Help w/ High Traffic College Sports Site w/ Articles & Message Boards

5 replies
Hi all, just signed up for the forums here.

I'm in internet marketing but typically work for existing businesses doing SEO and design/development stuff. As a bit of a side project I agreed to help out some buddies with a site in an area that i really don't have any expertise.

It's a website devoted to a college sports program. The site has content articles and message boards for users to post on. The site launched this week and is getting about 40k pageviews per day. It's about 14% pageviews on the content articles and the remainder on the message board.

The forums side does have pretty crude language, but they're trying to keep porn and such out of it.

They signed up for Adsense but I'm curious if there's a better way to monetize this site, especially with some fear in the back of my mind that it could get the boot from Adsense at some point.

Any ideas?
#articles #boards #college #high #message #site #sports #traffic #w or
  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    40k page views per day, on a brand new site?

    How are they promoting currently?

    To answer your question, sign up with CPA sites like Neverblue and put up offers for things like Free Ringtones, etc., anything that will appeal to a college kid...

    Of course it would help to know if the audience is students or alumni.
    Signature
    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4868570].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author volantis
      Yeah, it's a brand new site. A small core of guys left another message board to start this one and thousands of people followed. It's pretty impressive, to me at least. It's all viral promotion on twitter and articles getting linked on other message boards.

      It's a mix of college students and alumni. I would say that the college membership is far more computer savy than your avg college student and would first think of things like free ringtones as a scam or advertising they would stay away from. I have no real data to back that up, just intuition.

      I've never done anything with a CPA site. What are the typical ranges of conversions and rates for CPA agreements?

      All input very much appreciated.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4868644].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author volantis
      Touche. Thanks for the input. I'll look into Neverblue.

      We'll probably ride with Adsense to see how it does and if we don't get kicked out.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4868847].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author professorrosado
        Is this a specific college's sports program? And if so, are the majority of users and alumni local to the college?

        If the answer is yes, then there are various LOCAL venues that you could use to monetize the site.

        One of so many ways is to find a savvy bar in the neighborhood who is smart enough to get their advertising paid for by one of their suppliers like Johnnie Walker, Bacardi, etc.

        I remember having an account once that paid me handsomely to promote their bar - they didn't care because Bacardi was paying the promo bills. Additionally, combining the sports theme, you can co-sponsor the events and expand your site's marketing. This is a win-win opportunity.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4869238].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Generally, college students -- savvy or not -- spend a lot of money on ringtones and other subscriptions on their cell phones.

    Many are also keen to get their first loans, via credit cards. That is why credit card companies market heavily to college students. They figure they are more responsible, and they would want to build their credit score.

    CPA offers vary from a couple bucks per conversion to some really big bucks on conversion.

    Conversion rates generally rank higher than affiliate programs, because with affiliate programs, you are trying to actually sell a product. With CPA, you are trying to get the user to take a specific action, such as zip code submit, phone number submit, trial offers, etc.



    Originally Posted by volantis View Post

    I would say that the college membership is far more computer savy than your avg college student and would first think of things like free ringtones as a scam or advertising they would stay away from. I have no real data to back that up, just intuition.

    YOU and the site's founders are not your target audience.
    Signature
    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[4868672].message }}

Trending Topics