Find me the plunder! (Help me monetize, please)

alpacabob · 10-30-2009, 10:43 PM

I was going to start this thread saying that I have little experience in this field, but that's not actually true. I have a set of websites of different styles and have driven a decent amount of traffic using some rather advanced techniques.

Where I struggle is in finding my own treasure island- namely- monetiziation. I have primarily informational websites, a blog or two, and a couple of forums. I realize that no one can give me any kind of magic bullet here- there's no single answer- but perhaps some stories of the ah-ha moments people had when they figured out how best to monetize certain kinds of sites could be useful for me and for others (i.e. my forum income and popularity took off when I made it a paid membership, I added a single adsense ad to my blog and it's making me $20 a day, I changed to purely CPA offers in my PPC campaigns and now I'm making back twice what I invested, etc.)

I'm not looking for someone to tell me, "if you do this, you'll succeed." Obviously- that's stupid. But there's not a lot of good advice on monetization, and at least hearing some success stories might help me spur on some ideas- and it might help some others who are trying start making money on their sites- or to ramp up the income they're making through means other than more traffic.

Dan C. Rinnert · 10-30-2009, 10:52 PM

What monetization strategies are you using now?

I try to try different things. I have some sites where AdSense does well, but nothing else does. And other sites where AdSense just doesn't work at all.

Another key is that sometimes things take time. You can spend your day trying to build traffic to a site, and do so for day after day, and not see a sale. You might give it a good while, but then ultimately think it's just not worth it and move on to something else. Then, after some time has gone by, you'll start getting some sales because your prior work started to pay off. But then the sales may drop off just as quickly because you didn't keep at it and moved on to something else.

Scott Million · 10-30-2009, 11:04 PM

Well, you're on the right track by testing different monitization methods. THAT'S the real answer.

Make sure to take a look at what your competitors are doing.

Are they building a list?

Are they marketing a product?

Are the selling aff products?

Etc.

10 - 15 minutes going through the top 10 results for 4-5 related keyword phrases should give you a good idea on what monitization method is pulling in the dough for your niche.

Scott

alpacabob · 10-31-2009, 12:19 PM

I like the idea of more systematic testing. I have done some review stuff on my sort of flagship site for informational products, but nobody seems to pay any attention. A lot of my other sites rely on banners- and for whatever reason, it only occurred to me the other day that I can barely even remember when I last clicked on a banner- so they may have higher payout per click than adsense, but they won't get you anywhere if no one clicks.

My active niches are: Yoga, Green Living, Bicycles, and one that will remain undisclosed. The last two are my sort of pet projects if you will. The first two are older interests, while bicycles and bicycle repair is something I love now.

For the green power and bike repair sites, I was thinking of adding drop-shipping ecommerce stores. I keep hearing these are pitfalls, though. Any sound advice?

10-30-2009, 10:43 PM	#1
alpacabob Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 73 Thanks: 20 Thanked 6 Times in 4 Posts	Find me the plunder! (Help me monetize, please) I was going to start this thread saying that I have little experience in this field, but that's not actually true. I have a set of websites of different styles and have driven a decent amount of traffic using some rather advanced techniques. Where I struggle is in finding my own treasure island- namely- monetiziation. I have primarily informational websites, a blog or two, and a couple of forums. I realize that no one can give me any kind of magic bullet here- there's no single answer- but perhaps some stories of the ah-ha moments people had when they figured out how best to monetize certain kinds of sites could be useful for me and for others (i.e. my forum income and popularity took off when I made it a paid membership, I added a single adsense ad to my blog and it's making me $20 a day, I changed to purely CPA offers in my PPC campaigns and now I'm making back twice what I invested, etc.) I'm not looking for someone to tell me, "if you do this, you'll succeed." Obviously- that's stupid. But there's not a lot of good advice on monetization, and at least hearing some success stories might help me spur on some ideas- and it might help some others who are trying start making money on their sites- or to ramp up the income they're making through means other than more traffic.

10-30-2009, 10:52 PM	#2
Dan C. Rinnert I have a lame list. War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: One Second into the Future Posts: 4,256 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 811 Thanked 2,177 Times in 1,003 Posts Social Networking	Re: Find me the plunder! (Help me monetize, please) What monetization strategies are you using now? I try to try different things. I have some sites where AdSense does well, but nothing else does. And other sites where AdSense just doesn't work at all. Another key is that sometimes things take time. You can spend your day trying to build traffic to a site, and do so for day after day, and not see a sale. You might give it a good while, but then ultimately think it's just not worth it and move on to something else. Then, after some time has gone by, you'll start getting some sales because your prior work started to pay off. But then the sales may drop off just as quickly because you didn't keep at it and moved on to something else.
	Click here for the MOST FUN PRODUCT CREATION GUIDE for Procrastinators since forever. Dan's content is irregularly read by handfuls of people. Join the elite few by reading his blog: dcrBlogs.com or following him on Twitter: dcrTweets.com but NOT by Clicking Here! ----------> [Free WSO] The Lamest WSO in the History of the Warrior Forum ☺ <----------

10-30-2009, 11:04 PM	#3
Scott Million Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Portland, OR. Posts: 1,174 Thanks: 89 Thanked 180 Times in 108 Posts	Re: Find me the plunder! (Help me monetize, please) Well, you're on the right track by testing different monitization methods. THAT'S the real answer. Make sure to take a look at what your competitors are doing. Are they building a list? Are they marketing a product? Are the selling aff products? Etc. 10 - 15 minutes going through the top 10 results for 4-5 related keyword phrases should give you a good idea on what monitization method is pulling in the dough for your niche. Scott

10-31-2009, 12:19 PM	#4
alpacabob Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 73 Thanks: 20 Thanked 6 Times in 4 Posts	Re: Find me the plunder! (Help me monetize, please) I like the idea of more systematic testing. I have done some review stuff on my sort of flagship site for informational products, but nobody seems to pay any attention. A lot of my other sites rely on banners- and for whatever reason, it only occurred to me the other day that I can barely even remember when I last clicked on a banner- so they may have higher payout per click than adsense, but they won't get you anywhere if no one clicks. My active niches are: Yoga, Green Living, Bicycles, and one that will remain undisclosed. The last two are my sort of pet projects if you will. The first two are older interests, while bicycles and bicycle repair is something I love now. For the green power and bike repair sites, I was thinking of adding drop-shipping ecommerce stores. I keep hearing these are pitfalls, though. Any sound advice?