400,000 visitors a month - how to monetize them?

[davidil]

I just added some numbers for a network of websites that I own. I use them to send traffic to a 3rd site.

It added up to 400,000 visitors per month. That's not page views but visitors.

I've not monetized on these websites so far, not even adsense, wanted to keep them clean. What do you suggest I'll do with them now?

Add adsense + popup to register to some "free report" about X and start an automatic email relationship kind of thing and end up offering them a $10 ebook about something? Is that how things are done in this type of business?

Until now I only dealt with real products and services, never with such things.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

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[Tom.V]

What kind of traffic? Is it international or primarily US traffic? Are the demographics of your users similar or are they all diverse groups of people? How many sites are we talking about.

The main thing is, it is a network so it will be quite a bit more work to get the systems in place compared to a single site with a single purpose.

 

[Gymjunkie]

What industry? What problem are you solving with that site? Or is that entertainment site? Can't give you advice based on just numbers. Need to know some more context.

 

[kyled427]

Offer them something for free in exchange for submitting their email address. Use aWeber and build a nice, big e-mail list which you can market to for a long time to come.

Also, if the websites are in a specific niche then build separate lists for each one so you have different lists for different niches. aWeber is really cheap to use and has a 99%+ inbox rate.

 

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[johnp]

Yes, please share industry if possible

 

[FastLearner]

No one is going to steal your idea if you share the industry, chances are, you know how to better execute it anyway..

 

[davidil]

It's just general traffic of people who are looking for info about history, historical figures, places, that sort of thing. Not really industry specific.

 

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[JohnnFour]

+1 to starting an email list.

Scan your threads for what people complain about.

Look for solutions to offer them.

Survey visitors about what their problems and desires are.

Ads suck, imho. CPM is steadily going down. It is a treadmill.

 

[DeletedUser2]

email list is more profitable by 10x

do that.

 

[davidil]

OK, I will.

Look at this script: http://bounceexchange.com/

Very good but expensive. Do you know of a cheaper script? This is not just a popup, it shows exactly when the visitor is about to leave, when the browser borders are crossed.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

OK, I will.

Look at this script: http://bounceexchange.com/

Very good but expensive. Do you know of a cheaper script? This is not just a popup, it shows exactly when the visitor is about to leave, when the browser borders are crossed.

This is not for you I think. It's for ecommerce sites that have shopping-cart abandonment, etc. For them, it's probably much more worth it because they have people with intent to buy. You have people with intent to learn/entertain themselves.

I'd start an email list with updates sent when new content is added (say once a week) and then selling ads in that newsletter. In addition to ad sales on website too.

 

[davidil]

On another site I run we have 65,000 subscribers. I looked at aWeber , it would be a few hundred dollars a month to run our list with them. What is a good cheap option or just a script that we can buy (or a free one) that we can use?

We're using now php-lister it's open source....

Thanks

 

[Tom.V]

Don't be afraid to spend a little money on software that will give you a much higher ROI in the longrun. When dealing with large lists and the sort, I'd rather splurge a little on quality warez than be stuck with an insufficient piece of freeware.

Food for thought.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

On another site I run we have 65,000 subscribers. I looked at aWeber , it would be a few hundred dollars a month to run our list with them. What is a good cheap option or just a script that we can buy (or a free one) that we can use?

We're using now php-lister it's open source....

Thanks

That's cheap. People with that much subs even go for InfusionSoft or Ontraport which are even more robust and serious systems for following up with clients. It costs a lot more too. Stick with Aweber I'd say. Check out Campaign Monitor or MailCheat(Chimp) to compare.

 

[davidil]

But if we have our own dedicated server and can install any software and we have an in house programmer working full time, why do we need to pay HUNDREDS of dollars a month? Is it about higher delivery rates due to their servers being white listed? There is no good enterprise grade one time fee software to buy?

 

[Chris_Willow]

But if we have our own dedicated server and can install any software and we have an in house programmer working full time, why do we need to pay HUNDREDS of dollars a month? Is it about higher delivery rates due to their servers being white listed? There is no good enterprise grade one time fee software to buy?

You should look into Amazon SES. I'm using it for in-app emails and it works beautifully. The deliverability rates are ok too when you send DKIM signed emails properly.

Here's a good email marketing app for sending emails via SES (one time purchase):
http://sendy.co/

P.S. Amazon will not hesitate to shut you down if your emails get complaints.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

But if we have our own dedicated server and can install any software and we have an in house programmer working full time, why do we need to pay HUNDREDS of dollars a month? Is it about higher delivery rates due to their servers being white listed? There is no good enterprise grade one time fee software to buy?

Do you know how to code? How to maintain that thing? Would it be more useful to use the programmer to do other things?

If you have some good programmers, maybe it's an option but it will take a lot of time to develop probably.. I'd rather just use a good service.

 

[zachonaboat]

We're using now php-lister it's open source....

i thought it was needed for aweber for a large email list because your ISP limits 500 emails sent per day, thus people use aweber to send out 65,000 emails at once.

 

[davidil]

Our IPS doesn't limit anything. We sent 65,000 a few weeks ago with no problem.

 

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[davidil]

EXACTLY what I wanted. THANK YOU!

You should look into Amazon SES. I'm using it for in-app emails and it works beautifully. The deliverability rates are ok too when you send DKIM signed emails properly.

Here's a good email marketing app for sending emails via SES (one time purchase):
http://sendy.co/

P.S. Amazon will not hesitate to shut you down if your emails get complaints.