We have a site under development that will sell a particular best in class service to a target niche of 25 million prosumer photographers (out of a total space of 295 million, worldwide). Besides the service we will be selling, we will be offering a free service of significance to every one of these 25 million photographers. We believe that this free service is so valuable that we will generate substantial eyeballs from grassroots, AdWords and affilate marketing. To get the free service, each photographer will be required to register with name and confirmed email address and a password (it will obvious from the free service that this will be a good idea to our audience to benefit them on every return visit)...at the same time they register, they will be able to opt-in to our list...and/or our partners lists for their services and offers. We would expect a 30% registration rate of total visiting eyeballs since we believe that our free offer is THAT good. Obviously, for confidentiality reasons, I can't disclose any details on the above. However, I would very much appreciate insights, ideas and suggestions on the following questions, assuming we got 100,000 visitors per month: * How would you price advertising / sponsorship ads for all those companies that would love to get their message in front of that many photographers? * PPC or monthly rate? * How would you price use of the opt-in list per use? * If this was your site, how else would YOU make money with it beyond the primary service we will be selling? Right now, our plan doesn't include any of these revenue components but intuition tells me that it should. Thanks, Robert
Please clarify. You expect 100,000 unique visits from target traffic(photographers) per month? You have an opt in list of 100,000 photographers or 25 million? What is the free service and site address?
I know nothing about the photographer demograph, but seeing as you are planning on advertising to them, you should. Price your ads according to the prices you have to pay to advertise to them. I WOULD NOT use a CPC model on your site to attract advertisers. Why would I use you when I could use adsense? Unless adsense is terribly expensive and you are terribly cheap, I wouldn't even consider it. Then I'd have to think about would you scam me / have fake click counts / etc. Especially if your site is new, I'd have no reason to trust you. On the other hand, you can always offer a flat rate advertising solution which would be much more attractive to me assuming your traffic stats make sense to me. With an opt in list you would have to clarify. Does 'use' mean I get to send out a solo email to all of them or does it mean that I get my link on the bottom of one of your emails. Prices vary based on this, and so do the spam rules. That's a tricky business in the first place. Beyond the primary service (whatever that is..) that you'll be offering, associating your site with products is a great way to go. There are tons of CPA programs like cj.com and azoogleads.com that will help you find great products to offer up to your customers. Especially with that email list, where you could send off a review of a paticular product to all of your prospects and then include a link to buy. That's what I would do at least... Good luck!
Yes....100,000 unique photographer visitors per month is our current expectation. Of these, we expect 30,000 to register per month.....and of these, to have 5,000 to opt-in to our list each month. For competitve and confidentiality reasons, both the free service and the site has to remain in stealth mode. Robert
In that case, I think you are jumping the gun seeking advice on how to monetize a secret. You really need to get the site running and show a track record of these expected statistics before you can sell any advertising.
Thanks for the comments. I am not too concerned over finding the advertisers for this site since the focus is so highly targeted....right now I am just looking for a reasonable revenue bracket as a first order approximation....and even though it is only a prediction, that is what business plans are based on. The goal of my posting is to get some idea of revenue bracketing that could be reasonably expected assuming our assumpitons regarding traffic and registered users and opt-in clicks materialize. What I am trying to include in our business plan is whether these kinds of traffic numbers translate to a potential for $1,000 or $10,000 a month, or some other number inside or outside these ranges. It would seem knowing the space and the traffic would be sufficient to bracket the revenue opportunity from advertising and eyeball monetization based on what other sites see with similar levels of traffic....especially with all the great experience base of the folks on this site!
I would possibly look into promoting a phot print CPA offer to them but also look into Ebay, Camera stores etc.. if you get that kind of traffic do commision sales and try to team up with some camera photographer stores and offer special discounts for your members etc.. As far as your revenue potential you never know untill you get going but form my experience most of my ventures i end up finding that my estimation was way under because if oyu have good site and good product word gets around QUICKLY!
Thanks....this is going to be a serious site with the goal of market dominance in this niche and providing genuine and needed services to the 25 million photographers in our space....so, it is not intended to be a traffic site just to sell ads. However, I have to admit to ignorance on even guessing at what ads on this site should generate. I would expect someone like B&H Photo, Canon, Epson, etc. would salivate at these eyeballs since they are the ones that don't hesitate to spend $800 for another lens or $500 for a better tripod!
If you are going to truely dominate then making 10K a month is nothing. Just as you said these are people that spend 100's on tripods etc... pair up with business that will appeal to these people and ask for a cut of sales.
Thanks for the comments. Well, part of the profile of our target audience is that they paid at least $800 for ONE of their digital cameras! Today's high resolution camera is tomorrow's mediocre camera for the masses. Again, anyone know a typical formula for calculating this kind of sharing arrangement?
Hi, I run an online gallery that could sure do with some of your traffic! As this is my first post I can't post a URL but I'd be happy to discuss a traffic trade if you're interested Many thanks, pondlife.
Thanks for the comment and the interest! Bear in mind that traffic is what is expected within a couple of months of kick off....which will be 1Q07. Depending on our research regarding traffic and the revenue opportunity from ads that is the point of this thread, we may peel off the amazing free service and get that part going much quicker...and use it to generate revenue while we are wrapping up implementation of our primary best in class product. Robert
Still looking for insights from all the DP gurus on what can be made from 100,000 photographer eyeballs per month visiting my site: * How would you price advertising / sponsorship ads for all those companies that would love to get their message in front of that many photographers? * PPC or monthly rate? * How would you price use of the opt-in list per use? * If this was your site, how else would YOU make money with it beyond the primary service we will be selling? Trying to update business plan and would appreciate any guidance from those in the know. Robert
You want something that can't be done. Haw can somebody know haw much will you make, if he doesn't know what about is your site. I know a site from top 500 alexa that is making only 30.000$/month. That site has 4 time your monthly visitors in just one day. Visitors means nothing. Conversion does. If you can convert your traffic in sales, you can make 10.000 or even more. If you can't, you will be lucky to make 1000$. IMHO.