Hi, I built a social networking site a few years ago just for fun aimed at people who live on a small island ( where i also live ). Its now got nearly 8000 members and my adsense ads get about 125,000 page impressions a month. I only get about $10 a month from this and the CTR is very low at only 0.02%. I think my main problem is that the sites vistors are mainly regular people who come back daily and I dont get much traffic from google etc. Should I give up on adsense ? Would I be better trying some kind of CPM ? Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks. Scott.
You built it and expected people to come. So now they came and you don't know how to monetize it. Stop what you are doing and figure out what people are doing on your site. What are they looking at. When you figure out what the people on your site do, where they come from, where they go, then you can begin to understand what they want. When you know that then you can figure out what kind of offers will work. Marketing is about figuring out what people want then giving it to them.
Hi, They mainly chat to each other through pm's, look at each others profiles, chat on the chatroom and forums.
Social Bookmarking sites won't perform good with Adsense. Monetize your site and pull the traffic then try advertisements or affiliate programs. Just my .02 cents.
thanks for your replies. I dont know what to do, surely I can make a small amount from the site somehow lol. Guess i need to keep trying.
Normally social networking sites dont perform well on adsense your better of using adbrite with impression ads! Hope this helps.
You could promote new threads via SheToldMe or Xomba (other sites that allow links are also available. You'd earn extra AdSense from the posts on those sites and more unique traffic. How many threads does it have? I reckon 2,000 threads promoted will earn about $200 - $400 dollars a month. Then there's affiliate schemes but just chose a couple relevant to your topics and what you think your readers might be interested in. Then of course there are direct sales - actually calling companies with money to spend on advertising - make them an offer they can't refuse - see what they spend in the press and halve it. You might get something from the WTB (want to buy) threads re backlinks and signatures...
Interesting site and good market, never heard of Isle of Wight haha. Not sure if the ads on your site are paid for, but try asking local businesses if they want to pay for advertising!
Try affiliates, try message sending and also ads selling is good idea, because not all of the advertisers are searching for clicks. Many of them are just presenting some goods, products, and so on. This will bring you high income in all cases - you can can get about 100 USD for monthly banner, and you can sell even more. Try something like Adengage.com
thanks everyone for some interesting ideas. Il have a look at all the sites youve given me links for. Its most appreciated