What to Sell on a General Interest Site?

Site is not focused enough, now what should I do?

[Jane_Doe]

I realize now, after finding webmasterworld, that I made a common SEO rookie error and created a site that wasn't focused ot targeted enough to sell the products I was trying to sell. However, I went with a low cost web host so I'm not spending a lot to keep it up.

One page has a PR6 and most of the others are PR5 to PR4. The site gets about 800 pageviews a day. Most of the reciprocal links have not made it into Google yet, so next month when those take effect it should go up in the rankings and will probably get 1,500 - 2,000 pageviews a day.

The PR6 page is an information page that webmasters of government and education sites like to link to so I think that page may possibly get PR7 over the course of next year.

I've read in other postings that when a site doen't work it's best to just start over. Howvever, I don't want to just delete this site. If nothing else I'll use the PR to link to new, more focused sites or focused subdirectories on the same site. But it would be nice to make at least some money from the pages that are out there.

Any suggestions on what kind of advertising, products or PPC programs would work good on a general interest type site? It generates lots of clicks now for books but few sales. Or should I just not waste any time trying different products on the general site and focus on products and pages that I have on other sites that I know sell well?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[vibgyor79]

Jane, I would suggest some affiliate programs in the following order -

Software -> Almost everybody buys software and you generally make $10 plus per sale
CPM Advertising -> Join advertising networks like FastClick that offers CPM programs. Since you are expecting 2000 pageviews per day, you can make around $100+ per month
Books/Music related ->Works great for general websites

Hope this helps!

Ashwin

[Jane_Doe]

Thanks, Ashwin. Actually software may fit in with the site. I'll give it a try.

I did aply to Fastclick but was turned down and they did not give a reason. Would they turn a site down if traffic was too low? I applied last month when my traffic was half of what it is now.

Do you have a second choice for an ad network after Fastclick?

Thanks,
Jane

[vibgyor79]

I think you need 2500 pageviews per day to join FastClick. Try applying after a couple of weeks.

There aren't many affiliate networks that pay on CPM model. Get into FastClick somehow!

Ashwin

[PaulPaul]

A little off topic, but why would people prefer to use Page Views as a marker of site rank, and not use Unique Visitors?

[vibgyor79]

In the CPM model, I think pageviews make much more sense. Affiliate networks make money when there are more pageviews (since the banner ads are displayed everytime a page is viewed). Remember that you can have 1000 unique visitors but only 1000 pageviews.

[Jane_Doe]

Advertising space is often sold based on CPM - cost per thousand impressions, and not cost per number of unique visitors to your site.

[PaulPaul]

Makes sense, thanks guys.

Paul

[brotherhood of LAN]

I spent a very limited amount of time selling 3rd party CPM and CPC banners.

If you can't get targetted ads then IMHO they are simply not worth it. You get paid low rates for CPM if they are untargetted and the untargetted CPC's are usually designed to be "unclickable" and are used for branding - free branding almost.

Jane_Doe, what do you mean by "general interest"....is there a subject that the site would conveniently fall under at DMOZ? If their is, then maybe you might want to look at similar sites and if they are making any $

[grainfarmer]

Jane,

Don't ruin your site by going with a popup ad campaign, especially for only $100/month. People will be turned off by the annoying ads. Focus on programs that everyone needs for a general interest site. Insurance, for example. Just my opinion.

[Jane_Doe]

I did look at the other sites with the same topic and they mostly do banner ads and pop-ups on subjects totally unrelated to the topics on the sites. There's very few Overture bids on the keywords. If I'd known enough to look at Overtue bids when I first started out, that should have been my first clue that these weren't highly profitable keywords.

The site has a sort of non-descript domain name so I've decided to just keep the site up as is and add some directories with more specific keywords and specific products - items I know that sell well based on another site I have that is profitable.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

[ndaru]

Jane_Doe, thanks for starting this thread.

I made the exact same mistake as you were, building a website with too many subjects and atracked its visitors with free contents. Now I want to share my experience with others in this forum.

After months of researches, I launched my site on July 2002 and began a series of link campaign since then. After Google August's update, my most popular page has a PR6 and the site gets 300-350 unique visitors and 900-1000 pageviews a day. This is good.

Still, I have a near-zero sales.

I checked my search engine referral log for August 2002, and found out that the most used keywords is 'free', 'online' and 'download'. From there I realize that I can hardly expect to sale something on my site, since everybody want something for free.

- Amazon? No, if they want to buy a book, they go straight to Amazon.
- Software/Shareware? No, these people are determined enough to land on my site, and they'll take the same manner to look for freewares.
- Sign up something for free? No, they just don't bother.
- Banner ads? No, *nobody* clicked on them.
- Pop-up ads? No, if I do that, they'll never come back.

At that point, I started hitting my forehead and muttering 'why-didn't-i-start-with-something-more-profitable---?'. Ouch!

I still have the last revenue arsenal inside my pocket. If this also failed, I plan to do these:

- Keep the site up and running. Its free content makes my linking campaign easy and its popularity will surely increase.
- Make a new site, more targeted and more profitable. Basic rule: the content itself will be the source of revenue. Once it launched the first incoming link will come from my first site.

Ok, that's it. Thank you.

Ndaru.

[1Lit]

Ndaru, we have the same problem. Tens of thousands of visitors to our site (movies), but once they see the galleries and read the reviews they just wanna leave. Despite all kinds of high-quality, integrated and relevant links, only 1 in 400 goes on to buy a DVD or video. Boy, do I HATE the visitors to our site :)

Good luck my friend.

[Jane_Doe]

My experiences have been similar, to Ndaru's.

The exception I would make is that books can sell really well if: 1) they are niche books that are not offered on a lot of other sites; 2) they very, very directly relate to what people are searching for; 3) you have read them and can honestly recommend them (versus just putting a link on your site to the book); and 4) they have good reviews in Amazon.

I'm taking the advice from the other posts at Webmasterworld and making more specific and honed pages on products I already know sell well based on another site I have that is profitable. So I'm sticking to what I know works for me for now and then I'll try branching out again at a later date with other products. Only the next time I try branching out I'll be: 1) a little older and wiser; 2) have advice on Webmasterworld under my belt; and 3) have "niche target market" as my mantra.

Jane

"Never, nerver never quit." Winston Churchill

[Filipe]

I've read in other postings that when a site doen't work it's best to just start over.

This something specific to Affiliate program sites? I haven't heard that one before.

[Jane_Doe]

I think many people in these forums like to have theme sites, with the theme's keywords in the domain name. So if one domain doesn't work, they just start over with a new domain.

In my (limited) experience different themes are okay per directory or sets of pages within a site as long as you get on topic links to each directory or page grouping. But since I'm not making a million dollars a year from my sites maybe I'm not the one to listen to! :)

On the site I just put up I gave it a generic type domain name so I could try to add another topic easily if the topics I started on didn't work out. Since the site is in DMOZ, Google and Ink and has lots of nice links from PR7 & PR6, I don't want to just throw it away. I'll just keep trying different products until I find something that clicks (pun intended).

[edited to fix typo]