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What can I do with this site?

by jodiesmitham
7 replies
Hi all,

I created an educational site over a year ago and invested most of my time building up content, social media fans and an email list. The site is monetized only with Google Adsense and I was hoping affiliate sales. However, the social media fans just simply don't convert and neither does the email list.

Google Adsense earnings are off the back of Google searches related to this subject, particularly around courses. Problem is, I am reliant on course advertisers on Google Adsense, but there don't appear to be that many.

I am stuck, as I don't know whether to throw in the towel or look for a new way to monetize. The courses are official, so I couldn't put a course together myself without having a LOT of knowledge and experience. I could approach online course providers (I'm sure they would be interested), but I don't know how to offer advertising space. The site attracts around 6,000 unique visits a month, but they are very targeted. I've already checked out affiliate networks, but none of them offer anything in this area of education.

Any ideas?
#site
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Very difficult for anyone to say without seeing it, Jodie.

    For myself, if wanting to monetize through affiliate marketing, I would start by removing AdSense from the site: this is a huge conflict, in site-design terms, because with AdSense one gets paid only when people leave, whereas for affiliate marketing one needs (a) people to stay for as long as possible, (b) people to subscribe, and (c) for it not to look like primarily "a marketing/advertising site".

    I'd want to address all my time/effort/research into discovering why the email list doesn't convert. There's a huge range of possible reasons why this might be so.

    Different people opt in, on different sorts of sites. In all my experience, the most monetizable lists are build from the sites which establish the most authenticity and credibility, and the single most important step in monetizing a list is to provide, in exchange for the email addresses, something which effectively serves all the purposes listed in this post: there's typically very little income (and often not even much of an open-rate for the emails) without doing all that, at least.

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    • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
      Hi Alexa,

      Thanks for your reply.

      Initially, I wanted to test Adsense and the email list. Thankfully, I have had a massive input from a number of professionals regarding free content to entice people to sign up. People signed up, but don't seem to want to purchase anything. However, Adsense appears to be working in that it's providing the only outcome. I agree, maybe if the site looked less like a marketing/advertising site, it may attract others to sign up.

      My Facebook fan page numbers are improving, but they also don't convert very well. They 'like' the posts relating to Amazon products, but they don't buy anything.

      Jodie


      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Very difficult for anyone to say without seeing it, Jodie.

      For myself, if wanting to monetize through affiliate marketing, I would start by removing AdSense from the site: this is a huge conflict, in site-design terms, because with AdSense one gets paid only when people leave, whereas for affiliate marketing one needs (a) people to stay for as long as possible, (b) people to subscribe, and (c) for it not to look like primarily "a marketing/advertising site".

      I'd want to address all my time/effort/research into discovering why the email list doesn't convert. There's a huge range of possible reasons why this might be so.

      Different people opt in, on different sorts of sites. In all my experience, the most monetizable lists are build from the sites which establish the most authenticity and credibility, and the single most important step in monetizing a list is to provide, in exchange for the email addresses, something which effectively serves all the purposes listed in this post: there's typically very little income (and often not even much of an open-rate for the emails) without doing all that, at least.

      .
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    I personally think that you should remove all Google Adsense ads from your site and just add banners going to affiliate sites.

    Originally Posted by jodiesmitham View Post

    but none of them offer anything in this area of education.
    I am sure that if you sit and do a more throughout search online, you will find these types of courses. You just did not find them yet.
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    • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
      Originally Posted by talfighel View Post

      I am sure that if you sit and do a more throughout search online, you will find these types of courses. You just did not find them yet.
      That's the thing. There are plenty of them and I list the main ones on my sites. It's just that they don't offer an affiliate scheme, so I can't earn any commission.
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  • Profile picture of the author usemyteam
    You may need to check what's going on with your email list and why its not converting when it should be. Also for Google Adsense you need to remove some of them if not all, then put some space for ads. You can try contacting other websites who maybe interested in what you can offer for them (in relation to ads space).
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    • Profile picture of the author jodiesmitham
      Originally Posted by usemyteam View Post

      You can try contacting other websites who maybe interested in what you can offer for them (in relation to ads space).
      This is what I was thinking, but I don't know how to approach them.

      - Do I give them stats?
      - How do I work out what to charge them without scaring them away?
      - Do I give them a trial period?
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  • Profile picture of the author bostjan33
    Banned
    Hm... this looks like one of so many projects without a business plan before their launch.

    I'd suggest you dig deeper into monetization options you have, because you won't be getting much, if you sell your site right now. Good luck.
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