New to Adsense and I would welcome the feedback of some pros

Hi

I am the Founder of an hiphop project that offers there users a platform to battle via audio files as rapper and/or beatboxer (HipHop-Battles.com).

I run the site for 2 years now always without showing any advertising because normaly I hate ads.

But some changes in my personal life made it neccessary to rethink this policy of mine and I signed up for adsense.

Since then I read alot about good ad placings, playing around with colors etc but I am still not quite satisfied with my resaults.

Some stats about my page:

Uniques/Month: 37-41k
Hits/Month: 3-4Million

But my earnings are only around 150$/Month.

I think the main problem is that my site is not containing much text content.
The most text you can find on my site is my FAQ, the Battles itself (Lyrics are required for each battle) and my forum.

That is why I hope that someone from here can give me some pointers/hints where I could improve my ads.

Improving the site is in developement.
We are going to make a relaunch hopefully till the end of this year with a completly new code, a better design (much better actualy ) and we are going to be part of a network with a site that has the same concept as mp3.com.

Any help is very much appreciated

 

Well I will say the amount of traffic and number of years you've owned the site is impressive, as well as the design. You should definitely be making more than $150 per month in adsense.

Here is what I would do if I were you. You have aleady generated tons of traffic, but it appears you need more content. Why not interview local rappers or hip hop guys online and post it on your site? It is not necessary to meet them in person. You could set up a Instant Message with someone online and then take that interview and paste it into your site. That is easy content.

Another thing you may want to do is post some articles on your site about the history of hip hop. Where did it start? who started it and how has it evolved to the musical genre today? The topic alone should put a ton of articles on your site.

The more content you have, the more targetted your adsens ads will be. Also have you considered selling text link ads on your space? You may not like them, but you could professionally present and their is a lucrative market for them online.

Last, have you considered starting a service on your site that helps hip hop musicians get started? Think about it. Their are so many people out their with musical skills that don't have the technical know how to produce their own site.

They send their tapes/cds to the record companies, and never get a response. Why don't you start your own online record company? Help independent rappers advertise their albums and make money in the the process.

Because your website costs less to maintain than the many massive record companies, if you created your own record label online you could undercut the record companies in cost per song. Why charge 99 cents a song when your could sell them for 35 cents?

I'll end this paragraph with something for you to think about. My brother listens to rap music, and I asked him a profound question last week. I said "if you were surfing online, and you found a website about a independent rapper who wasn't mainstream like 50 cent or Jay Z, but who had built his own website and had good music, and sold his cds for only 4 bucks would you buy it if you liked his music?"

My brothers answer was yes. There you go. Get a 100,000 people to say yes and you just made yourself 400 grand.
I can tell you their is an unlimited amount of potential for that website. Just keep working at it. You will do well.

 

Thanks for these tips.
The interview thing is a good Idea and will propably find its way into our new version (*notetoself make a new post in mantis*)

I also thought about introducing wiki into the site but that is just a thought I have to play with a little more.

Your last point is already in developement.

HipHop-Battles will become part of a network with a site that works something like mp3.com.
HipHop, RnB, Reggea and Electronic Artists can a page there for free posting infos about themselfs and most important upload as much of there work as they like for free.

Besides that we will have a highly improved new design and I already have some very cool ideas for preventing ad blindness.

But still there is always room for improvements.

Thanks for these tips.

Any one else has some insights?