Monetising A Rock & Metal Music Site

I have started a website promoting and publishing articles about bands from the rock & metal genres and I'm looking at ways to monetize the site.

I have been kicked out of Adsense for maybe breaking the rules in the future, so they are out.

I looked at Amazon Associates, but I don't like how they only offer blanket banner ads for all genres, no point advertising soul music on a rock & metal site.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

Choose Rock and Metal genre on Amazon and pick every product individually.
For example you can select Rock Guitar.

 

Have you looked at any affiliate programs which have a few music related sites on their roster?

 

Check out these 11 alternatives to AdSense: http://www.sitepoint.com/alternatives-to-google-adsense/

I think the list is still accurate, except AdBrite is gone now.

 

Thanks for the ideas.

I am currently using an Amazon Astore until I find something better.

I have used a lot of the ad networks listed in the link qwikad.com listed, but I have found that most of the time the ads have absolutely nothing to do with the content of your site. I have run Smowtion, Kontera, Fidelity Media, CPMLeader and a couple of others and they have not once shown ANYTHING related to music, the nearest I got was video ads for washing detergent that had music playing in the background.

I have thought about using Ticketmaster's referral program as people who visit my site will be interested in going to gigs, but I don't understand why Ticketmaster charge $5 to take part in their affiliate program.

 

Forget about ads, sign up to networks (Amazon, Clickbank and others) as an affiliate.

You can be promoting guitars, drum kits and other instruments. How to play guides & tutorials. Heavy metal DVDs and music. Clothing. Memorabilia. Gig tickets.

The list is endless really.

 

Stuart makes a good point.... use Clickbank, Commission Junction or JV Zoo.
You can make a great percentage of the sale promoting products through them.
You can also promote a product of your own...ebook, how-to video, etc.
Link it up to Paypal and send them to a download page.
Very simple to do and you keep even more profit.

 

amazon is nice platform for affiliation , i hope you should register first and then if you face any problem - you can discuss here it will be better. Amazons monitization is really good to look and its simple to understand easily.

 

I own such a site. Amazon is good enough though majority of the traffic is not from the US. I removed Adsense. Also I had no success with Clickbank. Only amazon works. People go and buy from Amazon only. It's weird but true.

 

People buy products through Clickbank trust me. The conversion rate on Amazon is high because Amazon is a trusted household name but if people trust you enough and you're sending them to high converting squeeze pages with quality products they WILL buy digital products.

 

I would suggest to use Clickbank.com and other Digital Products Marketplace Sites like it to promote relevant products.

The one I personally recommend to use is Clickbank but that is my personal choice.

There are many products in many niches you can choose from and earn commissions with. One thing you could do, is Contact the Product Creator and tell them about your website - if your site gets a good amount of traffic a month then they might consider giving you the product for free or at a very low price so you can use it and then talk about it on your blog.

You could sell Guitar Lessons and New Playing Tricks or something like that. I've seen many products that you can definitely profit from. Just pick the products to promote wisely and make sure they are of good quality.

You can promote this guy's product for example http://basicrockguitar.com/ - he has an affiliate program through Clickbank.com. Check it out and see if that is a product you would sell on your site. The next step would be to put very eye-grabbing banners and call to actions around your site.

Another important thing to work on is the Conversions on your site. You want to get the most Clicks as possible from your traffic and believe it or not by moving things around - the clicks through rate are very different. There is definitely testing to get done when you are monetizing your website.

My other suggestion would be to also use Amazon Affiliate Program to sell specific products relevant to your niche. There are options in your Amazon.com Affiliate Program Home Page to build a widget with the products you manually select. You can do this and select the Music, Cd's, Guitars or any products you would like to sell from amazon on your website.

You can do all of this when you have signed up for an Amazon.com Affiliate Program Account. Just look around the page and go to the 'Widgets' section to create your own ads.

I hope this helps!

I wish you the best success in your journey online!

Cheers!

 

Selling rock and metal CDs, t-shirts etc. Go on Fiverr and look for someone to distribute your flyers at some specific places (college, for example).

I used to generate some hundred dollars doing this. So, I hope it will work for you, too.

 

How much traffic do you have?
Do you want only music related ads? (or even Metal..)

 

Try Clickbank - there are some products related to your niche. Another idea would be to contact music instrument sellers or other niche websites to advertise on your site. If you generate enough traffic it will be interesting for someone who targets the same audience.