I’m in the process of having my first website (one that’s decent anyways) created. I’m investing some money into the website to get both the front end and back end done so it’s not going to be a hashed together wordpress blog, it’s a going to be a legitimate website. I’m having a hard time grasping what my potential to earn from google adsense is because no one is doing what I’m doing (that I’ve found). What I am building a website specifically tailored to a niche that will provide the community with something that no one else offers. In addition, it will have forums, a way to follow what others in the community are doing, and also a way to potentially meet others in your actual (local) community who share the same interest. The way the website is set up, a user will click through multiple pages, will have plenty of reasons to have return visits, and will also be inclined to share our website with other users. I truly believe it’s the next evolution beyond just setting up a forum so that a community can talk.
So now the million dollar question, what is possible with google adsense? I realize that’s an impossible question to answer I do, but I’m looking for perspective. This isn’t going to be the next google, but will it be something that can put a case of beer in my fridge or pay my rent every month? I’ve been trying to research “competitors” which are essentially just other forums that are popular in my niche, and I’ve been using the following website:
http://www.websitelooker.com/
It looks at the hits per day and comes up with a potential “advertising revenue” for each website. Looking around, my competitors are earning as little as $2 a day, up to the biggest, best, and most popular website which is making around 10K per month on 100,000 hits per day (at least according to the website above).
So my question is this: 1. Is the website above complete BS 2. If so, is there a better more accurate one 3. Assuming I could hit 10,000 hits per day (10% of the best website) and based on the information I’ve provided above (we small targeted passionate audience) whats the potential
It is always difficult starting in an untested market as no-one really knows the earnings potential until you start testing.
That said, to answer your questions:
1 - Yes it is complete BS. It takes into account a number of factors to evaluate earnings, but none of them really equate to earnings in any real way - and any site that claims different is also making claims much bigger than any information they could possibly offer.
2 - Stats-wise you can take a look at Compete.com or Quantcast to give an estimation of traffic for third party sites, but unless the site in question is voluntarily hosting their tracking code, then the stats are pretty much guess-work.
3 - You don’s say what niche your site will be or what country the users will be from, and that makes a huge difference to the eCPMs (cost per thousand impressions) that your site can earn. Large numbers of impassioned users is great, but they are worth much more if your site is targeted to buying expensive tech than those looking for freebie deals for example. Forums are generally quite hard to monetise well through AdSense, but you could make good money through sponsorship of sections and such like - but, if you are after a really basic guess at earnings, then if you put two ads per page at $0.50 CPM (which should be possible with most legitimate sites) that would mean you would get $1 for every thousand pageviews. That would means $10/day or $300/month for the stats you give. Do note that hits and pageviews are not the same though and it is pageviews (and ad impressions) you will be tracking.
Also, Google AdSense is not the only ad network out there. There are various ad networks focused on specific verticals or niches (such as travel, music, food, etc), and there are also more general networks such as Tribal Fusion, ValueClick Media, and Casale Media to look into to fill that ad space (although some aren’t always keen on forums).
Great information! Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. The niche I’m looking at is an RC (Remote control) related website. To tell you a little more the site/niche the demographic of the niche is 50% american users and 50% spread throughout the world with a lot in UK (where you’re from), Australia, China, and other various european countries. It’s a 95% male demographic. The users are definitely willing to spend money (most purchases would be $50 to $125). There’s a huge opportunity for affliate marketing because 1 user may see what another user is using and say “I’d love to have that” and there could be a link next to what the other user has directing them where to buy it. I don’t believe there is a single ad network in place related to this (maybe I should start it!) but the advertisers that would want to be on the site would have a perfect audience who is willing to buy so I think working out a deal for sponosorships of forums is possible, and is already being done by competitors. I’d rather not say what i’m doing that makes me different from the forums, but there will be a number of things that keep users interested in the site and coming back for more.
When I hear $300 I guess I’m a little confused because I thought the potential would definitely be higher. It will be a whole lot more than someone creating articles on a blog (although blogging from within the site will be an option for users). It seems like there’s a ton of information out there on “blogging for money” and I just don’t see how that could be as profitable as what I’m doing based on my user base vs theirs and my user demographics vs theirs.
Like you said, there’s no way to know the earnings potential until I get it started so I’ll give it my best shot and see how it goes!
The $300 I was quoting was for using AdSense on a general topic forum with the stats you offered, but from what you’ve said I would imagine that affiliate programs and direct sponsorships would be far more successful. Don;t be put off by that $300 - it was just the roughest of estimates for a general forum with the traffic you described. US, CA, and Western Europe users are generally worth the most to advertisers as they tend to have the most disposable income - so targeting the US and UK should increase your eCPMs however you monetise the site.
Affiliate programs do definitely sound like they will earn you the best income though, as for electronics and toys (these are the two closest fields I could think of to RC) affiliates would tend to earn around 4-8% of sales - so for each person that buys a $100 device through your affiliate link you would be earning around $5 or so. If you can get over 60 sales per month then you would earn over $300. If you ran sponsorship ads on the site for say $3 CPM then that could net you $900 per month on top of these affiliate sales from people recommending each other devices.
Monetising a site is all about finding different revenue streams. Advertising is always useful, but you can often earn more by making clever use of affiliate programs (like the recommendations you offer), or by selling tools directly, or selling guides, or selling tickets to meetups. There are numerous ways to monetise whatever you’re doing - but they often involve thinking in a rather abstract fashion.
Lastly and most importantly - Good Luck! And let us know how you get on.
We would recommend not following the “role book” of any site and just find your own way – you mentioned your site is very new, so it might take time to generate traffic.
More than that: since you wrote the site is different from any other site, it’s important you find your own way here.
Trying to figure out the right amount of money to ask for is really difficult at the beginning; our recommendation is to have some calls with different ad-networks that will see the real potential in your site and the fact that it is the only site of its kind (you didn’t specify which kind it is – but we will take your word on it ) and try some of them to see which gives you the best results.
Since it is a very specific site and it is your first time, we would recommend starting out with Rev-Share for a few days – by doing that you allow yourself and the ad network you will be working with to see how much your traffic is worth and you won’t be “limited” to what your imagination allowed you to ask for :).
) and try some of them to see which gives you the best results.