Offering users a 'no ad' version

Could it be profitable?

[madmatt69]

Hi everyone,

I've got a site that's receiving a lot of traffic. It generates some half decent money but pretty much all from crappy CPM ads which I really disdain.

I've been thinking of selling memberships to the site. Basically people get an ads free version and get all access to the site - non members would be restricted from now on in that they wouldn't be able to access all content that right now has been given for free.

So...Do you think this would be profitable? Sure I know I'd probably loose some traffic but..Selling montly memberships at $15 a pop or so would probably make up for it if I could sell a bunch.

My question is - has anyone done this? Any idea what kind of conversion ratio you'd get?

Just a thought - thanks for any feedback!

[dsmmg]

It generates some half decent money but pretty much all from crappy CPM ads which I really disdain.

Not an expert by any means and all...

A quick suggestion would probably be to look into AdSense first though. If you have content that you are seriously even considering whether people would pay to see, it sounds like it might work well for you. That level of content and traffic would propably benefit better from AdSense than CPM ads... And it seems like a lot less work and risk than trying to go to a pay for view method of income.

Just my 2 cents... DS

[madmatt69]

Got adsense on there and...It's useless. Out of tens of thousands of impressions per day, it generates next to no clicks and extremely low revenue (read: pennies).

And CPM advertising is such a rip off. That's why I'm trying to find the best way to make the site worth while.

[Fairla]

Why do you hate CPM so much? If it's poor ad quality, have you tried Fastclick? - most of their ads are terrible, but some are fine. I run only the non-deceptive, non-sleazy ones.

[madmatt69]

I just hate the way they're setup. I've used maxonline and am quite dissapointed. Net revenue, serving fees, they take this and that off. I had like $70 in gross revenue, but minus all the fees it was a net revenue of less than $5.

Fastclick declined my application saying they already have sites in that industry or something to that effect.

[Fairla]

That's unfortunate. If you ever start a new site in another field, I would try Fastclick again. It's been a godsend for me (and I haven't been charged any fees). I'd much rather be paid per impression than for clicks that may or may not happen.

Maybe you can find another CPM program that works out better for you than Maxonline. Burst maybe? (I applied to Burst before Fastclick, but they turned me down.)