Our website is a High School Sporting News website. We only cover a 1/4 of the Houston area. So our audience size is pretty limited. however, we are doing well and attracting over 10000 unique visitors per month right now. With over 4 visits per unique IP address. So of course we want more traffic, but building traffic although important, not my focus right now. We have consistently doubled to tripled our traffic every quarter.

My main goal is how can we monetize the site? We have tried affiliates and selling advertising. We are not making any money off the affiliate advertising and making a tiny bit off the local advertisers. They are reluctant to advertise because of course we don't have the high number of traffic on the site to make it worthwhile for them. Plus the people who would be interested are just not online advertisers. So learning how to sell to them is a whole other topic.

Plus any tips on the layout and such are always welcome. I know that the page is huge but our owner likes to have the layout the way it is. We are trying to effect change, but it might take some comments from outside to help make that happen.

Thanks,

Fred

Even though the main page is "Huge" as you put it, I could not help but notice that the NEWS stories were not categorized. It went from BasketBall to Wrestling to Soccer, back to Basketball etc. If I used the navigation on the left and chose the category I wanted, then they were nicely grouped in the related category.

Can the main page be grouped / displayed in a similar fashion, where all Basketball news is together, Then the next sport etc. etc. etc.

As for monetizing the site. You mention that you only cover 1/4 of the Houston area, yet your Advertise Page shows The Athlete's Connection is a nationwide online news source. I would suggest focusing on your target demographics first. If Houston is your main target, then the site should state that. If I was a local Houston business, why would I care if I received exposure in Colorado, It is not money well spent. Sell it as local exposure.

You also state that you "don't have the high number of traffic on the site to make it worthwhile for them" Money talks. Until you have the numbers you are looking for and the Nation Wide usage the site claims to have, then offer your advertising at a reduced cost to entice local businesses.

My last comment would be on the advertisements above the AC banner. Personally, I think it takes away from the site. The first thing I expect to see if the Site banner, not where to go for yogurt or who should be doing my taxes. (even though it is a good time to start thinking about taxes) I would find another location on the site for those.

Hope that helps.

__________________
Ron MacPhail
www.open247.ca

Ron,

Thank you. That does help quite a bit.

The front page lists all of the latest stories. So they are listed in chronological order. The main page is more of a here's the latest news type of deal. That is why they are so disorganized it seems.

Good point about the national news source. I will have to address that today with the boss.

Those top banners have been a touchy subject. They are the ones that sell and make us the most money. Obviously we have a few affiliate banners in there as well (they rotate between around 6 banners or so). I have never been in favor of the advertising at the top of the page, but again, they are prime real estate for us. So it is hard to remove a piece of the advertising that makes us the most money. However, this will be brought up as well in our next meeting.

I would be curious to know what others think about that spot. Is there a price point where it becomes more valuable to lose some brand image and put the advertisers up there? Should we put those banners under our main banner and keep them at the top of the page? Is there another area that we could offer that would be valuable to the advertisers but allow us to keep the top area clean?

Thanks for the tips and they will be discussed fully with everyone here.

Thanks,

Fred