Hi there...I need ideas, help, and anyway you can help me on this one. I have a Christian website, its a social networking, right now there are over 24k registered members and the community is very active since members come back to read and reply to their comments, PM, blogs, polls, forums, etc. Now the thing is that im making almost NO money from this site, some time i don't made enough no even to pay the server. All i have in the site right now is adsense. Now the thing is, how do you think i could possible increase the income from this site? I've seen people he at DP making some good money with just 3.000 members and i have over 24k Of course the thing with this kind of web sites is that the ads have to be clean ones, because we are a Christian community. But I know there should be some good ideas out there and im here to take any good advises. I was thinking about starting an internal advertising system so business owners can put ads in the site directly with us, but i dont know if this would be a good idea. Any help would be appreciated!
Why not advertise (via signature links) in popular Christian forums? I've been MANY highly active ones. Since you have no budget for this.. and I'm sure you can find people on the forums who like your site concept that may help
Not soley signature links, but networking with other people on the forums Just google up christian forums, there are quite a few!!
So long as it's extra features. Making people pay for what they've already taken for granted as being free can cause backlash. It would depend on what he can find and add that's extra.
yeah..that's totally right...I didnt wanted to add any kind of membership but the adding something extra may be a good idea.
Actually, they are re referring their friends very well, that's not actually the problem, there is even a tracking system that let me know who referred who and how many a users an individual member referred, etc. etc. What i really would like to know is how to make money out of it. The donation button is a good idea, i also had that on my mind.
While I'm not a big fan of donation buttons (often used by panhandlers and beggars who have not a clue about web design and think that one free hosted site and a weeks experience as a 'webmaster' entitles them to getting money thrown at them) when used tactfully it can work well. In this case I think it would be appropriate. Just depends on how the message is conveyed. And maybe call it the 'tithe' button
Seems like you mean monetize the site as opposed to marketing the site? But I'm seeing both addressed here.
Have them maybe pay $1.00 a month and give them something extra, like chat, or more pictures, or highlighted ads. $1.00 per person isnt much and with 20,000 people that could be a nice profit.... Good luck Jason
Yes, you mean make money not market. Marketing would draw more users. You want cash. Donation button definitly but you need to be creative to rake in the cash. Make yourself a not for profit organization and then get your 503c3 or 403b (or whatever the appropriate A-Z / 0-9 is) classification, so that donations are legitimate IRS write offs. If you do this correctly, I think you can get off for under $100 (depending on what state you are in). Then you can pass this off as tithing and people will throw you some money. You must be careful on how you spend the money (or live in fear of uncle sam) but that is what I would do.
I'd try selling extra features at a nominal fee. $1/month was mentioned above. I think at that price it would work well. Good luck.
Right now im dealing with someone that since to be very interested in the site and the deal is almost closed.