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Help! Can't think of how to monetize

by TLondon
16 replies
EDIT: Sorry, I need to practice to write more succinct posts.

One of my blogs, just over 1 years old, is doing pretty well, sort of. It's a .co.uk domain aimed primarily at UK audience but the traffic is split almost evenly between the UK and the US.

I have a problem: I don't believe there's a way to properly monetize it. Please help, any thoughts? (based on below)

It's a market where there's nothing to sell to my readers except for books with more advice (I exhausted that already). AdSense doesn't earn much at all to the point that I don't even care about it, and I can't charge good money for private advertising since it's low-traffic. If I had this kind of authority in a field where I can sell stuff to my readers, this blog would be making some serious cash.

I thought about outsourcing an eBook, but I believe my audience aren't inclined to buy that kind of stuff.

I can make about $200-300/month from ads if I worked at it, but this kind of money just isn't worth the hassle, and it's definitely won't grow beyond that.

Affiliate marketing doesn't work with these people, they're not inclined to buy anything. Tested with multiple platforms.

Can I possibly sell it, or do anything else with it? I don't want to just abandon it because so far it's one of the very few sources people go to. And I often get thank you emails.

Here's more info, if needed.

PR3, if that even means anything
Niche: career advice (small market; primary demographic - 17-26 years old)
Traffic: about 650 unique hits daily
On Google's first pages for multiple keywords, a few #1 positions, outranking some well-known websites (not sure how)
MailChimp: 1,100 subscribers (haven't sent a single email to them yet)
FB page: 400 likes & Twitter: 350 followers

I don't do anything - no email marketing, no social media, and I haven't updated it properly in half a year, but it stays popular and the audience is growing slowly.

Completely clean backlink profile since I didn't do anything for it. It's all organic. I just wrote a lot of good material in posts, a short 40-page eBook (which they get if they subscribe to mailing list), and a decent guide with a structure of a book that is part of the site (worth about 100 pages).

It's not massive, but it seems like it has established itself as an authority since nobody else provides the amount of info I did, which is something I'm an expert in. It also doesn't have too many backlinks, but some big government websites are linking to it. I have people emailing me daily asking for advise but I stopped replying because I just can't do this anymore.
#monetize
  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    It's difficult to address money-making approaches and techniques without knowing more about the niche.

    Have you considered approaching your subscribers and asking what sort of challenges, problems, and obstacles they face? Their answers could be the information you need to provide a solution that you could sell them.

    People are coming to your web site looking for something. You are the one that should be monitoring why they are there. When you understand that, you will be in a better position to provide a paid solution or answer.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author znightmare
    Originally Posted by TLondon View Post

    I can make about $200-300/month from ads if I worked at it, but this kind of money just isn't worth the hassle, and it's definitely won't grow beyond that.
    If you were to bring it up to that much a month, you could think about selling it on Flippa or where ever for a few thousand.
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    $5 Wordpress Website! ---> https://www.fiverr.com/s/4W3r7l <--- Get Your Blog up in 24 Hrs!
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  • Profile picture of the author absolutelee
    If it's a general topic, you could always use cpa offers for stuff like insurance. Things everyone, or virtually everyone, needs. Also product giveaways work well.
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  • Profile picture of the author TLondon
    Steve, thanks for your reply.

    It's like this: I literally know every single question my viewers had, have and will have. I know what they are looking for, where they are going, why and when, etc. I'm not trying to brag here, but it's just how well I know this field since I've been in it for almost 10 years, researched every corner of it and experienced everything there is to experience. I guess that would be the explanation for the blog's growing authority without any work on marketing it. I wish I could monetize it though.

    My apologies for leaving you guys in the dark, but I don't want to disclose the actual market I'm in for obvious reasons.

    As for selling on Flippa, it's an option for sure, but I think I'd rather just keep the website as the maintenance is low cost anyway, and I want people to be able to access this resource. It wasn't there when I needed it, and I certainly understand them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
    There is no such thing as nothing else to sell somebody. There is a such thing as crappy conversions on trying to sell them something else without a proper pitch and funnel.

    For example you mentioned they are between 17 and 26 and seeking career advice.
    They would therefore be candidates for pretty much any type of training/college/course/entrepreneur etc...

    The issue is not will they buy other stuff. They buy other stuff every single day. You just need an elegant way to port them into different funnels.

    Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author TLondon
      Originally Posted by plessard View Post

      For example you mentioned they are between 17 and 26 and seeking career advice.
      They would therefore be candidates for pretty much any type of training/college/course/entrepreneur etc..
      Thanks for your input, plessard. You're right about training, but unfortunately there are no private institutions of this training, so obviously no affiliate marketing in that category, or even ads.

      They're on a specific website, looking for a specific answer, on a very specific topic. It cannot be more narrowed down than it already is. They know what they want, that's why they're on this blog. If they didn't know what they want, there's absolutely NO WAY they would be on it. With 650 unique hits I get about 2000 views, very low bounce rate, and 8-15 minutes average time on the website. And not to be cocky or anything, but I know my audience VERY well. With that in mind, I still have no idea what to offer them...

      Do T-shirts sell well? That's about the only thing I can come up with, T-shirts with some quotes on them, or pictures related to the field. However, I don't believe that would also be worth the hassle.

      Originally Posted by plessard View Post

      The issue is not will they buy other stuff. They buy other stuff every single day. You just need an elegant way to port them into different funnels.
      Now this... this, I believe, is something that can be accomplished, but I have absolutely no idea how. Not a clue. They're all people, they need stuff, but I don't think I can pitch them because when they come to my website, they're definitely not in the mood for shopping.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    T, move away from strategies now. Change your mindset through devout meditation, visualization and affirmation. You said you don't BELIEVE you can monetize, so you'll ignore good advice for making money, and follow bad advice, Work on that mindset, believe in abundance, and follow good advice offered here. Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author KloudStrife
      Originally Posted by ryanbiddulph View Post

      T, move away from strategies now. Change your mindset through devout meditation, visualization and affirmation. You said you don't BELIEVE you can monetize, so you'll ignore good advice for making money, and follow bad advice, Work on that mindset, believe in abundance, and follow good advice offered here. Thanks!

      I really like this approach. also, take it one day at a time rather then focusing on your main goal of building revenue from your website

      look for a way where you can work on your website day by day, adding adsense and other things users would click on or buy. affiliate links are awesome too
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  • Profile picture of the author dalegolden
    Why don't you search for relevant products to promote at your site? I think there are several career advice related products available at Clickbank.
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  • Profile picture of the author TLondon
    Okay guys, this is completely unhelpful.

    I'm not new to IM, I know of all the ways to monetize the website. What I'm saying is that none of them apply in this case, which is why I need your help with possibly some tips, advise or ideas on how should I proceed further with this project.

    There are NO relevant products in this career niche aside from books. There are certain services available that my audience might be interested in, but there's no affiliate market for those services.

    I'm thinking now if putting up a store of t-shirts on the blog would do some cash. I would put various quotes and/or images relevant to the market on those t's. Maybe between that and AdSense, I can make enough to care about continuing to contribute to this blog. Not sure how well t-shirts usually sell on low-traffic websites like mine (650 uniques, ~2000 page views).
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  • Profile picture of the author PinkStar
    Originally Posted by TLondon View Post

    I can't charge good money for private advertising since it's low-traffic
    With that kind of thinking you're going to be stuck in a catch-22.
    Be honest with the amount of traffic you have and sell at a good price and use that income to get more traffic.

    Something I saw on fiverr was people who were selling guest posts spots: people would pay to post on your blog. Sounds like a win-win as you get paid to add content.
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    Move it along folks, nothing to see here
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    • Profile picture of the author Lance K
      It sounds like the site is geared toward advice regarding a specific career, not general career advice...correct?

      What are the well known websites that you outrank doing to monetize their traffic?
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      "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
      ~ Zig Ziglar
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      • Profile picture of the author TLondon
        Originally Posted by Lance K View Post

        It sounds like the site is geared toward advice regarding a specific career, not general career advice...correct?

        What are the well known websites that you outrank doing to monetize their traffic?
        That's correct. The blog is outranking some established news websites (PR7) for the same keywords, so I can't really copy their model due to them being high-traffic websites and earning solely from ads.

        @nicolasmd2112, those are sound ideas, thank you.
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        • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
          TLondon,

          For what it's worth, I had a similar issue several years ago.

          I owned a site that started off giving career advice to college-leavers and young adults in a specific career market. It featured a ton of articles and resources, and it was doing okay, but it really started to take off when I included a regularly updated listing of relevant job vacancies.

          I obtained these by asking specialist recruitment agencies for permission to use their vacancy lists in return for a mention/link, and I also approached a couple of specialist publications with the same proposal.

          I then put an opt-in form on the site for visitors to receive regular job vacancy updates. This grew my list rapidly (around 5,000 subscribers in under a year). The benefit of that was I could send out an email each week with just a few headline vacancies and direct the readers back to the site for more details.

          This obviously helped grow my site's traffic, but another effect of featuring the job listings was that the AdSense revenue increased by a significant factor - ads from employment agencies and specialist training companies generated much higher costs per click. And, of course, I positioned the ad blocks within and around the job listings.

          I probably could have approached some industry advertisers directly and signed up a few long-term advertising deals, but at the time my focus was elsewhere and I didn't want to spend any more effort on the site. I ended up selling it for a sum equivalent to 24 months' revenue, which included the subscriber list.

          I don't know if a similar tactic would work with your market, or if you wanted to spend the time keeping the details up to date. Otherwise, if I were you, I'd be inclined to seek a buyer and move on to another project.

          Whatever you decide, good luck!


          Frank
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  • Profile picture of the author nicolasmd2112
    I'm sure you could put a "Donate Now" button somewhere on the site. If your viewers are that appreciative of your site, and it's quality, who knows, you may get some passive donations. You could also turn your site into a membership site, and charge them a low amount, maybe $1-10, for an exclusive training or something. Just ideas.
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  • Profile picture of the author esrael
    I think the best choice is looking for some CPA offers related to your niche or try some broad niches to get the profitable one here is some platforms you can search on overall CPA offers and networks
    offervault
    odigger

    Good luck
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