Turning Visits into Money $$$

I run a website that gets about 8000 to 9000 unique visitors per month. Last year I had 130,000 visits to my site. The site is on a fairly high value topic in an extremely specialty field. I am currently on the first page of google's results and haven't budged from that position for two years.

I run Adsense ads on the site. I make about $300 per month from Adsense. In addition I have sold several image ads for $1500 per year.

I have two friends who run companies which run ads which regularly appear on my site. Both told me that the average rate they pay for a click with Adwords is $2 per visit. One usually is listed 3rd on my adwords, and the other much lower.

Since I get 130,000 visits per year, and since they pay $2 per visit, that makes the value of my traffic $260,000 per year.

130,000 (vists per year) x $2 (amount paid for visits) = $260,000 (value of my traffic)

Last year between adsense and advertising, I made about $6000. I think I should be earning much more.

What would people suggest?



I've been thinking about selling the URL to a company that is advertising in my space. This would probably bring them over 100,000 visits per year, and could be worth about $100k. Is this reasonable?


Thanks so much everyone!

$2 per visit, or $2 per unique click on the ad, or $2 CPM? Are you sure you heard them right? That sounds a little high if its $2 per visit. $2 per click could be a bit high too, although depending on your niche some ads do make over $2 per click. I am thinking they meant per click or $2 CPM which is $2 per 1000 impressions on your site.

Adwords.

Two people I know advertise on Adwords for the main keyword I run my site about. They pay an average of $2 for each visitor their site which comes through adwords. These two advertisers usually appear as the 4th and 6th adwords ads on my site. So, I believe that the top price that people will pay for visitors on my topic is higher.

The average ad that appears on an Adwords ad on my site advertises a product ranging from $2000 to $4000.

Do people on this list do any direct advertising, where a company pays x number of dollars for a monthly or yearly placement sortof as a sponsorship that isn't related to the amount of traffic coming through?

How do you calculate a price for these?

Interesting question, I would like to know that if somebody know...

Does anybody have an answer about the best ways to make deals with individual advertisers.

On my site, I've found that a little text link brings them more visitors than a huge banner, so I'm trying to talk my advertisers into smaller text based ads.

I'm finding that a simple text link on my website performs better than a huge banner. How do I talk my non-web savvy advertisters to go for a smaller link for the same price even though it will deliver them more traffic?

Have you considered affiliate programs? For a site with your traffic it may pay of big times! Especially when you are in a specific topic field... Please feel free to mess you URL to me!

Yeah because it's easier to read text and relate to your site's content than a a banner. But it really depends on your taste. You can only take advantage of so many hot affiliate programs.

The fact that they (your friends) pay $2 for every click does not translate into every visitors being worth that same amount. The visitors they are getting for the two dollars are of a highly specific nature, actively clicking an ad to get to their page.

This kind of visitors will convert much better than "regular" SE-traffic, hence they are well worth paying for. While $2/click does sound expensive, you don't say what keyword(s) it is, so I can't tell. I agree with webguid, Affiliate programs would be a possible way of increasing your revenue. If you target them right, the upside is much bigger than with any form of contextual advertising.

$6000 does sound a bit low for a site with that much traffic, I expect you could do much better with a few good programs.

Hi Humblebee,

The reason my industry is at $2 per click on Adwords is because it is a tiny industry. The average product in our industry is either small $20 to $300 or large $2000 to $4000.

There are no affiliate programs that touch on this industry. I don't want to mention the specific keyword. My site is pretty much one of three extremely authoratative sites on the topic, and has extremely high trust value. I assume that a click from my website is even more targeted and a better prospect than one pulled in via an Adwords ad.

I agree with Webguide. I think that affiliate programs are an easy way to get your traffic to be proffitable for you and your "sponsors". I've tried a gaing one that pays through CPA and referrals and has been pretty good so far. Please let me now if you're interested!