39 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
39 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Scenerio: Site gets 180,000 uniques per month, Makes $235 per month, Help Earn it more ...

by LMC
34 replies
Hey Guys,

So I figured this would be an interesting scenario to bring to the community. I have a site that gets 180,000 uniques per month, give or take a couple thousand.

The site's traffic is ALL organic. I'm ranked #1 across 50 keywords and on the first page of Google on over 100. The site has over 36,000 backlinks.

The site is an authority in it's niche to say the least.

My income: $235 give or take, per month.

I'm trying to pull some more income off this site, I have sites that get 1,000 uniques per month that make triple the amount this site makes and I don't understand why it is not earning.

The $235 is made strictly off of Adsense, the niche is a very low CPC niche I got involved by purchasing the site 2 years ago at a great price and SEO'ed the $*it out of it to bring in the traffic that it is earning now.

Things I have done to Monetize it more:

I integrated adsense a bit more and it increased earnings.

I added some Clickbank products to the site and made a sale or two in a given month but nothing big.

I offered a Freebie to build a list and that worked alright, I get about 80 signups a day, however when I sent an email promoting a product to the list I received very low CTR and no sales.

I added tangible products to the site via CJ and Amazon. I made no sales via CJ and the only reason I made some Amazon sales was due to impulse buyers off the cookie.


-----------------------------------------
The Next Step
-----------------------------------------

I think the next step to earn from the site is to build my own product/software and or build a membership.

Or, I can try content locking with some offers.

However, before I do that I wanted to see if the WF community had any hidden idea gems behind your great minds.


The niche itself are searching for "free" things, so they come to the site expecting "free".

How do I turn "free" into money.

So far I think CPA offers are going to be my best bet, but it is tough to find CPA offers that work with this niche.

I may have to develop my own.

Any ideas...

or do I sell the site, and if so, I want more then just $2,000-$2,500 for it.
#$235 #180 #cash #earn #makes #month #scenerio #site #uniques
  • Profile picture of the author StarBuG
    It would help if you would show us your website
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936204].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author fluffythewondercat
      "Free" is tough to convert. People searching for free are classic Opportunity Seekers; they want something for nothing. They are even grudging of their time but they have no problem with wasting yours.

      They'll open your mail if they think there's something of real value inside they won't have to pay for.

      I hate to be cynical but I doubt you will sell them much without running some kind of buy-one-get-two-free offer. And you'll have to work hard to establish the product you sell as a fantastic value.

      fLufF
      --
      Signature
      Fiverr is looking for freelance writers for its blog. Details here.
      Love microjobs? Work when you want and get paid in cash the same day!
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936242].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    I would love to show it you, but I don't want to post it publicly.

    The niche is people looking for different types of Free software
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936232].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author JayVance
    The membership site might be you best bet at boosting revenue. With it dealing with free software, it will be tough to sell to freebie seekers.

    Another possibility, like you said with your own product, is making the product very cheap and making a good income off quantity in sales. A low priced product might be the closest thing these freebie seekers might buy in mass.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936270].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author retsek
    With that many pageviews, I'd suggest CPM if the traffic is mostly US.

    For good measure, I manage a site with 300,000 uniques per month. About 60% of that of US visitors, then 20% Canada/UK.

    We have three CPM placements (300x250,160x600,728x90) setup in CPM chain with three cpm network to fill 100%. The first link in chain is ContextWeb. They pay us $3 for US impression, and they fill about 40-50% of that. Next in the chain, there's Burst Media and then Advertising.com, then Adsense for the remainder.

    total revenue from three networks comes up to about 8-10k per month.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936426].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Apollo-Articles
    CPM sounds like your best bet, especially since your visitors are looking for free stuff they'll likely to be very reluctant to buy or click.

    Sam
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936496].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Hamida Harland
    Originally Posted by LMC View Post


    or do I sell the site, and if so, I want more then just $2,000-$2,500 for it.
    You should get at least low 5 figures for the site based on the traffic alone - I've seen sites with very little earnings but high traffic sell for quite a bit on Flippa.

    A potential buyer might have some great ideas for monetization, and if so, that traffic is worth ALOT.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936521].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author TrafficGuy Claude
    Since your niche has a keen interest in getting computer software for free, why not sell them a low cost ebook that shows them how to get other types of products for free.

    For example, things like groceries can be gotten for free if you clip enough coupons and wait for sales. You can get electronics for free by posing as an interested retailer and emailing wholesalers for product samples. They can get free stuff locally by going on Craiglist other classified ads sites free section, and sites like Freecycle.org.

    Since they are freebie seekers, they probably are cheapskates and penny-pinchers when they inevitably do have to spend money on something. That being the case you could also successfully sell them other guides on how to save money on a bunch of different things.

    Or you could setup an incentivized CPA offer site, where they do surveys and other offers to get points in hopes of getting free stuff.

    Or you could even sell them a guide on how to setup a free website that will make them money.

    Depending on how ethical you are, you also could sell them a guide that shows them how to use the "dark net" (bittorrent, direct download sites, filesharing) to pirate free music, games, ebooks, software, and movies. Some of the top selling sites on Clickbank used to be download sites like these before they changed their TOS.

    Not saying that I personally condone doing so, but its definitely something they would be interested in buying.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936561].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author mr.gaurabborah
    Try CPA, I think you will earn much from it. If you are getting 80 sign ups per day.
    If you drive people to your CPA site and atleast 30 people fill up the form you can make like 3*30*30=$2700 a month. I don't think that will be a bad idea.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3936901].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author rhcbiz
    What did you end up trying? Any success?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5254350].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yoangov
    Depending on the niche.

    On my career I have ended to a conclusion that every niche can be monetized really good, but it really depends on the niche.

    If adsense is not good then there for sure will be something better. In case we know the niche I guess we can help better in this scenario
    Signature
    I generate high quality leads for your business, PM me!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5254373].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author gmil88
    I would seriously consider giving CPA a try and testing out a few free email/zip submits that target your demographics. You say that they are looking for free software so maybe a best buy email submit could work well on your site, the email submits pay out atleast a $1 and if you're getting that much traffic to your site then I don't see why you should have any problem getting atleast 20 submits a day, probably even a lot more. With just 20 submits a day you have just tripled your monthly income. Hope that helps.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5254535].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Lena
      With that mount of traffic I would definitely try content locking. So, if people come to your site for what your site offers.... sky is limit

      Vote for content locking
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5254665].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Winlin
    Originally Posted by LMC View Post

    The niche itself are searching for "free" things, so they come to the site expecting "free".
    Your market doesn't have or does not want to spend money... they want free and it sounds like that is what you are selling.

    You have a lot of visitors, just not buyers. I think I would focus on monetizing through selling advertisement (you already have adsense).

    My opinion is you will have a hard time selling anything to this crowd, but there are those that will pay to be in front of these people.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5254746].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author UpNorthGuy
    LMC,

    People seeking free stuff usually just keep browsing until they finally give up and move on to something else. But before that happens, they spend a good amount of time searching. There is a point at which they accept that what they want is not free, or at least they get tired of looking.

    One approach might be to convince them right at your site that they will not find it for "free" anywhere, but you might be able to direct them to the least expensive option. They key is to grab them while they are motivated to get the item.

    For example, "I spent 8 hours looking for Super Guru's Training Ebook for free, but with no luck. It simply isn't free. Every site I found was selling it for $200. But, I did find a site that offered it for $50. Blah Blah."
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5259937].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author cayman
    Hi LMC,

    Pls send me a PM, I need to discuss something important with you .
    (I can't send because I have too few posts).

    Thanks.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5260270].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Saito
    I would try ads of some kind. Even making $0.01 per visitor you could make a lot more.

    Also, I don't think someone searching for something free is necessarily a "freebie seeker" as a person in general--maybe just in that sitting.

    I search for free stuff and I also buy paid products. It's not either-or. People desiring a free opt-in gift or something CAN be sold something later. Think about everything YOU've ever opted in to receive. Some of them buy--it's a question of HOW.
    Signature
    Do You Suffer From Incomplete Funnel Syndrome?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5260484].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author OMGMarketingGroup
    Wow...wish I had that much! I mean wouldn't simple google, etc., click ads get your revenue up? I know you don't want them to end up running off to another site. Maybe your copy could use some work? Geez...good luck.
    Signature
    The Fitness Industry EXPOSED!!! Real Information!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5260541].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author vivi62
    I would say that you could put a number of ads priced at maybe $500 or upwards on your site as many companys would be interested in your site because of the high number of visitors you get,maybe put an ad on your page offering ad space and quoting how many visitors you get or consider selling for a good price.
    Regards
    vivi62
    Signature
    SECRET INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGYS

    FAST TRAFFIC CREATION SOFTWARE REVIEW
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5260601].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author ddDonPaul
      p.s. add cpa offer like "win a free iphone" or something like that. with $2 per sign up let`s say, you could make more then $10,000 per month with such amount of traffic.
      Signature

      "At the end of pain is success." E.T.

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5260680].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ddDonPaul
    what kind of website is it?
    here`s what i would do. make your website as a forum. make your visitors sign up in order to get that free download. implement "login with facebook" and you will get a lot more visitors.
    add some ads management plugins so your forum will be optimised for higher ctr.
    look for what products the people are looking for. try promoting some cheap products like those.
    Signature

    "At the end of pain is success." E.T.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5260669].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Stephens
    CPA is a good way forward.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5260711].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author sovereignn
    They want something free, so promote CPA offers that offer something "free"
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5261166].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Originally Posted by LMC View Post

    or do I sell the site, and if so, I want more then just $2,000-$2,500 for it.
    I'll give you $4,000 if you can prove traffic and earnings.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5261302].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author LMC
    Actually ended up making this site really profitable through CPA.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5261509].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author MaxReferrals
    Study your analytics and heatmap the site getting the traffic. From there, you can easily see where people are heading, and fine tune to drive them into a clearer funnel/path. This alone can give you a lift with appropriate tweaks.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5261925].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author WarriorAva
    Where are your ads placed? From my experience and what I've read about ad optimization, you should have one leaderboard ad or large ad at the top of your website and one square on the sidebar. I use a plugin called Ad Injection and I also put a ad at the top or bottom (depending on site) of my blog posts.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5262031].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author WarriorAva
    *You also need to add affiliate links where appropriate. What are you some affiliates you could use for your site since you don't want to name your site?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5262033].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author NatGiny
    Banned
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5262821].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Wide
    Can see you had success with CPA, great
    Can we know how much you managed to improve the income from the site, using CPA?
    Signature

    Test my 21.03% CTR Theme
    http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...?highlight=CTR

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5263007].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Dmaind
    I second to those who recommends CPA. It's way to go.
    Signature
    372 Sold - WSO >>> Wicked Google Ranking Factors <<< Do You Know What Is Powerful Than HIGH PR .GOV LINKS?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5263320].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Augie Johnston
    If their looking for free, why not give them free stuff...duh? Oh of course in exchange for completing a CPA offer.

    I don't know if this is the worlds greatest recommendation, but this is what I would test.

    1.Sign up with CPAlead
    2.Buy a reward program script
    3.Integrate it into your site.
    4.People get points for completing the CPAlead surveys. (if they complete a high paying offer they get alot of points, for an email submit they get a few)
    5.When someone earns enough points they can purchase the software they want for free using the points and of course you will make triple what the software really costs.
    6.Create a community on the site and people will keep coming back

    Augie
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5263354].message }}

Trending Topics