How To Monetize 15,000 Uniques in Health Niche?

[Dietriffic]

Hey guys,

My name is Melanie, and I've been blogging since March '07 atDietriffic.com.

My husbands job led us to move to Australia from the UK, so I decided it was a good opportunity to start my own health blog and put my qualification as a dietitian to good use. Many of my articles are fairly indepth, with over 1200 words.

I'm now getting over 15,000 unique vistors/month (almost entirely organic, as I keep failing miserably with social media) and yet I'm not making a penny.

How can I grow this site further and monetize the traffic?

I did start building a list recently, and now have 300 confirmed subscribers. But, I'm still not sure what's the best thing to do.

I'd love this to provide me with a full-time income by the time we return to the UK.

Can you help?

Much appreciated,

Mel

[indexphp]

Test a pop-up form on your site. I don't like the super-obtrusive ones, but there are some really effective ones.

You should be able to build a quality list really fast if you treat them right.

[MaskedMarketer]

Hi Melanie,

I'd recommend CPA marketing. Check out our CPA forum

[Max Ramocsai]

Why not sell advertising space?

[MaskedMarketer]

Originally Posted by HiddenCrimson

Why not sell advertising space?

thats also an easy idea. CPA could probably make more money, but also more work. pros and cons to each..

[Kunle Olomofe]

Originally Posted by Dietriffic

Hey guys,

My name is Melanie, and I've been blogging since March '07 atDietriffic.com.

Mel

Mel,

That's a terrific looking blog... no pun intended.

How long has it taken to add all that content i.e. when did you start the blog? I don't think you mentioned that? How much time does it take to manage your blog daily? What steps have you taken to get it to 15K uniques in the health niche? You mention your traffic is almost entirely organic, are they all australian visitors now that you're based there? What are their demographics? If you have any info on the latter, this will help a lot with monetization etc.

How many articles have you actually added so far? How many more do you have left in you for say over the next 12 months? Maybe even longer? Since you're a Dietitian I'm guessing your answer will be close to "unlimited" which opens up yet more possibilities.

Right, what else?

Oh yeah... Are you camera shy by any chance? If not, yet more ideas here.

Now, here's the deal.. I'm willing to give you some pretty indepth advice for how to start monetizing this site less than 24 hours from now, you should be making money within just hours of launching and it shouldn't take you up to 24 hours to be ready for your buying traffic, however, I need to be sure you're dead serious about this thread, you know how it is, a lot of people never are, from your site it looks like you are, but, I need to be sure, what I'm going to tell you I guarantee you will normally pay thousands to hear.

So, here's your entry fee...

1. Answer my questions above as explicity as you can (PM me if anything there is sensitive and you don't want all eyes on it).

2. Tell me how much time you have to work on your online biz, I assume you work from home? How many hours would you say you spend a day/week/month on this?

3. Is hubby very supportive or only mildly interested? This is important also for a few of the ideas I will give you. It's always good if hubby or wifey are very supportive, if not, we can work around that, just let me know your situation.

4. Do you have kids? Are they around the house when you work?

5. Do you have any capital you can spend on the business? You're not paying me a thin dime, but you may need some money to implement some of the ideas. If you're flat out, no worries, we can use free methods, though these will come with sacrifices premium methods would have covered for you.

OK. That's it for now, I will subscribe to this thread so I see your responses.

If you prefer you may also PM me. All up to you.

Cheers,

Kunle Olomofe

[JOhnny Depth]

You could try those cpm ads or just sell some ad space on your site.

[jazzyjeff]

Melanie,

Gosh, if you had only started building a list from the very beginning of the site. But 300 opt ins is a good place to start.

CPA offers are the easiest to earn money. They just have to fill out an email or just a few lines of information.

You can join an affiliate network and choose an excellent diet product that you can pitch to your list. Look for a product that will give recurring payments. That way, you get paid for the people on your list that continue to buy the same product. For example, a diet pill that is a 30 day supply. You get money for them buying another bottle the next month and the next month.

Also, I was wondering if you can test your optin form. It was kind of strange just popping out of the blue. You can try to put it on the right side of your blog . See which one brings you the most optins.

Jeff

[Dietriffic]

Garrett,

I have got a pop up form, which comes up after 12 seconds. Is that a good time?

Hiddencrimson & Maskedmarketer,

I'm willing to sell advertising space, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I will check the CPA (is CPA like adsense?) forum.

Kunle,

Thanks for the compliment re my blog!

I started the blog in March 2007. Since then I've added about 250 articles. Demographics are 90% USA.

The steps I've taken to get where I'm at is basically focused on writing quality articles, but I think if I could market myself better, I'd probably be getting more visitors.

As a dietitian I can write on the topic forever, read my articles I've plenty to say ;-)

Am I camera shy? Yes! But, I'm really wanting to give video a try.

To answer the rest of your questions...

Yes, I work from home, I spend about 20 hours each week, as I've been writing a few articles for directories, and I've also been writing as a expert on Health Central for over a year now. Hubby is very supportive, and I don't have kids yet.

If it'll be truly profitable I have money to spend on making this into a business.

Thank you very much for your interest, I hope my response proves that I'm serious.

Jazzyjeff,

I'd be willing to promote some diet products to my list.

Since I've put in the pop up form I believe I've been getting a lot more subscribers than I would otherwise. The conversion rate is about 4%, but with some many people seeing it every day, I think it makes it worthwhile.

[Dietriffic]

Forgive me for being a newbie...

But, is it common on this forum when people offer help, that they'll want 50% of your business in order to do so??

[rondo]

Great blog you have there Melanie.

I didn't see any ads at all so that's why you're not making any money!


Here's a few ideas:

Placing your newsletter form on every page (under the image) might get you more subscribers.

Adsense would probably pay well for you so you could give that a try.

Affiliate marketing would probably pay even more. At Clickbank you will find many suitable products paying $20-$30 commissions. Create a new page titled "Resources" or a similar name and list some relevant products to promote. You can also place a couple of product banners in your sidebar.

Create your own product. You seem to have plenty of knowledge so turn your best content into a "system" and sell it on your site through Clickbank. Offer a generous commission and soon you will also have affiliates promoting your product.

Turn that BMI calculator into an .exe file and distribute it on the large software directories for even more traffic.



Andrew

[melanied]

Adsense clicks are very decent paying in that niche. So, for 15,000 monthly visitors, you could be looking at a few hundred to several hundred a month from adsense, depending on CTR.

Combine that with listbuilding and affiliate product promotion (or your own product promotion!) and that could be a great income!

Also, even though you said you haven't succeeded thus far at social promotion, i notice that a lot of your titles are lists (30 low fat this, 25 ways to do that...). Those kinds of posts tend to do well in the social blogosphere. I'd suggest giving Digg and StumbleUpon some attention in your social efforts.

Good luck! I really liked your blog!

PS- YOU HAVE AN AWESOME NAME!

[Steven Fullman]

Originally Posted by Dietriffic

Forgive me for being a newbie...

But, is it common on this forum when people offer help, that they'll want 50% of your business in order to do so??

Lol,

Bannatyne isn't a regular here...yet.

So take the free advice while you can!

Awesome site, BTW.

Steve

[Jim Pearson]

Mel;

Great site...You clearly are an expert in your field and have found a niche that you can communicate very effectively in.

You should be proud of your 15,000+ monthly visitor count. This can quickly be turned into a source for monthly revenue.

Since you love your subject and clearly are able to write quickly and efficiently about it, I would suggest surveying your audience(placing a survey question on your home page) and asking them the following:

(This is an example, use your experience to tailor this question and its choices to your knowledge of the subject and your audience)

Question: "I Wish Someone Could Help Me?..."

• Find A Easy Way To Loose 15 Pounds
• Help Me Have More Energy, I'm Just So Tired All Of The Time.
• Teach Me a Easy Healthy Way To Feed My Kids
• Find Simple To Prepare Healthy Meals For My Family
• Show Me What To Eat To Look 10 Years Younger

Offer them a copy of your book for completing the survey( email address required to receive copy )

The survey responses will tell you what your audience wants. Just produce a short informational(manual, or manual with audio) product solving your audiences top 1 to 2 problems they told you and identified in your survey.

You have two options for this product; a) as a free give away to increase your list or b) as a product to sell on your site and to your list.

In regards to your question: "But, is it common on this forum when people offer help, that they'll want 50% of your business in order to do so??"

No, you should be able to get free advice and then only if you choose, decide to pay someone for their product, service and/or advice.

Secondly, that type of offer is foolish, a relationship of knowledge and trust needs to be build before any type of offer is made.

Wish you the best.

[Steve Crooks]

I would look at creating a dieting related information product. If you are getting that many uniques per month you really have a captive audience already.

[Lloyd Buchinski]

I would definitely give adsense a try. It is really easy to apply for and add the code to your pages. I am not at all an authority on it but with that kind of traffic and a focused site it should give you at least something. I have being thinking of it as "adcents" lately, but don't have the positives your site has.

You don't have to be an American and a server in the States does not complicate things. You can still apply at least as a Canadian and have everything up and running in a half hour.

best wishes, and good luck with all that, lloyd

[jayden.fellze]

Originally Posted by Dietriffic

Hey guys,

My name is Melanie, and I've been blogging since March '07 atDietriffic.com.

My husbands job led us to move to Australia from the UK, so I decided it was a good opportunity to start my own health blog and put my qualification as a dietitian to good use. Many of my articles are fairly indepth, with over 1200 words.

I'm now getting over 15,000 unique vistors/month (almost entirely organic, as I keep failing miserably with social media) and yet I'm not making a penny.

How can I grow this site further and monetize the traffic?

I did start building a list recently, and now have 300 confirmed subscribers. But, I'm still not sure what's the best thing to do.

I'd love this to provide me with a full-time income by the time we return to the UK.

Can you help?

Much appreciated,

Mel

Mel,
1st of all, let me ask you some things...
1. Your target audience is UK or AU?
When you have an answer to this, you can go in for
#1. Affiliate CPC
#2. Banner CPM (but make sure its not annoying to your visitors)
#3. Consulting services (yeah, thats huge )
#4. selling health related stuff from ebay/amazon using the amazon astore feature or ebay store feature
#5. Google adsense (although, this will be just a trickle)
Hope this helps!

[rename]

choose email zip submit CPA

[Scott Million]

Sent you a PM

[Dietriffic]

Andrew,

I did have ads on my site, then we did a redesign and removed them. But, I'm in the process of getting them up again. I'll definitely look into affiliates a bit more. Ultimately my goal is to create my own product like you said. Thanks for the advice!

Melanie,

Great name BTW!!! :-) Thanks for the tips. I've found SU to be pretty good at sending a bit of traffic. But, Digg has been difficult. I think Diggers like more 'tech-related' posts, and even when my articles are doing reasonably well, next thing I know it's buried! But, I know how effective it can be, so I will keep trying!

Steve,

Thank you!

Jim,

Thank you for your great advice! The idea of a survey is awesome, in fact, I have been asking my list a similar question: "What are you biggest challenges?" to get an idea of what would help them out. However, I can see what you're suggesting would potentially get more replies and more clarified answers.

Definitely food for thought!! Thanks for your input.

Steve & Lloyd,

Thank you both!

Jayden,

Most of my traffic is from the US. Thanks for the tips!