Hi DP! I started running a site since last year May and it's been steady since the game entered beta (and recently into release). I don't have much experience in making money online so I just slapped a Adwords on there and some Ads from a network. It's generating about $20 altogether per day. The site gets about 35-45k views a day, from 10-15k unique visitors a day. It runs on Wordpress so lately I've been doing SEO, Page Load Speed and managing a couple o writers to keep the content going. But I can't help but wonder if I'm missing out on some money opportunities with the amount of traffic my site is getting. The site is about a specific game and the audience is gamers - is $20 an acceptable value for my site's stats? Any tips are appreciated!
What is the site? You probably slapped on AdSense, not AdWords. $20 from 35-45k views a day is joke. You should be making way more than that. I don't think we can help you until we see the site.
$20 is indeed low for your traffic. You could look at CPA offers (related to gaming) or some other gaming affiliate programs.
It's http://hearthstoneplayers.com Right now the Alexa rank for it is 109k, Global. I tried applying for Razer's Affiliate program but no response Edit: Yeah it's Adsense, not Adwords. My bad
For one, all your ads are towards the bottom. Have you tried having a 728x90 right below your navigation? Also, change your ads to both text and image ads. Right now it seems like they are all set to image ads only. From my experience, text ads always earn more.
Thanks guys. I'm gonna check out Amazon Affiliate program and I'll be experimenting with ad locations! If anyone has another other suggestions - I'm all ears!
You could try some alternative CPM too. There are several services that offer good rates and decent income, at least way better than $20 a day with 10-15k unique visitors. Amazon affiliate is a best bet though if your website is gaming related.
Jimmy, One quick thing you can do is apply to be in a gaming network. They often have higher rates because advertisers specifically go to them to advertise their game. Also they often offer more types of advertisements such as interstitials (such as covering up the whole page for a few seconds, and thus having a higher rate.) I did a quick search and found one. I am sure there are more: http://www.intergi.com/
Your content is wow, your theme colors and ad placement are screwed up. Let me know if you are willing to pay to increase your earnings. I will either do a one time fee or an ongoing percentage of monthly revenue for revenue optimization.
There are huge visitors coming to your website as you mentioned above. So it will more profitable if you keep gaming related ads of other websites.
So based on everyone's feed back, I've moved the Adsense 300x250 unit in the sidebar to the top. I've also added an text ad in 4 of the main posts on the site now (formatted to match the color theme of the site. appears somewhere halfway into each article). Also applied for Amazonn Affiliate program and waiting to be approved. Let's see how it turns out after a day! Thanks so much for all the feedback
I would say to do exactly this... ^^^^ Put one in your header and one below your navigation and see how those work... In other words, put them above the fold! Holla!
Jimmy, try reaching out to the popular gaming brands such as razr or alienware...often times they will contract you for being a sponsor of their brand. I've seen this work in syngery with people who partner with the pro streamers as well. Let me know if you have any more questions!