

Ask HN: Taking my project to it's full potential - lachyg

Hi HN'ers :)<p>I posted a little while back on finding a co-founder. I decided to trial a few people out, but I thought it would be a smarter move paying the outright expenses, and keeping the site for myself. I guess what I'm saying, is that I don't really need a co-founder / developer.<p>My new problem, is getting the site too it's full potential. I'm doing 2000 uniques a day, with the majority of traffic coming from the US, then Japan, UK and Australia. The traffic is highly targeted, and of great quality.<p>But, how do I make the most of this traffic, and bring in the most income? (Whilst keeping a quality, and non spammy site)<p>Currently I'm selling an ad spot, and affiliate revenue, but I don't think I'm making the most of it.<p>I'd appreciate any comments, ideas and or feedback!<p>Cheers,
Lachy<p>Site: iPadCaseFinder.com
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gizmo
You left out all details, so there isn't anything I can say about your
specific situation. The general rules apply: good content leads to more
visitors which in turn leads to more ad impressions which finally leads to
more money.

So you can either improve the content, improve the navigation so your visitors
stick around longer, get better targeted ads or get better paying ads.

What is going to make the biggest impact in your case? Just make changes and
measure the results. Figure out what kind of changes make the biggest impact
to your bottom line and optimize ruthlessly. Then go back to square one and
re-evaluate.

Generic advise, I know.

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lachyg
What more information do you want? It's not really the content I'm worried
about, it's the money. Should I go into drop shipping these cases? Should I
optimize my affiliates? Should I concentrate more on banner ads?

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ErrantX
What he means is that it's next to impossible to give that kind of advice
(beyond generalities) without some more insight into the product/site itself.
Because it is all relative.

(for the GP: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1370042> is the previous
submission)

I would focus on affiliate sales through the site; it makes more sense.

Also: expand the network into other cases like you said in the other thread.
That way you should be able to build up a big base of traffic across the
niche.

 _Then_ you'll probably have more success selling targeted advertising space
(i.e. case manufacturers who cover the whole niche)

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danielh
I assume your project is the site you talked about in an earlier submission.
If that is the case, here are a couple of observations:

The site looks very clean and I think another one or two ads would be ok, as
long as they are relevant and of high quality. The current ad for screen
protection is a good example.

I find the search to be a bit confusing. I would putting "type" at the top
would help. I thought I had to choose a brand first, as it was not immediately
clear to me that the categories are independent. I would rather search for a
black leather case than for a case made by i-nique.

Use A/B-testing to evaluate changes to the site.

Random ideas: become an affiliate of a company that makes customized cases.
Enter the itunes affiliate program, add a badge with the iPad app of the day
or something similair. Make a dedicated site if one the non-case products gets
a lot of traffic, e.g. an ad for screen protection.

I'm intentionally a bit vague because you didn't name the site. You might want
to post the URL to get more answers.

Edit: added some more concrete examples.

~~~
lachyg
Sorry, just added.

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lachyg
Direct link: <http://ipadcasefinder.com/>

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roel_v
Have you A/B tested making the buy button more obvious? Bigger and more
prominently colored? Also, maybe you're better off, for the cases where you
have multiple affiliate links, to make one of them big and shiny and put in
small letters below 'also available on...' You'd made the affiliate that pays
out most the prominent one of course, if your contract allows that. I like the
site, this would be exactly the type of site I'd love to have if I were in the
market for an ipad case.

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kishorenc
How about featuring iPad cases which are on sale on the ebay on your site
(along with a affiliate link) - this should also earn you some affiliate
money...

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famfam
Semi-related, is this you, or are you getting cloned?
<http://www.ipadcasestore.org>

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mattmanser
Surely it's selling some of the cases directly yourself? That way you don't
get the tiny affiliate %, you get the full sales markup. Though I guess that's
a whole new skillset/risk point.

