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Ideas For Monetising My Site

by Epicurus
16 replies
Hello folks!

I am in the process of setting up a Dog site mainly to compliment a dog walking business I'm starting.

Here is the site....

Happy Waggy Walks

It's still very much under construction - and yep I know that music is annoying so will be gone soon :-)

I've added a blog section to it to talk about various things to do with dog training, dog walking diaries and product reviews with a view to earning commissions from Amazon and other affilite sites.

Oh and by the way I think I may have hamstrung myself a little bit in terms of gaining revenue from product reviews as I purchased a domain with a .co.uk extension - any thoughts?

Can anyone else think of any other good ways to monetise the site or indeed to increase traffic and exposure?

Thanks in advance :-)
#ideas #monetising #site
  • Profile picture of the author Internetoholic
    How about selling personal advices for dog owners?
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanmilligan
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    Dog training ebooks. - (Check out Clickbank for a couple of these.)
    Dog training paperback books.
    Adsense ( I hate it, but some people like it)
    Related Amazon products.
    Sell your own advice to people with dogs.

    We need to know more:

    What's the traffic like?
    Demographics? (Is it families with dogs, or those stupid young girls that like to dress their dogs up?)
    How long has the site been getting the said amount of traffic?
    How are you driving traffic?

    Give me as much information as you can, please.

    And yes, the .co.uk thing might be a tiny problem (not a huge one) but a problem never the less.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrMonetize
    I would get rid of that flash slider for starters. iDevices won't display it and there are a lot of users now so you can't ignore them. Use something like - Nivo Slider

    I built a site for a dog kennels once, I created a Facebook page, Google Places listing and targeted local keywords. Things like "Dog Walking Yorkshire".

    Identify those keywords in Googles Keyword tool and use them in the site copy. Setup an Adwords Express campaign, this brings up the advert to people in your local area.

    Search Google for dog kennels directories and pet directories. Create loads of listings offering your services.

    Create a Gumtree listing and a Craiglist listing offering your services in and around Yorkshire.

    The .co.uk domain is spot on, keep it because your in the UK like me. Google will rank you on google.co.uk which is where you need your customers from, unless you plan on walking dogs in the US?
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  • Profile picture of the author Epicurus
    Ryan Milligan - Thanks for the tips. As regards traffic generation I haven't begun this yet as the site has only just been created.

    The demographic is really anyone who has a dog so all types of products for promotion purposes are fair game really but I guess I would be targeting people like myself who would come under the 'Families with dogs' demographic.

    Mr Monetize - Yep agree with you there about the flash slides.

    Excellent advice and tips there - thanks so much :-)

    As regards the .co.uk domain, It's fine for the dog walking side of the business but I was wondering if it may affect things on the blog side when it comes to reviewing products.

    Would it dilute my effectiveness for getting traffic to my product reviews as I have an Amazon.com Associates account and would like to target the US market and not just the UK market.

    I could always try for the .com of the domain I suppose and have a seperate blog for product reviews but I'd rather have everything on the one blog to make it into an authority site.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrMonetize
    Well to me it sounds like two separate websites are needed, you can't target the US market with a .co.uk domain, its geotargeted and a TLD would be better. So your limited to the UK market in terms of getting customers. You can target the UK with Amazon Affiliates, so just choose that market as it makes logical sense if you want to monetize that domain.

    Say you got the .com domain instead, then you will be listed in the US too if you choose to be, which makes no sense if you are offering dog walking in Yorkshire.

    Don't be worried about just targeting the UK, I do very well with Amazon in the UK, just choose your keywords effectively, there is plenty of traffic. You can then keep it all on one blog. When you hit some success, create a US based blog as well and repeat the same thing with new content, but drop the dog walking services from the site and just offer dog advice and products.
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  • Profile picture of the author Epicurus
    Thanks MrMonetize - some great advice there :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author shipwrecked
    Hmm... I advise you:

    About negative aspects

    1. Remove the playing music, it could annoy many... make it play on demand only instead of stop on demand
    2. Remove the "lorem ipsum possum apossum" text from your content
    3. Put more accent on dogs, not people: too many photos of people, but as it seems, it should be more about dogs... that's your main subject, right?
    4. On the main buttons, I'd make "SERVICES" first, ahead of all!
    5. Get a book about basic marketing (not online marketing), it will help you better build your brand and make underline your offer - from your site it's a bit unclear what it's all about - people must understand in 1-2 seconds!

    As for revenue:

    1. Write e-books and advertise them on ClickBank
    2. AdSense into your content

    I think if you revise, re-develop and put more energy to it, it could be a successful business.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Lewey Lu
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    • Profile picture of the author mrsvirtualassistant
      There are many pet grooming salons and pet pharmacies that feature affiliate programs. You could also promote affiliate products in the pet health niche. Writing and selling ebooks is another viable option. You may also use Clickbank, Amazon, and Commission Junction.
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  • Profile picture of the author trevb
    Create or buy an ebook/report that you can give away in order to start building an email list. There are some good ebooks on clickbank that you can review and sell on your site, regarding dog training and dog food. Plus, there are loads of books and products on Amazon that you can promote.
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    • Profile picture of the author lewiswharf
      Consider getting rid of the music. My experience has been that most people will hit the back button if they're listening to music or at work.
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    • Profile picture of the author Epicurus
      Originally Posted by trevb View Post

      Create or buy an ebook/report that you can give away in order to start building an email list. There are some good ebooks on clickbank that you can review and sell on your site, regarding dog training and dog food. Plus, there are loads of books and products on Amazon that you can promote.
      Thanks Trevb - Yep list building is always a good idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrMonetize
    I'll just add one more thing, I mentioned using Adwords Express. Now this is superb service that will bring up your advert to anyone within a certain mileage of your postcode. This can bring a lot of local traffic which is ideal for your dog walking. However, don't use it if you are adding affiliate products, Adsense etc. You could easily create a dog training guide to give away through an email opt-in and heavily market to them via email, but don't put up a load of Amazon links and then start an Adwords campaign unless you want to lose your account.

    They hate affiliates, so to me the logical thing would be to create two separate sites for this project unless you don't want to use Adwords. The local keywords, especially "Dog Walking Yorkshire" etc should be easy to rank for organically, but an Adwords Express campaign would bring in even more local traffic as well. It really depends on how many dogs you want to walk
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    • Profile picture of the author Epicurus
      Originally Posted by MrMonetize View Post

      I'll just add one more thing, I mentioned using Adwords Express. Now this is superb service that will bring up your advert to anyone within a certain mileage of your postcode. This can bring a lot of local traffic which is ideal for your dog walking. However, don't use it if you are adding affiliate products, Adsense etc. You could easily create a dog training guide to give away through an email opt-in and heavily market to them via email, but don't put up a load of Amazon links and then start an Adwords campaign unless you want to lose your account.

      They hate affiliates, so to me the logical thing would be to create two separate sites for this project unless you don't want to use Adwords. The local keywords, especially "Dog Walking Yorkshire" etc should be easy to rank for organically, but an Adwords Express campaign would bring in even more local traffic as well. It really depends on how many dogs you want to walk
      Great advice again, I've decided to create another blog for the product review side of things with a .com extension to target a wider audience.

      I'll look into the Adwords Express for the other site.

      :-)
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      • Profile picture of the author MrMonetize
        Originally Posted by Epicurus View Post

        Great advice again, I've decided to create another blog for the product review side of things with a .com extension to target a wider audience.

        I'll look into the Adwords Express for the other site.

        :-)
        That sounds the better plan to me. There is nothing stopping you adding the odd article to help your dog walking business capture some organic traffic, with perhaps a guide on dog training via an email opt-in. This would allow you to use Adwords Express if you fancied and capture those looking for dog walking. I created a similar campaign for a dog kennels and they were getting 10-15 new customers per week using these methods, and they add up over time and come back. Gumtree and Craigslist Leeds/Sheffield would also be great places to advertise to bring in more local traffic. You could also spend a little on some A5 leaflets with a discount code and your website address. Give these out in your local area and offer a 25% discount if they use that code and book through your website on a form you would have to create.

        The other blog however could be heavily monetized with affiliate links, Adsense and an email opt-in. As you say, you can open this up to a huge audience by using a TLD like a .com, .net, .org. It will be interesting to see which site brings in the most money, let us know how you get on.
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  • Profile picture of the author fedor50
    As others have already pointed out you can sell ebooks related to your niche, adsense, affiliate marketing with Clickbank, etc. monetizing is usually the easy part. Getting traffic is the hard part.
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  • Profile picture of the author aplchian
    I would take that music off of the site.
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