Monetizing 1.8 million monthly impressions

The Quizzes and Puzzles section of The Answerbank received roughly 1.8 million page views from around 1 million unique page views (from google analytics - not sure excatly what the second figure tells me - unique users or not?) in October.

The Google Adsense on the pages makes roughly $0.30 eCPM and the banners and skies run at about $1 CPM but I would like to think we can make more out of this section.

Has anybody got any good ideas as to new and different ways to monetize this traffic?

Many thanks in advance

 

First of all, congratulations! A lot of us here would kill to have that kind of traffic.

$0.30 eCPM is pretty poor, but I'd imagine that the kind of traffic your site receives would be hard to monetize, and trying to get them clicking would be even more difficult. One thing you could do is place a square ad unit in between the question input fields and the box with the list of questions. You'll more than likely see an increased number of clicks, but only experimenting will tell. You should also be very careful with your ad placement as any changes to the current ad positions usually don't go down well with returning visitors, particular on sites as popular as yours.

All the best,
Liam

 

You need to be careful not to drive people away, but maybe investigate Commission Junction or Clickbank for some affiliate products you could promote to those visitors as well. You will do better by finding products that relate to the site rather then choosing them at random.

 

Thanks for the comments guys, I had thought about other ad placements but I know the users would just hate that....they moan a LOT everytime anything is changed.

As for affiliate programs, I have found some competition and quiz affiliates that pay between £0.50 and £1 a registration and might try replacing the Adsense for some custom made text links (i dont want to use the skies they provide simply because the other banners and skies get really poor CTR).

I would love to hear some more ideas if anyone has them.

Cheer

 

First tell us, in detail, how you got that many visitors, and how long it took.

 

Lol, well The Answerbank has been around a long time. It arrived on the scene way before Yahoo Answers did but I guess because it only targets UK audiences it was never going to reach the heights of an international Q&A forum with the backing of one of the biggest online presences

The user base is very loyal and grows considerably every day simply because it is a useful place to come and get answers to your questions - it satisfies the fundamental human drive for knowledge.

 

You may want to check out Vizu. They're a research company that places Q&A widgets (Polls) on your website or blog. They have a nice CPM rate and since your niche is in the same category it would probably get more positive attention than other forms of advertising.

 

1.8 million page views! I would do anything (almost...) to have that kind of traffic!

 

With all sites, you have to test out different pay per click and affilite programs. I recommend just joining and trying each one out until you find one which makes the most money for you. This is time comsuming, but it will make you probably 3x more cash.

Rob

 

i have a similar problem, have 9 million pageviews on craftytv and am not making any cash from it

 

That's not in detail!

Have you tried calling up the major advertisers to pitch your space to them?

Find out the advertising rates of other sites. Then contact the major advertisers on their sites. They are always looking for more avenues to advertise their products, and if you can give them a "special deal" that undercuts the sites they are now advertising on...

Say, for example, you sell a spot for $200 a month, or whatever. Look at all the pages and spots you can put these advertises in. I saw three spots just on your homepage alone, and it wouldn't be overpowering to your visitors, either.

 

thanks for all the ideas, I will definitely be looking into some of them in more detail.

 

I agree with Perry Rose, if you've got that much traffic it should be worth speaking directly to the ad agencies. Find out who is advertising on your competitors websites and which agencies are dealing with them. There's a ton of UK ones like Zed Media, Starcom, i-level, JustMedia, Green Cathedral, Walker Media, BJKE to get you started

 

We deal with all of those media agencies and more and have sold CPM banners and skyscrapers on the site.

Google Adsense works well on some of the other categories but on Quizzes and Puzzles it is poor so we have this placement sitting there making poor returns. We don't really want to put a second sky on the page though.