

20% revenue split to help monetize a website - tomkazarian

I have a site getting significant traffic and need someone who is knowledgeable about ad networks&#x2F;ad layout testing&#x2F;etc. I will pay 20% of whatever revenue your suggestions bring in for a period of 6 months.
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Throwaway90283
When it comes to ad sizes, you'll want to run 300x250 on your site using
AdSense. It has the highest stock available, so it'll generate the most bids
and profit.

You might want to consider randomizing the ad locations in your results. I
viewed a few pages, and I already know where the eBay ads are listed, so I'm
skipping over them. You could randomize an eBay (if they pay well) or 300x250
AdSense advertisement in every other row.

The best option is always selling the ads directly on your own or through an
ad manager that takes a large commission. For example, I earn 20x or more on
my direct ads, compared to AdSense. Of course, I don't always have a direct
advertising campaign, so AdSense runs as backup when one isn't available.

Browse Commission Junction and try some offers, although I have low
expectations. I usually send them a few hundred clicks for every sale, which
only earns a few dollars.

Your FAQ says people are interesting in selling items on your site, but that's
not available, you just scrap sales from forums. Why not allow people to
promote their forum sales on your site? For example, on the top of every page,
you have a featured row with 4 random sales in that category, currently being
promoted. So, I'm selling a watch on WatchUSeek, I visit your site, pay $20 to
get listed in the featured row on the watches category for a week. For
example, here's a quick Photoshop...

[http://i.imgur.com/uRBXAdD.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/uRBXAdD.jpg)

Good luck, advertising is an uphill battle, and you need to spend a lot of
time trying out different strategies and carefully monitoring the results.

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tomkazarian
Holy smokes- GREAT reply and complete with a mockup!

I'll start loading up some of those 300x250 units. I guess my hesitation in
the past was that I didn't know if those ads would adapt to screen
sizes/orientation and the units would break the layout but I might as well
find out now. I'm still scratching my head on the gun section though since
it's very poplar but I can't run AdSense in that category (against TOS), but I
guess direct deals, CJ, and featured guns would work there. You mention an Ad
Manager for getting direct deals... Is this someone I hire from a job board or
are there ones you can recommend?

~~~
unsquare
>So, I'm selling a watch on WatchUSeek, I visit your site, pay $20 to get
listed in the featured row on the watches category for a week.

>I'm still scratching my head on the gun section though since it's very poplar
but I can't run AdSense in that category

Popular gun forums are on the same boat and that's why their side-bars are
filled with advertisers/affiliates/sponsors. Just contact those with your
numbers on the sub-section, i'm sure you'll sell out quickly.

Your website has a lot of potential for targeted advertising.

~~~
tomkazarian
Yup, you're right. Featured + advertisers found on gun forums should solve it.

Time for me to think/ask an advertiser about what he wants (i.e. ability to
login and see impression/click counts, etc.) and what the CPM rate(s) should
be.

I appreciate the time you took to think through that.

~~~
unsquare
>Time for me to think/ask an advertiser about what he wants (i.e. ability to
login and see impression/click counts, etc.) and what the CPM rate(s) should
be.

The problem is often that we can't guarantee the stats like google does. (for
clicks) That's why i either sell a guaranteed minimum impressions per month or
a flat CPM rate.

Still track the impressions and clicks, but only as a indicator or email them
reports to save the hassle of managing credentials.

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jsonne
Advertise on porn networks. Traffic Junky is dirt cheap compared to most other
display networks, and these sort of things would likely appeal to the
predominantly young male audience.

Another suggestion is reddit ads. Align the categories with various subreddits
and write some decent funny copy.

~~~
tomkazarian
Had some earlier success with reddit ads and even made it to the Top 20 (all
time) on a decently sized subreddit that I manually submitted to. Never heard
of Traffic Junky but it makes total sense. Thank you for the suggestions!
Brilliant.

~~~
jsonne
No problem at all. If you need any more help feel free to shoot me an email. I
do lots of marketing for tech companies, and I'm always happy to give out some
advice for free.

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MalcolmDiggs
If you post the site url, I'm sure many of us would be more than willing to
post some monetization-advice here for free. Just a thought.

~~~
tomkazarian
Thanks for the suggestion.

\---

At the moment, I'm running only ebay ads incorporated into the following
areas:

\- 2 units per page on category pages like:
[http://www.lionseek.com/watches](http://www.lionseek.com/watches)

\- 2 units per page on brand pages like:
[http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko](http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko)

\- 12 units per page on individual item pages (found in the 'similar items on
the web' section/slider) like:
[http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko/fs-
seiko-6309-50...](http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko/fs-
seiko-6309-5029-2178f3)

\- 4 units on a search result page that has no matches like:
[http://www.lionseek.com/watches?seller_id=-1&has_photo=true&...](http://www.lionseek.com/watches?seller_id=-1&has_photo=true&category=watches&limit=22&page=1&q=blah+blah)

\---

I have an Adsense account, Commission Junction account, and an Amazon
Associates account it's just that none of these have been implemented. I can
get self-serve ads implemented quickly. The site is responsive so the ads
would have to work with a couple of breakpoints.

An ideal scenario is someone saying 'Stick a XYZ ad unit here stylized in the
following way. Stick ABC ad unit here in the following format. This ad
platform (XYZ) might help for testing and maximizing revenue.'

If you are confused about what the site is/does then take a look at:
[http://www.lionseek.com/p/faq](http://www.lionseek.com/p/faq)

Any suggestions would be TRULY appreciated!

~~~
MalcolmDiggs
In your shoes, I think I'd start by incorporating generic adsense units in
order to get a "baseline". It'd probably be easiest to start with the newer
"responsive" ad units that Adsense offers, since those will fit the container
you make available, and you won't have to worry about breakpoints and such.

I would run those plain ads for long enough to get statistically significant
data on CTR and CPC. Adsense revenue will likely vary widely for a few days
and then level-out in a consistent range after a while.

Once you've got that baseline, you have a metric by which you can compare
other strategies and options. Then integrating something like CJ/affiliate ads
becomes simpler. You just let that new strategy run for a small subset of
visitors and see how the revenue compares to your "control group" (the
visitors who saw adsense). Then you can be methodical and scientific in your
approach, and test all options you have available to you. This is the same
method by which you can test other adsense units, other styling options, etc.
Split-testing software like Optimizely makes these kind of tests very easy to
run and get data on.

~~~
tomkazarian
Good suggestions - thanks!

