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How can I monetize single purpose web apps / toys with huge amounts of traffic?

by damkar
6 replies
I have a knack for creating highly viral and useful web applications / fun browser toys that generate tons of traffic (each one can total 5-10 million hits the first month it is released, then the traffic tapers, but even 2-3 years later, without any maintenance they can attract 20-30k users daily). I am mainly a programmer and artist; I have never delved into making money online and never used advertising in any of my websites. Now I'm in a position in life where monetizing my online work as a side (and if possible main) income would serve me well. But I have no idea where to start!

I don't want to reveal my identity, so I'm giving similar sites as examples (these are not my sites, they belong to different people):

weavesilk.com (has ~1 million visitors a month)
rainymood.com (~3.5 million visits a month)
webcamtoy.com (~15 million visits a month)

Now the nature of my online toys / apps attract many different types of people. There are no niches. They like this stuff like everyone likes music. It is stuff basically most humans find interesting and engaging. So it is very hard for me to go with targeted ads.

I have a pile of work waiting to be released and basically I'm looking for the best ad solution that would generate me some sort of income.

Assume you had a such site with around 1 million visitors a month. How would you monetize such a site with ads? Would your strategy change if it was 5 million visitors a month?

I have looked at Google Adsense but I have no idea how you could get such a single purpose site approved with them. I don't have an adsense account (I tried applying for my low traffic yet specialized blog with ~10 articles and got denied) and according to everything I read, I doubt they would approve a site without textual content (a multimedia web application). Yet I'm looking at webcamtoy.com and it has Google ads... How is it possible? How would I go about getting such a site approved?

If I got approval for one of my sites for Adsense, could I use my adsense account in my other web applications (provided they don't break adsense TOS)?

Or do you think maybe Adsense is not the way to go with this? Are there advertising networks that would provide banner ads that would pay a fixed sum for every thousand impressions?

One last question: How would I go about placing ads on my apps BEFORE the stuff goes viral? Suppose I bought a new domain for an app, it has zero traffic but I'm about to intruduce it to the world and it will get tons of traffic. If I don't have ads running at that time, I'd be missing a huge wave when it goes viral.

I'm also curious about the potential income from such an endeavor. From the above sites, webcamtoy.com has around 15 million hits a month, and has a single adsense banner on splash page. If I had this site, how much potential income would I be looking at?

Also look at rainymood.com, it has a few "ad choices" links from again google adsense. From what I read, those ads don't pay unless you click one of them, and it gives you a list of choices from which you have to click another thing to get paid. rainymood is a hugely popular site, but really, how much money could they be making from those ads to make it worthwhile to bother users with ads? Can some experienced people here attempt to give me ballpark numbers?

I'm such a noob at this so I'm all ears listening to your suggestions. Thanks a lot in advance!

TL;DR: How would you monetize an interactive multimedia toy / app site with huge amounts of traffic?
#apps #monetize #purpose #single #toys #web #web app
  • Profile picture of the author 10kaday
    yes, you can if you promote it right
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  • Profile picture of the author damkar
    NutraCash, thanks for the offer. I'm looking for sustainable ways of going through with this. I'm trying to see what the landscape is like.

    10kaday, what does it mean? I have no problem with traffic or promotion. My sites are on the frontpage of reddit pretty often, organically.

    There are a lot of people here that seem pretty experienced with this stuff. Am I asking the wrong questions?
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  • Profile picture of the author bdenzer
    If you use adsense, you can put ads on any domain you want once you have a site approved. Of course wherever you put the ads must comply with the TOS. I would say that if you have no real niche your earnings could be as low as $1 for every 1000 page impressions, don't quote me on that. There are also Amazon ads, where you can have a generic "Try Amazon.com" ad, and you get a percentage if the user buys something (they also have more targeted ads). From my experience, the serious redditors usually use adblock so if that is your #1 traffic source you might not get what you're hoping to. My site made it to the 2nd page of reddit and if I remember right, almost 70% of the users had ad block.
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  • Profile picture of the author damkar
    Thanks a lot, bdenzer. I know well that redditors use adblock. It is not my main source of traffic, but usually where it goes viral. Then I see it resonating over twitter, facebook, stumbleupon, forums and more.

    I'd be more than happy with $1 for 1000 impressions. This is completely untargeted after all. My trick will be the viral traffic I get. A million curious visitors per site netting me ~$1000 a month completely passively (once it is set) sounds good to me.

    The Google Adsense thing is weird (I'm sure you're all used to it). I mean if I can use ads in a site that doesn't break the TOS, why can't I be approved for one to begin with? When I try with such a site, the robot (I assume) looking at my site complains about lack of original content, navigation and such. But if I got approved for an account (from another site of mine), I could use it in that very site I was rejected for? It seems weird, but maybe because I can't see the intricacies of the deal.

    Are there any ad networks which I can use by sticking their code to my site whenever I want and be served ads immediately? I looked at buysellads, and saw many sites waiting bids by advertisers. I assume their ad spots would be empty until someone bought ads from that site specifically unless the publishers are rotating ads from other providers. Am I correct?

    What other ad networks would you recommend to me? I looked at Chitika, and it seems like they fit the bill; after signing up they gave me the code to use on my site. Would you recommend them?

    Basically some of my projects will go live with a fresh domain and they will go viral with millions of visitors clicking on it for a few days (I've done this a few times so I know how this will play out), then the traffic will taper down then stabilise. I want to monetize the big wave that occurs in the beginning. I can't prove any ad provider that my site will get a huge number of organic and legitimate hits (before launch). I just know that it will happen. The site will have no traffic history otherwise. What would be the most efficient way of monetising ad space in such a plan?
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    • Profile picture of the author phillipsbaines
      You have a proven track record of creating viral sites. The problem you have is that the traffic is unpredictable and it tapers off..

      One idea which you can try is to 'Product Placements'. James Bond drinks Heineken beer in Skyfall. That is Product Placement.

      You could build your next viral product around some brand and that company will pay you for that.

      It can be much more lucrative than Adsense. Of course you will have to talk to companies before hand and need good contacts with marketers but it is a good option.

      I tried this idea recently for a friend's app and it worked.

      Best of luck
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    • Profile picture of the author bdenzer
      Originally Posted by damkar View Post

      Thanks a lot, bdenzer. I know well that redditors use adblock. It is not my main source of traffic, but usually where it goes viral. Then I see it resonating over twitter, facebook, stumbleupon, forums and more.

      I'd be more than happy with $1 for 1000 impressions. This is completely untargeted after all. My trick will be the viral traffic I get. A million curious visitors per site netting me ~$1000 a month completely passively (once it is set) sounds good to me.

      The Google Adsense thing is weird (I'm sure you're all used to it). I mean if I can use ads in a site that doesn't break the TOS, why can't I be approved for one to begin with? When I try with such a site, the robot (I assume) looking at my site complains about lack of original content, navigation and such. But if I got approved for an account (from another site of mine), I could use it in that very site I was rejected for? It seems weird, but maybe because I can't see the intricacies of the deal.

      Are there any ad networks which I can use by sticking their code to my site whenever I want and be served ads immediately? I looked at buysellads, and saw many sites waiting bids by advertisers. I assume their ad spots would be empty until someone bought ads from that site specifically unless the publishers are rotating ads from other providers. Am I correct?

      What other ad networks would you recommend to me? I looked at Chitika, and it seems like they fit the bill; after signing up they gave me the code to use on my site. Would you recommend them?

      Basically some of my projects will go live with a fresh domain and they will go viral with millions of visitors clicking on it for a few days (I've done this a few times so I know how this will play out), then the traffic will taper down then stabilise. I want to monetize the big wave that occurs in the beginning. I can't prove any ad provider that my site will get a huge number of organic and legitimate hits (before launch). I just know that it will happen. The site will have no traffic history otherwise. What would be the most efficient way of monetising ad space in such a plan?
      I wish some more of the real experts would chime in here, but I guess you get me : )My experience with Chitika is that their ads are horribly ugly, maybe they've changed. I guess my first idea would be to make your site a "blog" - have your app/game on a page, and write a couple hundred words about the game / how you got the idea / what obstacles you came across... Nobody will probably read it, but then you have a blog. If you do this, you should be able to use any ad network. I think buy sell ads needs something like 50k page views a day, but sounds like that wouldn't beuch of a problem with you even in your slow times if you still control all of your apps. When people don't sell their ad space w/ buy sell ads they just put an adsense ad or something else in that place temporarily.

      Whatever you chose, make sure you follow the rules perfectly. You can find plenty of stories of people just not getting paid.. Most of these people are idiots, but not all.
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