I started an internet radio station a couple of months back for bikers and rock music fans. Within 2 months we are already seeing 1500 unique visitors a month. I have just had to change the name of the station though due to a problem so all the backlinks are with the old domain (have it forwarding at the moment). This is my first post after spending over 8 hours last night and today, reading through this amazing forum for ideas and tips. What can I do to make the site more profitable without using all the ugly google ads? I have already set up a myspace 4 days ago and have nearly 1,000 added that are genuine music fans and motorcycle riders which is a great start. Ive also set up twitter, bebo, facebook, bikerbook and a few other social network sites and started promoting them. On top of that, I have a toolbar with the music player built in and has a chatroom for listeners too. On the website there are free competitions to win motorcycle related prizes, a daily fun quiz, forums and more. We have a free links section with google ads running down the side but in 3 months as only earned $3. Without any kind of budget available, I want to just make enough money to cover the costs of the monthly shoutcast, hosting, domain names etc. Does anyone have any good suggestions? I am in the UK but the station has regular listeners from Germany, Spain, USA, Canada and New Zealand so its definately a worldwide site. Your construtive views would be much appreciated. Jason.
I think you can have a ads at your radio. You can charge the local advertiser a small fee so that they can have their ads aired at your radio.
Thanks for your comment. We are trying to leave the airwaves totally free of advertising. Just want to maximise the website. We have thought about show sponsorship though. Might look further into that at some point.