How to Monetize a Web Site: A Real World Tutorial | Hacker News Reader

How to Monetize a Web Site: A Real World Tutorial

wschroter.typepad.com

29 pointsAndrewWarner9 comments

The problem with many of these ideas is that they can alienate users. For a content site, there are few options available for monetization beyond ads, which most of those points are variations of. I personally shy away from businesses that have advertising as a primary source of revenue.

For new business and services online, the site or service should built with a business model in mind, even if it does not launch with one. And the best business model is simple -- find something people value and charge them a fair rate for it. The hard part is figuring out what that is.

For a content site, there are few options available for monetization beyond ads

I run a number of content sites in my niche. They're all monetized through promoting my software, which means that even if 97% of the people who come to the site never pay me money I'm still sitting pretty.

In my case, the software antedates the content sites, but one could just have easily made the transition from publisher to software vendor as the other way around. (Or hired someone to make you the software, or made an arrangement to white label previously-existing software, etc.)

This doesn't help if your content sites are pitched at a market which does not pay money for goods and services, of course.

Incidentally, the economics of advertising your own product versus CPC ads are quite compelling. I routinely pay Google $2 CPMs for inventory on 3rd party sites, so let's accept that as typical in my market. Of that $2, Google keeps a buck or so, so the content publisher sees less than $1.

My own effective CPM (sales / visits * 1,000) bounces up and down depending on what flavor of search terms I'm doing well on, but for many of my content sites it is in excess of $20. As much as I'm indebted to AdSense for giving Webmaster Welfare to the folks who send me a lot of my traffic, I'd have to be insane to put it on my own sites.

As an added bonus, its easier to get a link to a site that doesn't have AdSense plastered all over it, because it can be seen as non-commercial even if is essentially one gigantic ad. (This was somewhat surprising to me, but there you go.)

Minus the fact his ( Wil Schroter ) article is littered with links to his own sites he has made which makes it slightly of a big subliminal ad. Im going to assume a lot of his claims come from these very sites he links to.

Wouldn't it be nice in an ideal world if he and countless others who churn out these types of articles. Backed it up with stats on the incomes etc. I know im asking the world there. But it would help give them credibility and won't leave you or I wondering, is this just copied and pasted or is this something HE has actually done.

Lead Gen:

Anything which doesn't compliment the site is going to irritate. So with that in mind, I would imagine this train of thought will actually help you lead to creating business partnerships with other companies, websites.

Does annual-based subscription really have that low of recurring rates? Seems like it would be a rather moot point => off-set by lower transaction fees for processing cards once per annum instead of every month.

Not only that, but an annual subscription is basically equivalent to 12 months of guaranteed monthly renewals. I would be interested to see comparative attrition rates of how 12 months of monthly renewals compare to attrition rates of yearly subscriptions from a popular site that uses both.

We are struggling with this issue with my current startup, whether to do yearly or monthly only, or both, and what the comparative rates would be.

You're assuming that people are willing to pay for your product up front for 12 months. If your price point is so small that an annual subscription is under $20, then it doesn't really make sense to charge monthly. I was speaking mainly for higher priced items.

Both are good points, would definitely like to see more research on the topic. I definitely agree there is a threshold when it comes to monthly vs yearly. I know you just tossed out a number but $20/year seems a little lower than I was thinking.

'Porn sites work because you get the point.' -this is mentioned in regards to asking for subscription.

Maybe putting up a paywal on a porn site would have worked well in the late 1990s or even early 2000s, but there are so many you tube like porn sites for completely free which makes me wonder whether anyone pays for porn anymore.

These days, no business model but advertising would work since the market is so competitive.(free service is everywhere) I would focus on building more effective advertising method than ever rather than creating new business models...

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