Help me monetize my website

Discussion in 'General Business' started by emz, Jul 18, 2006.

  1. #1
    Hey there,

    One of my websites has somewhat exploded with traffic recently and I'm sure the money thats coming in could be substantially greater with a little help. The site is the average "community" myspace type website where users register, create a profile and then chat away with other locals. I've coded and designed everything myself from scratch which has taken me about 10 months.

    Currently we are serving Adsense ads as well as Casale Media's CPM network. The user-base is about 90% Canadian (the niche is Toronto clubbing/partying.) The problem I've been having with Casale is that the fill % is extremely low since it is serving to Canadians (The fill % sits anywhere from 5-10% on average.) On an average day I'll make about $6 from Casale Ads.

    Adsense has seemed to be much better but I still ask myself am I even close to my revenue potential? I'm earning on average $20 a day with Adsense with anywhere from 75-150 clicks per day.

    Here are the stats for the site in the past couple days, I've copied these from my Analytics account.

    #--------------------------------------------------------
    # Visits and Pageviews
    #--------------------------------------------------------
    Date Range Visits Pageviews
    Tue 7/11 9442 228716
    Wed 7/12 10377 314071
    Thu 7/13 10548 310852
    Fri 7/14 10143 288747
    Sat 7/15 9488 251692
    Sun 7/16 9791 257336
    Mon 7/17 11598 316976

    As you can see each user visits about 25-30 pages when they visit. This is why I think a CPM type system would make big bucks, but I'd need its fill % to be much higher than Casale Media.

    The URL of the website is www[dot]vibe[dot]to

    I've attached some screenshots so you don't have to wander around too much to get a feel for the site.

    Home Page
    http://www.kingofdeadlift.com/up/homepage.jpg

    Forums
    http://www.kingofdeadlift.com/up/forum.jpg
    http://www.kingofdeadlift.com/up/forum2.jpg

    Profiles
    http://www.kingofdeadlift.com/up/profile.jpg
    http://www.kingofdeadlift.com/up/profile2.jpg
    http://www.kingofdeadlift.com/up/profile3.jpg

    I just want to know if ~ $30 a day is about right for a site with this amount of traffic. I personally think I could be doing much better with a little work/new adserving.

    Cheers
     
    emz, Jul 18, 2006 IP
  2. irideflatland

    irideflatland Banned

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    #2
    Isn't the average like $1 per 1000 visitors or something? So you should be making $300 a day if that's true...
     
    irideflatland, Jul 18, 2006 IP
  3. emz

    emz Peon

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    #3
    I'd definately be much more satisfied with $300 a day :)
     
    emz, Jul 19, 2006 IP
  4. SmartMoney

    SmartMoney Peon

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    #4
    First thing...take the red border off of the AdSense boxes in the middle of the forum....almost a guaranteed double in click rate for that...makes sense if you think about the literal meaning of "border".

    First try that change and watch your CTR for a week. Then try making the link color red for a week and see if the CTR goes up.

    The AdSense on the top of the pages is the same...no border will improve CTR, but the placement is almost invisible.

    I'd put an horizontal AdLinks block with white lettering and black background right below the login boxes and spanning the entire content width.

    In the box called "The Vibe" you could try a 125 square with black links and background of light grey or what ever that color is.

    Go and sell ads directly to TO club owners...get them to offer coupons or what ever special offers to your visitors. Don't limit yourself to thinking about online sources of Ads.

    Okay...that's it for now...where do I send the bill? ;)
     
    SmartMoney, Jul 20, 2006 IP
  5. hotcomputers

    hotcomputers Peon

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    #5
    if you have a lot of visitators try layer-ads
     
    hotcomputers, Jul 21, 2006 IP
  6. tomzx

    tomzx Peon

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    #6
    You might want to try using advertising services such as text-link-ads.com and Adbrite.
     
    tomzx, Jul 22, 2006 IP
  7. seantrades

    seantrades Peon

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    #7
    There are tons of programs out there to monetize your site. As a starter guide you can refer to:

    http://w3bsit3.com/blog/12/the-w3bsit3-monetization-guide/

    They've compiled a pretty good basic list.
     
    seantrades, Jul 22, 2006 IP
  8. ibnuasad

    ibnuasad Notable Member

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    #8
    ibnuasad, Jul 24, 2006 IP
  9. increseo

    increseo Peon

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    #9
    Get your own advertising solutions :D, e.g phpAdsNews
     
    increseo, Jul 26, 2006 IP