Hi guys, my website www.hellafiles.com gets 30,000 organic uniques a month, its PR3 and has decent Alexa - I just don't know how to properly monetize it. Was making about $80 a month using Adsense, but they sent me a warning (was not banned) because my site "promotes downloading copyrighted material". So - I want to pay you just for your knowledge! *Please post your thoughts / advice for what I should be doing to make the most possible $$ a month with this site (i.e. Sell text links, Use Azoogle, etc.) Your suggestions should NOT include Adsense or involve significant design changes to my current site. I will try the various techniques you guys list, and will award whoever gives the best (most money making) advice $50 via Paypal. *This is just for your advice, you do any actual work to qualify for this contest. If multiple people suggest the same idea, or stategy that wins, then the person who posted it first will be awarded the $50 via Paypal. Winner will be posted in this thread - Contest ends Friday 2-8-08 Good luck!!
Try www.textlinksads.com Sell on front page and sitewide ontop of the search page. Also remove the ads on the front page they are very annoying and most people wont even take the time to scroll down to where you search which is losing you visitors.
Hmm, I'm not sure if this is considered revenue exactly. But you could ask for donations or give certain privileges to paying members (e.i. faster downloads, special forums privileges, etc). Also, there are other advertising services like www.codeads.com or www.adbrite.com There's always someone willing to buy advertising space, and it doesn't always have to take up all of your page
With Azoogle and other cpa networks, there are certain file sharing affiliate programs that you can promote, which pay for each free signup or trial period. Have a graphic that looks like an option which hits your visitors right in the face, to go and check out one of these affiliate programs, instead of uploading to your site. It'll roughly be 50/50 whether they will check out your affiliate program, then all you have to do is work on your conversion rate.
That black banner is actually an affiliate link but has only converted once after about 500 hops I will check Azoogle tho, thanks!
You don't have to go through the banner route upnya, you would need to work more on blending in the affiliate progam so it looks more like an option for your site. Maybe in your description text or as a tab/link.
While you requested that the suggestion shouldn't pertain to adsense. I still have a few things to say about it. I see a lot of rapidshare search engines that have adsense on them, in fact around 90% of them. It may have simply been a competitor who reported you so you may want to reconsider. Possibly add a short article on the homepage so it at least has content and contacting Google and inquiring whether or not your site is acceptable. This is seeing as how you're on Google's 2nd page for something like "rapidshare search engine". To be honest, I don't see why they would warn you. Also, I noticed a subscribers box when I first visited, somewhat subtle. You should possibly think about adding registration for people to become members of the site so it's easier to grab their emails. Such as adding a checkbox to optin to the newsletter within the registration to be a member. Give really basic features to the registered ones the ability to decrypt and encrypt their links with a md5 hash. Won't be used a lot but it gives the idea of having content. Building a list is pretty important down the road. Track the top most searched terms. The most recently searched terms. When you see a slight jump in such a popular search term, you can probably monetize it with a related CPA offer. A lot of keyword research tools only show results that are months down the road. Current events and new trends in general need to be taken advantage of on the spot. Use the tracked keyword information you have for other possibilities/research. Don't shoot in the dark with a general affiliate or CPA offer. I'll contribute some more if I can think of anything else. =P
Why dont remove adsense and sell links directly from your site on monthly basis. I mean that you can sell your links here at DP and as you get a good amount of traffic a lot of people here would want to buy the links on your site.
How about this You begin a contest for 3 [or some other number] rapidshare a/c's given away for free every month. You give them 1 point for each rapidshare search or download via your site. The three guys with most points at end of month win rapidshare premium a/c's Add a leaderboard showing guys with most points at side. Points reset to zero after end of month and account giveaway. You can add a page for the contest details and info purposes and have a few links/ads there and sell those too. I am reasonably sure, that the level of interaction people have with your site will increase and traffic too in all probability, if you use keywords like free rapidshare accounts and rapidshare account giveaway/contest.
Have you tried hosting affiliates? Try to place a Hostgator banner (or any other web host). Maybe you won't make a sale daily (maybe yes), but if you make at least 2 sales per month, that's $100 (or even $200 if you join Hostgator via CJ.com - the payouts are higher there). Good luck!
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Create a links section in your site. Approach sites that put up stuff for download through rapidshare [some blogs, filesharing sites/forums etc] and offer links on your site to their sites for money or for a link to your site on their's.