Making your sites pay!!

[MountainStumble]

Hi everyone,

Recently signed up and looking for advice and inspiration.

My partner and I have built a few websites (as seen in my sig.) based on our travels and hobby (keen snowboarders) and recently have decided to try and turn the sites into something more serious to try and generate some profits.

We are in the process of attempting the normal routes (affiliate, GA, etc) but wondering if anyone can offer any general advice, guidance or mentoring to making this type of business work (eg, monetizing niche content) or highlighting if we are missing any other possible revenue streams.

Also, if anyone can offer any idea of levels of traffic we would need to see before we can expect a half decent return, it would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing all your thoughts! :)

Simon

[Interconnect IT]

Heh - a very open question. I can tell that there are sites with just 5,000 visitors a day that make a good living for a lot of people, and others with 50,000 that make nothing.

The more specialist your market, the less traffic you need to make money. A site about high-end CAD software and CNC machines, which links to retailers of said machines won't need the same levels of traffic as one that's all about £1 shops.

Unfortunately, unless you can find out what someone in your niche has managed, all you can do is guess and try for yourself.

[Luc]

Like the other poster said, if you attract ads for expensive stuff you'll make more money per click than when it's for cheaper things. But that means that you'll really have to craft your articles, write other things than what you intended to, etc.
Question is if it'll still be fun to write that stuff.

FYI, you can get an idea of what people bid on keywords using the Google keyword tool. This is what the publisher pays, not what you get as site owner!

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

[inventive]

For affiliate programs , Trade doubler are good to use i have used them in the past, however the main problem will always be getting traffic to your website.

You can use Website outlook to view other sites in the same field as you , to see roughly how much traffic they are getting , the site will also show you how much the site is worth and the projected income via ad words per day. I am not too sure how close the projected income is but the traffic view is pretty close when i have used it on my own sites,

hope this helps

[bluedreamer]

The obvious thing would be to buy in and stock some snowboarding related items, then sell them on your site. They don't have to be hugely expensive items (at least not to start with), probably think of things like accessories etc - something like http://www.windrushgear.com/.

As InterconnectIt said, as you're in a specialsed area it's that much easier to sell.

If you're well known in the national/international snowboarding community that's a plus because snowboarders will trust you more, and be more likely to buy from.

[MountainStumble]

Hi all,

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions so far. We are a member of Tradedoubler and have has some results (although limited) so far but will continue on.

I will look into your suggestions for selling related gear, its definitely a good plan and I can see some potential for expansion in the future should it take off. We did try selling snowboards through an Amazon based shop which was linked in to the sites at one point but to be honest, I find that with that type of equipment you want to see and touch it before you buy (well I do anyway).

Anyway, again thanks for tips and I appreciate your feedback!

Simon