My new revenue theory.

My new view on revenue is that if you really want a chunk of the money on the webernets, then you’ve got to invest up front in creating a brand. Don’t spread yourself thin squeezing pennies out of AdSense. Go after the big money that’s out there when you become a 2nd or 1st tier site in any given niche!

Thoughts?

18 thoughts on “My new revenue theory.

  1. Ahmed, I didn’t knock AdSense, per se. I said “Well, not for some of us.”

  2. But its also good to acknowledge your demons. I accept both of mine and will continue to welcome them until my sites get to the point where I can hire a staff to take phone calls for advertising requests.

  3. hey, don’t knock AdSense – it pays for many people, you know

    I think part of the problem with AdSense (no, I’m not making a fortune yet) is that we have too high expectations of it.

    Use it for what it’s made for (monetizing SE traffic), and remember that high traffic = high earnings.

    For the other type of traffic, try other means of monetization.

  4. Sponsored Articles are to Crack.

    It’s gonna be a bright, bright, sun shiny day!

  5. Old enough to remember that old song? I can see clearly now the rain has gone; I can see all obstacles in my way….

    The future is not AdSense? Well, not for some of us. And it’s starting to be clearer to me what revenue models I should try. Now if I come up with something concrete that actually works, I’ll share it here at some point. As of now, I’m decreasing my involvement in AdSense only blogs. (Or at least I’ll try.)

  6. @ Raj: I’m not sure yet what direction to go, but I think you’re right. Explore alternatives to adsense.

    Couldn’t agree more. AdSense has blinkered way too many webmasters with the dream of interwebs riches at the click of a button. But there is way more value in your site than simply providing a one way exit for visitors courtesy of AdSense.

    Back in the days before this blight it was all about branding, traffic, return visitors and low bounce rates. Now the average webmaster just wants as much free traffic as he can (who can blame him?) and then show them the AdSense backdoor.

    I am consolidating and concentrating on becoming more of a presence in a couple of niches, rather that spreading thin over various industries. With consolidation AdSense will *hopefully* become a supplementary income, rather than the income.

  7. yes Ryan, it’s a good deal. I am assuming you’ve got a sample from this person, so you know what you’re doing. For the net, home-made videos do, and this person could improve with time.

    And that’s a bloody low price mate. $25 for 2 minutes is $125 in 10 mins and $750 in an hour.

    And to think that people are still worried about making money online…sheesh

  8. Brett’s right. It sounds like a great price, but if the quality is low and you’re unable to sell them, then it’s not worth it, right? You also have to factor in delays and quirky stuff when working with animals or children. Is this person going to charge extra at the last minute, if they find working with such and such dog isn’t that easy?

    Yes, I was talking broadcast quality for TV. So you don’t need to spend as high. For the web, even the average $299 camcorder probably gives sufficient quality. It’ll all come out in how this person edits the clips.

  9. Gentlemen it sounds like you are talking about two entirely different levels of production quality. I could be wrong, but it sounds like there is a far greater difference in scope in each of your descriptions.

    Guess that’s the peril of a discussion in blog comments, some of the context is lost. . .

  10. I’ve got someone whose willing to do 20 videos in a single shot for $25 per video. I’ve also got 20 videos scripted and ready to go. So you think this is a good deal?

  11. Ryan, asking or offering? If you can get it that low, bravo. I’m not sure of rates otherwise. Where I live, there’s a videographer’s collective and membership is Cdn$100/yr (I think). You are allowed to borrow the high-end equipment, and there are production teams that hire themselves out. They’re members themselves, and they take a minimum $1000 for a production, which includes camera work and directing, but not film development. (Of course, if you’re working digital, then that’s not an issue.) You need to script a few videos ahead of time then shoot them all together, I guess. Just hope that your dog(s) coooperate.

    I don’t have my camcorders yet, but my mother’s black Lab is a super-smart dog who learns new tricks fast. I could shoot some test videos with her later this year – provided I don’t move to Toronto before I get the cameras. Though you probably want something now.

    So what I would suggest, and what I plan to do, is buy 3 inexpensive camcorders and tripods, go to a dog park and invite some friends to monitor the cameras. You might find other dog owners helpful.

    This is the only way I see keeping the costs down. Not sure why I’m thinking this, though professional work is probably more like $100/min. I could be way off though.

  12. Sounds good. Seriously that does sound reasonable. Compared to some of the services out there paying for videos, the going rate I have seen over the last 9 months is typically about $15-$20 for a 1 minute video. Those videos however are promotional in nature (paid to tape for an ad). Conceivably, if I understand your concept, you are talking about pure content(with ads mashed in maybe). For pure content with no advertiser pitch thrown in, I think $25 is reasonable, you might want to specify who owns the copyright just to keep things clear up front.

  13. Ryan, I think so, provided you can get traffic to the site and can offer something in the “Dog Guide” ebook that is “valuable” to someone: information, convenience, ideas, resource lists.

    And yeah, video for sure, as Brett says. Are there some dog videos that you can produce inexpensively that offer some value? That’s the problem: aside from screencasting, videos can be expensive to produce (specifically, to refine). Ebooks are not as expensive, depending on your arrangement. And I can’t think of how you could “screencast” about dogs/ pets.

  14. I think there is a significant amount of potential in Video especially and a little bit in books. For DogGuide I think a book would almost be essential.

    If you are following events at Ask.com, then you probably see some of the writing on the wall in regards to video and the future of search too.

  15. I’m not sure yet what direction to go, but I think you’re right. Explore alternatives to adsense. With my adsense rev sucking bad right now and the potential for text link ads to drop in the near future, I’ve taken to at least thinking about alternatives, including sell good content, ebooks, and video how-tos.

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