Online web game qualifies?

[dogzilla]

Hi,

My mate runs an online game. It is web based and has around 8000 active members. Per month he gets around 400million impressions a month. He has survived the bandwidth bill from donations but its fast becoming inadequate. I said ide have a look around for him - to see if its worth advertising.

We both agree google adsense is good- we like the fact its just text based ads which wont slow the loading.

My questions:

Is his site applicable for google adsense? If so - is there a rough figure for what he can hope to earn? Hed be happy to make the $400/month required to host the site!

[Jenstar]

Much will depend on the kind of game site it is.
[google.com...]
has more information on the kind of sites that are allowed.

But with that number of impressions, he would also qualify for the premium publishers program, which has a whole different set of rules (seems to be much more lenient with many). If I had that kind of site, I would apply for premium first:
[google.com...]

<added>Welcome to WebmasterWorld, dogzilla!</added>

[dogzilla]

He will meet all of the policies displayed on that page.

I know there are TOS things to take into account - but is there a rough idea about how much he can earn? All that matters really is he gets over $400 to pay for hosting costs - any more is just a bonus. 400 seems like alot of money for just advertising - hopefully he will be able to get that.

[level80]

Your story sounds a little fantastic - are you sure your mate isn't winding you up? As far as I know only the top 25 sites in the world get that much traffic! Based on an estimate I'd say that including Google Adsense ads would bring in $200,000/ month (although as 20 million impressions+ would come under different rules (I think they do CPM rather than CPC) it might be a slightly different amount. If his site involves gambling or casino-related content it might not be allowed in the Google Adsense program.

[level80]

Are you sure your friend isn't giving you a hits figure? If an average page has two graphics - this'll register three hits each time it's viewed. The pages figure would therefore be a third of it.

[level80]

That works out at 1,666 pages viewed per a day per an active member - which doesn't seem right. That's more than one page viewed every minute of every day by every active member. People have got to sleep sometime!

[Jenstar]

but is there a rough idea about how much he can earn?

It is hard to say - two sites with identical impressions and clickthroughs could result in wildly different earnings. It all depends on the keywords, and how much advertisers are paying per click. There is no formula of $X per click or $X per impressions.

Apply and see what the result is. Will he get $400 per month? Possibly, or possibly not - at all depends on ad availability and what those ads are worth. But IMO, anything from AdSense is better than nothing at all.

[dogzilla]

The game is continually turning over so users login and refresh all the time.

Were gonna try it out - see what happens - worth a try :)

[Jolly_Roger]

I also run a game and can identify with _some_ of the figures dogzilla mentions. Mine does only about 4 million page views per month and has far fewer active players. However, players can do a _lot_ of page views in a fast web game. The biggest web session so far today at my site was 3024 pages. That session was one of three with over 2000 page views.

Due to limitations on session length and number of transactions per session, the 3024 session is pretty near the upper limit. That session lasted 3 hours and 2 minutes, almost exactly 1000 pages per hour(!) There is a hard limit of 4 hours per day per player as well, but many players play multiple accounts. So, as you can see, there isn't really a mass advertising audience at my place.

Monetizing such a game is difficult, at best. The average account at my site does several hundred page views per day. In a fast paced game, they spend little time on a single page. Arguably, in such a tightly focused session, a hundred PV's in six minutes is probably worth (in advertising) about the same as one long page view.

My adsense site does far fewer page views than my game site but has about one hundred times as many visitors in a week. In a month the non-game site probably has 200 times as many visitors. My guess is that it's about 100 times as valuable for advertising.

Dogzilla, if you and your friend figure out how to make such a game pay without subscriptions, let me know! I'm hosting mine out of my own pocket too. :)

[level80]

Well - my figures were based on an average website eg one that people look at a few pages on then leave. If the games are as addictive as Jolly_Roger and dogzilla say then you'd get a very low clickthrough rate (so probably best not to go for a CPC advertiser). I suggest you look at advertising on similar online games eg Utopia at Swirve for ideas on how to proceed.

The alternative would be to try and hunt down advertisers yourself. Mention on your contact page that you do advertising (with brief details on what kind of traffic you get). Then when they get in touch you can negotiate (at probably a higher rate than you'd get through an agency).

Alternatively you could put a donate link to paypal (if you haven't already).

The problem with having regular visitors to your site (and viewing many pages at once) is that they're bound to "tune out" any ads.

The only other thing I can think of is some sort of sponsorship deal.

[dogzilla]

What about getting paid for impressions? If im calculating this right he could accept as low as 0.5p per thousand and still make enough money for his hosting?

Will people be interested in buying cpm like that?

[Blue_Fin]

That would best be asked on the Advertising Sales and Affiliate Programs forum. This forum is just for AdSense.

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Teshka]

Is a subscription thing out of the question? With 8,000 members you'd be able to charge a rediculously low rate to make $400, even with associated fees. I know I wouldn't click on an add while I was busy in a game, probably wouldn't even notice it.