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How to monetize this website?

by matt5409
10 replies
Hi all!

I have a website that I designed and built from the ground up that has been ticking over by itself for around 4 months now (I haven't touched it).

The website is Business Networking Events | Open Networking

The reason I haven't really done anything is because I can't find a way to monetize it. Though, I have tried.

First I tried charging network organisers to post events - £15/yr. Seemed reasonable, but nobody would pay.

Second I have tried affiliate ads - nobody is buying. The site is not a buying site; it's an information site.

I was thinking about putting AdSense on there but that ain't going to make me rich. In fact from what I've read about AdSense is you need a million hits a month to make decent money - this site get around 500 uniques.

So I put a lot of time into developing this site, and it is doing it's job - people are finding it, and using it. I would like to earn at least a small passive income from it's existence though - any ideas?
#monetize #website
  • Profile picture of the author seantanmarketing
    Your website need more "traffic" before you can move to the monetize part.

    Once you have enough traffic, you can start selling ads space on your website.

    Logically, you will not want to pay money to advertise on a website that don't have enough traffic. :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Aruna29
    Your website need more advertising and marketing.So this is done by making more back links which increase your website traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author matt5409
      Originally Posted by Aruna29 View Post

      Your website need more advertising and marketing.So this is done by making more back links which increase your website traffic.
      this is NOT what I was asking - i'm fully aware of the process by which to increase my traffic.

      what i am looking for is potential ideas to monetize the site - there must be methods out there which I have not heard of?
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  • Profile picture of the author corsleymaxwell
    Well, so far today affiliate marketing and adsense are the only great source of income in the internet. I think you have to promote you site first in the internet world. You can hire an expert if you want.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin McNally
    Hi

    I know what you mean about it being an info site but I think it may take time if you want to build it as the authority site on networking events. Once you have this you might be able to charge for sponsored listings etc on home page.

    I noticed you are on page 2 for some networking keywords and it looks pretty easy to get ranked for a lot of these long tail keywords. If you are ranking all over the place it may increase your listings and you are also building up a list of business owners who register.

    I am no great fan of adsense but you should test it out right above the fold and see what the CTR is.

    Also look for internet marketing seminars that have affiliate programmes, there are a few in the UK and this would be targetted traffic as some of your visitors are already paying for business lunches etc...

    You may also consider an exit strategy, build the site and keyword rankings up and sell it to one of your competitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author matt5409
    Thanks Kevin, some really good ideas there! I had toyed with the idea of selling it on - but at present it technically has no value. Also, after my initial SEO kick to get on page 1 for "networking events" etc it's running itself.

    I like the idea of adding in a sponsored event listing on the homepage, might look further into that. Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author Finch
      Maybe instead of selling ad placements, you should be looking to jump on the affiliate side of things by promoting the biggest events yourself?

      I know there are several paid conferences in the UK that charge for access passes. They offer affiliate partnerships where you receive a cut for sending along registrations.

      Assuming that your site has established some authority with the search engines, you could create some "featured upcoming events" where users can book their conference passes via your site. If you get in early enough, you'll be able to rank well for each conference. It's a good market to tap in to because you're dealing with businesses that are happy to spend money.

      If you can negotiate a few early booking coupon codes with each conference organizer, you could monetize the site quite effectively.

      I would strongly recommend you do something with your URL formatting for each event though. At the moment, when I click through the various listings, the URL serves up an ID number rather than the keywords. If you fix this, you'll rank a lot easier for each of those listings.

      For example, for the proNet Spen Valley listing:

      Code:
      http://www.opennetworking.co.uk/event.php?id=BN317053518
      Should become something like...

      Code:
      http://www.opennetworking.co.uk/events/pronet-spen-valley-business-breakfast/
      I think you'd get much better search engine returns by tidying up your URLs like this. I know that's not what you asked for, but just a suggestion.
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  • Profile picture of the author rain21
    first focus on visitors, without visitors you wont make any money.
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  • Profile picture of the author matt5409
    @finch that is truly a GREAT idea, i already have a couple of large conferences that I attend in mind!

    I did not know you could sell for them however. I'll have a look around and potentially this could be a fantastic opportunity. Thanks again!
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  • Profile picture of the author ScottTMk
    Theres alot of great info on this site, have you looked at your visitors statistics? If you get a fair bit of traffic coming back to your site again then it may be a good idea to recommend products/services every now and again... Because people that are coming back will be more likely to listen to you.
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