how to monetize untargeted traffic

by agc
21 replies
  • SEO
  • |
I have the "gift" of around 5000 page views a day on some untargeted traffic.

The site is a (legal) aggregator that I built several years ago and forgot about. Traffic is completely unpredictable, but I do have a catagory for the page being viewed, and of course the search term they used in the referrer.

Assuming that adsense is not available here (it's not), how would you monetize this traffic? Or what other good use would you make of it?

so far:
adsense = site doesn't meet guidelines
clicksor = virus infested really grotesque ads that i don't even WANT to use.
kontera = monetizing at around .20 / 1000 (and kontera is giving a decent stat for 'real' visitors (ie they ran the javascript).

Clickbank simply does NOT convert. unless there is some killer clickbank product that I just need to try out.

Any suggestions?
#monetize #traffic #untargeted
  • Profile picture of the author remotedb
    My guess would be find something cheap that nearly everyone needs and is willing to buy online. Or try a CPA offer.
    Originally Posted by agc View Post

    I have the "gift" of around 5000 page views a day on some untargeted traffic.

    The site is a (legal) aggregator that I built several years ago and forgot about. Traffic is completely unpredictable, but I do have a catagory for the page being viewed, and of course the search term they used in the referrer.

    Assuming that adsense is not available here (it's not), how would you monetize this traffic? Or what other good use would you make of it?

    so far:
    adsense = site doesn't meet guidelines
    clicksor = virus infested really grotesque ads that i don't even WANT to use.
    kontera = monetizing at around .20 / 1000 (and kontera is giving a decent stat for 'real' visitors (ie they ran the javascript).

    Clickbank simply does NOT convert. unless there is some killer clickbank product that I just need to try out.

    Any suggestions?
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  • Profile picture of the author Vikram73
    Originally Posted by agc View Post

    I have the "gift" of around 5000 page views a day on some untargeted traffic.

    The site is a (legal) aggregator that I built several years ago and forgot about. Traffic is completely unpredictable, but I do have a catagory for the page being viewed, and of course the search term they used in the referrer.

    Assuming that adsense is not available here (it's not), how would you monetize this traffic? Or what other good use would you make of it?

    so far:
    adsense = site doesn't meet guidelines
    clicksor = virus infested really grotesque ads that i don't even WANT to use.
    kontera = monetizing at around .20 / 1000 (and kontera is giving a decent stat for 'real' visitors (ie they ran the javascript).

    Clickbank simply does NOT convert. unless there is some killer clickbank product that I just need to try out.

    Any suggestions?

    Everybody wants to be rich & thin. I'd put up CPA ads for dieting & bizz opp.
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  • Profile picture of the author ILUVCA$H
    Collect email addresses with opt in boxes to diffrent verticals/nitches let your visitors tell you what they are interested in and then use autoresponders to follow up with them. have like 3-5 different areas and offer a free information packet as a teaser.
    Signature

    Luke Smith | Affiliate Manager
    (858) 848-LUKE
    www.motiveinteractive.com
    IM: LukeMotive
    SKYPE : lukejSmith1

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    • Profile picture of the author agc
      Originally Posted by ILUVCA View Post

      Collect email addresses with opt in boxes to diffrent verticals/nitches let your visitors tell you what they are interested in and then use autoresponders to follow up with them. have like 3-5 different areas and offer a free information packet as a teaser.
      Listbuilding. Brilliant. I never even considered that.

      Thanks guys.
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      • Profile picture of the author ILUVCA$H
        any time !

        Originally Posted by agc View Post

        Listbuilding. Brilliant. I never even considered that.

        Thanks guys.
        Signature

        Luke Smith | Affiliate Manager
        (858) 848-LUKE
        www.motiveinteractive.com
        IM: LukeMotive
        SKYPE : lukejSmith1

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  • Profile picture of the author Raygun
    I agree, you need to find a way to build up an email list. What can you give out for free that people will be willing to sign up for? 5000 people is a lot to be missing out on.
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  • Profile picture of the author debra
    Like already ready mentioned:

    Collect emails through optin

    and...

    add CPM to the page(s)
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  • Profile picture of the author Clicksor_CS
    Originally Posted by agc View Post

    I have the "gift" of around 5000 page views a day on some untargeted traffic.

    The site is a (legal) aggregator that I built several years ago and forgot about. Traffic is completely unpredictable, but I do have a catagory for the page being viewed, and of course the search term they used in the referrer.

    Assuming that adsense is not available here (it's not), how would you monetize this traffic? Or what other good use would you make of it?

    so far:
    adsense = site doesn't meet guidelines
    clicksor = virus infested really grotesque ads that i don't even WANT to use.
    kontera = monetizing at around .20 / 1000 (and kontera is giving a decent stat for 'real' visitors (ie they ran the javascript).

    Clickbank simply does NOT convert. unless there is some killer clickbank product that I just need to try out.

    Any suggestions?
    At Clicksor, virus or any suspicious activity is strictly prohibited. We always work hard on preventing any virus or suspicious ad leak out through our network. As such, any ad that found violated to our TOS will be suspended immediately and will be not reactivated.

    If you or your users have run into any virus or suspicious ad, please contact your account manager immediately by email, ticket, live support or phone with the following information for investigation.

    1) IP address which viewed the ad
    2) Time of occurrence
    3) Ad format and ad url
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    • Profile picture of the author agc
      Originally Posted by Clicksor_CS View Post

      At Clicksor, virus or any suspicious activity is strictly prohibited. We always work hard on preventing any virus or suspicious ad leak out through our network. As such, any ad that found violated to our TOS will be suspended immediately and will be not reactivated.

      If you or your users have run into any virus or suspicious ad, please contact your account manager immediately by email, ticket, live support or phone with the following information for investigation.

      1) IP address which viewed the ad
      2) Time of occurrence
      3) Ad format and ad url

      I'm going to be straight up and direct with you: I don't have the time or the energy for that kind of crap. I don't monitor my sites 24x7. At best I can only randomly sample them, and if my limited sampling turned up problems (plural), then I can only assume that the issues are pervasive and widespread.

      Telling me to report specific problems is NOT good enough.

      You have to care enough to make sure that there really shoud not BE any problems, then you should to tell me, honestly, that I should not HAVE any problems.

      THEN and only then is it acceptable that if ONE problem should happen to get through your precautions that I should raise it to you for immediate and decisive action.

      I work long hard hours to establish authority and credibility, and it takes months to build page rank, build a following, build a brand image, build a reputation. Yet it only takes one single nasty incident to destroy months of hard work. Just ask Toyota or Tiger Woods how fast brand equity can crumble.

      Using your publishers for your Quality Control is a philosophical problem. And it will prevent you from ever achieving the degree of quality assurance I require.

      If you are serious about solving this problem and are unable to do so on your own, I'd recommend hiring a management consultant.

      But honestly, the scent that reaches my nose here smells more like a commitment to PR than a commitment to quality.
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      • Profile picture of the author debra
        Originally Posted by agc View Post

        I'm going to be straight up and direct with you: I don't have the time or the energy for that kind of crap. I don't monitor my sites 24x7. At best I can only randomly sample them, and if my limited sampling turned up problems (plural), then I can only assume that the issues are pervasive and widespread.

        Telling me to report specific problems is NOT good enough.

        You have to care enough to make sure that there really shoud not BE any problems, then you should to tell me, honestly, that I should not HAVE any problems.

        THEN and only then is it acceptable that if ONE problem should happen to get through your precautions that I should raise it to you for immediate and decisive action.

        I work long hard hours to establish authority and credibility, and it takes months to build page rank, build a following, build a brand image, build a reputation. Yet it only takes one single nasty incident to destroy months of hard work. Just ask Toyota or Tiger Woods how fast brand equity can crumble.

        Using your publishers for your Quality Control is a philosophical problem. And it will prevent you from ever achieving the degree of quality assurance I require.

        If you are serious about solving this problem and are unable to do so on your own, I'd recommend hiring a management consultant.

        But honestly, the scent that reaches my nose here smells more like a commitment to PR than a commitment to quality.
        I Agree!

        Publishers are not responsible, nor have the time, to excerise quality control over your database of clients.

        If providing a clean database of clientel is Not Important Enough to you then Don't expect decent performing publishers.

        We have far more pressing and important things to do than to perform your in house requirements in exchange for a few cents from you.
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        • Profile picture of the author Gary King
          Originally Posted by agc View Post

          I'm going to be straight up and direct with you: I don't have the time or the energy for that kind of crap. I don't monitor my sites 24x7. At best I can only randomly sample them, and if my limited sampling turned up problems (plural), then I can only assume that the issues are pervasive and widespread.

          Telling me to report specific problems is NOT good enough.

          You have to care enough to make sure that there really shoud not BE any problems, then you should to tell me, honestly, that I should not HAVE any problems.

          THEN and only then is it acceptable that if ONE problem should happen to get through your precautions that I should raise it to you for immediate and decisive action.

          I work long hard hours to establish authority and credibility, and it takes months to build page rank, build a following, build a brand image, build a reputation. Yet it only takes one single nasty incident to destroy months of hard work. Just ask Toyota or Tiger Woods how fast brand equity can crumble.

          Using your publishers for your Quality Control is a philosophical problem. And it will prevent you from ever achieving the degree of quality assurance I require.

          If you are serious about solving this problem and are unable to do so on your own, I'd recommend hiring a management consultant.

          But honestly, the scent that reaches my nose here smells more like a commitment to PR than a commitment to quality.
          Originally Posted by debra View Post

          I Agree!

          Publishers are not responsible, nor have the time, to excerise quality control over your database of clients.

          If providing a clean database of clientel is Not Important Enough to you then Don't expect decent performing publishers.

          We have far more pressing and important things to do than to perform your in house requirements in exchange for a few cents from you.

          Add me to the list of those that agree. I've never used these guys, but wouldn't consider them now!

          Do they even have a clue as to how difficult and time consuming (even impossible) it would be to gather that info and report it?

          If someone hits my site and their ad infects the visitor's PC, how in the heck would the visitor know what ad was being shown, they just get whacked and their day (and data) is ruined!

          MAYBE, MAYBE, they will report it to me but how the heck do I know they didn't already have something on their computer already and/or got hit with something by a different tab that was open, etc.??
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  • Profile picture of the author zachary0611
    try adbrite and do the full page ads
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    • Profile picture of the author agc
      Originally Posted by zachary0611 View Post

      try adbrite and do the full page ads
      I'm on adbrite now, but they require "keywords" to create an ad zone.

      The traffic is untargeted, because the keywords are buried in the content and vary from page to page.

      Does adbrite have a "crawl the page and look it up" method for keywords ala adsense?
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    • Profile picture of the author agc
      Originally Posted by zachary0611 View Post

      try adbrite and do the full page ads
      Zack, Next time I'm down south, or you're up north, I owe you dinner.

      Adbrite full page ads are the bomb.

      They were a royal pain to set up, but monetizing verrry nicely.
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  • Profile picture of the author JJOrana
    I'm in the same situation as with OP. More advice the better.

    So how are you going to monetize this type of site?
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  • Profile picture of the author WildernessWarrior
    I agree wholeheartedly with the "listbuilding" advice. 5000 folks leaving your site without monetizing is like throwing money down the drain!!

    If you can get them to opt-in for something, and then get hooked up with a good autoresponder, you can capitalize tremendously with that list, and its fairly easy once you get it hooked up and running. My recommendation is aweber for autoresponse. They do a great job with it.

    As far as, "giving away something free" goes, just make sure it has some sort of value to it. Free is great, but you will get a lot more opt-ins if that "free" something really has some sort of value to it. Once you've got them on your list, you can market to them again whenever you like, and that is totally worth the effort!!

    Have you considered some sort of affiliate program? Getting an affiliate relationship as well might give you that "hook" you need for the opt-in. Good luck with it!
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  • Profile picture of the author furiouz
    try sending traffic to a page with a interesting (clickable) media that contains Adsense or other ads.
    one option you can find in my signature
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexandru
    I wouldn't recommend waisting time with list building. If the traffic is completely un-targeted then you have no way of knowing what they like and what to offer in order for their email address. And even if you build, what will you use it for? You're supposed to promote products to your list, but if you don't know what they're interested in you can't just promote what comes to mind. It just won't work that way and they will unsubscribe faster than you can think.

    You can try promoting an email offer through a poll. That used to work like a charm, and everyone, no matter what they're interested in, can answer a simple question. Try it. Also, an alternative to AdWords is Chitika. You might have some luck with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author indodistro
    re-build you meta data, in order to gain targeted visitor...
    then you can add adsense code
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  • Profile picture of the author Russell_
    I use http://cpxinteractive.com for CPM ads, and they often pay at .20 per 1000, which i think is decent for non targeted traffic.

    I also agree about clicksor, I have tried them a couple times, and each time had to shut them off due to complaints. And how am I supposed to get the info out of my user to send to clicksor. With CPXinteractive, I just tell them I dont want ads with sound playing, and thats that. Dont have to worry about viruses.
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  • Profile picture of the author agc
    OK, adrite is up and seems to be monetizing well. Running around $1.50 / 1000 so far. We'll see how it goes long term.
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