Who here actually runs long term content websites?
- Thread starter CLKeenan
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Depends on the site. There is no silver bullet.
Depends on the offers available for that niche, the demographics I'm aiming at, my visitors, and quite simply just what I have tested and works. I've got all three running and working quite well, but I know for a fact that if I swapped them over they would perform really very horribly.
Depends on the offers available for that niche, the demographics I'm aiming at, my visitors, and quite simply just what I have tested and works. I've got all three running and working quite well, but I know for a fact that if I swapped them over they would perform really very horribly.
A little of everything... Banner ads (CPM), IntelliTXT (CPM), Adsense (fill), affiliate shopping coupons (paid percentage of total), comparison shopping feeds (paid per click), a new contextual advertising thingy that better understands semantics and serves more content-based advertising (to better relate to forum content - CPM), etc.
I think I have tried just about everything and I am always looking for ways to provide more relevant advertising that serves some purpose for users. Not always easy, though.
Laura
Oh trust me I know
I've been advertising on content sites for over 3 years now I'm just checking to see what some of the methods are people are using for their content sites.
Oh trust me I know
I'm just checking to see what some of the methods are people are using for their content sites.
So what are *you* using?
In the past I had only run a CPM chain (Tribal Fusion, Burst, Valueclick, Casale, etc) as well as Adsense. Now I am still doing a chain but I have Gorilla Nation representing my website and bringing in some premium advertisers who are paying mid $x CPM for most campaigns. In the fall when school starts back up, they are planning on selling some custom campaigns (branded micro-sites, homepage takeovers, sponsored promotional contests, etc).
I talk to my account rep on AIM (or phone if its important) a few times a week and he's giving me input on my sites redesign and business plan for a new site I'm working on.
My income also shot up back to what I was used to earning with Tribal Fusion in their glory days (late 2004-early 2005) and then some - so I'm very happy
I talk to my account rep on AIM (or phone if its important) a few times a week and he's giving me input on my sites redesign and business plan for a new site I'm working on.
My income also shot up back to what I was used to earning with Tribal Fusion in their glory days (late 2004-early 2005) and then some - so I'm very happy
That made a big difference in our banner income - we do something similar being represented by NetShelter. That's just one income stream, but having a company selling our site specifically has dramatically increased CPM rates over Tribal (which we do use in our chain).
So you only run banner ads?
Laura
Very interesting and this is really the key to long term stability in internet marketing is legit conent sites built for the long term. I think many of the super affiliates know this and have been doing it for sometime but they aren't really sharing that with us. I feel there is still so much opportunity to capture some niches and make great money in the future once you get high in the serp's.
90% of my efforts are for the long term with contents sites. I feel that they will act much like real estate does in the offline world and produce a semi-passive income in the future.
Please tell us more about Gorilla Nation and other monetizing efforts you are using. I haven't heard of them? What are they doing for you?
I'm specializing in travel and niche mortgages. My ultimate goals with these is to be a direct affiliate with strategic companies where I control 100% of the lead capture and delivery, thus making sure I am in 100% control of my income. Plus I think adsense will play the biggest role for me and act like a renter would in my home and bring me in passive income with some low maintanace.
I would love to hear more about this and your experiences and I'm sure it would help Noob's to understand that this is what they should put more focus on then selling e-books or ringtones.
90% of my efforts are for the long term with contents sites. I feel that they will act much like real estate does in the offline world and produce a semi-passive income in the future.
Please tell us more about Gorilla Nation and other monetizing efforts you are using. I haven't heard of them? What are they doing for you?
I'm specializing in travel and niche mortgages. My ultimate goals with these is to be a direct affiliate with strategic companies where I control 100% of the lead capture and delivery, thus making sure I am in 100% control of my income. Plus I think adsense will play the biggest role for me and act like a renter would in my home and bring me in passive income with some low maintanace.
I would love to hear more about this and your experiences and I'm sure it would help Noob's to understand that this is what they should put more focus on then selling e-books or ringtones.
In the past I had only run a CPM chain (Tribal Fusion, Burst, Valueclick, Casale, etc) as well as Adsense. Now I am still doing a chain but I have Gorilla Nation representing my website and bringing in some premium advertisers who are paying mid $x CPM for most campaigns. In the fall when school starts back up, they are planning on selling some custom campaigns (branded micro-sites, homepage takeovers, sponsored promotional contests, etc).
I talk to my account rep on AIM (or phone if its important) a few times a week and he's giving me input on my sites redesign and business plan for a new site I'm working on.
My income also shot up back to what I was used to earning with Tribal Fusion in their glory days (late 2004-early 2005) and then some - so I'm very happy
I have one that I've put quite a bit of work and time into. I've written over 50 articles for it, some into a couple thousand words. Very nice content. I get the most traffic to it from all of my sites. I've paid for backlins, I'm linked to. I rank #3 in Google for it, right behind the manufacturers of the product. And guess what? It produces no money. Any advertising I put up always has a minimum of 2% or more click through, but no one buys.
My stupid MFA site makes more from natural searches.
My stupid MFA site makes more from natural searches.
The prob is your right behind the manufacturer and you'll probally never break #1. It's like selling dell computers with a #3 site and dell is #1 and 2. Your fucked.
What I do is study the competition and rankings and see if I can crack #1 eventually. I look for high volume seraches where #1 in google has a low PR and is not a wiki page, amazon, etc. where you will never crack it.
What I do is study the competition and rankings and see if I can crack #1 eventually. I look for high volume seraches where #1 in google has a low PR and is not a wiki page, amazon, etc. where you will never crack it.
You can find out more about them here: Gorilla Nation
They are extremely selective in who they accept to represent. They do require that they control all of your banner advertising but you can default to your chain through them. So I have my chain setup GN->TF->Burst->ValueClick->CPA Offers (hardly any impressions make it this far).
You need to have a lot of targeted traffic and high quality content in order for you to be considered. It also helps to know someone who is already a publisher of theirs (I know the owner of Student.com and he put in a good word for me which got me in touch with the VP of BizDev @ GN).
Smash - that's interesting. I suspect (without knowing more), that your niche isn't great.
What I tend to do is to check that kind of thing out before hand with a sub-par "semi-spam" site. Get some links into that and see how the traffic does - you should be turning a profit within a month or so and if you're willing to gamble a little with extrapolating your data and results, you can see whether it's going to be worth your effort in the long term. You can usually see quite quickly whether your visitors are the type that like ads / offers.
Not 100% effective, but it gives you some idea before you go charging in, all guns blazing.
What I tend to do is to check that kind of thing out before hand with a sub-par "semi-spam" site. Get some links into that and see how the traffic does - you should be turning a profit within a month or so and if you're willing to gamble a little with extrapolating your data and results, you can see whether it's going to be worth your effort in the long term. You can usually see quite quickly whether your visitors are the type that like ads / offers.
Not 100% effective, but it gives you some idea before you go charging in, all guns blazing.
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