So most sites have a pretty similar business model. It's one of a couple things... CONTENT = TRAFFIC + ADS = REVENUE TRAFFIC + CONTENT + SUBSCRIPTION = REVENUE TRAFFIC + STORE = REVENUE Now for the first model, which is what many people are working on, you're trying to get as many people to your site as possible. The more traffic, the better the Alexa love. The more backlinks. The higher PR. All these things lead to a profitable site. Except, my site, Adholes.com is a social network for people who work in advertising. We have 6,000 members, who represent mostly top-100 global ad agencies. These are high quality people who spend a lot of money on things like $300/hr retouchers, $10,000 a day photographers, and $100,000/day directors. Most of these "rules" and "tactics" that I see on webmaster boards do not apply to my site. First of all, I do NOT WANT THE SITE MASS MARKETED. This flies in the face of just about every model because if I just market to ANYONE, then the really good, quality people who make the site amazing will leave, and I'll have a schlocky audience. Second of all, these CPMs that people get from Adsense and their ilk are ridiculous. Our competing sites are listing their ads at a $50 CMP. But there are no sites that have an ad selling model that's based on having a niche, targeted, quality audience. Instead, every ad network is the same: They claim to only let in quality sites but darn it, they'll turn a blind eye to someone getting a million page views a month. Don't get me wrong, my site does have a decent amount of traffic. It's just generated by a relatively small number of users because people in my industry do seem to be addicted to it. Which leads me to puzzle number three: How do you make money on an advertising site full of advertising people who are too smart to click the ads? I'm embarassed to talk about my click through rates. Affiliate ads are not even remotely an option. If I had a .5% click through I'd probably be doing really well right now. So geniuses, how would you make money with this site?
High Alexa rankings and Google PR (while nice to see) don't necessarily have anything to do to making a profitable site. You're mistakenly thinking that you're in a pretty unique situation. There are a LOT of sites like this, who want very exclusive targets joining the service. Heck, just look at every professional organization out there, offering unqiue services just to their members. In marketing, nearly everything has been done, no matter how unique you think it is. You just need to find them, and look at them a bit more deeply as good examples of what you can do. There's a really simple answer. As an advertiser, you should understand that advertising isn't always the best option. In your case, with users who are too smart to click general ads, you need to get creative. I'd suggest you drop ad networks altogether if you're trying to have an exclusive, professional group targeted... while it works on general sites, it can make a site like that look "cheap." Some suggestions that might work: 1. Charge a membership fee, and have different levels (the best benefits and resources are available only to the highest paying levels). The lowest doesn't have to be expensive, and can even be a discounted version to get advertising students interested, and charge them more for yearly renewals when they graduate (again, something prof. orgs do successfully). If you're not offering value-added services to members already, then I'd suggest you get on that asap. It's probably going to turn off some current users, but you could always add some new features, give them say 3 months free access so they can preview all of the new things you're adding to see that it'll be worth a yearly membership for that, and the networking opportunities. But you did say they don't mind spending money. If you're right about that, and have your market nailed, then that shouldn't be a big problem for you. If you're wrong... well, then they might jump ship. 2. As a service on the site, offer an advertiser database. Have extremely basic free listings, and charge for more detailed information to be included. If your group really doesn't mind spending money, they'll have an interest in paying a little bit to get closer to the top of the list. You could even have fees for monthly featured firms or professionals or something. 3. Run a contest where there's a small entry fee. Pit advertisers against each other to compete. For example, you could create an imaginary company, give them some details, and have the contest be for the best slogan they can come up with. Have like a $5-10 entry fee, and let people vote. If you charge significantly enough for a professional membership, you could offer a free one-year membership as a prize for most contests, b/c it automatically has value. Or come up with other prizes. 4. Forget ad networks and sell your own ad space. If you don't want to do it yourself, hire someone to handle ad sales for a commission or something. You'll get higher quality ads that way, and if you have unique and interesting ads, obviously those in the ad industry are going to be at least a bit interested when they see them. Also jump on newer ad mediums like video ads. Good luck with it. Jenn
Jenn - you're 100% right. I think I've known this for a long time but was trying to take the easy way out by putting up some banners and hoping the money would roll in. I realize there are other businesses in my situation, but I was more talking about your typical web business as you'd see on most of these types of boards. Most are using the model that I described, which I admit is not the least bit effective for what I'm doing. As I wrote that I had been in the midst of writing a whole new biz plan for 2007 that covered some of the membership/event-oriented ideas you have. I think that in the beginning, we just didn't have enough people but now we've reached a critical mass where it is possible but i was just stuck in my old way of thinking. Of course, balancing this and my very demanding job is also hard. But somehow I will perservere. I really totally appreciate the time you took to give me such solid advice. Thanks so much. Marc