3,000 Unique Visitors

I think you got pretty passive ad placing. Might want to place them upper on the site and at least put one banner ads or whatever you call it when the ads show like this - instead of | .

Allthough don't over do it or it will put visitors off.

It appears that you are catering to Internet marketers. Your audience may be a little too savvy to click on Adsense and similar ads.

I would give something away - have you created any products?

Instead of having people sign up just to receive your newsletter, give something away and as a bonus they will get the email every day with the new geeky headline...

Try and add something that makes your site stand out from the rest of the pack, it may be your own template or colour pattern, but try customization to attract the attention of the person visiting your site

Cheers

I would create a product instead of a newsletter and get people to sign up to that instead, you're much better getting someone on your list instead of clicking an ad once.

Also, if you can't/don't want to do that, move the ads around a bit, move them to different places and test what works well and what doesn't, split testing is vital in anything to ensure your conversion rates are as high as possible!

Hey Niel,

I have to agree with John, I really have no clue what the sites about, so I would probably not opt-in to receive something because I don't really know what I'd be getting. And Andy has it right, create something people want and offer it to them in exchange for their name and email, there's WAY more money to be made from an email list then there is from people clicking on ads (IMO).

Wow, I didn't expect so many great responses to help!

The site is kind of a collage of geeky things... Yeah, I know it's not terribly specific, but I feel like within this community I'm getting strong feedback and support. All the while I'm trying to narrow my focus down to what people would want to see in this community.

I totally understand what you're all saying in regards to creating a product, and "exchanging" that for their name and email. I really like that idea. Where's a good place that I can start to look for ideas for intellectual products I could develop that would fit in that niche? Any ideas off the top of your heads?

I get *some* traffic through google searches... but most of it is through backlinks, twitter, etc.

Depending on how concentrated to your population your ads are 30/3000 isn't that bad as it is 1%. Try to use more concentrated ads to your topic (i.e a website about good sites to create a website with and your ads link to a create your website site right next to it very visible. That would have a 10% ctr maybe

Your best shot to making more profit with this site is to adopt a listbuilding approach first.

Set up a pop-up on this site that will offer a high quality freebie in exchange for your visitors email address, and then continue building good relationship by giving them more free information. After a while, start recommending your products or affiliate products, and you should be able to make bank more easily

Dann Vicker

Hi...
if it's ok, just resize your pop-up optin box. make it smaller and also,
put the ad in the place that people can see it directly, like below toolbar

Are these targeted visitors you are getting.... or were they a mixture of social marketing hits, trafficswarm hits, or any other kind of "fake hits" advertising?

I would make the main page purpose serve as a squeeze page.

Try CTR or Heatmap theme for good adsense click though rate. These themes are designed for better ad placement and have good CTR.

30 clicks from 3000 UV is avarage for many people,check your adplacement,also try to place topic related ads,check clickbank or CJ

where is mos of your traffic coming from? Direct or from other sites or what? As someone else said your visitors may be to keen to the ads to click them, you might get creative..

Use some smo techniques to promote your blog .I will suggest you please share your blog in social networking sites like : Digg,Delicious.Myspace,Linkdin,Face book and Twitter etc.

You have placed Your Banner Ads in the right place. Google links is one of the best method to get good CTR. Use google link Ads in your site . You can earn some extra money every month.

As a fellow geek I think that the content could be very interesting, but I need a reason to search through your site. What is Geekslant? Tell me right away - in the header, even. While I can assume that the content will be obviously geeky, beyond that I have no clue what your site is about.

I think that once you tell your visitors what/who this site is, you will earn the "trust factor" and in turn see more conversions.

Good luck!

The hostgator banner which claims that is for one penny for the first month is not coming out to be true when u click and try to make payment. The customer will see the billing is some $7.66 for the first month. The customer should be educated to use your own campaign code to get $0.01 payment info. I am an affiliate of hostgator and I know where things are going wrong. Since that message is not clear, it gives a different impression about your website. Therefore no conversions are taking place for you. please work on giving correct information to the visitors.

Hey Neil,

I agree with the others in that my first impression when I visit your site is simply that I have no clue what it's about. Even when I click on the "About Me" menu, it looks like it's set up as a post page and just displays all of your recent posts.

It was only when I dug deeper and found a very small "About" link in your footer did I get an idea of what you and your website is about. This may or may not have any direct relevancy to your original question, but I think when you first visit a site and know what it's about, your more likely to want to explore more, thus possibly get more hits on your ads.

And the ads do seem a bit random - not at all targeted ads for what your site is about (at least on the main pages). One suggestion might be to utilize your reviews posts to market the products that you are actually reviewing. Why not provide an affiliate link to the video games that you are reviewing? For example, someone that stumbles upon your review for the Jedi game may actually want to buy that game after reading your review. Just a thought.

Elizabeth

P.S. Congrats on getting the traffic - that's a big part of the IM battle.

A site with free information isn't going to make big bundles of money from 'adcents' unless it is focused on buying keywords. Or it gets an enormous amount of traffic.

Still I have one like that and enjoy adding to it. It does have quality content and is just starting to make a tiny bit more than the domain registration each year, and its share of hosting.

It does serve other purposes too and comes in handy in practical ways.

Just visited your site and I did not like your ad positioning.If i were you,then I would place the ads under post title.I also only used text ads rather than using image ads.I also may prefer to keep the ad color black than blue.

you are aiming for a pretty high number of visitors but I know it's not impossible to get it but base on your experience you are having trouble in getting so. I suggest you to do your campaign step by step and see what's working and what's not.

If you are getting money from the pop-up then its good otherwise you need to remove it....... also try to put adsense at the top of heading.............

Hey Neil - my advice would be to grab as many of those visitors email addresses as you can!! Offer them a free gift - something of value that would catch their attention...

Can I ask how have you achieved such traffic numbers in a relatively short time frame?? Would love to know your secret

You can sell advertising area on your site.

Just visited your site and see that you have taken the advise to start building your list. Yes I do agree list building is one great way to remains engage with your readers and gets them to come back regularly.

Good luck!