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Need direction for blog/website

by thedailyalbum
15 replies
Hey all,

forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong forum, or if my questions/situation aren't relevant to the discussion here. I feel, though, that I may be in the right spot.

I'm having difficulty in finding a direction or immediate goal for my website. I run a blog/music review site and have been writing a majority of the content myself over the past few months. I guess that my primary goal right now is for the site to generate enough income to outsource some of the content generation. I'm not looking for some get-rich-quick thing here, and I feel that I have been adhering to the 'content rules' system that seems to be in place.

Considering I've really done no advertising, I don't think that my UVs are terrible (5-10k/month), but I haven't really found a way to monetize the site or to increase the number of page views/visit or return users. Organic search traffic is steadily increasing, as I'd expect with fresh, new content on a regular basis.

If you have time to look at the site, I'd much appreciate it; if not, I'm curious to know if any others have run into this issue as they attempted to move from a hobby to something more serious. Thanks in advance for your help!

Sean

The Daily Album - If we review it, it's good.
#adsense #blog #blog or website #direction #music
  • Profile picture of the author creaturelocaljohn
    If I were you I will register it to Google Adsense. Then try to promote it to social media sites. I will also refer some services or product where I am affiliated.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
    I don't know why people get stuck on, or talk about page views. Page views could be anything, bots, spiders, who knows what. 10 page views could be one person checking out 10 of your pages.

    The more important traffic number is unique visitors. That tells you how many people visit. And likely going to be much lower. You probably don't get any much traffic as you think. Don't mean to be negative, just saying page views doesn't mean alot.

    If your site is about music, seems the best programs to promote are music related. Bad things with Adsense are, it doesn't pay much, you can't control the ads and the click thru rates on the ads are usually very low, which means your losing possible sales.

    Since you know the niche, what would you be interested in? What would you buy or sign up for? Maybe music downloads? What about CPA offers? Sell amazon music or downloads?

    Just my thoughts
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    • Profile picture of the author thedailyalbum
      Originally Posted by Ron Killian View Post

      I don't know why people get stuck on, or talk about page views. Page views could be anything, bots, spiders, who knows what. 10 page views could be one person checking out 10 of your pages.

      The more important traffic number is unique visitors. That tells you how many people visit. And likely going to be much lower. You probably don't get any much traffic as you think. Don't mean to be negative, just saying page views doesn't mean alot.

      If your site is about music, seems the best programs to promote are music related. Bad things with Adsense are, it doesn't pay much, you can't control the ads and the click thru rates on the ads are usually very low, which means your losing possible sales.

      Since you know the niche, what would you be interested in? What would you buy or sign up for? Maybe music downloads? What about CPA offers? Sell amazon music or downloads?

      Just my thoughts
      Thanks Ron,

      I think you are right about targeting the niche with specific offers/promotions, so just a quick look at CPA's looks like it might be an improvement over Adsense. Regarding the traffic, I try to post/interact on all the major social sites, and have tried collecting emails to build a list, but haven't had much success on either of those fronts. Any suggestions there?

      Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
        Originally Posted by thedailyalbum View Post

        Thanks Ron,

        Regarding the traffic, I try to post/interact on all the major social sites, and have tried collecting emails to build a list, but haven't had much success on either of those fronts. Any suggestions there?

        Thanks!
        Maybe it's more your content. Just wonder how many people are that interested in deep conversations on a given artist or song? Not trying to be negative, just a thinking out loud.

        Are the majority of people just like, "hey I like that song", and not so much "Let's really talk about it in depth"?

        I listen to alot of music myself and my ipod is overflowing, but I am in the first group, I like a song, but not interested in talking about it at length.

        Or I am just off base?
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        • Profile picture of the author savidge4
          Originally Posted by Ron Killian View Post

          Maybe it's more your content. Just wonder how many people are that interested in deep conversations on a given artist or song? Not trying to be negative, just a thinking out loud.

          Are the majority of people just like, "hey I like that song", and not so much "Let's really talk about it in depth"?

          I listen to alot of music myself and my ipod is overflowing, but I am in the first group, I like a song, but not interested in talking about it at length.

          Or I am just off base?
          Its not that you are off base, it is you are not apart of the "Niche" This site is clearly a very well targeted "Niche" site. Its not for everyone, but anyone that is interested, will love this site!
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    • Profile picture of the author PinkStar
      Originally Posted by Ron Killian View Post

      I don't know why people get stuck on, or talk about page views. Page views could be anything, bots, spiders, who knows what. 10 page views could be one person checking out 10 of your pages.

      The more important traffic number is unique visitors. That tells you how many people visit. And likely going to be much lower. You probably don't get any much traffic as you think. Don't mean to be negative, just saying page views doesn't mean alot.
      I disagree. Sure, unique visitors are key. But if you have 100 visitors and only 100 pv's, then that is a big indication that people don't find your site interesting at all and just click out.
      Also, I'm a fan of rotating ads as you can add alot of ads without turning your site into a bannerfarm. So if you have a 100 visitors and 500 pv's, you can show 5 different ads in the same spot and 5x the chance that one of those banners are interesting to the visitor.

      My 2 banner rotations... errr cents
      PinkStar
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        I am thinking the easiest answer would be to get an iTunes affiliate program going. You can directly market what it is you are reviewing that way. They have some other pretty cool options to offer as well.
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      • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
        Originally Posted by PinkStar View Post

        I disagree. Sure, unique visitors are key. But if you have 100 visitors and only 100 pv's, then that is a big indication that people don't find your site interesting at all and just click out.
        Also, I'm a fan of rotating ads as you can add alot of ads without turning your site into a bannerfarm. So if you have a 100 visitors and 500 pv's, you can show 5 different ads in the same spot and 5x the chance that one of those banners are interesting to the visitor.

        My 2 banner rotations... errr cents
        PinkStar
        Very true on the page views. I was only trying to say, it's not a good number to judge your actually traffic on. Uniques is just a more reliable number.

        Completely agree on the banner rotation. I use to do that for all my ads, can make a HUGE difference. These days, just haven't found a plug-in for wordpress.
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  • Profile picture of the author KevinChapman
    Nice site! You could try selling advertising space to other bloggers or websites? I'd also suggest getting yourself in the music reviews/blogging community as much as possible, join twitter chats, comment on other blogs and start making connections.
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  • Profile picture of the author monicawomble
    Check out the answer from Joe Remington on this recent Warrior thread...

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-question.html

    He gives a detailed and spot on answer that will help you.
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    • Profile picture of the author thedailyalbum
      Awesome tips, thanks so much for taking the time to check out my site and respond!

      Sean
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  • Profile picture of the author GeoRiot
    iTunes has a great affiliate program for selling music, music videos, and related digital music products (band's apps, documentaries about music, TV shows....) and Amazon also has a great program that also includes not only digital products but also physical goods (CDs, Vinyl, Posters, etc.).

    I would say at a MINIMUM use iTunes and Amazon to link to the songs / albums you regularly review, but I think you could work in iTunes and Amazon links / products into a lot of places on your blog.

    On average we see EPCs for music related products on iTunes and Amazon between $0.02- $0.05.

    FYI - both of these stores have international stores and affiliate programs so ping me if you want some help getting optimized for that.

    Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author webmonopoly
      Originally Posted by GeoRiot View Post

      iTunes has a great affiliate program for selling music, music videos, and related digital music products (band's apps, documentaries about music, TV shows....) and Amazon also has a great program that also includes not only digital products but also physical goods (CDs, Vinyl, Posters, etc.).

      I would say at a MINIMUM use iTunes and Amazon to link to the songs / albums you regularly review, but I think you could work in iTunes and Amazon links / products into a lot of places on your blog.

      On average we see EPCs for music related products on iTunes and Amazon between $0.02- $0.05.

      FYI - both of these stores have international stores and affiliate programs so ping me if you want some help getting optimized for that.

      Good luck!
      Nice site! Do u guys take a cut of the of the international commissions you help us make? I've been searching for ages to find a way to monetize my international amazon traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author eklipz316
    You can signup for the iTunes, Amazon and/or Rdio affiliate programs to start monetizing your site.

    I notice that none of your social button are linked on the side which leads me to believe you're not taking advantage of it which is why you're having trouble with repeat viewers. Social can help keep users engaged, bring in new users on a daily basis, and can increase your search engine rankings. I'ts easy to setup and maintain, and I suggest you start using it.

    Hope this helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author thedailyalbum
      Originally Posted by eklipz316 View Post

      You can signup for the iTunes, Amazon and/or Rdio affiliate programs to start monetizing your site.

      I notice that none of your social button are linked on the side which leads me to believe you're not taking advantage of it which is why you're having trouble with repeat viewers. Social can help keep users engaged, bring in new users on a daily basis, and can increase your search engine rankings. I'ts easy to setup and maintain, and I suggest you start using it.

      Hope this helps.
      Thanks! Just moved some stuff around and broke these buttons, so thanks for pointing that out!
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