Humor. Can it make money?

[Boricio]

I'm working on a main project. PPV/CPV marketing with paid traffic. This can make a lot of money with good campaigns but campaigns only last so long.

I'd like to have a side project that would be a more long-term income source once it is established.

Here's what I'm considering:

I like writing. I've published 7 fiction short stories on Amazon but they have never sold well.

On Facebook I'm part of a local rants and raves group. I decided to write up some posts about my recent dental experiences and the people there love them.

The reviews are funny (at least that's what I'm told) and they are actual reviews. They get a lot of attention in this group.

So many of them are asking me to keep writing reviews.

I've followed up with a couple restaurant reviews and they have been very popular too.

I was thinking. Could I build a review site in this humorous style and make money with it? I could review almost anything I use or experience and make affiliate sales on some of the things.

My thinking is that most review sites are boring and some of them are still effective.

What would happen if people had fun reading reviews? I think they would be very willing to give their email address to read the new reviews. I also think the content would be very sharable if people found it funny.

People love to be entertained.

The problem is that the readers would be coming to be entertained and not necessarily looking to buy anything.

Adsense is an option but it doesn't pay much.

Is there a way I could do this and make it bring in good money?

 

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[NoahK]

Is there a way I could do this and make it bring in good money?

I think it could. I'm going to be using a crowdfunding site called Patreon to support the creation of some ongoing content of my own, though not as a blog.

It's more subscription-based than project-based like Kickstarter.

You could see if it's a good fit for your idea. They do have a comedy section.

 

[Waspy]

Only one way to find out...

EDIT: Your income would come from companies begging you to review their products. Once you have a large audience.

 

[loop101]

I'm working on a main project. PPV/CPV marketing with paid traffic. This can make a lot of money with good campaigns but campaigns only last so long.

I'd like to have a side project that would be a more long-term income source once it is established.

Here's what I'm considering:

I like writing. I've published 7 fiction short stories on Amazon but they have never sold well.

On Facebook I'm part of a local rants and raves group. I decided to write up some posts about my recent dental experiences and the people there love them.

The reviews are funny (at least that's what I'm told) and they are actual reviews. They get a lot of attention in this group.

So many of them are asking me to keep writing reviews.

I've followed up with a couple restaurant reviews and they have been very popular too.

I was thinking. Could I build a review site in this humorous style and make money with it? I could review almost anything I use or experience and make affiliate sales on some of the things.

My thinking is that most review sites are boring and some of them are still effective.

What would happen if people had fun reading reviews? I think they would be very willing to give their email address to read the new reviews. I also think the content would be very sharable if people found it funny.

People love to be entertained.

The problem is that the readers would be coming to be entertained and not necessarily looking to buy anything.

Adsense is an option but it doesn't pay much.

Is there a way I could do this and make it bring in good money?

Of course you can. Just keep the reviews honest, and experiment with monetization methods. If you have an audience coming to you, you don't really have a problem.

 

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[loop101]

Only one way to find out...

EDIT: Your income would come from companies begging you to review their products. Once you have a large audience.

I thought pay-for-review was not encouraged? They could sponsor his material, and/or he could pitch their product. I believe the old weekly DiggNation podcasts charged $75k for product pitches, and they had several per show. They never reviewed sponsored products (though they often claimed to use them).

 

[Xavier X]

While brainstorming for a new side project recently, I had this same idea.
Offering reviews in a specific niche, but with humor-based delivery.

I decided not to go with it. Not because it's a bad idea, but because I have no intention of creating all the content.
Therefore, getting quality humor writers that can also deliver valuable information in the niche (credit cards) would be tricky.

I'm still creating the site, but without the humor angle.

I have one purely humor-based site with a little traffic, as a side project. (2500+ unique visitors/day, viewing 4 - 10 pages each).
Which brings me to the part about niches.

DO NOT present the site as a "humor site" first, then "review site" second.
Also, DO NOT target visitors in a developing country.

In my case, this humor site I mentioned makes a few hundreds every month, from Adsense.
However, with that same traffic in the finance niche, and local geo-targeting (US), it would do $2k+ a month.
That's because with Adsense, humor and entertainment are categorized crap-tier niches.

What I'm saying in this near-ramble is:

1. Pick a high value niche to review things in, e.g financial services/products, medical, legal, insurance etc.
Lots of advertising budget in these industries, and it will reflect in your earnings.

2. Keep it local (US). Don't do as I did and target some foreign location (because I spotted a void there).

Provided you can deliver value in form of accurate/helpful reviews, with humor as a bonus, you'll do fine.

 

[Sully1994]

this site is filled with comedic GOLD. Unfortunately the creator eventually moved on to different things and it now sits dormant.

Maybe you can figure out a way to improve and monitze his concept.

Www.dontevenreply.com

 

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[Boricio]

@NoahK - Patreon is an awesome idea. Worth a try at least. I know that Primitive Technology YouTube channel gets over $5,000 per video from Patreon. And even more from the YouTube ads.

@Waspy - I didn't consider that. Very cool.

My concern is that while the writing I have been doing is loosely about reviews, I think the humor is the main selling point. I can see people revisiting the site because they like the writing, not necessarily to buy products.

I've tried the plain review site site before and it didn't stand out. There wasn't a compelling reason for people to ever come back.

@Sully1994 - I'll check out that site. Maybe I can get some ideas from the content.