Suggestions to Improve my Car Authority Site?

15 replies
Hello All.

Long-time reader, first-time poster.

I publish an automotive authority site based in Canada. We are credible, media car dudes with great content.

However, I do not know how best to earn revenue. The site is one year old.

Currently, I'm serving BurstMedia on homepage only where all media buys land (Burst is new as of few days ago; CPM model only; few adsense ads still need to be removed on homepg...). And Adsense on all other posts (all organic, keyword queries).

I'm hoping this generates some $. Even a little. I'm having not much luck, and feel like I'm wasting time/energy/money creating fresh content and building my authority site when I should be building 10000 micro sites.

Not losing hope (yet), just hoping for some advice. I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

site is Tractionlife.com
#authority #car #improve #site #suggestions
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  • Profile picture of the author Sushiman1111
    What is it that you want people to do here? Just look at the content (which does look great)?

    I think that if I were running the site I'd try some CPA stuff. I know nothing about the auto market, but would think that there would be people who are looking to buy a car that would come to your site, and you could send them to a pretty lucrative CPA offer instead of fooling around with AdSense and all that.

    One thing that I've found is that unless you have really massive traffic, it makes a lot more sense to try to sell something that nets you $20-$30 a shot versus just a few cents. It's kind of counter-intuitive (or at least it was for me), because you think that it's somehow easier for lots of people to click on a cheap link than just a few to click on an expensive one, but that's not the case.
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    • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
      Originally Posted by Sushiman1111 View Post

      What is it that you want people to do here?
      ^^^This. It is an attractive site but what is the visitor supposed to do? There's not even a clue. If you don't direct people they'll click away.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    Nice tidy site :-)

    Being a petrolhead myself I have a few sites in the car niche and I made a lot of money with ebay partner network :-)

    I like your site by the way :-) Keep it up

    Danny
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    • Profile picture of the author autolife
      Thanks Guys, appreciate the feedback...

      Sushiman1111, I agree with you: a CPA offer would work great. But you'd be surprised, I can't seem to find good affiliate ads in the automotive space. I tried insurance ads but these were US-targeted only (alienating my Canadian readers). So that didn't really work.

      DannyCutts, I just signed up for EbayPN, pending review. Not sure how EPN works but if I'm able to control the ads/items for sale, maybe this could work.
      Glad to hear it's been working for you!

      If I can just figure out a strategy that works, I'd feel a lot better...I've been at this for 1 year. Hopefully something pays off soon.

      Hell, I'd be happy with $500/mth right now!
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  • Profile picture of the author enrikm
    You said you had this for a year?

    Sometimes it may take more than that until you start seeing real income. If I were you, I probably would market it a bit more aggressively. Try to buy more ads, create a twitter account and join in to the conversation of other car enthusiasts. Create a facebook page to expand your market etc..
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  • Profile picture of the author Benny L
    PM sent... I've got no real answers, but possibly some avenues to explore with you.

    I think your site looks great and would like to see it grow and evolve... and find those niches that could be profitable.

    One thing you could do perhaps is focus on just one aspect of motorsport. For example, the various INEX series, karting, or drag racing. That could build up a younger following. Or perhaps some amateur motorcycle series. Instead of going scattershot with a bunch of different things, maybe pick one, whichever interests you, and delve into the niche on the side. A lot of the small racing series don't get a lot of press and you could definitely become popular within that segment to help spread your word. Just think of all those guys with low-budget sponsors on their cars who would love the extra exposure.

    And what about technical articles? That could also be a way of bringing in natural / organic product placements and ads that also could add content to your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author autolife
      thx benny, pms received.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Love the site. Am a fellow Canadian.

    Sushiman1111's suggestion is excellent. I promote local professional services in Canada for big commissions. There's no reason you couldn't set up a referral program with car dealerships in Canada. Look for a dealer that sells all over Canada if possible. You would probably want to structure it as pay per lead.

    Other affiliate suggestions:

    Auto loans (Canada may be tough to find)
    Credit Score improvement products/CPA

    Again, you might approach a private lender in Canada and enter into a referral arrangement.

    Vehicle accessories - roof racks, tires, etc. - check out Amazon.ca to see what type of vehicle-related products are sold and promote Amazon.ca.

    Your site seems to profile cars generally so I see no reason you have to limit yourself to Canadian products. I see you use CAD pricing, but perhaps consider a strategic switch to USA which will open up more affiliate opportunities (but may hurt local dealer referral opps).
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    • Profile picture of the author autolife
      hey jgant, thanks for the great insights.

      you're right, it's tough finding Cdn auto affiliates. over 90% of my traffic is US, but everything else including Cdn is organic.

      is there a way to redirect Cdn IPs to a Cdn deal? i.e. Cdn visitor clicks US auto loan CPA ad, and gets redirected to a Cdn offer? (opposed to the 404 page).

      as far as dealers, i know the media company that puts out canada's largest auto dealer magazine. so they've got all the pot.clients already. i should think about this.

      thanks for your help guys.
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  • Profile picture of the author autolife
    they're supposed to read the content. it's an authority site. they come to read reviews, etc.
    we will have different cpa pages too.
    ...but you may be right. some call of action might be good...we're working on. ; )
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    • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
      Originally Posted by autolife View Post

      they're supposed to read the content. it's an authority site. they come to read reviews, etc.
      we will have different cpa pages too.
      ...but you may be right. some call of action might be good...we're working on. ; )
      A site isn't an authority site because you say so. If they're supposed to read the content then put up a compelling headline directing them to what you want them to do. Right now the only people staying on this site are those who think their car might show up in one of the slides. Everyone else is, clickaroo bye bye...
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  • Profile picture of the author autolife
    thanks koreancowboy, i appreciate that. yeah, i gave that some thought; possibly splitting the bike/tuner features off.

    but i think i'll keep the broad motor topics. and focus on some niche cpa offers. i kind of feel that by having a larger, broader site, perhaps allows me to monetize in different ways (i.e. cpm revenue on homepage; affiliate friendly landing pages elsewhere; some direct sales thrown it; maybe sponsored posts as well; etc.).

    still long way to go, that's for sure! i'm learning.
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    • Profile picture of the author koreancowboy
      Originally Posted by autolife View Post

      thanks koreancowboy, i appreciate that. yeah, i gave that some thought; possibly splitting the bike/tuner features off.

      but i think i'll keep the broad motor topics. and focus on some niche cpa offers. i kind of feel that by having a larger, broader site, perhaps allows me to monetize in different ways (i.e. cpm revenue on homepage; affiliate friendly landing pages elsewhere; some direct sales thrown it; maybe sponsored posts as well; etc.).

      still long way to go, that's for sure! i'm learning.
      Hmm, I never thought about that...just kept the same offers throughout the site. I might tinker around with it to show different ads. What little marketing I do with it now, I drive traffic to whatever article that I wrote via FB.

      Sure, there's more ways that I could do it, but I don't have the time to...plus, it's going away to make room for an 2.0 version.
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      I provide consulting for companies that use Adobe AEM...you can check out what I've done so far.

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