When did you monetize?

Queen Jess

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I have not yet monetized my site with advertising as I want to try and build people up first, but I was wondering when everyone decided to start monetizing their blogs. Did you wait for a specific number of regular users or start from day 1?
 

Jon

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I have not yet monetized my site with advertising as I want to try and build people up first, but I was wondering when everyone decided to start monetizing their blogs. Did you wait for a specific number of regular users or start from day 1?
Depends on the site

Comparethematchedbetting Day 1
TotallyBlogging Day 1
TMS + TMS Blog - Probably a year later

As long as your ads aren't intrusive and fit the page there shouldn't be a problem
 

The Reverend

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Depends on the site

Comparethematchedbetting Day 1
TotallyBlogging Day 1
TMS + TMS Blog - Probably a year later

As long as your ads aren't intrusive and fit the page there shouldn't be a problem

I've had ads since probably month 3 or 4. not because I didn't want them to start with but I'd not thought about it.

As long as they are unobtrusive then they should be fine.
 

JesseEverAfter

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If you're using banner ads it's sometimes better to start from day 1 as your users won't suddenly get hit by banners they're not expecting later on down the line. :)
 
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Queen Jess

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I need to look into it really, but it's all a bit confusing at the moment! Plus my site is pretty niche, so would need to work out what types of things I would advertise.
 

Jon

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Queen Jess

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Jon

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Ooh thanks. I will look into that! Just need 10 mins to myself to read through how it works!
If you sign up through the link on that page you get a boost on your first 3 months earnings
 

Ginnybean

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Quick question. I am starting a blog and will be monetising right away so it's just always been there! The question though is how did you get your early readers? Monetising is one thing but it actually coming to anything?
 

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Quick question. I am starting a blog and will be monetising right away so it's just always been there! The question though is how did you get your early readers? Monetising is one thing but it actually coming to anything?
Promote Promote Promote

on social media, on forums, via email

SEO is King and you want Google to index your site well so spend money on the likes of sitebulb or SEMRush and it WILL pay off in the long run as your content will rank better
 

David Says...

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TL;DR - you're already monetising your site (or at least trying to). But it could be clearer.

If your intention is to make money with your site then you should look to do it as soon as possible. There's no point being precious about not wanting to ruin your website with ads if that's how you want to make money!

Personally I hate the word 'monetize'. It focuses on one side of the transaction and ignores the need for you to add value.

The question ought to be 'how' rather than 'when'. It looks as though you're already 'monetising' your site - you are offering directory listing upgrades. This is good - you're offering value to the visitor, and value to the businesses and groups. You should be looking to make money wherever you add value.

However - the upgrade page is hidden away in a link on a Business FAQ page which is hidden away in a link in the site footer. And even on the FAQ page you seem apologetic about offering the upgrade. Businesses need to work really hard to give you money when you should make it easy for them to do it.

giphy.gif



My advice? Add an 'Advertise with us' or 'Upgrade your listing' page. Spell out the benefits of advertising with you - make it so businesses would feel really stupid if they turned down your offer. Create an image mockup showing what an upgraded listing will look like. Link to the FAQs from the 'Advertise with us' page, not the other way around. Add a prominent 'Upgrade your listing' link (or even better - button) to the business listing page template.

Change the name of 'Pricing Plans' to 'Get your listing' - the emphasis should be on what the customer gets, not on what you get! Also review your text: add-ons comes before the base plans, which seems to be the wrong way around. You say that "A 30 day period costs £3" - what's that for? A contact form? Or event listing? If it's a contact form then what's the point in the other pro listings? It's very confusing.

I'd personally review the pricing itself. It almost doesn't seem worth the admin time for a one-off £4 event listing. Events are usually about getting bums on seats (or through doors) and it's hard work to do that (speaking form experience here!). If an event entry fee is £8, for example, then a business wouldn't think twice about paying (say) £40 if it thought that you might be able to help attract 5 or more people.

Think of pricing this way: how many £4 event listings would you need to sell to make it feel like your hard work has paid off? 10? 100? I'd say 1000 is the starting point for your pay-off.

Also with pricing - are the 30 day listings subscription-based - do they renew? Businesses won't want to bother renewing manually every month. Consider offering an annual listing (perhaps priced at £100 as an incentive). Many small businesses will pay £250 for a Yellow Pages or local newspaper ad that no-one will see - a premium listing in a niche website is far more relevant.

Oh, and pick up the phone and call the businesses and sell the listings. Come up with all the compelling reasons why they simply must advertise with you. Don't wait for them to come to you, go and get them.

Two more things! The 'Sign up' link on your FAQ page is broken - businesses can't sign up from there even if they want to! And your sig links to theaveragelife.co.uk - that won't help with your site's SEO or 'discoverability'...

(Despite all the above I think you've got a really good site - I can see the passion you've got for the subject and I think that the core things are in place for it to be a success. It just needs the same polish for the 'business' bits as it does the circus bits.)
 
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Queen Jess

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TL;DR - you're already monetising your site (or at least trying to). But it could be clearer.

If your intention is to make money with your site then you should look to do it as soon as possible. There's no point being precious about not wanting to ruin your website with ads if that's how you want to make money!

Personally I hate the word 'monetize'. It focuses on one side of the transaction and ignores the need for you to add value.

The question ought to be 'how' rather than 'when'. It looks as though you're already 'monetising' your site - you are offering directory listing upgrades. This is good - you're offering value to the visitor, and value to the businesses and groups. You should be looking to make money wherever you add value.

However - the upgrade page is hidden away in a link on a Business FAQ page which is hidden away in a link in the site footer. And even on the FAQ page you seem apologetic about offering the upgrade. Businesses need to work really hard to give you money when you should make it easy for them to do it.

giphy.gif



My advice? Add an 'Advertise with us' or 'Upgrade your listing' page. Spell out the benefits of advertising with you - make it so businesses would feel really stupid if they turned down your offer. Create an image mockup showing what an upgraded listing will look like. Link to the FAQs from the 'Advertise with us' page, not the other way around. Add a prominent 'Upgrade your listing' link (or even better - button) to the business listing page template.

Change the name of 'Pricing Plans' to 'Get your listing' - the emphasis should be on what the customer gets, not on what you get! Also review your text: add-ons comes before the base plans, which seems to be the wrong way around. You say that "A 30 day period costs £3" - what's that for? A contact form? Or event listing? If it's a contact form then what's the point in the other pro listings? It's very confusing.

I'd personally review the pricing itself. It almost doesn't seem worth the admin time for a one-off £4 event listing. Events are usually about getting bums on seats (or through doors) and it's hard work to do that (speaking form experience here!). If an event entry fee is £8, for example, then a business wouldn't think twice about paying (say) £40 if it thought that you might be able to help attract 5 or more people.

Think of pricing this way: how many £4 event listings would you need to sell to make it feel like your hard work has paid off? 10? 100? I'd say 1000 is the starting point for your pay-off.

Also with pricing - are the 30 day listings subscription-based - do they renew? Businesses won't want to bother renewing manually every month. Consider offering an annual listing (perhaps priced at £100 as an incentive). Many small businesses will pay £250 for a Yellow Pages or local newspaper ad that no-one will see - a premium listing in a niche website is far more relevant.

Oh, and pick up the phone and call the businesses and sell the listings. Come up with all the compelling reasons why they simply must advertise with you. Don't wait for them to come to you, go and get them.

Two more things! The 'Sign up' link on your FAQ page is broken - businesses can't sign up from there even if they want to! And your sig links to theaveragelife.co.uk - that won't help with your site's SEO or 'discoverability'...

(Despite all the above I think you've got a really good site - I can see the passion you've got for the subject and I think that the core things are in place for it to be a success. It just needs the same polish for the 'business' bits as it does the circus bits.)

Yikes - thanks for looking through it all and all the great advice. I agree... I am probably just a too nice person and am always apologetic for everything.. which doesn't make a good saleswoman. Luckily that isn't my day job at the moment!

To be fair to me, I did contact a handful of places and did have a good response, but I do need to do more. Considering I know lots of people in the business I should be better at it! Lots to work on and think about over the summer.

I believe all the monthly ones do renew automatically (I will check though), the only reason is that generally you wouldn't necessarily want to promote an event for a year and are likely to want a portion of time instead (although obviously different for a class or local group).

The add on is to get the listing promoted/featured at the top of the listing page and is separate to the base/pro listings. I am a bit concerned about whether there is enough of a difference between the base (free) and pro listing to make it worthwhile for people to upgrade, so I may look back and reconsider that. Maybe I need to tweak what you get in each...

Pricing is tricky as I am not a yellow pages (although arguably I don't think yellow pages are a well run business...) and it is quite niche, but on the other hand classes and events are pretty expensive. But then I also know some of these places aren't exactly well paid either. It's a bit of a balancing act and tricky. Maybe I should do deals instead so people can list X events in a year for example, because many places will have a number of different courses and workshops in a year. No idea how I do that in my software, but I will take a look.

Sorry, my reply is a bit stream of conciousness! I am really grateful for your reply and I will get back to work on the site and see what I can do!
 

David Says...

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Sorry, my reply is a bit stream of conciousness! I am really grateful for your reply and I will get back to work on the site and see what I can do!

Haha, not as bad as my ramble!

I agree that pricing is difficult to get right. Two things to bear in mind:
  • Niche website referrals are more likely to convert, and therefore more highly valued. If you sold hoops and ribbons, would you rather 10 visitors from the busy but unrelated The Money Shed, or 1 from your highly specialised site? Your 1 referral is more likely to be 'in market'.
  • You're not going to make much from event listings priced at £4. That's the price of a circus programme or a drink. Events are set up because the organisers think that they'll be able to make boatloads of money over a day or weekend - if anything, you might be able to get away with charging a premium.
One tip with pricing: increase it on the website to, say, £25/mo. Then call around, and see what the market will bear. Let your prospects haggle and then you'll get a feel for what's right, and you can change the price to that.

Another tip: include a ludicrously expensive option - say £200/mo for a flashing box with a gold border and animated acrobats dancing around it. Most people will think "Pah! I'm not paying that!". However, it will make your £10/mo package look like an absolute BARGAIN. And if anyone does go for it - well, that's a nice little payday!
 

Jon

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Haha, not as bad as my ramble!

I agree that pricing is difficult to get right. Two things to bear in mind:
  • Niche website referrals are more likely to convert, and therefore more highly valued. If you sold hoops and ribbons, would you rather 10 visitors from the busy but unrelated The Money Shed, or 1 from your highly specialised site? Your 1 referral is more likely to be 'in market'.
  • You're not going to make much from event listings priced at £4. That's the price of a circus programme or a drink. Events are set up because the organisers think that they'll be able to make boatloads of money over a day or weekend - if anything, you might be able to get away with charging a premium.
One tip with pricing: increase it on the website to, say, £25/mo. Then call around, and see what the market will bear. Let your prospects haggle and then you'll get a feel for what's right, and you can change the price to that.

Another tip: include a ludicrously expensive option - say £200/mo for a flashing box with a gold border and animated acrobats dancing around it. Most people will think "Pah! I'm not paying that!". However, it will make your £10/mo package look like an absolute BARGAIN. And if anyone does go for it - well, that's a nice little payday!

I 100% agree with this.

It reminds me of ebay in that if you are the only person selling purple women's bikes on there you are going to get all the sales. If 10,000 other people are also selling the exact same bike then you have a lot more competition to fight with!

People on niche websites tend to have a lot more 'intent' which as I've said before tends to translate into 'buying' or 'clicking' a lot higher.
 
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