5,000 Unique Visitors Per Day.. Over $100,000 Per Month.. Monetize Help

by bbjack
37 replies
I built a site a couple years ago for a client that has since become very successful.

I'm a pretty small time web designer/developer... and she was (and is still) pretty cheap with her spending.

I've done edits and work for her for the past 2 years on this site. Lots of stuff and for not nearly as much money as I think I deserve. To give you a better understanding. This ecommerce site made $1,265,224.10 in sales total for last year. She's averaging over $100,000 per month in sales. Maybe around $4500+ per day. Last month (december) she made just under $200,000. I have access to everything, so I can see it all.

I pitched a deal that she's willing to try out. The deal is for me to place a few ads on the site in return for me doing edits and additions here and there. Making logos here and there. She's expanding.

My question is... How would you monetize and take advantage of this in the best way possible for the highest potential earnings? I put adsense in a few places on the site for a day. The day is almost over and I have earned $12.40 for the day.

Keep in mind that I want to be as non-intrusive as possible and not really affect her sales if I want to keep the ads up.

Thanks in advance! I haven't done affiliate marketing or adsense in years. My adsense account last payment was last march 2014. Though I've finally reached my $100 payout this month since earning that $12.40 for the day. Haha! If I average $12 per day from this new business deal.. I'm looking at maybe $360 per month in earnings. But I want to make more, hence this thread. Thanks again!
#$100 #day #monetize #month #unique #visitors
  • Profile picture of the author Peter Lee
    Ask her to let you put up an enticing link to your squeeze page and collect emails to grow your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author Devilfish168
    "I've done edits and work for her for the past 2 years on this site. Lots of stuff and for not nearly as much money as I think I deserve. To give you a better understanding. This ecommerce site made $1,265,224.10 in sales total for last year. She's averaging over $100,000 per month in sales. Maybe around $4500+ per day. Last month (december) she made just under $200,000. I have access to everything, so I can see it all."

    so good bro ..you done for her ? without any price lol is it she the one you like?
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    • Profile picture of the author bbjack
      Originally Posted by Devilfish168 View Post

      "I've done edits and work for her for the past 2 years on this site. Lots of stuff and for not nearly as much money as I think I deserve. To give you a better understanding. This ecommerce site made $1,265,224.10 in sales total for last year. She's averaging over $100,000 per month in sales. Maybe around $4500+ per day. Last month (december) she made just under $200,000. I have access to everything, so I can see it all."

      so good bro ..you done for her ? without any price lol is it she the one you like?

      I didn't say I do work for her for free. I said I don't think I have ever been paid enough for the work considering the size scale of things. Couldn't turn down work 5 hat I needed. Plus it's a good person to have a business relationship with when they have this much money.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlinecommerce
    The type of situation of placing ads on her site just sounds messy and is bound to create problems in the future. I personally would not want any ads or anything else on my e-store that even has the potential to draw customers away from my site.

    You should just charge what you feel your services are worth. Not based on how much her site is making. Keep the relationship clean and professional.
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    • Profile picture of the author bbjack
      Originally Posted by onlinecommerce View Post

      The type of situation of placing ads on her site just sounds messy and is bound to create problems in the future. I personally would not want any ads or anything else on my e-store that even has the potential to draw customers away from my site.

      You should just charge what you feel your services are worth. Not based on how much her site is making. Keep the relationship clean and professional.
      I know what you're trying to say. But when it comes to working on a site on such a scale, comes responsibility and I feel like I couldn't get enough money from her even though my original quotes were within a normal range of average paying clients (I didn't know for a long time about the money she was earning from the site).

      The ads that I have placed so far are really small and are placed in a "non - spammy" way...If that makes any sense. Her customers are pretty loyal to her brand, and I said if it affected her sales in any way, we could remove them.
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      • Profile picture of the author Devilfish168
        bro how you managed to get so much UV per day?

        as usual contents daily , SEO , ?
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        • Profile picture of the author bbjack
          Originally Posted by Devilfish168 View Post

          bro how you managed to get so much UV per day?

          as usual contents daily , SEO , ?
          I didn't market the site. I just created it.

          I can tell you that it wasn't mainly through SEO or new blog content. I think it was mainly through connections and advertising on bigger related sites. Also Facebook and instagram by posting funny/viral images related to the niche. The niche has a pretty big community.
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          • Profile picture of the author Devilfish168
            Originally Posted by bbjack View Post

            I didn't market the site. I just created it.

            I can tell you that it wasn't mainly through SEO or new blog content. I think it was mainly through connections and advertising on bigger related sites. Also Facebook and instagram by posting funny/viral images related to the niche. The niche has a pretty big community.

            that means the owner pay for ads ...which you mean
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  • Profile picture of the author copymyideas
    Has this been discussed with her? If she is making that much money I would imagine she would not want ads on her site as a trade for work - if it was me I would just prefer to pay for someone to maintain the site!
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      You were paid to build a website and SHE took it to success. If the site were the reason for success - you could have built your own successful site in the past two years. You didn't.

      I have to say - if I were your client and saw this thread...I'd be changing passwords and hiring new help. If you are paid anything for working on that site - in my opinion you have NO business discussing earnings of the site on a public forum.

      You say she is willing to let you place some ads and that's generous of her. Before you get carried away with doing that - you need to decide how much extra money per month you think you 'deserve'.
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      • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
        I totally agree with Kay on this issue. It was exactly the same when I used to write content for clients. Some of them took it and worked it to its full potential and it often made them a significant amount of money.

        Others slapped it up on their websites, did absolutely nothing with it, and seldom became return customers.

        As Kay explained, it's not initially the website or a piece of written content that makes either a lot of money, or no money at all. It's how the person owning it works to promote it. Clearly your client has done a brilliant job.
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      • Profile picture of the author bbjack
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        You were paid to build a website and SHE took it to success. If the site were the reason for success - you could have built your own successful site in the past two years. You didn't.

        I have to say - if I were your client and saw this thread...I'd be changing passwords and hiring new help. If you are paid anything for working on that site - in my opinion you have NO business discussing earnings of the site on a public forum.

        You say she is willing to let you place some ads and that's generous of her. Before you get carried away with doing that - you need to decide how much extra money per month you think you 'deserve'.
        What's the issue with me discussing her earnings on a public forum when I have left her (and the site) completely anonymous? That's the point of leaving the business anonymous..

        Neither of us really like the look of the 2 ads on the site, so we're probably going to take them down. Haven't earned much from them today anyway. The issue is that she is pretty cheap when it comes to paying for work on her business. She makes a lot of money from this site, so she should take care of the person tending to it. I have small time clients that have been willing to pay more than her for their sites and modifications.
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        • Profile picture of the author onlinecommerce
          First you you have to get rid of this attitude " I feel like I couldn't get enough money from her" . Just because the site is successful and she is making good money does not mean those results are owed to you. You could have done equally good web designs on sites that never made anything.

          On the other side when you are saying "I have small time clients that have been willing to pay more than her for their sites and modifications. " You are probably undercharging her a little.

          The reason you may want to get paid more is because her site requires more continuous attention not because it is making so much money.

          One idea for charging clients who are "cheap", I will admit I am one of them myself, is bill per project rather then per hour. This way she knows exactly how much it is going to cost and there is no surprises, and hey if you get it done in half the time you made twice the money per hour. Regardless she will be happy with the price as before starting she has essentially agreed that doing X is = $Y

          For charging a little more you can explain it as her projects taking priority over your other clients and your providing her with priority service making her jobs your first priority.
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Why are you not charging for your work?

    Instead of saying "post some ads in return for doing edits here and there"

    it should be

    "$100 an hour in return for doing edits here and there"

    If you need money then charge her money. If you want to help her for free then help her for free.

    But trying to siphon off some of her profits and traffic with your own ads isn't going to do either of you any good.
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  • Profile picture of the author Doug
    Now if I owned this business, and you could help me to increase revenue through a channel, or type of service, you brought to the table, it is quite possible I would share a percent of the increase based on upfront conversation.

    Quick numbers: $1,265,000 X 10% revenue increase = 126.5K of that, let's say the markup is 40% leaving an additional $50 K in profit. I might consider turning you loose, and paying you an agreed upon number for that 10% increase.

    Rather than Adsense, look for the way to continue a professional relationship benefiting you both. Whatever possible new service you provide for this current client, you could also provide for other big ecommerce sites... chaching!

    Also, take to heart what Kay is saying above. Your client trusts you with her business, at the end of the day it is far more valuable than cash.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    You can follow practical tips - and will - but I'd consider changing my energy around your goal.

    Move from making money to freeing yourself and your client and the income will increase as you attract the ideas, people and circumstances - and move into inspired action - to make this happen.

    All the best!

    Ryan
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    • Profile picture of the author salegurus
      Originally Posted by ryanbiddulph View Post

      You can follow practical tips - and will - but I'd consider changing my energy around your goal.

      Move from making money to freeing yourself and your client and the income will increase as you attract the ideas, people and circumstances - and move into inspired action - to make this happen.

      All the best!

      Ryan
      Dang Did you write this under the influence? I honestly can't make sense of it....
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    • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
      Originally Posted by ryanbiddulph View Post

      You can follow practical tips - and will - but I'd consider changing my energy around your goal.

      Move from making money to freeing yourself and your client and the income will increase as you attract the ideas, people and circumstances - and move into inspired action - to make this happen.

      All the best!

      Ryan
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    Ask her to pay you 1%-5%of what she earns every month. In return, all the work that you do for her is FREE of charge.

    Let's see if she agrees to that.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
    Originally Posted by bbjack View Post

    I built a site a couple years ago for a client that has since become very successful.

    I'm a pretty small time web designer/developer... and she was (and is still) pretty cheap with her spending.

    I've done edits and work for her for the past 2 years on this site. Lots of stuff and for not nearly as much money as I think I deserve. To give you a better understanding. This ecommerce site made $1,265,224.10 in sales total for last year. She's averaging over $100,000 per month in sales. Maybe around $4500+ per day. Last month (december) she made just under $200,000. I have access to everything, so I can see it all.
    I'm with Kay also on this.

    She needed a service provided. You made an offer to provide said services for xx money. She paid you.

    She continued to retain your services and paid the agreed upon rate for your services.

    I don't care if she never made a dime with that site or she makes a million a month - you are not entitled to anything more than what you guys agreed upon with regards to services rendered.

    All you did was build her site and make edits along the way.

    SHE DID ALL THE WORK TO BUILD HER SITE'S REVENUE TO WHAT IT IS.

    Maybe I'm missing something you failed to mention, but you deserve nothing more.

    Only thing you are within your right to do is raise your fees for her and then it's up to her if she wants to continue to retain your services.

    No offense, but to her you're just her web designer/webmaster.

    She was just like all of your other clients - only she now has a successful business.

    I don;t know who is in charge of marketing on her site, but letting you put adsense or anything that can hurt conversions for her ecommerce store is a very bad decision and if I was the owner and I found out one of my employees agreed to this deal you proposed, they would be looking for a new job.

    Start your own ecommerce store and replicate her success if you feel you're not making as much money as you would like to be making in your life.
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    • Profile picture of the author bbjack
      Originally Posted by jasondinner View Post

      I'm with Kay also on this.

      She needed a service provided. You made an offer to provide said services for xx money. She paid you.

      She continued to retain your services and paid the agreed upon rate for your services.

      I don't care if she never made a dime with that site or she makes a million a month - you are not entitled to anything more than what you guys agreed upon with regards to services rendered.

      All you did was build her site and make edits along the way.

      SHE DID ALL THE WORK TO BUILD HER SITE'S REVENUE TO WHAT IT IS.

      Maybe I'm missing something you failed to mention, but you deserve nothing more.

      Only thing you are within your right to do is raise your fees for her and then it's up to her if she wants to continue to retain your services.

      No offense, but to her you're just her web designer/webmaster.

      She was just like all of your other clients - only she now has a successful business.

      I don;t know who is in charge of marketing on her site, but letting you put adsense or anything that can hurt conversions for her ecommerce store is a very bad decision and if I was the owner and I found out one of my employees agreed to this deal you proposed, they would be looking for a new job.

      Start your own ecommerce store and replicate her success if you feel you're not making as much money as you would like to be making in your life.
      I quoted her initially for an X amount of money. She didn't want to pay that much. So I worked with her. All good. She also started with a big startup budget I later found out.

      I did edits and modifications on that site for a while. Eventually she wanted the site redone on a new platform. Which is a lot of work. She still didn't want to pay the quoted price. Had to really work with her. I only made like $1200 or so dollars for a complete conversion on a site that was already banking well (again, I still didn't know the revenue yet). So you guys are uninformed when you say I just tried to get more money just because she profited well. You're wrong. But it's ok, you didn't know the whole history.

      This thread was about me making a business deal that makes her life and my life easier where I can profit decently and she can save money and profit.. Not a thread about me screwing over a client.
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      • Profile picture of the author onSubie
        Originally Posted by bbjack View Post

        I quoted her initially for an X amount of money. She didn't want to pay that much. So I worked with her. All good. She also started with a big startup budget I later found out.

        I did edits and modifications on that site for a while. Eventually she wanted the site redone on a new platform. Which is a lot of work. She still didn't want to pay the quoted price. Had to really work with her. I only made like $1200 or so dollars for a complete conversion on a site that was already banking well (again, I still didn't know the revenue yet). So you guys are uninformed when you say I just tried to get more money just because she profited well. You're wrong. But it's ok, you didn't know the whole history.

        This thread was about me making a business deal that makes her life and my life easier where I can profit decently and she can save money and profit.. Not a thread about me screwing over a client.

        If you are letting your client walk all over you and taking a loss or low pay for your effort it is nobody's fault but yours.

        You should have replied, "Much as I like you, I can't work for such a low fee when there are so many other websites willing to pay more".

        But instead you thought - "Ohh, she has a successful site. Maybe if I ingratiate myself with her, some of that success will rub off".

        Clearly she and her website are successful because she is a strong business person.

        She pushes you for cheap rates and you cave.

        I bet if someone pushed her, she would walk.
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        • Profile picture of the author bbjack
          Originally Posted by onSubie View Post

          If you are letting your client walk all over you and taking a loss or low pay for your effort it is nobody's fault but yours.

          You should have replied, "Much as I like you, I can't work for such a low fee when there are so many other websites willing to pay more".

          But instead you thought - "Ohh, she has a successful site. Maybe if I ingratiate myself with her, some of that success will rub off".

          Clearly she and her website are successful because she is a strong business person.

          She pushes you for cheap rates and you cave.

          I bet if someone pushed her, she would walk.
          Yeah, a big issue is I was at a point to where I couldn't turn down work. Work was slow at that point, so I couldn't turn it down. It's one of those positions you don't want to be in as a business person. But from now on, I'm going to have to be stern with my price. It's important to know what you're worth.
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      • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
        Originally Posted by bbjack View Post


        I did edits and modifications on that site for a while. Eventually she wanted the site redone on a new platform. Which is a lot of work. She still didn't want to pay the quoted price. Had to really work with her. I only made like $1200 or so dollars for a complete conversion on a site that was already banking well (again, I still didn't know the revenue yet). So you guys are uninformed when you say I just tried to get more money just because she profited well. You're wrong. But it's ok, you didn't know the whole history.
        Kudos to her for convincing you to do a complete conversion on a site for only $1200. I applaud her negotiation skills.

        It's no ones problem but your own for agreeing to the $1200 for a complete conversion on the site.

        You could have said no and not done the job.

        You're coming across as a victim.

        The people who are disagreeing with your position on this are not wrong. We just have a different view of the situation.

        You're acting like she screwed you. But remember, you bent over and took it....
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      • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
        Originally Posted by bbjack View Post

        This thread was about me making a business deal that makes her life and my life easier where I can profit decently and she can save money and profit.. Not a thread about me screwing over a client.
        Well, convincing her to let you put your adsense on her ecommerce site who's only job is to sell her products is a great business deal for you, but a really dumb one for her.

        You may not be trying to screw her over, but the action itself and her being stupid enough to agree with it is screwing her over.

        Find another way to make hers and your life easier that won't effect her bottom line.
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    Just charge her more. If she balks, leave. You won't feel underpaid anymore.
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  • Profile picture of the author vikash_kumar
    If I were in your place... I would have been honest with my job...which was to support her for her website... The most important aspect here is the learning ...That too a paid learning...AWESOME!
    which I would be getting by managing a site from scratch to the heights of success and would certainly try to model a site like that and the success...
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  • Profile picture of the author onlinecommerce
    Also just because she is doing 1mil+ in sales per year does not mean she has good cash flow right now. If she is stocking her own products and buying direct from a manufacture she could easily be carrying $400,000+ in inventory. On only 2 years of business now nearly all her money is getting reinvested back into the company either buying more inventory paying staff, fullfillment, advertising. At such a young company at 2 years I could easily see all the money being dumped back into the company as her total sales are probably 1.6-2mil with probably 400 000 of that in the last 2-3 months alone. Say 1.2 mil sales up until a few months ago 40% net ( which is very generous margin ) and having 400 000 in inventory is basically around break even. Any lower net she may still not be operating at positive cash flow to keep up with stocking inventory.

    Basically it is very possible she does not have a lot of free cash flow. It costs money to grow and time before you start seeing the profits.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ghoster
    First off, I would caution you to get in writing what she expects you to do for this privilege. Scope creep is a bitch.

    Second, as others have said, you should focus on collecting emails if you can. Select a profitable niche that you can expand into.
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    • Profile picture of the author jasondinner
      Originally Posted by Ghoster View Post

      Second, as others have said, you should focus on collecting emails if you can. Select a profitable niche that you can expand into.
      If that is the route he decides to go, wouldn't be smart of him to collect emails and market offers/product related to the niche of the site he'll be collecting the leads from? lol
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      • Profile picture of the author Craig B
        You still have no idea what her profit is. Many ecommerce sites have thin margins with their products and advertising isn't cheap. For all you know she could be pulling in a 5% profit margin when it's all said and done.

        Regardless of what her profit is, you simply need to start charging more if you think you are being underpaid.
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  • Profile picture of the author teeowl
    You are better of just charging her more than you normally do.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bob Reynolds
    Keep an open communication. The ads, small link to a free report, give them the free report, and after if they like it ask them if they would like to stay in touch. Let her have here say. Dont make it to distracting. Learn as much as you can of what she has done to make the site successful and try to emulate her success.
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  • Profile picture of the author sonjay
    I thought this was a sales pitch.. because I am willing to buy..
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesW3
    Everything you just told us, tell her. Just be open and honest about why you took her offer at the price you did and that you would like further compensation moving forward. Give her the respect of an open and honest conversation and go from there
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  • Profile picture of the author bbjack
    I'm just going to charge more from now on. She'll have to either take it or leave it.

    Thanks guys/.
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