Just found have a website - what to do to monetize it?

[skylerlark]

Hi all

I contracted a web designer to put up a website a few months ago.

Cutting long story short, guy took so long to come up with site, I gave up on it. Then few days ago, when I was logged into the hosting account to have a go at designing it myself in wp, found he'd finished it, bit late, bit basic, but it was there

The content of the site is very 'niche', so niche in fact, that it'll take some traffic directing to get anyone to look at it.

I'd posted the site on a local classifieds I'd had a little success with in the past, but thought an actual website might look a tad more professional and deter the tirekickers. Didn't/hasn't - so looking at ways to monetize it.

I've been working hard studying im via article marketing, but think the site not interesting enough in it's current format (basic but seen worse) to attract enough traffic to partner with affiliates or adsense.

The site is tropecohouse.com - any advice well and truly appreciated. Shame to let it, and nice concept, if not 'content', go to waste.

Thanks all

Skyler

[rosetrees]

Is this your product or are you an affiliate? If it's your product, you need to say lots more about what it is, who you are etc. Lots more pictures - just lots more!

I wouldn't buy - it doesn't say who you are, why you designed this house, where I can see one of these houses - anything really!

[Wham]

Originally Posted by rosetrees

Is this your product or are you an affiliate? If it's your product, you need to say lots more about what it is, who you are etc. Lots more pictures - just lots more!

I wouldn't buy - it doesn't say who you are, why you designed this house, where I can see one of these houses - anything really!

agreed, your asking for way too much money for something for someone to just buy online. I'm gonna assume it's your product because it'd be quite odd to affiliate that. People are going to want to talk to you and know who you are when spending that amount. Like she said you need to say a lot more about it.

[skylerlark]

I think this needs more explanation.

This house was designed for me by an architect with an 'eco' aesthetic here in Thailand.

The architect is renowned for his work designing 'resorts' and expatriate condominiums here in the tropics. He won Best Architect Award for the Samsara on Phuket and currently works out of Hong Kong.

Instead of selling the plans for this unique 'eco' design on one of the many many House Plan For Sale sites littering the internet, I thought it deserved to be marketed singly.

I'd been marketing the architects' plans together with a CD Rom for sale through a local Classifieds site, and had been receiving a lot of response. However, Classifieds tend to attract a lot of bored 'trawlers' which lead to 'tyrekickers' aka Timewasters. An actual website shows you mean business.

Also, it's a great design, incorporating the late Laurie Baker's (renowned architect working in India) principles of 'natural cooling' of houses in hot/tropical climates. No airconditioning = low energy usage. It's also a very beautiful and unique design. The only single residential house he did - as a favour to me.

If you happen to be living in a cooler climate, No. This is not the house design for you. However, here in the tropics, particularly in Thailand, locals have been copying European/North American ideas on house design, and then installing - aircon but are slowly coming round to the fact of climate change and not least of all - incredibly high utility bills.

I don't need to say who I am. I'm selling the plans, which I've already said are, to put it mildly, very 'niche'. I do think more could be done to make the site more interesting/informative on 'ecotechture' as it's now known, in order to promote the site via say, article marketing, and then affiliate links to various companies offering 'eco' products. No point in applying for affiliate links/adsense/hell, even clickbank, if no one's going to bother visiting it.

Hope that's a bit clearer

[mikeyman120]

Hello,
There are many ways to monetize a website. Just to name a few you can put google adsense on it, chitika advertising, Clickbank products but like you said if no one visits it then that would seem like a waste. You need traffic first. If you have lots of traffic then you want to monetize your site. But it sounds like you have the same problem most marketers face and that is getting a steady stream of traffic. Any way based on the title of your thread I was going to say I have a monetize traffic video course below in my sig but you need the traffic first.

Mike

[Kay King]

The links at the bottom of the site - which should go to different sections of the site - don't work.

The "design" page needs serious work. Describing with text is fine - but the floor plan is blurred and needs to be much better and also needs to be resizable. People like a description - but want to see what is IN the house.

I didn't see the plans for sale online - that's one place to start (I may have missed that page if it's there).

Gorgeous house! Love the openness of it.

kay

[skylerlark]

Originally Posted by Kay King

The links at the bottom of the site - which should go to different sections of the site - don't work.

The "design" page needs serious work. Describing with text is fine - but the floor plan is blurred and needs to be much better and also needs to be resizable. People like a description - but want to see what is IN the house.

I didn't see the plans for sale online - that's one place to start (I may have missed that page if it's there).

Gorgeous house! Love the openness of it.

kay

Thanks Kay. Yes it is gorgeous. And not just because it's my house When the architect showed me the design, it came as a total surprise - I'd asked for a 'painting studio' with just one bedroom and somewhere to cook, with no aircon - natural breezes - and he got carried away LOL! Having said that, I really wasn't aware how BIG he was here, not mixing with the expat contingent much and all.

The site's another story. I'd contracted a 'web designer' in Bangkok who showed up on some Geocities and professional web designer sites as being a 'scam artist'. So was lucky to get what I did out of him. Took some persuasion, I can tell you

I agree the site needs an overhaul, not least of all because it looks cheap, and not in keeping with the product (and 1700 US is by no means 'too expensive' for house plans, particularly for these houseplans. You have to think how much you're saving on hiring an architect, a good one at that, to produce a unique design - take a look at some of the online 'cookie cutter' house plans out there. Even the local architects charge at least four times that amount to design a 'box' condo).

As to showing the actual plans, be defeating the object as would be giving them away Most sites only show a portion of the floorplan.

Just thought I'd put it out there on this great forum to bounce some ideas around and fast coming to the conclusion site needs 'upgrade' to reflect the product. Was also wondering what else to put on it to make it more interesting. I'd thought about some links to Laurie Baker and the actual architect's other work, and 'green architecture' etc, but concerned people visiting the site will find them too interesting (only people interested in this type of architecture would visit anyway) and not come back!

A vid might be good, hmmmm ...

[rosetrees]

Originally Posted by skylerlark

I think this needs more explanation.

Lol - you're right. But you need to say all that on your site.

For a start, since you say he's an Australian designer on the site - I assumed the house was in Australia.

I'm by no means an "expert" at designing websites - but I'm learning. If you'd like to have a chat about it - PM me.

[Kay King]

As to showing the actual plans, be defeating the object as would be giving them away Most sites only show a portion of the floorplan.

I don't mean full architectural plans - but you have to show floor plans. I love the house but I wouldn't buy plans without knowing what rooms are in it and where they are and how they flow. Visitors may admire YOUR house but they buy plans for houses that will suit them and to do that they must see floor plans, room dimensions, etc.

If it's a "green" house, explain the "green" benefits room by room.

Every site selling house plans (even by leading architects) that I've seen have a clear drawing of the floor plan. The drawing on your site looks hand drawn by an amateur and it cheapens the site...sorry.

One minor thing - one of the pictures is of a corner with furniture in it - the site isn't about the furniture and that photo is irrelevant.

The photos do a good job of showing the architectural details - but people want to see the kitchen, the bedrooms and baths as well. It's difficult as you are torn between "look at this great house you can build" and "this is MY house". You need to resolve that conflict.

kay

[skylerlark]

Originally Posted by rosetrees

Lol - you're right. But you need to say all that on your site.

For a start, since you say he's an Australian designer on the site - I assumed the house was in Australia.

I'm by no means an "expert" at designing websites - but I'm learning. If you'd like to have a chat about it - PM me.

Ah, well that's another thing to remedy - the copy's wrong - he's British and the house is on Phuket in Thailand.

[skylerlark]

Originally Posted by Kay King

I don't mean full architectural plans - but you have to show floor plans. I love the house but I wouldn't buy plans without knowing what rooms are in it and where they are and how they flow. Visitors may admire YOUR house but they buy plans for houses that will suit them and to do that they must see floor plans, room dimensions, etc.

If it's a "green" house, explain the "green" benefits room by room.

Every site selling house plans (even by leading architects) that I've seen have a clear drawing of the floor plan. The drawing on your site looks hand drawn by an amateur and it cheapens the site...sorry.

One minor thing - one of the pictures is of a corner with furniture in it - the site isn't about the furniture and that photo is irrelevant.

The photos do a good job of showing the architectural details - but people want to see the kitchen, the bedrooms and baths as well. It's difficult as you are torn between "look at this great house you can build" and "this is MY house". You need to resolve that conflict.

kay

I agree with what you say about potential customers/home builders needing to know about the flow of the house, although again, on plan websites they just give a floorplan and how many beds/baths. I also agree with the picture of the floorplan. It, along with the rest of the site's print quality is awful and I'd pointed this out to him, before he scarpered lol. Why's this do you think? I don't know much about web design, or I'd have saved myself some grief and built it myself in the first place. Which looks as though it's on the cards - did I say I was a painter? Painter = Broke

As to the photo showing a room looking as though some furniture had been shoved up a corner, he'd simply taken one of the many I'd sent him from the site - and cropped it

The 'green' element is I think stated clearly throughout. If you don't live in a tropical country, you've no idea how HOT it can get indoors with no aircon. And the majority of houses in Thailand are copied from the West - low ceilings and great swathes of glazing for windows necessitating airconditioning in every room, or you'd die from the heat! The old Thai style ruen baan's were best - high ceilings and vents for airflow. This is just a western style contemporary take on that principle. One that Laurie Baker and my architect understand

Another thing I find a tad irksome is when people say 1700 US is 'expensive' for houseplans. How much of your budget are you willing to apportion for the actual design?! This house is on the market for 200k (want to move to my original concept - hut in the jungle lol).

I had some expat from the Phillies complaining the plans were expensive and that he'd bought a 3000 sqm plan set for 300 US. I pointed out that he was quite possibly sitting in 3000 sqm of crap then (That's another thing, having to deal with some of the moronic respondees - expensive? - no one's forcing you to buy - do the plans come with electrical/plumbing drawings??? er, yes, they're architect's plans. And my favourite - how much to build? That's the only question they ask - and they make up the majority, and they never come back anyway.) In fact my most successful sale was to an educated gentleman who had a profound and passionate interest in architecture. We're still in touch to this day.

I'm thinking perhaps a video of this house might work okay, but concerned people will forget that they are house PLANS and should use their imagination to make the house their own. Hmmmm. 3D Model in Sketchup?