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View Full Version : monatizing a website?



billbenson
08-16-2008, 09:36 PM
What are your options to monetize a website? I bet most website owners here could make more money on their sites is they were monetized better. I just sell stuff on my sites. How do I make a few bucks off of the people that don't buy? Adsence, clutters up the pages and sends people off site. Same with other ads. Arbitrage sites are another avenue, although I don't fully understand them. Banners look like trash. But there is a place for all of this. What belongs on your site and how do you structure it?

Lets pick apart from a marketing standpoint a few sites. I have a link posted below which comes up in the top five for a search for "bridal gifts". If someone has a better site to reverse engineer, feel free to suggest it. If this thread progresses, it would be great if it continues into different site categories ie ecommerce, affiliate, legal sites, etc.

This includes options for better design, seo, affiliates, adsense, local marketing ads...

You see people negative on AdSense ads. I bet every site could make a few buck extra if they are properly placed. Probably not on the index page but rather on a page designed for the ad. Same with other types of ads.

So, since I don't want my site trashed, lets pick apart a few sites at random.

Here's a starting point It comes up in the top several results in Google. Whats good or bad about the site and how could you make more money from it? Wedding Dresses - Wedding Cakes - Wedding Planning - Unique Wedding Ideas (http://www.theknot.com/)

orion_joel
08-17-2008, 03:01 AM
Good topic, i posted something almost the same in the blog category about monetizing your blog. But i think that both lend themselves to different potential answers.

Monetizing a content site and an e-commerce site can be two different challenges. For an e-commerce site i think the challenge is not killing your own business potential with ads, which does probably rule out adsense, as it will provide contextual ads to the content on the page. This means that you could have ads showing competing directly with your own product. In this sort of situation probably the better idea is to look at something like Commission Junction and using related affiliate program's that will actually complement rather then compete with your products.

Another option may be Amazon affiliate, which could complement many different product ranges. For example ordering stocking and shipping a good range of books on wedding's (for the site mentioned example) would probably be expensive, where as using a range of Amazon affiliate links even setting up the links with book images, may provide a better option.

One thing that i noticed about the above wedding site, is that not all of the ads they show on the right hand side actually relate weddings, there was one that showed up a little which i think was for insurance or something with no reference to weddings. But then again maybe they were offering some sort of insurance for weddings??

vangogh
08-17-2008, 01:49 PM
I just sell stuff on my sites

Along with offering services I think that's the best way to monetize a site. I think we'd all like to be able to slap a few ads on our sites and not have to do anything more in order to make money, but it doesn't really work that way.

Advertising, including contextual advertising, needs numbers. If you get 10 people a day to your site it's unlikely you're going to make much money getting people to click something. Maybe if your site is very specific and tailored to a unique group of people you might be able to sell direct advertising.

Most of the time though if you don't have the big traffic numbers I think you need to look for other things like selling products or services and even if you do have the big traffic numbers something other than advertising might still be your best business model.

Some things people are doing to make money online:



CPC ads
CMP ads
Selling direct ads
selling one or more products
selling services
offering premium content for subscription
flipping websites - buying, fixing them up, selling


In the above list I think the ideas at the bottom have more potential for profit than the ones at the top.

Harold Mansfield
08-18-2008, 10:32 PM
I think that the bridal site does exactly what is is meant to do.
It's one big affiliate link, or list building site.

It seems that is sole purpose is to build an opt in list.
That has to be one of th easiest lists to build if you have good content because brides planning a wedding want information and ideas NOW, and they ARE going to buy something ...and soon!

the goat
08-25-2008, 02:05 PM
I think a few affiliate links work great. For instance on my site that is really a service oriented site for skateboard ramp and park construction, I have made some nice extra money from a poster store affiliation. As long as it is relevant to your market and doesn't look out of place it seems to work well.

orion_joel
08-26-2008, 01:28 AM
Goat, that is actually a good idea, probably the most well known (maybe not most profitable) is the Amazon affiliate program, literally something relevant for almost every topic. It can take a little to work out how best to make use of this however it is something that you should be able to do with a little knowledge and time.

vangogh
08-26-2008, 11:59 AM
Affiliate links can be a good way to monetize your site and the key is definitely matching your audience to the products/services. You also want to look for affiliate offers that are quality. If you send people to a few garbage products it won't take long before you lose the trust of your visitors. Ideally you'd be able to test everything you recommend, though realistically that's not likely to happen.