150K Monthly UVs - How to monitize?

It's hard to say without knowing the niche and more about your site. I'm assuming its unique content?

I'd try some CPA offers personally. Two ideas in starting:
1. Find the demographics of your site, then start testing offers based of those demographics
2. Watch the ads current on your site via Adsense, find offers similar and try them out

Starting build a list, create your own product or feature, and test Amazon Associate program.

Those 3 will keep you busy for a while, and profitable too!

Ples, I've done this and still do it. Ad revenue sites provide long-term, residual income. It's awesome.

Ok, as far as "what would you do...":

1. I love CPA. But I would not test any offers *unless* the offer is an exact solution to a problem your web site addresses. I've tested hundreds of offers with millions of impressions on one of my high-traffic sites and this is the conclusion I've drawn. For example: if your site is about "fat loss for women" - then a CPA offer offering a "fat loss pill for women" will work great.

2. You are likely making only $3 a day with Adsense because you've not:
a -- tested different ad positioning
b -- tested different ad types (blue versus green; display versus text; etc.)
c -- run different Network Ads (ValueClick Media, Burst Media, Advertising, Tribal Fusion. There are hundreds of Networks, but only a few are worth pursuing)

3. Selling Ad Space yourself can be lucrative. However, it's not consistent. Sometimes you have to hustle and find advertisers. Other times they come to you (as you mentioned above).

If you go this route - you can, technically, charge whatever you want. But you should know more or less what the market is willing to pay.

Find this out by:

a -- studying your site demographics
b -- snooping on your competitors
c -- analyzing your traffic trends
d -- identifying big brands who target your demographics (don't waste time pursuing small time players - unless they come to you. Big brands have money!)
e -- contacting key individuals/decision makers in these companies
f -- developing a relationship with them (priceless)
g -- making them an advertising offer (favorable to you in terms of $$$)
h -- cash the check!

4. Alternatively, you can use 3rd party Ad Middlemen like BuySellAds.com and let them handle all the details. I haven't had any success with sites like this - but they are still worth a try.

5. As far as your current situation is concerned:

a -- Figure out the following:
a1. your overall site Traffic in terms of Page Impressions/Views. This will let you know how much traffic your site is getting (for site-wide ad placements)
a2. your site traffic for your Top 10 pages in terms of Page Impressions/Views. (for page-specific ad placements)
a3. your site traffic for your Category Pages (for category-specific ad placements)
b -- Use a Spreadsheet to create a chart of RPM/CPM prices to charge based on 100,000 Page Impressions/Views going up to 500,000 Page Impressions/Views; AND starting at $.50 (fifty cents) CPM going up to $20 CPM.

For example: 500,000 Impressions at $.50 CPM would equal an Ad cost of $250.

500,000 Impressions at $2.00 CPM would equal an Ad cost of $1,000.

Use the chart as a quick reference when negotiating. It will allow you to quickly glance at what you stand to make for "X" amount of Impressions at "$X" CPM pricing.

c -- Sell your Ad Space "Inventory" (as it's called).
d -- Take the money. Especially if you stand to make more than what you are currently making - but don't lock yourself into a long term contract if you know you can make more money in the long run.

That's pretty much it.

Learn this - it can be quite lucrative no matter which avenue you choose to follow. And the whole point is to optimize and maximize your Ad earnings - no matter where it comes from.

Of course, when you get tired of this business model - you can then sell your site for a whole lot of money... but that's a whole different ball game

Hope this helps.

- Jay

Great advice above.

I would say sell them ad spots and lock them in for a year. Give them a discount if they prepay for the year too.

Tbh and not being disrespectful you have came on here and said you have 150k UV on your blog and asked how best to monetize it however no one can give you a proper answer unless they know what type of site you have, ie niche area but more importantly the spendability of the visitors, are the visitors one offs looking for a certain item etc.

Its good to have the guys approach you about ad space, and I can guarantee you have probably had approaches from this site as well since your post, but you cant make an informed decision unless you know what your traffic is worth.

If you are only getting $3 a day in Adsense then there is something wrong for a start if you are getting 5k UV in that day!!

What that tells me is that the visitors arent interested in the ad's for whatever reason. Although they could be positioned wrongly. Not formatted correctly, theres a million reasons why it cant be working but at the end of the day, Adsense should work in theory, regardless if its a lot or not much, but more than $3 for 5k UV.

Think about it, Adsense works by showing ads relevant to the content on your site. If people are coming to your blog for the content then they should theoretically be interested in the ads, depending of course on the answer to the 1st paragraph above.

My advice would be to not sell the ad space because you are limiting your income. Remember if someone pays you $20, $50, $100 whatever, for a certain ad space then they will have to be making much more than that to make money. And if they are doing that then why shouldnt you??

Stay on the forum and look about for hints and tips on what to do. You will make more money in the long run.

Sell a product. I have the same amount of uniques on one of my sites and Adsense is totally not worth it. You'll make so much more money selling products.

Hi,
If Adsense is only generating $3 a day off 150k uniques something is wrong (this is a .02 CPM). Your ad placements are either set up inefficiently, or maybe your UVs are from countries that do not monetize well. Along with CPA offers (which take time to set up and optimize) you may want to find a company that pays on a CPM basis. Running/testing CPA in conjunction with a CPM company can help you generate some cash. Remember that just because Adsense is not performing, it's a CPC network, which is different from CPM.

Can you PM me your website? I'll gladly pay you more than what adsense gives you to put up my own ads.

Jay you rocks....build your own list and check with safe swaps ....hope this helps