Do you have a tech site? How the FUCK do you make money???
 

I have a site that's been around just over a year and a half now. Content is mostly tech news, software and OS reviews, tips and some downloads. I spent the first few months throwing money at it, getting really nice custom design, paying for quality custom-written content etc.

Today the site gets around 45k uniques per day with over 700k pageviews (forums included). Posts get loads of comments and forums are very active with 30k members (after a recent inactive member/spammer purge). Honestly, I don't make shit from the site. It covers its expenses and that's about it. Most of the income is from paid plugs and prepaid ad spots. I've tried adsense but didn't make enough to justify cluttering up the content pages and forums with adsense blocks.

I've tried numerous affiliate programs and bombed out on every one. How can I make money off tech savvy people?

I run a software site, it gets about 1000 uniques/day.
I make about $40 on adsense alone/day.

Put the ads in the middle of the content and make them blend in.

Try some CPA networks. You may find they have a bunch of offers your traffic is looking for.

Babaganoosh, hit me up on icq - I can help - icq: 3742113

I tried that. I even went as far as to add an ad block to the right of the first post in a thread. I had adsense in the RSS, tucked in between paragraphs of content and in a sidebar. I think the max I ever made from it was $50 in a day. Readers and forum members whined incessantly about the ads so since they didn't make much anyway I pulled them entirely.

Edit: Just looked up my adsense stats. The max I ever made in a day from that site was $31.70.

I might check into that. Thanks. I usually reserve CPA for my spammy garbage traffic but frankly that traffic converts better than the tech nerd traffic I have. :1orglaugh

Sorry, I don't do IMs. Let me know how you can help me and give me an email address. I'll contact you if you really do have something to offer.

Sell it to AOL ;)

I cant afford to make any money

Have you thought about ads for web hosting? We have a great affiliate program:) Hit me up with any questions:

tondab at nakedhosting dot com

Haha, those bastards will probably just shut it down. I used to like reading downloadsquad.com but AOL pulled the plug on it.

Use BuySellAds for a site like that, it will help greatly.. or make your own material for people to purchase and take all the other ads off.

I think how Leo LaPorte does it is perfect. He only takes ads from products he feels he can personally endorse, and the ads are him talking about the shit. Not produced glitzy ads.

What could you learn from that?

I'd try, assuming those 45k are actually engaged with your content and not just there by accident, hand writing text ads in the copy you're producing recommending products.

Might be worth a go.

One of our main stream sites Zoidsa.com which is geared towards South Africa does pretty well on limited trafic, it gets round 16000 uniques a day and makes money for us, but it is not that easy at all, we use local advertising for all of our sites and only have sites geared for US, UK and South Africa and use local traffic only. Our UK and US sites do even better but it does take a lot of effort, we have never had any luck with adsense and such only from local ads and affiliate programs we have signed up to. We hover round an Alexa Rank of 900 in South Africa for our one site and round 1200 in US and Uk for the other sites so that does help but that is with way more daily uniques.

Do you have a presence on your site? Do people know you and trust you? If so, I would use that as leverage. Maybe instead of offering standard advertisements, that people see everywhere, you "build" a campaign around a product.

For example, let's say that 30% of your traffic would really benefit from ABC Service. Create a section of your site dedicated to ABC Service, talking about the offering, telling people what it does, how you use it, etc. Then you link to your dedicated section. That isn't just an ad, that's part of you and your site.

Many years ago I ran a free wallpaper site and could not figure out how to monetize it. So I found products and services that tied in with wallpaper, themes, stuff like that and integrated the products/services into my site. It worked out pretty well I think.

Great points...... I write reviews for many products that I promote, they convert better and they get s.e. traffic which helps greatly down the road.

I get emails from my readers thanking me for turning them onto various things or answering some question they had about a product within the review... I don't get a ton of emails but I do get one very few months, so I know it's the right thing to do.

Leo is so much more personable than I am. :1orglaugh I'd consider Leo a celebrity so his word has much more clout than mine. Admittedly I don't brand myself at all. I have two paid writers who contribute much of the content and I do a considerable amount of writing as well.

I do try to make the paid plugs personal and believable. I never promote any company I don't trust. Several of the companies whose products/services I have plugged have been with me for 3+ months so they're either happy with the results or have advertising money to burn. A couple have been giving my visitors special discounts or package deals and that apparently works well for them.

I've been doing my copy much the same as I do in adult but with very different results. CTR is respectable but conversion is abysmal. Maybe I haven't found the right products yet.

You should ad some recipes using boerewors, and bobotie, and give the SA readers ideas for braais :) and also have Afrikaans sections

If you figure it out, please let me know too. Some good ideas to try in this thread.

If you don't spam your forums you'll keep more people around (IE adsense in the middle of articles)

If I told you exactly what to do to make money then I'd be that forgotten person you never heard of on a forum that posted something that changed everything. (awe that was great maybe I should shoot him a thank you email... oh what was his handle again?) :)

I'll tell you anyway. Well written free tutorials and tips, just charge a small fee for the file, and the fee is discounted if they pay an even smaller monthly membership fee.

IE A great tutorial on how to create a watermark. Download the completed photoshop file for $8 or get if for free with a $5 monthly membership signup.

Some really good ideas in this thread. The site covers so many topics that I can't imagine what kinds of paid content would interest visitors. I'm definitely going to look into that as well as finding some legit CPA offers.

You seem to be an expert at this. Tell us how one makes a free tutorial that costs money?

For real though here is what you do. Find a product that you like and you think your readers will like. Make a post/plug about the product and review it and make that like a once a month thing, the monthly product review with affiliate links in it but clearly marked click here to buy. It has to be a thought out review, maybe a couple of screen shots and a final result you got from using it. Post and hope!

I liked the way tutsplus did the "Getting Good with Git" tutorial. They released the PDF for free for a limited time. Obviously you can still find it for free if you google the file. Now it's part of the paid membership. The PDF tutorial is really, really good but if you don't have any experience with Git (like me who has only used svn) some of it will be confusing. Just after they released the PDF they made a 5 part video tutorial to go with the PDF. You'd be amazed how many people bought that video series.

You could have a mini-Envato (NetTuts) thing going on your forum for sure.

Do you make any money off the email addresses of the people who sign up. ie email campaigns or having an opt-in with a check box for someone else that pays for the email address?

Last resort add a donation button.

good thread

Take those logistics and sell them, don't be an affiliate.

Mainstream programs are scammy as well and mainstream usually just does ad spots outright for branding. 45K a day is nice.

I like Supz question also, you goto take all them users and give em some love.

I sense a business thread! wtf!?? :) Good luck! Lots of ideas here. Make sure you keep your ear to what people on your board are clamouring about and answer their concern/need/rant with a link to the cure.

Email me, let's talk. I'd like to check out the site and give you the ability to make money from it, which I will pay.

nj attttt critical.net

Put some ads and banners etc.

give them half the articles and make it a paid membership site like that "expert sexchange" site.

Good info in this thread.:thumbsup

flipp it

Absolutely brilliant!! Why didn't I think of this? Thanks a lot for your unique and valuable input which will inevitably make my site profitable beyond my wildest dreams. As soon as I implement your revolutionary ideas I would like to charter a private jet to fly you here so I can treat you to a 5-star meal to thank you properly.

I'd also like to buy you a new Ferrari. What color do you prefer?

Nice ideas in this thread. :thumbsup

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

i know how does it feel, when u getting traffic and not making money.....
spam those members some pills program, i never did this ..but wanna c the result.

Sooo nobody noticed the xbox wasn't plugged in?

Contact small startup companies in your niche and make some deals with them to promote their underexposed products. They get cheap advertising, and you'll get original products to promote.

Why won't you share your site with us? It would be easier to help if we can see it.

Why hide a site that is getting 45k uniques?

I have a mainstream tech site. Any tips on getting more traffic to it? Do you do link exchanges?

thats great, I'm doing 1/10 of that on the bigger site :(

A tech site? Do you want to do a link exchange?

Can you share the site url?
WG

There are numerous handholders who will help you at 50k unique and 500k pageviews. 500k (so THEY say) is the threshold for legitimacy. They'll help you place and maximize, and they pay by impression rather than clickthru. Apparently with the right partner you can get $2/cpm or better.

http://techie-buzz.com/webmaster-tip...-networks.html

no, it's welfare related web.

Add a product review section and start contacting companies for gear to review. The site can make a tidy amount of money in free Ipads, software, phones and gadgets. Companies will send you all sorts of stuff before release if you help them create buzz.

Try http://infolinks.com
I have CTR 10% and eCPM $1.0 on a small blog with freedownload stuff. Site on auto pilot.
:2 cents:

b.t.w that mostly shit traffic, so if you have good traffic you will make more

Ask Paul Markham to consult for you on this one, it's his area of expertise.

Hey Babaganoosh - would like to talk to you but don't see your email address in the thread. Go to my company site at www.vieci.com and send a contact through there.

Goddamned bottomfeeders. I sold the site not long after I started this thread. Piss off.