Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I have got my site running for a few months now. I have played by all the rules, invested a great deal of effort into content development, site promotion, SEO etc. At this stage in the game I am quite pleased with the results - I am getting a steadily increasing number of visitors, an increasing number of links... . I am now contemplating taking the first steps in monetizing this site before I move on to other ideas.
My initial thinking was that Google AdSense was not for me since I doubt that my audience click on ads = no revenues for me. However, I had never really looked at AdSense. I took a brief look today and it seems like they offer a Pay Per Imression option for ads on content (as opposed to search) pages.
However, I am still very much of a newbie here and know little about AdSense, or indeed any of the affiliate marketing options. I would be most grateful for any advise on the "dos" and "donts" before I embark on this enterprise.
But if you have the kind of audience that doesn't click on ads, that's probably also the kind of audience that doesn't read ads, in which case I doubt you'll get a lot of CPM campaigns. CPM isn't a synonym for throwing your money away; such advertisers also want to see clickthroughs and conversions.
Also, you have to be manually selected into CPM campaigns, so this won't happen right away. For example, I have a fairly big and prominent and longstanding site. I do get some CPM ads every day, but rarely if ever do CPM ads make up the majority of ad views. So IMO you're better off optimizing your site's ad placements and CTR rather than waiting for CPM campaigns to save you.
Given the volume of content I don't need to sell ad space at exorbitant rates to see a reasonable revenue stream. Or would it be better to go down the AdSense/Banner Ads/Affiliate route first, get advertisers to know of the site and then move to direct ad sales?
Google AdSense was not for me since I doubt that my audience click on ads
What makes you think that before having tried it? I am just curious.
Most of us who have been around this space for a while have learned that much of what you do to monetize your site(s) is experimental. You probably have nothing to lose by trying AdSense for a while to see how it performs with your site and your content.
Pay attention to ad placement on your pages. Experiment to learn what works and what doesn't. Educate yourself about AdSense. Bottom line is that you won't know until you try it.
Once you gain some experience with AdSense, you'll also develop some ideas about which affiliate programs (products or services) might also work with your site by paying attention to the subject matter of the Google ads being delivered on a consistent basis. When it seems approptiate, begin experimenting with targeted affiliate offerings.
Just some suggestions.
I have also been looking at what is on offer from an outfit called text link ads. What they are offering is a way to bump site ranks in a way that is not quite honest. I myself have steered way clear of anything that smacks even remotely of being underhand when promoting my own site.
However, given that the service is there I thought I should try and learn more about it. Any feedback here? Does it actually work? Do the links they generate leave telltale signs that would tell Google that it is a paid link?
Don't come down hard on me and tell me that it is simply not right. I think so anyway. However, the harsh reality is that I have come to a point where I MUST do something to make my site pay and I want to ensure that I explore all avenues.
Once again, thank you for all the comments and suggestings.
