Case Study: How I Lost My Link Bait Virginity To The Montauk Monster?

Freaking awesome.

I threw up a little in my mouth when you said meat and potatoes. For some reason, i got an image in my head of Montauk meat and potatoes.

If you don't mind, what were your earnings per every 1,000 of all that traffic.

Cool story.

I too would be interested in how you monetized it on this occasion?

Very nice story but i daily to see how your service will help a link bait campaign???

I'd be happy answer your questions!

The site had steady AdSense earnings from the first day I decided to monetize. I deliberately did not make the site look like I was looking to profit so that I could build user trust.

Whenever I released a "breaking news up" earnings would be north of $700.00 per day on AdSense alone. Normal activity would earn a very consistent $15.00 to $30.00 a day with occasional spikes when The Montauk Monster was featured on national television.

The bigger opportunities came with licensing deals with cable TV networks that wanted to use the pictures and video content that I owned. I've issued (4) non-exclusive licenses at $1500 each for the use of the content.

When AdSense earnings started to slow down to about $5.00 to $7.00 a day and nobody was interested in the story I sold the site for $2000.00 in late 2010.

I've worked on other virals as a result of "proving myself" with this campaign. Creative agencies specializing in this type of stuff (think Cloverfield...) hired me as a consultant to draft strategy briefs.

I'd estimate total earnings to be around $25,000 (conservatively) from AdSense, CPM Star, Affiliate Commissions, Licensing Deals, Paid Links, (blogroll) and contracted work that materialized as a direct result of this specific campaign.

I didn't spend to anything to promote the campaign or an excessive amount of time working on it. I really enjoyed covering this story and it was a nice break from traditional client work.