How to monetize a site with little text but 3,000,000 visitors per month?

19 replies
I have a site that aggregates videos. Every so often, a video will go viral, and it'll get a few million views. Until recently, I was pretty lazy about trying to monetize. I only had disqus ads bringing in money, so a really good day (like 1.5 million visitors) would bring in like $50. Lately, I started using Chitika, but that brings in even less money than disqus ads.

There seem to be three problems:
1. The page has very little text (by design), so it's difficult for contextual advertising to work.

2. The users themselves are just there for that one pageview, more or less.

3. Chitika pays almost nothing.

I realize one solution could be to write more content. However, one of the things that I prioritize on this site is that users are not bombarded with text. I try to keep it as lean as possible, so users find it easy to navigate. I'm am finally considering this, but not wholly comfortable with it.

Does anyone have experience monetizing a site like this?
#monetize #month #site #text #visitors
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    • Profile picture of the author stremmel
      No, they say I have too little text.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sgt Kraut
      It's very hard to monetize such a site. People are not there because they are looking for info and they are not coming to buy something. Why should they click on ads? They are coming on the site to watch the video and be entertained.
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      • Profile picture of the author stremmel
        yeah, i don't really want to go down that route. as my user base has grown, videos have gone viral more often. i want the user base to continue to grow and trust the site. i guess i'm hoping there's some critical point at which even the modest returns i get would be spread among enough videos that it would be profitable...

        otherwise, it's going to be inside of the alexa 20,000 soon. maybe selling it at that point would be the best course of action.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sgt Kraut
    You could also try to build a presence on social media sites. I think a Facebook page fits well to your niche and then at some point, if you really want to sell it, you can sell the Facebook page and your website.

    Depending on how you brand the site you could also sell some merchandise stuff like t-shirts. Another idea is to sell advertising space directly. Maybe smaller sites of your niche are interested to pay for being featured on your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Wizardofwisdom
    Sell banner ad space! Put it up on Buysellads.com - surely you'll get tons of buyers for that with that kind of traffic!
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    • Profile picture of the author James.N
      Originally Posted by Wizardofwisdom View Post

      Sell banner ad space! Put it up on Buysellads.com - surely you'll get tons of buyers for that with that kind of traffic!
      Good idea. Also I would try to capture the traffic and add them to an email list. You can simply set up a pop up on your site and with that much traffic you will get subscribers.
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    That's a lot of visitors

    I agree you should sell banner space. With that amount of visitors you can charge very cheap prices and still make very good income.
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  • Profile picture of the author rap3003
    Try pay per image view networks. I dunno what networks pays but you can google on that.
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  • Profile picture of the author visimedia
    what if you redirect the visitors to a squeeze page then you can build your list, then monetize the list?
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  • Profile picture of the author Top100
    How a about a pop
    Entry pops new browser like on P hub
    Or exit pop
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin_Hutto
    Try one of the new networks like Adblade, Taboola or outbrain.
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  • Profile picture of the author T R A V I S
    Originally Posted by stremmel View Post

    I have a site that aggregates videos. Every so often, a video will go viral, and it'll get a few million views. Until recently, I was pretty lazy about trying to monetize. I only had disqus ads bringing in money, so a really good day (like 1.5 million visitors) would bring in like $50. Lately, I started using Chitika, but that brings in even less money than disqus ads.

    There seem to be three problems:
    1. The page has very little text (by design), so it's difficult for contextual advertising to work.

    2. The users themselves are just there for that one pageview, more or less.

    3. Chitika pays almost nothing.

    I realize one solution could be to write more content. However, one of the things that I prioritize on this site is that users are not bombarded with text. I try to keep it as lean as possible, so users find it easy to navigate. I'm am finally considering this, but not wholly comfortable with it.

    Does anyone have experience monetizing a site like this?

    Instead of using that specific website with Adsense during the sign up process, you should just get another domain with more content and get it approved, then once you are in, just place your adsense code into the website of your choice really.
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    With that many page views, I agree about the banner space. I have a site that does over a million, but not nearly 3 million and it makes easily several hundred dollars. We built our own ad server after we starting doing well with the banner sales. Cool thing about that is most ad blockers don't catch our ads, though they are "nofollow" for purposes of google.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Consider adding text to the posts explaining what the video is about. You could easily add 600+ words to a post. Then ask Adsense if that will work. There are plenty curation sites with little text but media heavy that display Adsense. No other ad network pays anywhere near what Adsense pays. I think the effort would be worth it.

    You could add images too in an effort to build out the post. Include an opt in form, great navigation and anything else you can think of to create a site Adsense will approve. Just be sure going forward once approved to continue publishing posts Adsense wants.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
    Seems YouTube once had this very problem of monetizing a site with little to no text but tons of videos... Take a page out of their book and offer others ad space. What about video ads before the video starts?
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  • Profile picture of the author WayneT
    To seriously answer your question would need more info, eg what sort of vids, what age range of customer....you need to do some marketing ie, define your market(s), before you try to promote to them.
    Would have to see site to give any valid advice.
    But MikeHill gives good advice above
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  • Profile picture of the author goindeep
    Yes, need more info.

    Can you please post your site up so we can steal your idea and then give you bad advice.

    JK.

    I would test as many different methods as you can, find the fire hydrant and make it rain.
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  • Profile picture of the author candoit2
    Originally Posted by stremmel View Post

    I have a site that aggregates videos. Every so often, a video will go viral, and it'll get a few million views. Until recently, I was pretty lazy about trying to monetize. I only had disqus ads bringing in money, so a really good day (like 1.5 million visitors) would bring in like $50. Lately, I started using Chitika, but that brings in even less money than disqus ads.

    There seem to be three problems:
    1. The page has very little text (by design), so it's difficult for contextual advertising to work.

    2. The users themselves are just there for that one pageview, more or less.

    3. Chitika pays almost nothing.

    I realize one solution could be to write more content. However, one of the things that I prioritize on this site is that users are not bombarded with text. I try to keep it as lean as possible, so users find it easy to navigate. I'm am finally considering this, but not wholly comfortable with it.

    Does anyone have experience monetizing a site like this?
    I'd check into rssground.com and see if that could work for you.

    Aaron
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