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How to monetize 500k monthly pageviews

by newsblogger2012
11 replies
Hi Warriors,

I've been a big fan of the forum for a long time and finally grew the courage to join into the conversation. Hoping someone with experience can provide some realistic expectations.

I run 3 websites that have the following combined stats:

1. 500k monthly pageviews from about 150k unique visitors
2. Visitors on average spend 4 minutes per session and visit about 3 pages
3. All traffic (like 95%) is US based (some random non-US traffic)
4. 70% traffic is mobile (vast majority is iOS)
5. Our niche attracts people with decent disposable income - not super wealthy but professionals and small business owners mostly between 25-45 years old and based in/around big cities.

I've never run any ads, but I need to figure out monetization because I am not sure how to keep this going without revenue.

The question:

Let's say I use adsense (as far as I know this is the easiest / fastest way to get started) what is a reasonable range for the revenue that I might generate via adsense ads per month with my traffic? $1k, 2k, $5k?

Many thanks in advance to all who read and especially to those who share some insight. Thanks!
#500k #ad networks #cpm #monetize #monthly #pageviews #rpm
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi newsblogger2012,

    There is a wide range of potential revenue which varies based on the specificity of your traffic sources and the current demand for those specific sources.

    If you try to lump them all together into a general category source then you will get very little revenue. If however, you can segment your traffic sources and provide content that is highly specific to a niche, or niches that have current high demand for ad space then you can make 50 to 100 times more for that same amount of traffic than you might of by just having it lumped into a broader category.

    Stop thinking of you traffic as a combined whole and start thinking of it in the smallest practical audience segments. Some may contain traffic that has high commercial intent, and some of that high commercial intent traffic may have high demand for ad space.

    Once you segment your content and analyse that data you may discover that 80% of your revenue is coming from only 20% of your traffic. Once you gain that insight from your data you can then respond by generating more of the type of content that attracts the highest revenue and spend less on content that is nearly worthless. Over time this should allow you to significantly increase revenue and will help to pay some bills.

    HTH,

    Don Burk
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    • Profile picture of the author newsblogger2012
      Thanks Don. I'll definitely think about how to better segment our audience. Really appreciate the thoughtful and detailed response!

      At the moment, I am just thinking of ads as a way to add some incremental revenue - so not sure we'd be ready to make such a big strategic shift in the subject matter of our content based on ad-revenue considerations. Totally get that this might be the wrong way to think about it, but I would like to at least get a sense of what kind of revenue we can generate without changing our audience / focus / content type / etc.

      I think perhaps your point isn't that we change our content necessarily - but rather that we think about who our audience is and then try to find advertisers who would benefit most from reaching them?

      I always thought this was the point of platforms like adsense which already have info about our audience - like websites they've visited, etc that allows them to automatically customize what ad it shows to a particular reader?

      Sorry if I misunderstood your point or if my questions seem elementary - I've tried to do a ton of research over the past few months and while I've read a lot on tactics to increase revenue, etc I haven't been able to figure out some of the more basic, cut-and-dry stuff like what the floor would be for a site with 500k pageviews if their audience is similar (in terms of commercial intent and various demographic characteristics) to the audience of something like business insider, huffington post, etc.

      Thanks again for the huge help. I was scared that I would post and no one would view / comment / etc - so thanks for making my first post a success!
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  • Profile picture of the author Albert Tan
    Hi newsblogger2012,

    Further to what dburk has commented, you may want to consider using email marketing to capture those visitors, say by putting opt-in forms in your website.

    This could be easily done by giving away some free lead magnets.

    Once they have opted into your list, you could start emailing them regularly and and monetizing them via email.

    Visitors to your website come and go and may never come back again unless they are loyal recurring visitors.

    Depending on your product/niche, you may promote your own product or some affiliate products in your email campaign.

    Hope this help.

    Albert
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  • Profile picture of the author newsblogger2012
    Thanks! Appreciate all the feeback.

    But is there answer to the question of what kind of adsense revenue is reasonable to expect with my current traffic and demographics.

    Is it reasonable to assume I could generate $1000/month from the 500k pageviews from US visitors if 70% of those pageviews are from mobile? Is $100/month a more reasonable expectation?

    Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author SSSJames
    Originally Posted by newsblogger2012 View Post

    Hi Warriors,

    I've been a big fan of the forum for a long time and finally grew the courage to join into the conversation. Hoping someone with experience can provide some realistic expectations.

    I run 3 websites that have the following combined stats:

    1. 500k monthly pageviews from about 150k unique visitors
    2. Visitors on average spend 4 minutes per session and visit about 3 pages
    3. All traffic (like 95%) is US based (some random non-US traffic)
    4. 70% traffic is mobile (vast majority is iOS)
    5. Our niche attracts people with decent disposable income - not super wealthy but professionals and small business owners mostly between 25-45 years old and based in/around big cities.

    I've never run any ads, but I need to figure out monetization because I am not sure how to keep this going without revenue.

    The question:

    Let's say I use adsense (as far as I know this is the easiest / fastest way to get started) what is a reasonable range for the revenue that I might generate via adsense ads per month with my traffic? $1k, 2k, $5k?

    Many thanks in advance to all who read and especially to those who share some insight. Thanks!
    Definitely hook yourself up with Adsense as well as Media.net banners. Put 3 of each on every page (spread them out liberally so it doesn't get annoying for readers). They're very easy to apply for and get accepted into. I'd also activate Adsense anchor ads for your large mobile traffic too.

    At 500k monthly views, you could probably monetize using Outbrain and Taboola as well (those Sponsored Posts from around the web widgets you see beneath all the big name sites).

    Impressive traffic - best of luck monetizing it!
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  • Profile picture of the author egoldzone
    Why not try to add CPA offers on your site?
    I made good money with just hundreds visits a day promoting CPA offers that pays $250 perlead
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    > Instant Traffic Formula : Top Affiliate Make $568K in 30 days
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    • Profile picture of the author newsblogger2012
      Wow - that's amazing! Any recs regarding which ones might work best for a lifestyle type blog?
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  • Profile picture of the author timokeefe
    I agree with SSSJames. At 500k monthly visitors your first step is banners, because it'll take less than a day to implement, and you'll start bringing in revenue pretty quickly.

    You can get an idea of how much you'll make from banners by finding sites in your niche on the BuySellAds marketplace. Just find what similar sites are charging and you can use that CPM to estimate your max earning. Note that most sites on there are not selling out of inventory and the vendor will have a cut, so your actual earnings would be lower. It'll put you in the right ball park though.
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    • Profile picture of the author shaond
      100% agree with timokeefe. BuySellAds are a great way to gauge what you might earn. With your traffic levels and plain old AdSense, I reckon you could be pulling in about $500-750 per month. And this is without any segmentation (agree with this as a tactic though!).

      Originally Posted by timokeefe View Post

      I agree with SSSJames. At 500k monthly visitors your first step is banners, because it'll take less than a day to implement, and you'll start bringing in revenue pretty quickly.

      You can get an idea of how much you'll make from banners by finding sites in your niche on the BuySellAds marketplace. Just find what similar sites are charging and you can use that CPM to estimate your max earning. Note that most sites on there are not selling out of inventory and the vendor will have a cut, so your actual earnings would be lower. It'll put you in the right ball park though.
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  • Profile picture of the author shaond
    Hey newsblogger2012, I don't have any personal recommendations with regards to Ad networks, but there's a huge list here:

    http://www.warriorforum.com/ad-netwo...c-sources.html

    Of course, if you're also looking to add revenue, I'd suggest you also look at video advertising (full disclosure: I work for a video Ad network).

    As a shameless plug, I'd be more than happy to help add revenue via video to your sites ��
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    Want to add revenue with native video advertising? Ask me how, or check us out: MAVENVX.

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  • Profile picture of the author avemfly619619
    By ppc, you have to run Pay Per view for your site for increase pageviews.
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