Performancing.com has been around for at least five years now. In that time span, many bloggers from all walks of life have shared their tips, tricks, and techniques. Based on what I’ve seen while writing for Performancing, many of you are either monetizing websites or are wanting to do so. I find myself in a good position to become one of those who are monetizing websites as I am currently working on my own project. However, I have never monetized a site before let alone dealt with advertisers. So with that in mind, I’ll explain what I plan on doing with my project and then I’d like you to chime in and help me decide how to monetize this site.
About The Project:
The name of my project as well as the domain name is WPTavern also known as WordPress Tavern. The site will focus on all things WordPress as well as related projects under the Automattic umbrella. I’ll also have a forum attached to the site. I have three goals for this project. The first is to foster a community. The second is to turn the site into a success and the third is to turn the site into my full time job which revolves around my passion.
Monetization Strategy:
If there is one thing I have learned by browsing the archives of Performancing, it’s that you should always have multiple revenue streams. With my new project, I’ll have a couple of different avenues for which to pursue advertising.
WPTavern The Site – With regards to advertising on the site, I will have an area on the sidebar for 4-6 125X125 advertising spots. I’m not sure if I will use any Google based advertising because it is annoying and easily blockable by Ad Removal scripts. When I start out, I’m thinking of filling the squares with affiliate links until those spots are sold.
What should I use or do to manage these advertising spots? It’s been suggested to me that I use something OIO Publisher to manage my ads. I can also use PerfAds but I’m just not sure what I should be doing.
Podcast – I already operate a WordPress centric podcast which produces one episode each week. As it stands, the show doesn’t have any advertising attached to it and on average receives 800-1,200 downloads per week. My plan is to increase the amount of episodes I produce in order to increase these numbers and provide better coverage of the software.
The Talkshoe Cash program is gone and they do not provide an in-house means of monetizing show hosts. I’ve been thinking about joining a podcasting network in order to gain advertising. I’ve also been thinking about joining BluBrry. Talkshoe doesn’t really give detailed statistics for the show so I’m not sure how difficult it will be to base advertising rates on those stats. How should I go about selling/managing advertising on the podcast?
Video/Screencasts – Creating text/audio based content is not enough for WPTavern to rise above the noise. I’ll need to produce videos and more specifically, screencasts. I’d love to be able to have those screencasts sponsored either by me mentioning their product in the video or creating an intro or outro featuring their product. I don’t have the software right now but I plan on producing these videos with Camtasia Studio 5.
Any thoughts on this monetization technique would be very helpful.
WPTavern Forum – With the forum, I’m not sure if I will have a 468X60 advertising banner in the header section of the forum or not. I’m also thinking about adding a section above the fold to display 125X125 banner ads. Last but not least, if I am going to use Google Adsense, I’d like to use it on the forum by either having a bot publish a post in every thread which is Google Adsense or some other fashion. I’m also toying around with the idea to have a specialized section of the forum where premium theme or plugin authors can purchase an advertising post in the forum. However, that method of forum monetization I feel would be difficult to police.
If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to monetize a forum, I’m all ears.
Conclusion:
As you can see, I definitely have opportunities for multiple revenue streams with this website. However, my specialty is writing and producing content, not managing the advertising. Should I outsource the advertising or grunt it and do everything on my own? An alternative would be to partner with someone who has experience in advertising management and let them handle it while I foster the community as well as produce the content.
Last but not least, how should I go about the advertising as I’m just starting out with the site? I’ll have a good launch but I’m unclear as to how I should handle advertising from the get go. Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
WPTavern is an up and coming project. I’ll be keeping everyone updated on my progress, milestones achieved, and techniques I use which turn out to be successful.
3 thoughts on “Need Your Help Monetizing A Site”
Several of the “hosts” on Talkshoe have done one better than Talkshoe and they use Talkshoe, but are funded by outside advertisers whose ads run during their own Talkshoe show just like a radio. One of them rakes in over $200K a year from advertisers for the weekly show. The ads come from the host’s work and therefore the host controls those ads. If you have sufficient followers, and a great subject, the advertisers will give you their ads and you take a 15 or 30 second break, and run the ad while everyone else text’s while they are listening! I know, I looked into this when one of those Talkshoe hosts asked if I would consider starting another show as a host and they explained how they would pay for that (based on MY content)! Haven’t done that yet but intend to this 1st quarter. Just a thought. Don’t be “constrained” by the medium and the “no-ad” concept when the network is free to you and your followers. CONTROL your own ad content. Again, just a thought!
@Santosh Bhandarkar – That is a great idea! I would need to think how to properly set something like that up but yes, I already know quite a few people who I refer to anyways so why not create a list of trusted people that I can make a commission off of for the work that they do. Good idea.
All your ideas are ad-centric. I don’t know if you will be open to other ideas?
Here is what I think you may want to try – since your blog will have ‘all kind of WP’ related people, why don’t you create a “expert services exchange” – help people find the right kind of service provider (wp experts), help them collaborate – and make money by way of commissions on the fees. A very “specialized WP expertise panel verified by you” – kind of a very niche “elance” or “getafreelancer” – the difference being they are ‘everything under the sun’ – whereas here you will have ‘trusted resources with the domain expertise’?
Maybe this does not appeal to you – but think about your audience and what they are looking for – and the value you can add by helping them find what they look for – and try to monetize that!
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