Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I'm the webmaster of an educational site that runs Adsense as of this month. The owner is the content provider (he writes most of the articles on the site), while I am the webmaster and I also help with the Adsense part of it (in terms of placing the codes on the pages, etc.).
I was involved in developing the site from its inception - in fact I came with the idea in the first place. I also did and continue to do all SEO/marketing, although I have to say most of the site's growth was "natural", driven by content liked and linked to by others. The hosting and domain name costs (about $100 a year) are covered by the site owner, and we are planning to cover that from the Adsense revenue, then split what's left.
My question is what would be a fair way of sharing the ad revenue? What percentage of this revenue would be reasonable to ask for?
The owner is a person I respect a lot and he is also a friend, so obviously I don't want to come up with an unreasonable request. Has any of you been in a similar situation?
Any input greatly appreciated!
All the best to you all!
Specialistu
How much work do you do, how much work does the other person do? How much money have each of you expended? You just have to come up with a split that seems fair to both of you.
On the surface, without further information, this sounds like a 50/50 split would be fair. Probably needs to be 51/49 to break deadlocks if this will be a formal corporation or partnership.
On the other hand, you refer to the other person as the "owner". If this is the understanding of both of you, and it would never have happened had he not taken the initiative to get it off the ground, a 66/33 split might be appropriate.
It's whatever you both feel comfortable with.
Any other ideas?
When you negotiate, try to look at the other person's perspective as well. Your perspective might be "All he does is write articles- anyone can do that." And his perspective may be "All he does is put those little AdSense thingies up- anyone can do that." Obviously, both are wrong, so you'll need to come together to adequately figure out the proper contributions each makes, and therefore adequate compensation for both.
The other thing is to factor in any profit shares based on any initial investment.
From what you've said I'm guessing you should ask for something in the 25% - 33% range. IMHO content is king, so if you're not providing content, 50% would be too much to ask.
I've also had such an offer that I'm contemplating, but it's with a niche product related site and with those, regardless of the content (which is a minimal factor), unless there's traffic there's no revenue - and content does not necessarily mean traffic for a product site, which isn't the same as an informational site. It can be like throwing a great party that no guests come to.
Next, without revealing any of this research ask your partner what you believe a fair split is and let him tell you. If it is higher than your number than you have to decide if you want to lower his claims. If your number is higher you also have to decide if you want to pursue asking for a better split.
In either case I would keep the conversation very open and present your thinking and research. If you do this openly and calmly I believe you will come to an agreement you can both live with.
