Only $50 A Day From 10K Uniques/Day Site, What Am I Doing Wrong?

I have a website (PSP3D.com) which has over 10K uniques a day, 3 million and some pageviews a month.

However, no matter how many/types of ads I stick on it, I can't go any higher than a stable $50 a day. But I hear from so many people that with 10K uniques a day, and over 5,200 members with 75 new members a day, I should be making more than $50 a day. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyways, what can I do to bump up my profits? What am I currently doing wrong? And more importantly, what do you think the sites income potential is, that I have yet to harness?

Edit: Whoops, I never knew I had two accounts on DP, one named xhardwarereviews, and my other one that I mainly use, extremehardware.

 

Yo man we already talked. I offer adsense consulting at a small price. Lemme raise your CTR to 5.0%++

I got one site right now recieving in a range of 66-100% CTR.. I can't say how I do it, or show you it, but I only get a couple visitors a day.

 

I mean, I'm mainly looking for someone who is offering free advice, or would like some short term free ad space in exchange for fixing the site up.

 

My first advice on this is: never trust a guy who says, "I can't say how I do it, or show you it."

Rather than pay per click- have you tried different affiliate programs that are related to the PSP? Video game sites, Amazon, eBay- all would be great possibilities. Remember- if you're creating click throughs- you have a solid user base- interested in purchasing online- turn them into buyers and get a % of that sale, rather than just the $0.22 click.

 

Have you tried adsense or YPN? The banner you have up there now is pretty stinking annoying - which is probably why the ctr is so low. I'm not a big fan of your placement either. The jiggling and flashing got me off of that site so quickly, I didn't have a chance to look for a better spot, but it seems to me that those locations are prime ad-blindness areas.

Potentially, you could try to rotate ad placement like I do at bkweddings.com - if you hit refresh a couple of times you'll see the ads switch from top banner to middle of the page placement. It's worked out fairly well for us. Maybe integrate the ads a little more into the text of your articles.

 

I have tried Adsense in ALL my current banner spots for 2 days, and it was outright terrible. Over a hundred clicks a day on some of the banners, yet only 0.1 ecpm, and an avergave click of 0.12 cents, making me like $20 for the day.

 

Why aren't you running adsense?

Your members are coming for the PSP hacking info mainly, right? They just go straight into the forums, and that's where they stay, correct?

If I'm right about that, then they have severe blinders on when it comes to your current banners... the banners are not only off-topic, but they are out of the visual focus of your users. It happens a lot in forums and esp, in forums where people are really intent on learning/contributing vs. forums where people are "killing time".

I agree with Nevets in that you need to break their concentration by rotating placement and/or you need the ads to be so well integrated that the user almost doesn't see them as ads.

Specifically, I would recommend you integrate adsense ads directly into the forum thread discussion. For high CTR, the ideal would be you place it within the post box, after the content in each of the first 2 posts in the thread. Make sure the ads "blend" with no visible border, etc.

I would NOT pay for any advice on this. I think if you hunt around on these forums for posts that you think make sense and then PM the individual and ask for a few minutes of someone's time to look at your placement and give their opinions, most active members would help and not charge a fee.

You'll want to experiement with a few different ideas because every site is different and so I don't think anyone can know the absolute best for your site. But, take different member suggestions, experiment, and you should see huge improvements.

 

Okay .. you posted while I was writing my reply

If adsense doesn't have advertisers paying anything decent for your content, then I would try ypn and try different categories until you find one that seems to maximize your daily take.

 

Hey I'm going to adsense consult xhardware, and he'll give me ad space for a certain time. Nitin your posts insightful, I agree Adsense is best way to go.

We'll see if I'll help, whats your guys prediction.. I'll raise CTR to 10, 20, 35%? hehe jk

 

I just wanna give prop's to Nitin M because this guy always knows what he's talking about. Pay attention to people that post info. like this because you really will learn something or another.

 

try changing your adsense link unit (site navigation section) to adsense button 125x125 or even better adsense skyscraper (120x600). dont forget to blend colors, ie set border and background colors on the ad for current background color.

 

Putting the link units in a box that says "Site Navigation", I am skeptical if that goes against TOS.

 

Heys
You guys if your looking at it today, are looking at it after I've done many mods.

And about Nitin, always trust guys in suits cause you know their successful!

 

The 18 year old at the local stereo shop wears a suit.

 

Well those text links in the navigation menu is a good way to be banned from adsense if nothing else.

 

Your forum users also seem to be complaining about the ads now, not a good thing..

 

Your competitors will turn you in FAST for the google ads being in a menu.

If you think you have no competitors, you are wrong.

 

Your site is OK but man it is really a overload on the senses. I can see why adsense did not work for you. I had a hard time just finding something I wanted to click on. I would focus more on CALL TO ACTION and not LET ME OVERLOAD YOUR EYES. I learn a few years ago that LESS is MORE when it comes to websites.

 

The whole adsense is not the reason, I put that there today so its gona work .. so yah.. lol

 

xhardwarereviews, i know u really want to improve your revenue but be careful before letting someone else make these kinds of changes. that looks like a breach of the TOS to me.