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In need of ideas...

by gary varga
8 replies
Fellow warriors,

I own a hybrid car related website (Hybridcarfreak.com). The site is about 1 year old. I am getting a decent amount of traffic (approx 100 uniques a day), but I can barely make any money with the site. I have affiliate links as well as adsense on the website...

Can anybody give me some advice how could I make some money with my site?

Thank you very much!
#ideas
  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    First of all, you've done an excellent job of blending your Adsense blocks with the rest of your site. That's something far too many people still get wrong.

    What's probably hurting your Adsense CTR, though, is placement. You've got that large image of a hybrid car dominating the choicest real estate on your homepage - the upper left of the body section. I would most definitely move that image below the Adsense block you have below it currently. Swap them, and make that image smaller.

    Also, once you do that, I'd substitute a larger rectangular Adsense block for that smaller half-banner block. You'll show more ads and in the best spot for click-thrus.

    Otherwise, at least as far as Adsense revenue, you're in good shape as far as I can tell. I'll be surprised if you don't see a noticeable increase in CTR if you do make those changes.

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author JeffH
    Are your visitors looking to build a Hybrid? (affiliate products)

    Are they looking to buy a Hybrid? (get manufacturer to sponsor you, geotarget local car dealers advertisements)

    Are they just looking to save money on gas? (affiliate products)

    What are other automotive niche sites doing to earn money? (hypermilers, corvette fans, etc.)

    Other ideas: sell automotive magazine subscriptions, sell traffic to other auto sites


    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author Ken Nubo
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author dave147
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      • Profile picture of the author Alan Cheng
        Once the users sign up to your list, display a tell a friend script. If the users tell 3 of their friends, they get a short free report from you. This will grow your list.

        In your report you can put links to other affiliate products related to hybrid cars.

        You also can try building your list using the slide up ads. It should do better than the optin form you currently have.

        And I agree, you did really well in blending the Adsense into your blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author gary varga
    Thank you guys very much for the advice! I just implemented an ad before each post. We will see how it works.

    Jeff, those are some really good guestions! To tell you the truth, I have no clue what my visitors want... Can you tell me a way to find it out? Maybe polls?

    Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author JeffH
      Originally Posted by gary varga View Post

      Thank you guys very much for the advice! I just implemented an ad before each post. We will see how it works.

      Jeff, those are some really good guestions! To tell you the truth, I have no clue what my visitors want... Can you tell me a way to find it out? Maybe polls?

      Thanks
      You can split test to see what they respond to. Place a prominent ad or link for each topic you want to test. You can do them all at once, but it's probably best to test them one at a time. Let each test run for a bit to collect some stats.

      Whichever one they click on the most is the topic they're most interested in. However, when choosing how you want to monetize, your most popular topic isn't necessarily the one that will give the highest returns if it's a low-profit item. You'll have to test that as well.

      Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author gary varga
    Alan, that's a really good idea to use a slide up ad. Also, I like the "tell a friend" trick.

    Can you tell me which script is the best for slide up ads?
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