I run a music site, topacousticsongs.com - I get roughly 30k visitors a month and adsense just isn't adding up. I love the subject, and didn't start the site to make money, but the time I'm having to put in now is not justified without some dough to come from it. I know there are many ways to monotize, but wanted to know what you all think would be the most tactful/profitable for THIS site. Thanks.
Here is a list of things you can do to monazite your site: charge subscription fees for premium privileges, have tip jar and create a "donate" button, create synthetic currency or badges and sell them, add in some zip submits from affiliate ad networks on your site. Here is a big one for your site, create a sign in page and collect emails and do direct marketing to your members by selling products related to your site. here are two killer books on the subject. The Social Network Business Plan and Social Networking Business In A Week. Good Luck! Socialii
Google provides a "heat map" for publishers. I cannot post a link yet because I'm new, but if you search Google Heat Map, it will be the first link indexed. Google writes: "This "heat map" illustrates the ideal placing on a sample page layout." It would be a good place to start.
It's not the site, but probably the niche you picked. Music in general is not easy to make a buck from unless you're doing something that makes others money. This is true with a lot of things, but especially the music industry since it's every man for them self to make a buck.
Have you considered signing up for an iTunes affiliate account at Linkshare? You need a website to join. The way I got accepted with Linkshare was to add my Associated Content profile link as my website. It gives the impression you're going to review the product and not spam it. Wait about 3 days to a week for approval. Whatever website you choose to add in the application, make sure it's reputable and getting good traffic. So start with your own site first. If that doesn't work, try again with Hubpages, Squidoo or something similar. iTunes movie and song banners come in all types of sizes: 125 x 125, 300 x 250, etc. Even though your site is primarily about acoustic lyrics, you can always add an iTunes music banner to your website because the content is related. But you never know. You might actually find an iTunes banner for a popular acoustic band. And you know what happens when people get into iTunes. They start digging around and looking for other iTunes songs. The only caveat is that for every iTunes purchase, you get only 6% commission. However, considering the fact you get 31,000 visitors a month, I'd be very surprised if you didn't make any money. Plus, what about band posters from Allposters.com? You get 20% commission for those. Put All Posters, iTunes and Adsense all on your site. Don't clutter up your site. Make sure the ads look seamless. Do you have a band T-shirt? Create one on CafePress.com or Zazzle.com and sell it on your site. Again, don't clutter up your site with ads, but you have many monetization options available to you. You just have to scope them out.
I would start by brainstorming a list of products/services you think people who follow your site would be likely to want/need. Google will pick what it thinks people want/need based on your content, but in your case I think you know your reader's interests better th/an Google does. Also, are you collecting e-mail addresses or Twitter followers? Having a list of people who follow you regularly, who have opted into receiving regular communications from you, opens up your monetization options significantly. Hope that helps
Your site is awesome, no wonder why you get that much traffic. I would add a weekly / every two weeks newsletter, and get people to sign up for it. This way you'll have more control of your tribe. Sign up for a music related affiliate program (you can find many just by searching google). I believe that promoting various music related offers as an affiliate will be the best way to monetize your site (you can do this as an amazon affiliate and write reviews about books about music or cds or whatever as long as it's related to your website). - Jens
the newsletter thing is probably your best chance. Most people searching for music online aren't really looking to click on your advertisements or make any immediate purchases on something related to music. If you create a e-mail list with your viewers you will have the opportunity to build a long lasting relationship to them, and you can market to your subscribers whenever you want. Give them motivation to sign up to your newsletter, you could offer something like "Free guitar tips" to increase your chances of gaining subscribers. Then find an affiliate product related to your niche, and market that product using your e-mail list.
one way to add a forum and boost the interactive between members and between you... when the fourm grows, you can provide some paid premuim serivce to members... by this way, you can easily hook them up and make them come back again and again