Quote:
| Originally Posted by bushman I've always wondered how online websites, who are not traditional commercial sites, make money. For example, online directories, article sites, tutorial sites, wallpaper sites, etc. This is definitely a personal/confidential topic for most of you. So I thought a private poll would serve to satisfy my curiosity.
If you maintain more than one site, choose the site that generates the most revenue for you. Also, do not include adult websites!
Feel free to add your comments, if you wish!
Thanks,
David |
It wasn't easy and the figures certainly are not amazing, but my site is a purely web-based thing with no real world backup, it's an online directory with a strong emphasis on entertainment.
The first thing I need (always need) is traffic, and lots of it... Really, at least 20 thousand visitors/month, and a million data requests/month is nice also. I suppose it depends on the site, but at least for mine, this is the minimum.
Although a porn-site it is not, I find adding about 10 percent of this type of content doubles the traffic. Selling this I wouldn't dream of trying to earn a buck, I feel bad enough leading the lambs down this road.
As for me, affiliate programs (commission-based) never did squat for me. Sure a little money trickled in, but never more than $50/year (usually not even close), so not enough to make it worth the hassle. For me, the only revenue-based sponsors that work are pay-per-click OR pay-per-impression (banner networks). For anything at all to work, I find a minimum revenue of at least 5 dollars/month is an absolute requirement, thou 10-15 / month is better, per stream... For some I suppose one thing generates enough but for me, I find 2-3 maybe 4 revenue streams appears to work best... Still, a stream has to generate enough revenue to where I get a check at least once/year, for no less than 50 dollars for starters (and then it better involve no maintenance - paste and forget).
In the past 5 years, I found a few things that:
Google's Adsense pays about 300-odd per year, so $25-$30 / month.
A banner network pays around 7 cents per thousand, my site turns out 250-400 thousand imps/month, so there's another 20-odd dollars/month.
Paid submission (selling links) has been the best, for one there is no percentage (I am the seller and owner of the service) and find selling one's own apparently is best: 30-40 / month here.
All in all, usually right over 100 / month but the server costs 89 / month so the figures are far from amazing and also far from profitable. And, it didn't start earning until October 2004, four years into it. Furthermore, I spend several hundred a year on paid advertising. Guess at least the server is paid for.
Frustrating ... It helps to keep in mind this is best done for fun.