5 ms·

20% revenue split to help monetize a website

11 points by tomkazarian 12y ago

I have a site getting significant traffic and need someone who is knowledgeable about ad networks/ad layout testing/etc. I will pay 20% of whatever revenue your suggestions bring in for a period of 6 months.

MalcolmDiggs 12y ago
If you post the site url, I'm sure many of us would be more than willing to post some monetization-advice here for free. Just a thought.
- tomkazarian 12y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion. --- At the moment, I'm running only ebay ads incorporated into the following areas: - 2 units per page on category pages like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches http://www.lionseek.com/watches - 2 units per page on brand pages like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko - 12 units per page on individual item pages (found in the 'similar items on the web' section/slider) like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko/fs-seiko-6309-5029-2178f3 http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko/fs-seiko-6309-50... - 4 units on a search result page that has no matches like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches?seller_id=-1&has_photo=true&category=watches&limit=22&page=1&q=blah+blah http://www.lionseek.com/watches?seller_id=-1&has_photo=true&... --- I have an Adsense account, Commission Junction account, and an Amazon Associates account it's just that none of these have been implemented. I can get self-serve ads implemented quickly. The site is responsive so the ads would have to work with a couple of breakpoints. An ideal scenario is someone saying 'Stick a XYZ ad unit here stylized in the following way. Stick ABC ad unit here in the following format. This ad platform (XYZ) might help for testing and maximizing revenue.' If you are confused about what the site is/does then take a look at: http://www.lionseek.com/p/faq http://www.lionseek.com/p/faq Any suggestions would be TRULY appreciated!
  - meric 12y ago
    The site seems to be marketing products that are targeting men. Perhaps the it's design can better reflect that? Maybe it can better retain customers. Right now it looks a little 'generic'. I noticed the colour scheme for the search page seems inspired by google. I've made <$500 in adsense revenue so no expert here.
    - tomkazarian 12y ago
      You're right - the categories currently on the site are usually more popular with males than females. To be honest, the design is the result of me fumbling around photoshop. In the future I hope to get a real designer involved ;)
  - MalcolmDiggs 12y ago
    In your shoes, I think I'd start by incorporating generic adsense units in order to get a "baseline". It'd probably be easiest to start with the newer "responsive" ad units that Adsense offers, since those will fit the container you make available, and you won't have to worry about breakpoints and such. I would run those plain ads for long enough to get statistically significant data on CTR and CPC. Adsense revenue will likely vary widely for a few days and then level-out in a consistent range after a while. Once you've got that baseline, you have a metric by which you can compare other strategies and options. Then integrating something like CJ/affiliate ads becomes simpler. You just let that new strategy run for a small subset of visitors and see how the revenue compares to your "control group" (the visitors who saw adsense). Then you can be methodical and scientific in your approach, and test all options you have available to you. This is the same method by which you can test other adsense units, other styling options, etc. Split-testing software like Optimizely makes these kind of tests very easy to run and get data on.
    - tomkazarian 12y ago
      Good suggestions - thanks!
jsonne 12y ago
Advertise on porn networks. Traffic Junky is dirt cheap compared to most other display networks, and these sort of things would likely appeal to the predominantly young male audience. Another suggestion is reddit ads. Align the categories with various subreddits and write some decent funny copy.
- tomkazarian 12y ago
  Had some earlier success with reddit ads and even made it to the Top 20 (all time) on a decently sized subreddit that I manually submitted to. Never heard of Traffic Junky but it makes total sense. Thank you for the suggestions! Brilliant.
  - jsonne 12y ago
    No problem at all. If you need any more help feel free to shoot me an email. I do lots of marketing for tech companies, and I'm always happy to give out some advice for free.
Throwaway90283 12y ago
When it comes to ad sizes, you'll want to run 300x250 on your site using AdSense. It has the highest stock available, so it'll generate the most bids and profit. You might want to consider randomizing the ad locations in your results. I viewed a few pages, and I already know where the eBay ads are listed, so I'm skipping over them. You could randomize an eBay (if they pay well) or 300x250 AdSense advertisement in every other row. The best option is always selling the ads directly on your own or through an ad manager that takes a large commission. For example, I earn 20x or more on my direct ads, compared to AdSense. Of course, I don't always have a direct advertising campaign, so AdSense runs as backup when one isn't available. Browse Commission Junction and try some offers, although I have low expectations. I usually send them a few hundred clicks for every sale, which only earns a few dollars. Your FAQ says people are interesting in selling items on your site, but that's not available, you just scrap sales from forums. Why not allow people to promote their forum sales on your site? For example, on the top of every page, you have a featured row with 4 random sales in that category, currently being promoted. So, I'm selling a watch on WatchUSeek, I visit your site, pay $20 to get listed in the featured row on the watches category for a week. For example, here's a quick Photoshop... http://i.imgur.com/uRBXAdD.jpg http://i.imgur.com/uRBXAdD.jpg Good luck, advertising is an uphill battle, and you need to spend a lot of time trying out different strategies and carefully monitoring the results.
- tomkazarian 12y ago
  Holy smokes- GREAT reply and complete with a mockup! I'll start loading up some of those 300x250 units. I guess my hesitation in the past was that I didn't know if those ads would adapt to screen sizes/orientation and the units would break the layout but I might as well find out now. I'm still scratching my head on the gun section though since it's very poplar but I can't run AdSense in that category (against TOS), but I guess direct deals, CJ, and featured guns would work there. You mention an Ad Manager for getting direct deals... Is this someone I hire from a job board or are there ones you can recommend?
  - unsquare 12y ago
    >So, I'm selling a watch on WatchUSeek, I visit your site, pay $20 to get listed in the featured row on the watches category for a week. >I'm still scratching my head on the gun section though since it's very poplar but I can't run AdSense in that category Popular gun forums are on the same boat and that's why their side-bars are filled with advertisers/affiliates/sponsors. Just contact those with your numbers on the sub-section, i'm sure you'll sell out quickly. Your website has a lot of potential for targeted advertising.

11 points by tomkazarian 12y ago

MalcolmDiggs 12y ago

If you post the site url, I'm sure many of us would be more than willing to post some monetization-advice here for free. Just a thought.

tomkazarian 12y ago
Thanks for the suggestion. --- At the moment, I'm running only ebay ads incorporated into the following areas: - 2 units per page on category pages like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches http://www.lionseek.com/watches - 2 units per page on brand pages like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko - 12 units per page on individual item pages (found in the 'similar items on the web' section/slider) like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko/fs-seiko-6309-5029-2178f3 http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko/fs-seiko-6309-50... - 4 units on a search result page that has no matches like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches?seller_id=-1&has_photo=true&category=watches&limit=22&page=1&q=blah+blah http://www.lionseek.com/watches?seller_id=-1&has_photo=true&... --- I have an Adsense account, Commission Junction account, and an Amazon Associates account it's just that none of these have been implemented. I can get self-serve ads implemented quickly. The site is responsive so the ads would have to work with a couple of breakpoints. An ideal scenario is someone saying 'Stick a XYZ ad unit here stylized in the following way. Stick ABC ad unit here in the following format. This ad platform (XYZ) might help for testing and maximizing revenue.' If you are confused about what the site is/does then take a look at: http://www.lionseek.com/p/faq http://www.lionseek.com/p/faq Any suggestions would be TRULY appreciated!
- meric 12y ago
  The site seems to be marketing products that are targeting men. Perhaps the it's design can better reflect that? Maybe it can better retain customers. Right now it looks a little 'generic'. I noticed the colour scheme for the search page seems inspired by google. I've made <$500 in adsense revenue so no expert here.
  - tomkazarian 12y ago
    You're right - the categories currently on the site are usually more popular with males than females. To be honest, the design is the result of me fumbling around photoshop. In the future I hope to get a real designer involved ;)
- MalcolmDiggs 12y ago
  In your shoes, I think I'd start by incorporating generic adsense units in order to get a "baseline". It'd probably be easiest to start with the newer "responsive" ad units that Adsense offers, since those will fit the container you make available, and you won't have to worry about breakpoints and such. I would run those plain ads for long enough to get statistically significant data on CTR and CPC. Adsense revenue will likely vary widely for a few days and then level-out in a consistent range after a while. Once you've got that baseline, you have a metric by which you can compare other strategies and options. Then integrating something like CJ/affiliate ads becomes simpler. You just let that new strategy run for a small subset of visitors and see how the revenue compares to your "control group" (the visitors who saw adsense). Then you can be methodical and scientific in your approach, and test all options you have available to you. This is the same method by which you can test other adsense units, other styling options, etc. Split-testing software like Optimizely makes these kind of tests very easy to run and get data on.
  - tomkazarian 12y ago
    Good suggestions - thanks!

jsonne 12y ago

Advertise on porn networks. Traffic Junky is dirt cheap compared to most other display networks, and these sort of things would likely appeal to the predominantly young male audience. Another suggestion is reddit ads. Align the categories with various subreddits and write some decent funny copy.

tomkazarian 12y ago
Had some earlier success with reddit ads and even made it to the Top 20 (all time) on a decently sized subreddit that I manually submitted to. Never heard of Traffic Junky but it makes total sense. Thank you for the suggestions! Brilliant.
- jsonne 12y ago
  No problem at all. If you need any more help feel free to shoot me an email. I do lots of marketing for tech companies, and I'm always happy to give out some advice for free.

Throwaway90283 12y ago

When it comes to ad sizes, you'll want to run 300x250 on your site using AdSense. It has the highest stock available, so it'll generate the most bids and profit. You might want to consider randomizing the ad locations in your results. I viewed a few pages, and I already know where the eBay ads are listed, so I'm skipping over them. You could randomize an eBay (if they pay well) or 300x250 AdSense advertisement in every other row. The best option is always selling the ads directly on your own or through an ad manager that takes a large commission. For example, I earn 20x or more on my direct ads, compared to AdSense. Of course, I don't always have a direct advertising campaign, so AdSense runs as backup when one isn't available. Browse Commission Junction and try some offers, although I have low expectations. I usually send them a few hundred clicks for every sale, which only earns a few dollars. Your FAQ says people are interesting in selling items on your site, but that's not available, you just scrap sales from forums. Why not allow people to promote their forum sales on your site? For example, on the top of every page, you have a featured row with 4 random sales in that category, currently being promoted. So, I'm selling a watch on WatchUSeek, I visit your site, pay $20 to get listed in the featured row on the watches category for a week. For example, here's a quick Photoshop... http://i.imgur.com/uRBXAdD.jpg http://i.imgur.com/uRBXAdD.jpg Good luck, advertising is an uphill battle, and you need to spend a lot of time trying out different strategies and carefully monitoring the results.

tomkazarian 12y ago
Holy smokes- GREAT reply and complete with a mockup! I'll start loading up some of those 300x250 units. I guess my hesitation in the past was that I didn't know if those ads would adapt to screen sizes/orientation and the units would break the layout but I might as well find out now. I'm still scratching my head on the gun section though since it's very poplar but I can't run AdSense in that category (against TOS), but I guess direct deals, CJ, and featured guns would work there. You mention an Ad Manager for getting direct deals... Is this someone I hire from a job board or are there ones you can recommend?
- unsquare 12y ago
  >So, I'm selling a watch on WatchUSeek, I visit your site, pay $20 to get listed in the featured row on the watches category for a week. >I'm still scratching my head on the gun section though since it's very poplar but I can't run AdSense in that category Popular gun forums are on the same boat and that's why their side-bars are filled with advertisers/affiliates/sponsors. Just contact those with your numbers on the sub-section, i'm sure you'll sell out quickly. Your website has a lot of potential for targeted advertising.