetization methods on different pages and sites.

I'd like to pursue the idea of topics that may not be so easily monetized a little more. Are there any categories that you can mention that may be harder to monetize?

Also, I suppose that your "News Sites" are php or... do you find it more difficult to monetize dynamic content pages than static?

If you didn't mind posting a link to one of your News Sites I am interested in seeing what you have going, plus the plug wouldn't hurt.

Ken

[lisa_inettes]

Well, one of the best - and easiest ways to monetize your site is to sell your traffic. But this works best if you already have a good ranking; and therefore a good amount of traffic.

Also, contrary to popular opinion Google Adsense may not be the smartest way to go about it. Did you know that Google actually punishes your rankings by having thier adsense program installed?

Something to think about.
Lisa Inettes

[greeneagle]

lisa inettes:

"Did you know that Google actually punishes your rankings by having thier adsense program installed?

OK!, I'll Bite, lets hear what you have to say.

Ken

[Tubby]

I think possible one of the biggest factors in NOT being able to sell advertising is having content in a data base format.
A data base is very easy to manage. The problem arises in the page that displays the data base. This is very often exactly the same whether the user calls up bannanas or potatoes. The adverts around the called up content are most often 'fixed'. There are exceptions, Most notably Adsense, this works well because it 'reads' the content and can present the viewer with a relevant ad. This has the end result of making Adsense Ideal for sites that call up info from a data base. . But it also puts you into direct competeton with the whole wide world that is doing exactly the same. rather similar to placing another chicken in the run fighting for the same scraps and leaving the ripe apples hanging on the tree growing in the run - totally unpicked. What is required is to introde something to pick the apples. . (probably not another chicken)

My advise for monetising a new site with content would be to look very carefully at your delivery system and how much content will be collected from the 'input' section. Ask yourself Do I need a data base or is there a simple way I can present the viewer with a fixed page that can be monetised far easier.

I have seen many many web sites with the capability to handle thousand of visitors hourly with brilliant data base capabilities. . drawing on less than 50 submissions. . The website owner could simply have placed the 50 results on a html page and had a great page that would have been higly desirable to an advertiser. . wasted.

A page with 20 different closely related items (in Description and location) is more valuable than a web site with 50,000 totally unrelated items, (in description and location) - You can target an advert to the first, you can entice someone "click"
on the second you can place all the ads you like, you will get traffic, you will get clicks . . you will fade away like those before you. Having learnt nothing, having nowhere to go, having no direction to expand, gaining no expert skills, just being another 'no hope' website pissing the world off.

in the meantime the first page will now have 25 closely related items. . and be just that little bit harder to compete with. and collecting a small but deserved and growing revenue.

One thing often totally not understood is a huge number of web users actualy like adverts . . they just desire to have them presented to them 'nicely' and with a little thought. Have you ever bought a local newspaper 'just for the adverts'? The reasons you paid for that newspaper is precicely your target .

There you go Ken. . I thought the subject of the thread was good thinking. . that is my contribution limited as is with available time .

[bhartzer]

Also, I suppose that your "News Sites" are php or... do you find it more difficult to monetize dynamic content pages than static?

It's not the technology behind the site (I can deal with that as it's not the PHP or the dynamic nature of it).

It's the topics that news sites in general cover and the type of visitors that typically are attracted to those topics that cause the inability to monetize. I would say that this is generally a problem not only with news sites, but content sites in general; and some blogs.

The issue is mostly what happens when someone comes to a site that's a news site or a content site: they're there to learn about or read an article. They're not necessarily there to find a product or service that the site sells.

In particular, in my case, the news site(s) have attracted a lot of traffic. When I talk about a lot of traffic, I'm talking in excess of 500,000 pageviews each day, sometimes more. A site might have an article about a celebrity's or a famous person's recent death. The visitors searched at a search engine, found the article, and visited the site: they read the article and then they leave.

How you do you suppose you monetize that? You can't. Sure, you can run banner ads and get paid via CPM, but we all know how much banner ad prices have fallen in the past 5-10 years. It used to be $50 CPM and now it's more like $.50 cents CPM (per thousand views). Sure, you can run AdSense ads, but they generally don't match up with the topic at hand, so you're not going to find a lot of AdWords advertisers bidding on certain keywords that are in the news. And oh yeah--by the way, here's news for you: people who visit news sites don't click on AdSense ads or banner ads.

Content sites, news sites, and some blogs generate a lot of pageviews and have a lot of visitors. But you just cannot monetize them properly; some of the larger online news portals have attempted to require you to subscribe online or even run ads before you can view the content. And, in my opinion, they've all failed to see a lot of monetization of their sites.

One more thing--I personally don't see the appropriateness of linking to my own sites or pages here, but if you're interested send me a PM and I'll gladly give you some specific URLs of news sites and their lack of monetization.

[bhartzer]

Did you know that Google actually punishes your rankings by having thier adsense program installed?

Let's not start that rumor. Running AdSense on a site or a page has absolutely nothing to do with search engine rankings. Period. End of story.

If you want proof, I can prove it. I recently ditched YPN for AdSense and am actually getting better rankings and more revenue with AdSense on the site than any before.

Besides, AdSense is merely static Javascript code; it's not going to have any effect on rankings.

[greeneagle]

bhartzer:

"Let's not start that rumor. Running AdSense on a site or a page has absolutely nothing to do with search engine rankings. Period. End of story"

Thanks for reitering that indesputable fact. Your opinions weigh in heavily at WPW, in consideration of your expertise.

Please take a moment with my PM. I believe it will be worth your time.

Ken

[Tubby]

quote;
"I personally don't see the appropriateness of linking to my own sites or pages here, but if you're interested send me a PM and I'll gladly give you some specific URLs of news sites and their lack of monetization."

I am curious enough to to look at one.

[incrediblehelp]

The best way to profitably monetize a website is to first establish if people are going to pay you more than it cost to monetize your website in the first place.

People start businesses all of the time thinking it is a good idea to do so, without properly researching the new business nice they are entering.

[Tubby]

invrediblehelp; quote.
'People start businesses all of the time thinking it is a good idea to do so, without properly researching the new business nice they are entering.'

Yes! but O.K. as long as they do not sell the family home for the funds, and give away their job in the first instance. There is a lot to be said for just putting your toe into the water first. . just to find out how cold it is.. Or alternatively, to avoid getting severely burnt.

I have seen many web sites that have been created from no more than a 'concept' with input from a sole person with total disregard for a good few of lifes realities. I have seen some good concepts totally ruined by the chosen web designer who insists that this is how you do it. . who then duplicates a thousand other sites and merely place a different face on it.

Running a successful business is difficult at any time. The net is very competetive. The truth is quite often you will competing with an oppsition that in many cases are quite content to throw money against the wall while going broke. . It is hard to compete with someone willing to sacrifice enormous funds on a whimsical dream... Often this will be what you are doing..

[bigd11]

Useful info didn't know have the stuff talked about would happen.But you guys make sound and seem harder than it really is !If your careful in what you are doing and find the best way before doing its not that bad!

[bhartzer]

first establish if people are going to pay you more than it cost to monetize your website in the first place.

Exactly. Before you even think of putting AdSense or YPN on a page, do some searches at Google and Yahoo! to see if there are PPC ads showing up in the search results; and determine about how much those advertisers are paying for those ads.

If there are no AdWords ads showing up for that topic then most likely you won't get any relevent ads to show up through AdSense. So, you cannot monetize it.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by bigd11

Useful info didn't know have the stuff talked about would happen.But you guys make sound and seem harder than it really is !If your careful in what you are doing and find the best way before doing its not that bad!

And it would be a good idea to update your spammy signature too, which make you and your services less credible to potential customers here at WPW.

[Gary Golden]

Personally I am not close to retirement with my web income and have done everything except direct marketing so that is the next avenue.

1. I have high rankings in the search engines for 100's of relevant keywords.

2. Tried Newspaper advertising, Worthless

3. Tried Radio Advertising, Worthless

4. Tried joining local groups, Worthless

5. Tried roadside signs, Worthless

I have not tried building a marketing team that would direct market my services to customers, so this will be my next plan of attack!

I do make money using GOOGLE adsense on my sites and I recieve some revenue from banner advertising.

[bhartzer]

1. I have high rankings in the search engines for 100's of relevant keywords.

But do those hundreds of keywords convert searchers into buyers? It's all about conversion.

I would take a long hard look at which keywords are actually converting visitors into buyers (which are converting) and concentrate on those keywords.

You don't necessarily need hundreds of keywords; sometimes all it takes is a few keywords that convert really well.

(And you don't necessarily need to be selling something to realize a conversion. You can concentrate on finding out which keywords are more profitable for you.)