How to generate profit from my site? Need to do something at this stage

Hey,
I own www.AllDotNet.com which has quite a lot of submissions (Over 13000 now I think) but I am starting to give up on it.

I just converted it to a new script, got a lot of problems fixed with the new script and changed to a VERY simplistic design, which I am very happy with.

My problem is that I am not generating revenue from my site at all, nothing worth me giving any time to it anyway...


So....what are my choices?
Improve adsense placement?
Charge for links?
Try harder to sell advertising space myself?
Sell it off?

I think charging for links could work well but I hadn't thought about doing this before.
If I charged for links I think I could make enough to start working on it again and keep it up to date with submissions and constantly improving the site itself.

I have no motivation at all to work on the site so I'm unsure what to do with it.

What's your suggestion?

I would love to hear from anyone that changed from free submission to paid, was it a good move?
Are you glad you did it?
Do you spend more time on your directory to improve it now?
Did it take long to start getting paid submissions?
Did your traffic and links drop a lot?

Any help would be great

Thanks

 

Hi there

Well for starters offer both free and paid....offer a USP for paid listings,,,

next check your adsense earnings...test test test.... I could make a fortune with your site.

I see some other ideas as well

Peace

 

How would you do it?

What is a USP?

Thanks

 

Hi there


USP = unique selling proposition.

Add in the paid placement feature.

Well I would place the adsense ads at the bottom of your pages under the results as opposed to on top.

Then I would figure out how to pass PR to the sub child pages on your site.

I would then start marketing the site hard on blogs forums classified ads newsgroups etc.

And then I would get rid of half of the adsense ads and find affiliate programs related to the category.

Would then look at making it into a pay per click engine.

Then you could do top sponsor ads

and

market to the 13k you have via email

Hope that helps

 

Not sure what you mean by USP still..do you mean unique selling point?

Is there any way to pass the PR by improving anything?

The new design is at www.alldotnet.com/new - You can see I have it a lot more simplistic now and east to work your way around.

A PPC engine sounds good, something I will have a think about later but I think it would take a while to implement that.

 

Yes

Is there any way to pass the PR by improving anything?

Interpage linking

Nice design well better than what was there

Might want to try a header footer 3 column template as there is more advertising space available that way

PPC Engine script could probably be found on hotscripts.com

You could also add the ad network here at DP which I hear does well

Lastly

Powered by h ttp://w ww.phplinkdirectory.com/"]PHP Link Directory[/URL], Template by [/URL]

Google is not too thrilled seeing the word 'link' on a page ...try resource.

Peace

 

Change the colour of the adsense ads - the green is a bit yuk! Try to "blend" in the ads using colors and layout.

J

 

If you aren't motivated, and don't like it anymore, sell it and buy something that does interest you.

 

I don't think anyone can be motivated with a site that takes most of the day and doesn't pay hehe

I am working on it right now so hopefully I can generate some revenue, if I can, I will be more than happy to keep it.

 

You might want to add Regional or International category for people interested outside the USA. When I look for directories I also look to see if the directory has a Regional Category as I find I will get more visitors to my website from directories with Regional Categories. People otherwise think all of the websites listed are American.

 

I have changed the site to a new script - www.AllDotNet.com

My adsense earnings have been down since I moved, most likely because the placement isn't good.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks

 

Check your site with Opera. It makes mess for me on that site.

 

JohnD Said

Hey John if it generates revenue and you aren't happy to keep it let me know

 

On all the pages at this level

http://www.alldotnet.com/Arts_and_Humanities/


at the very bottom I would put the largest rectangle....knowns as "whats next land' people need something to do once they reach the end.

 

You have 12,000 pages indexed in google. Add the coop to your site and rent the space after you see how much weight you will have. I bet you could get like $150 a month from that.

Add a choice for paid submission, and you would get a few extra bucks a month.

Those two make the most sense to me. In my experience, adsense on directorys isn't very profitable unless you have a lot of visitors and the ads are well optimized.

 

If your main goal is earning income from the site. I would personally get rid of the thumbshots of the sites, it is distracting from the ad's (also likely slows down page loads, etc... since they are external images.)

Also, why not mod rewrite more with the "full site details" links for each submission, creating a "real" page for each item, and put ads on those pages as well.

 

Something that puts me of when i visit your site, when i visited your site (and i use FF) i noticed a horizontal scroll bar and the site is ofset to the right.

I know this isn't a review request but i just thought it might interest you since this would probably scare people away from your site and doesn't portrait the kind of professionalism you surely intended for the site.

A cross browser check would be a good option to see if everything looks good towards your visitors so you have the look and feel your site deserves and to give it the tone your site needs to generate some revenue of paid listings.

Just my 2 cents

 

andriusk can you post a screenshot of that please?

Thanks for that tip Sem-Advance, I will be adding that

mattevers, thanks for your suggestion. I have added the paid option after upgrading to a new script.
I have no idea about the coop, never seen it mentioned anywhere apart from DP, can someone enlighten me

Thanks alph, I didnt notice they weren't static pages until you said.

Thanks Edz, I actually paid someone to fix that problem and twice now I have forgot to download the file they edited to my local machine to work with it and accidently replaced it..stupid mistake, can't believe I did it twice!

Thanks a lot everyone, this is a great help

 

It looks like you solved the problem, because now it shows ok.
But you can get Opera for free, so it would be worth to have it.

 

Could anyone tell me how I would change the adsense code so I can have the adsense links exactly like this:

http://tomdirectory.com/Art/Photography/

That's exactly the type of thing I am looking for, I have removed the thumbnails, a lot were blank so it was no use.

Thanks