

Ask HN: I have 100MM views/month and need to monatize - oonny

Hi HN, We created a widget that goes on publisher website. We have been modestly successful but have a few big name publishers. So far our widget gets about 100 MM views a month. We have 154x250 space within the widget to monetize for ourselves. What&#x27;s our best approach here in terms of ads. Is there a list of ad vendors (other than ad sense) that might be interested in this inventory? We are new to the display&#x2F;native ad game so any suggestion is welcome. AD&#x27;s can be displayed within a lightbox (to keep users within the pub site) or just can be directed to the ad page on click. Thanks in advance!
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neuen
Wow - what an opportunity. Honestly - you have something great here.

I hope this doesn’t come across as an insult as you’ve already expressed your
dislike for Outbrain and Taboola but you’ve stepped right into their market
and have a huge opportunity to shake things up.

I’d say you’ve figured out what every publisher loves - or should love -
keeping traffic and keeping the audience engaged. I assume most smaller
publishers >10m views would make more money keeping readers clicking around
their own site several times compared to losing them to a “click-bait”
sponsored content ad.

I would however recommend after spending a decent amount of time on your site
to take a look at Taboola and Outbrain - the copy and design of their sites
are very to the point and informative - to publishers and advertisers. I don’t
really get that from your site. I’d try to be more like them in those areas -
they have a knack for grabbing both publishers and advertisers.

As for getting the advertisers, get on LinkedIn - search for people with job
titles like Manager of Digital Marketing - poke around their profiles see if
their company might be a good fit for you then fire them off a quick email.

Just my two cents!

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oonny
neuen, THANK YOU so much for the feedback! definitely not an insult, it is
something we have known all along. The only thing going for us is the video.
We were so focused on sales (w/ big publishers) that the site took the back
burner. We are working on a redesign focused more to get small to mid-level
publishers. thanks again for your insights.

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thenomad
If you haven't considered affiliate programs, that would be a good direction
to go. You'll have to do more testing but once optimised you'll get a higher
ROI than you would from most non-adsense ad companies.

~~~
oonny
Thanks! I can google a few, are there any programs that you would recommend?

~~~
thenomad
Check out ShareaSale, Commission Junction and potentially Clickbank to get
started.

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MalcolmDiggs
If you're just testing the waters, an inventory marketplace like
BuySellAds.com might be worth checking out.

You can browse through the inventory of similar sites to get a gauge of what
you can expect, CPM wise:
[https://buysellads.com/buy/allsites/](https://buysellads.com/buy/allsites/)

Later on, you might just want to strike one-off deals with interested
advertisers, or build in a more "native" ad solution into your platform, etc.

~~~
oonny
thanks for this suggestion! I will check out buysellads.

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winslow
Is there a way to see the product. It might help in getting you better
responses.

~~~
oonny
sure thing, this is an overview of the product
[http://us.veeseo.com](http://us.veeseo.com) and here is a sample link for it
out in the wild: [http://mmajunkie.com/2015/01/diego-brandaos-
ufc-183-challeng...](http://mmajunkie.com/2015/01/diego-brandaos-
ufc-183-challenge-staying-motivated-when-not-struggling-so-much)

~~~
zubairq
On the sample link which one was your banner?

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oonny
there isn't - we are not monetizing it at the moment. so all 4 boxes are
client video recommendation.

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dabogy
What kind of content do your publishers show?

~~~
oonny
video

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zubairq
Show me an example URL. I may invest

~~~
oonny
sure thing, this is an overview of the product
[http://us.veeseo.com](http://us.veeseo.com) we are bothered by the stupid
recommendation engines (outbrain/taboola) that insults our intelligence at the
bottom of ... pretty much every website. veeseo is a tool for editors that
shows relevant content that their own publisher produced. no click-baits! :)

~~~
zubairq
Can you send me your statistics for the last year? Find me on
zq@matchingheads.com

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fuj
I'm surprised no one has suggested you to just simply take donations or suck
it up. After all, according to most HN users, all ads are bad and adblock is a
God's gift. You have no right getting revenue on the content you create.

~~~
oonny
haha, well I do see ads as a necessary evil, although some companies do a
better job with non-intrusive ads.

