What can I do with 80,000 visitors/month?

[stevebydac]

I am planning to start some websites in Feb. and hopefully do this fulltime come spring. At that time I would leave a company that has 5 websites. They are an afterthought of the business -- very little advertising, no SEO, no links. I just discovered that they have the following visitors per month: 29k,20k,15k,10k,6k=80,000 total!

I am very well-connected with those who decide the control of these sites. If I can show financial success on my own few sites that I am about to launch, I have little doubt that I could take over development of these five company sites later this year.

My questions are these: I have several options that I am considering for my own sites. Unless I'm crazy, I should focus my main energies on a site that one day could be a great link to these five company sites, right?

And assume that you were me and that you could indeed take development control of these five company sites later this year, how would you attack it? They are content sites with approx. 15-20 pages each. AdSense? Affiliates? Build more links? Add more content? Or work with a local wholesaler and build an online store that dropships? Or? And how do I revenue split the eventual earnings?

I have the opportunity now to mold the direction I head in. Your comments can help me plan long-term. And by the way, these 5 sites are each local district sites...the company has A TON MORE that are equally dormant spread across the USA. My goal is to prove my success in my region and then grab a piece of them all in 2005-06 :)

Thank you for your insight!

[figment88]

I have a site that last month had 79,084 visits from over 60,000 uniques.

I think I made somewhere between $50 and $60 using limited pop-unders and AdSense on all pages.

Fortunately, some of my other websites were more profitable on a per visitor basis.

[BlueGhost]

Depends on what the web sites are doing, In Real Estate 12,000 a month is great but selling $2 items it might not be so good. Also it depends on the conversion. I think we need more information.

[stevebydac]

I'll clarify a little on the sites. They are "pop culture" entertainment sites, telling you what's going on in nightlife, arts, sports, etc. in the region. They also look a bit at national movies, music, TV etc.

Hope that helps a little. They are not "niche" sites, at least not small niches; they are pretty wide in their scope.

Any thoughts on how to take advantage of these? They certainly attract a lot of people -- I just need to eventually figure out how to capitalize on them.

[figment88]

I haven't seen very good targetting on AdSense for local businesses.

Also your area matters. If you get 80K monthly visitors to a site about what's happening in some small resort town where merchants have big margins, you might be able to get some sponsorship. 80K monthly visitors to a website about Los Angeles is not too exciting.

Also you need to look at the costs. Where is this data coming from? Would you be expected to maintain it? Updating current events is a non-trivial task.