Attempting to make advertising revenue for the first time - geek/talk: Signature-free discourse for serious web publishers

hobbnet · 03-04-2001, 02:59 PM

I am trying to make money through advertising for the first time. I figure this is probably one of the best times to do it since if I can manage to make some money it can only get better at this current state of the market.

So the let me give you a little info on my site: http://www.essaysfree.com

For example today, sunday, I have receieved 400 unique visitors and have 8 hours left in the day so, I should reach around 550 unique visitors at the end of the day.

As for revenue I have impleted the AllClicks exit program and at the current rate will be making about $1 a day from that program which is fine since it pays for the server cost and then some. I have also put a mailbits Tell-A-Friend link on the mainpage. I have had no success with this program so far (it has been there for 2 days) and have yet to receive ANY revenue from it. I know I could do some things to make the click through a little better but I am discouraged because I have received NO revenue from it so far.

The growth rate of the site has been very rapid. I expect to have around 1,000 uniques per day by the end of march, possibly more.

I have read the forums here for over a year now but I haven't really absorbed a lot in the "Making Money" forums since I never really looked to make money from advertising on my webpages.

So any suggestions as to how I could optimize revenue would be great!

Thanks.

Lil_Red · 03-04-2001, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hobbnet:
I am trying to make money through advertising for the first time. I figure this is probably one of the best times to do it since if I can manage to make some money it can only get better at this current state of the market.

So the let me give you a little info on my site: http://www.essaysfree.com

For example today, sunday, I have receieved 400 unique visitors and have 8 hours left in the day so, I should reach around 550 unique visitors at the end of the day.

As for revenue I have impleted the AllClicks exit program and at the current rate will be making about $1 a day from that program which is fine since it pays for the server cost and then some. I have also put a mailbits Tell-A-Friend link on the mainpage. I have had no success with this program so far (it has been there for 2 days) and have yet to receive ANY revenue from it. I know I could do some things to make the click through a little better but I am discouraged because I have received NO revenue from it so far.

The growth rate of the site has been very rapid. I expect to have around 1,000 uniques per day by the end of march, possibly more.

I have read the forums here for over a year now but I haven't really absorbed a lot in the "Making Money" forums since I never really looked to make money from advertising on my webpages.

So any suggestions as to how I could optimize revenue would be great!

Thanks.

A problem you may run into trying to obtain advertising involves copyright laws. The authors of the essays actually hold the copyrights to those essays. Many ad companies require that you hold the copyright to materials on your site.

You might do well to s**** the mailbits and go a searchbox program. With the nature of your site, a searchbox would most likely generate more clicks than a mailbits program.

You should also fix your dead links and blank pages to give the site a more professional look. All in all, there is potential, you just need to figure the right combination that works for you and your visitors.

------------------
Webmaster
http://server.com

hobbnet · 03-04-2001, 04:10 PM

Ack, I was unaware of "dead links and blank pages".

I just switched servers and some stuff may be a little messed up. I saw one link to an essay dead. If you can, could you please tell me what links you saw dead?

Thanks. Any more suggestions?

Lil_Red · 03-04-2001, 04:26 PM

On your links.html page, the two links you have essay links and Other Sites generate an error page.

As to revenue ideas, maybe Czar will jump in. He has a website which can give you a lot of information regarding different ad reps.

**Czar** · 03-04-2001, 06:58 PM

That sounds like my cue. http://geekvillage.com/ubb/wink.gif

Hobbnet, although it's no secret that banner rates are in a slump right now, and easy way to instantly increase your revenues would be to create HTML pages out of each essay, rather than keeping them as simple txt files. You could do this easily by surrounding the text with the <pre> (preformatted) tag.

Doing so would allow you to place banners on the individual essay pages, and would increase the chances of these being indexed by the search engines. As for specific ad agencies, you could try Burst!, ValueClick, WebsiteSponsors, iClicks, Sonar, etc.

You could also try searching for affiliate programs aimed at teens or college students at CJ, Websponsors, DirectLeads, OnResponse or Sponsorships.net. Most of these are flexible in their linking methods, and offer support for text links, button ads and banners.

As for the intellectual property issues raised by Lil_Red above, you may want to place a message at the end of each essay crediting its author and stating that the essay has been reproduced here with permission, and that it may not be reproduced in part or in full elsewhere without the expressed permission of the author.

------------------
Czar
Net-Ads - Webmaster Resource Center
iOnline Network

hobbnet · 03-04-2001, 11:14 PM

Would any program out there make adding the <pre> and </pre> tags easier to add to the 300+ essays I have in .txt format? A program where I could do it in bulk? I am sure there is but I don't know what they are called.

I am really glad you pointed out the pre tags Czar (I didn't know there was such a tag before your post).

Thanks again.

gallery · 03-05-2001, 12:13 AM

Like Csar suggested, you must transform all your txt pages to html.

This way you can add advertising to each of the essays.

I have noticed that you have the same sentence "| | Return To The Student Essay Directory | |" at the end of each essay.

If you could add another unique sentence at the start of each essay then my software (www.aliassoftware.com) can transform all your 300 txt files to html at once with advertising.

------------------
www.aliassoftware.com : a great search and replace software designed for webmasters needing to update tons of web pages at once.
A lot of features to maintain your ad codes, search boxes ...

Ralph Slate · 03-05-2001, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Would any program out there make adding the <pre> and </pre> tags easier to add to the 300+ essays I have in .txt format? A program where I could do it in bulk? I am sure there is but I don't know what they are called.

It's easy if you know a dynamic scripting language like perl or PHP. Just create your index files (the ones that link to the essay) to point to a CGI script (perl, php).

In that CGI script, just have it do this:

1) Output the <pre> tag (plus any other page headers, including ads).

2) Read and "print" the essay.

3) Output the </pre> tag (plus any page footers).

The script is essentially trivial to write, and you won't have to touch a single essay. You'll just have to be able to catalog them in some way so that you know how to build your indexing page.

Ralph

gbrott · 03-05-2001, 06:59 AM

You have a great site, but you may be able to make better money through a different revenue model. Right now I can go to your site, take all of the essays and leave without giving you anything. I could put them on my own web site if I choose.

A few ideas:
-Make people give an essay to you in order to get access to them. This would quickly increase the number in your collection and your value as a site.

-Charge a few dollars. Other sites do it for essays, and I bet a lot of your users would be willing to paypal you $5 for single day access to your site. Change the passwords every day and you are all set. Your visitors are probably web savvy students who are likely to have paypal accounts.

500 unique visitors making you $1 per day. What if you could get 5 people to pay you $5 per day? What if traffic increased 10% per month? You would be doing a lot more than covering your hosting costs them.

If you want to make any kind of money, this is the better way to do it. Of course, you'd have to change the name of your site!

03-04-2001, 02:59 PM	#1
hobbnet Registered User Join Date: Sep 1999 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 627	Attempting to make advertising revenue for the first time I am trying to make money through advertising for the first time. I figure this is probably one of the best times to do it since if I can manage to make some money it can only get better at this current state of the market. So the let me give you a little info on my site: http://www.essaysfree.com For example today, sunday, I have receieved 400 unique visitors and have 8 hours left in the day so, I should reach around 550 unique visitors at the end of the day. As for revenue I have impleted the AllClicks exit program and at the current rate will be making about $1 a day from that program which is fine since it pays for the server cost and then some. I have also put a mailbits Tell-A-Friend link on the mainpage. I have had no success with this program so far (it has been there for 2 days) and have yet to receive ANY revenue from it. I know I could do some things to make the click through a little better but I am discouraged because I have received NO revenue from it so far. The growth rate of the site has been very rapid. I expect to have around 1,000 uniques per day by the end of march, possibly more. I have read the forums here for over a year now but I haven't really absorbed a lot in the "Making Money" forums since I never really looked to make money from advertising on my webpages. So any suggestions as to how I could optimize revenue would be great! Thanks.

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03-04-2001, 04:10 PM	#3
hobbnet Registered User Join Date: Sep 1999 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 627	Ack, I was unaware of "dead links and blank pages". I just switched servers and some stuff may be a little messed up. I saw one link to an essay dead. If you can, could you please tell me what links you saw dead? Thanks. Any more suggestions?

03-04-2001, 04:26 PM	#4
Lil_Red Registered User Join Date: Dec 2000 Posts: 1,579	On your links.html page, the two links you have essay links and Other Sites generate an error page. As to revenue ideas, maybe Czar will jump in. He has a website which can give you a lot of information regarding different ad reps.

03-04-2001, 06:58 PM	#5
Czar Join Date: Aug 1999 Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia Posts: 9,488	That sounds like my cue. http://geekvillage.com/ubb/wink.gif Hobbnet, although it's no secret that banner rates are in a slump right now, and easy way to instantly increase your revenues would be to create HTML pages out of each essay, rather than keeping them as simple txt files. You could do this easily by surrounding the text with the <pre> (preformatted) tag. Doing so would allow you to place banners on the individual essay pages, and would increase the chances of these being indexed by the search engines. As for specific ad agencies, you could try Burst!, ValueClick, WebsiteSponsors, iClicks, Sonar, etc. You could also try searching for affiliate programs aimed at teens or college students at CJ, Websponsors, DirectLeads, OnResponse or Sponsorships.net. Most of these are flexible in their linking methods, and offer support for text links, button ads and banners. As for the intellectual property issues raised by Lil_Red above, you may want to place a message at the end of each essay crediting its author and stating that the essay has been reproduced here with permission, and that it may not be reproduced in part or in full elsewhere without the expressed permission of the author. ------------------ Czar Net-Ads - Webmaster Resource Center iOnline Network

03-04-2001, 11:14 PM	#6
hobbnet Registered User Join Date: Sep 1999 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 627	Would any program out there make adding the <pre> and </pre> tags easier to add to the 300+ essays I have in .txt format? A program where I could do it in bulk? I am sure there is but I don't know what they are called. I am really glad you pointed out the pre tags Czar (I didn't know there was such a tag before your post). Thanks again.

03-05-2001, 12:13 AM	#7
gallery Registered User Join Date: Aug 1999 Location: Belgium Posts: 691	Like Csar suggested, you must transform all your txt pages to html. This way you can add advertising to each of the essays. I have noticed that you have the same sentence "\| \| Return To The Student Essay Directory \| \|" at the end of each essay. If you could add another unique sentence at the start of each essay then my software (www.aliassoftware.com) can transform all your 300 txt files to html at once with advertising. ------------------ www.aliassoftware.com : a great search and replace software designed for webmasters needing to update tons of web pages at once. A lot of features to maintain your ad codes, search boxes ...

03-05-2001, 06:59 AM	#9
gbrott Registered User Join Date: Feb 1999 Location: ny,ny Posts: 94	You have a great site, but you may be able to make better money through a different revenue model. Right now I can go to your site, take all of the essays and leave without giving you anything. I could put them on my own web site if I choose. A few ideas: -Make people give an essay to you in order to get access to them. This would quickly increase the number in your collection and your value as a site. -Charge a few dollars. Other sites do it for essays, and I bet a lot of your users would be willing to paypal you $5 for single day access to your site. Change the passwords every day and you are all set. Your visitors are probably web savvy students who are likely to have paypal accounts. 500 unique visitors making you $1 per day. What if you could get 5 people to pay you $5 per day? What if traffic increased 10% per month? You would be doing a lot more than covering your hosting costs them. If you want to make any kind of money, this is the better way to do it. Of course, you'd have to change the name of your site!