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Forum Index · Search Engine Forums · SEF Community and Networking · Members Lounge · Making money with your site - lets talk ideas

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SportsGuy Staff Joined: Aug 30, 2002 # Posts: 3603 Website	Posted: 2006-Jun-29 20:26 OK, it's been a while since we talked about anything like this, so here goes... I'm hoping to develop a thread to help folks understand what they can do AFTER they've optimized a site and are getting organic traffic flowing. I realize our focus is search marketing here, hence this is posted in the Member's Lounge area. Should it be deemed that this thread should go the way of the dodo, it's all good. My goal is to try to shed some light on that "next step" for folks who are optimizing their sites, nothing more. I'm sure there are plenty of folks who cruise by here who have functioning sites that see decent traffic. I'm sure, too, that those folks would like to see some ideas on how to turn that traffic into money. I personally have spent alot of time building and optimizing a site, so I'm always on the hunt for news ways to turn traffic to revenue. I'd like folks to post about ideas they have actually tried and that worked (or didn't). Not things like "I heard you could make money by...". Contextual Ads I'm not alone in this first one - Google Adsense. Build a content rich site, optimize it, place the ads and in time (just over a year for me) you're averaging decent coin each month. Nothing to make you rich, but enough to float a loan on a motorcycle, at least. So, Yahoo has a similar program - let's call that angle covered. Next up are programs like *Intellitext* and *Clicksor* (sp?). These are the guys that underline selected phrases in your content. If a user hovers over the underlined text, they see a larger box with info from the advertiser. if they click, you get paid. Basically the same conceptually as Adsense, just executed differently. (This is in NO WAY related to the malware crap that took over your browser and forced ads on only you.) I was going to try this option, but reread Google's rules and since they prohibit competing programs on the same page, and I'm reluctant to give up the money G pays me, I've held off. I might put this on my blog for a while and see how it performs. Affiliate Programs I do have an account with *Commission Junction. I did get one cheque for $26 from them - mostly due to me buying tickets to a Billy Joel concert from my own site, so there we go... My site targets a particular brand of automobile, so I've run auto-related ads, ads for tools, and ads for magazines - tens of thousands of ad impressions with virtually zero sales as a result. I'm sure this has more to do with the fact the ads were mostly image-based ads than anything else, but even the text links I ran did poorly. Either not enough traffic when I ran them (grown since) or I wasn't placing them correctly on the pages. Bottom line is I have yet to find a program through CJ that actually did anything revenue-wise. My auto-related site did, ironically enough, get rejected by online auto insurance company affiliate programs...LOL I also have an account with Amazon.com. I suspect I simply didn't, again, place these text-links properly, nor did I stick with it long enough (about 2 weeks between changes). I'm reluctant to say the Amazon program doesn't really generate any revenue because they have so many products which so perfectly match so many verticals for content that you'd be hard pressed to NOT find something to place with your content. Ad Networks* I had an account with *Fastclick* - a decent network that I'd worked with through my day-job. I was on the opposite side this time, though, of looking to place ads on a site, rather than buying exposure across their network of sites. I stuck with them long enough to get the site up and running, then replaced the ads with Adsense ads - which immediately started performing better; actually generating revenue. Again I'll say the network didn't perform well becuase they were showing image-based ads, which users tend to ignore these days. So, that's about it for me. Let's hear what others have to say? I'm always open to learning about new ideas or ways to refine old ideas to perform better. (Copy Shortcut)

Dinkar Staff Joined: Aug 12, 2001 # Posts: 4391 Website	Posted: 2006-Jun-29 23:25 ..what they can do AFTER they've optimized a site and are getting organic traffic flowing. If you have a site and looking for some option to earn money then most probably the site would be either hobby site or some commercial site selling your own product. IMO,it may not generate good income with any of the above program. Adsense may have some more chances depends upon topic of your site. But if you really want to earn money using website then you should choose your money generating program first and then build your site to promote it. Lets talk one by one. Contextual Ads AFAIK, AdSense is the best! Join it. Then make list of topics about which you can make sites. Do keyword research to see which keywords are popular and have high bid per click. Try to choose high paying popular keywords that has less competition. Build your site to target your chosen keywords. Intellitext: I never tried them. But I hate to visit sites that use it. Affiliate Programs Affiliate Networks: Either don't join any network or join specialized network. Select some category to build your site. Then search for network that promotes that category ONLY. Join it. Build your site to promote their advertisers. In-house Affiliate Program: These are also good. But do some research about the company first. There are some that don't pay their affiliates or convert. Search for good in-house affiliate program in your chosen category. Then build your site to target their products/services. If you choose right affiliate program and products then your site can generate 2K per month with just 3,000 unique targeted visitors (using SEO) Tip: Add Adsense to this site. Since the site has build to promote some product or service, it will generate good income from Adsense too. Ad Networks You need to have a site with traffic to join such Ad network. So if you want to build site to promote some ad network, read their rules first. They don't accept all types of sites. And not all types of sites can generate income using these ad networks. I didn't tried them but imo now days they can't generate good income. I wouldn't consider them as an option. (Copy Shortcut)

T. J. Daniels Joined: Aug 19, 2000 # Posts: 183	Posted: 2006-Jun-30 01:39 Hi SportsGuy and Dinkar. Thanks for posting this info. Very interesting. One of my sites just has some of my poetry. One day I decided to apply for Adsense and to my surprise, was accepted. So I added adsense ads to my site. Not getting rich, but am making about as much as you and for about the same amount of time. Tried aff programs, and a few others, but AS pays much more. Am still looking for other ways to make a few coins without joining any of those programs that sell you a ready made 'adsense' site for a one time fee of 'only' USD$14.95. (they say they only make a certain number of them). But to get that USD$14.95 site, you have to join their organisation and pay them USD$50.00 per month. (Copy Shortcut)

flyingrose Staff Joined: Oct 30, 2003 # Posts: 3361 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-03 01:01 Some quick tips on making money with affiliate programs: ebooks offer commissions of as much as 50% - if you find some that have an affinity to the subject of your site that might be a home run for you. Look at clickbank.com and online. Magazine subscriptions offer 30+% commissions and there are magazines related to most Web sites. CJ.com has a lot of programs for magazines. Someone once told me they made decent affiliate checks from amazon in spite of the low commissions by focusing on high end products. Be creative...maybe there's little money in CDs related to your site but if you can offer them a new CD player to go with the CD....that might pay off. (Copy Shortcut)

gamiziuk Joined: Aug 23, 2000 # Posts: 630	Posted: 2006-Jul-03 09:14 Shareasale has worked out better for me than both CJ and Linkshare. With Shareasale, many merchants provide a product database for affiliates - you can use this to create an online store as a product showcase. Adsense is still the top performer for me, however. (Copy Shortcut)

Curt Joined: Eons Ago # Posts: 3747	Posted: 2006-Jul-06 08:32 I've heard from one of the merchants that uses CJ that the way CJ tracks sales is why it doesn't work as well as it did in earlier times. Also, CJ still allows thiefware companies to sign up as affiliates. Those thiefware companies push up pop-up ads with their own affiliate links competing directly with your own affiliate ads even though your site does the work of promoting the segment targeted. You work to attract potential customers and thus potential commissions only to have thiefware step in and get credit for the sale. Between CJ's change in tracking and allowing thiefware ad companies into the network as affiliates, it's more difficult to get converting sales thus commissions. Shareasale is supposedly thiefware affiliate free which would help explain why their commissions may be better. Linkshare, I'm not sure what's up with them. They have claimed to clean up their act with thiefware, but I'm not sure to what extent that has taken place. AdSense seems to work best for generating revenue though I'd like to see IntelliTXT kick thiefware's butt in the ad market since they actually pay revenue to the sites they advertise on. Thiefware companies simply rip-off your site with their pop-up ads. I don't mind seeing IntelliTXT ads because they are a direct competitor to the thiefware ad purveyor eZula TopText with it's yellow underlined links overlaying keywords on pages. I hope IntelliTXT kicks eZula's butt. Is Clicksor run like IntelliTXT? I'll have to look them up. (Copy Shortcut)

SportsGuy Staff Joined: Aug 30, 2002 # Posts: 3603 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-06 12:45 Clicksor and Intellitext are basically the same, from what I've seen/read/researched. One big difference to note is that one requires somethng like 100,000 page views per month to be considered for their program, whereas the other has no lower limtis. canot recall which is which at the moment. I'm reluctant to remove Adsense from either my site or blog as it's still averaging decent money each day for me, and like all new things, the Clicksor/Intellitext products would take a bit of time to get up and running & generating revenue. I have another website I'm hoping to roll out in the coming 6 - 8 months, so I might take a crack at them with that new site. eZula licks. (Copy Shortcut)

JQ Staff Joined: Mar 11, 2001 # Posts: 2765 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-07 01:08 Clicksor and Intellitext are basically the same, from what I've seen/read/researched. One big difference to note is that one requires somethng like 100,000 page views per month to be considered for their program, whereas the other has no lower limtis. canot recall which is which at the moment. According to Vibrant Media's site (http://www.vibrantmedia.com/webpublishers/intellitxt_faq.asp#5): "A website must receive a minimum of 500,000 text rich page views a month to qualify for IntelliTXT." (Copy Shortcut)

Curt Joined: Eons Ago # Posts: 3747	Posted: 2006-Jul-13 01:23 500,000 pages views is a major drawback requirement for IntelliTXT. What I'm wondering is if Google would balk at a publisher who wanted to also use IntelliTXT/Clicksor. If no one knows here, perhaps a note to google Adsense people is in order. Anyone know? (Copy Shortcut)

beth_lk Staff Joined: Jun 23, 2004 # Posts: 1308 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-13 05:27 It totals a small amount - but the affilite program fineclicks gives me about 100.00 + a month ( per site ) and is really easy to use.....and takes me about 10 minutes at the most a month of up keep. thoughts about fineclicks? [ Message was edited by: beth_lk 07/12/2006 09:41 pm ] (Copy Shortcut)

SportsGuy Staff Joined: Aug 30, 2002 # Posts: 3603 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-13 16:29 500,000 pages views is a major drawback requirement for IntelliTXT. What I'm wondering is if Google would balk at a publisher who wanted to also use IntelliTXT/Clicksor. If no one knows here, perhaps a note to google Adsense people is in order. Anyone know? Google specificallyu states you cannot use another, competing, contextual product on a page where Google Adsense ads will be shown. Been there, though of using both, decided not to after reading the rules again. I knew the number for Intellitext was something absurd - man, 500K - oh well... (Copy Shortcut)

gamiziuk Joined: Aug 23, 2000 # Posts: 630	Posted: 2006-Jul-14 03:22 Kontera (dot com) is similar to Intellitext ads - and I do not believe there is a minimum impression requirement. No one has mentioned Chitika eMini Malls yet. Ads are quite unique compared to the others. Not a high-paying product for me, but it is compatible to display along with Adsense. (Copy Shortcut)

Curt Joined: Eons Ago # Posts: 3747	Posted: 2006-Jul-16 07:08 SportsGuy said: Google specificallyu states you cannot use another, competing, contextual product on a page where Google Adsense ads will be shown. I was thinking that had to do with services that are similar in design like Yahoo's contextual ad program. Being that IntelliTXT and other similar programs actually link up words on a page and don't display ads like Google's AdSense, perhaps it may be looked at as a different enough system where Google would not have a problem with it. I don't know though--you may be right about what you are thinking. Guess the only 100% way to know for sure how to interpret that is to ask Google themselves. I certainly would not want to jeopardize the Google AdSense ad contract. (Copy Shortcut)

Mark Wolk Joined: Sep 19, 1999 # Posts: 660	Posted: 2006-Jul-23 06:02 The one thing you haven't done with your site is to sell the cars your site is about. Implement this, sell 3-4 cars per year, and you are a winner. How to do it? - I don't know, but there must be some way of accomplishing it. The rewards might justify the brain energy. In any way, the web can be used to sell anything, from $1 items to houses and castles. 100% of my clients find me on the web, and the average sale is about the value of a new car (I am in the luxury travel business). So selling cars should be possible too. Maybe customized, restored, etc. As for advertising and affiliate revenue, you've done all what you could with AdSense. You might still try fine-tuning with various ads placement and colors. I would recommend to stay away from CJ now; they are not reliable, besides not being profitable. Other affiliate programs are also a waste of time. Chitika is nice (and compatible with AdSense) but did not work at all for me. Try it; it might be worth it. Amazon, one of the oldest affiliate programs on earth, is still a good one. Relevant products (books, car accessories) might not only bring some sales and commissions, but also enhance your website. Host the images yourself, and write your own descriptions. In some cases, creating a specific page for a specific Amazon product might be worthwhile. Last idea, for a site like yours it might be worth trying with Ebay. You can publish a list of Ebay items related to your car make, and get a commission on each sale. Here too, even if it does not bring you millions, it will enhance your website. (Copy Shortcut)

flyingrose Staff Joined: Oct 30, 2003 # Posts: 3361 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-23 22:33 Some good ideas here from Mark. Regarding selling Jeeps here are some possible ideas: 1. Locate Jeep owners interested in selling, negotiate a price you'll pay, and then advertise them online for more and keep the difference. 2. Locate Jeep owners interested in selling and offer to feature their vehicle on your site for a set fee. I do this for horse related real estate, selling them a featured listing on my site coupled with PPC ads at Google and/or Yahoo. 3. Add classifieds to your site if you don't already have them. A popular format for generating income is to offer very limited function for free and charge for upgrades like photos, links, attention getters, etc. One Amazon affiliate told me they generate a nice income by focusing on higher priced items. You could focus on accessories for jeeps. I haven't ever had an issue as a publisher with C.J. What kind of reliability and profitability issues have you seen Mark? As an advertiser or a publisher? (Copy Shortcut)

Mark Wolk Joined: Sep 19, 1999 # Posts: 660	Posted: 2006-Jul-23 23:03 CJ cancelled my publisher account without warning or reason (other than it was not very profitable). Many other affiliates are in the same boat. This is not serious behavior, I think. CJ are also said to still accept scumware merchants. (Copy Shortcut)

SportsGuy Staff Joined: Aug 30, 2002 # Posts: 3603 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-24 16:27 Thanks for the ideas guy. I had started this simply hoping to give ideas to folks for their own sites. mark & Rose - you've mentioned some great ideas I might just try myself. Page Views are just over 50,000 per month now, and Adsense is clipping along nicely (and increasing each month so far). I do actually have a classifieds section on the site, but it's a piped in feed from the largest brand-specific site going at the moment. I might have to look at getting my own version going... See, this place just rocks with great ideas for Webmasters - from optimization to monetization, it's here. (Copy Shortcut)

gamiziuk Joined: Aug 23, 2000 # Posts: 630	Posted: 2006-Jul-26 04:12 CJ cancelled my publisher account without warning or reason (other than it was not very profitable). Many other affiliates are in the same boat. This is not serious behavior, I think. CJ are also said to still accept scumware merchants. [link] Unfortunately, the eBay program is through CJ. I have been thru 3 or 4 accounts (cancelled due to nosales) with CJ, never made a PENNY with them. I have had better luck with Linkshare and Shareasale (I LOVE Shareasale). (Copy Shortcut)

flyingrose Staff Joined: Oct 30, 2003 # Posts: 3361 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-26 04:31 Most of my affiliate income comes from cj.com primarily in the form of magazine subscriptions. I must be on some radar screen for being active enough as I get solicited by some advertisers for their programs. The affiliate guru I know who sets up affiliate programs for advertisers recommends shareasale to get started and for smaller advertisers. CJ is somewhat pricey these days. I know they did accept scumware at one time; haven't seen that lately but haven't specifically looked either. If you can find programs that fit your site you should be able to generate some sales and you have to love getting paid without having to worry about collecting. (Copy Shortcut)

SportsGuy Staff Joined: Aug 30, 2002 # Posts: 3603 Website	Posted: 2006-Jul-26 14:54 Man, I tried all the magazine subscription offers applicable to my content offered through CJ - not a single sale. had the text links places high up on the page (above the fold), not near by Adsense ads to avoid obvious visual confusion, bold color for the font, edited the keywords to ensure the magazine's name was promonently displayed, etc., etc. Not a single sale, ever. In fairness, I was clipping off about 25,000 - 30,000 page views a month then. Perhaps now that I'm closer to 60,000 a month I might get some traction. Hmmm...2 times zero is...ah, yes...LOL Incidentally, my CJ account was still active as of last month with zippo activity in it. (Copy Shortcut)

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