How can I monetize an entertainment website?

[olympustenay]

I am getting 500-1000 people on my site per day but make less than 50 cents with adsense. Whats the best way to make money with my site? Is there a place where I can sell banner space etc? What is your opinion?

 

[randybishop]

Ads on your site are always gonna be pennies unless you are getting massive traffic.
I would install a popup and offer a free ebook or contest for free stuff and collect emails then sell them on niche related affiliate products.

 

[moonlighsunligh]

Adsense pays the best - if you have good ad placements, you should earn about $3-4 per 1000 pageviews. CTR should be 5-10%. At least that was the case with the latest entertainment site I had.

Let us know your CTR and ECPM (RPM now i think). Because you have 500 unique, I guess you have about 3K pageviews, so your ECPM is just 0.25 which is a bit low.

You should use adsense ad unit 300*250 abobe the fold just under the title on the left side.
#######################
Title
One line of text
adsense unit 300*250. (or 3XX *280)
#######################

This should be the first ad in html code.

If you have pictures on the page then do the same just bellow the picture(left side):
#######################
Title
One line of text
adsense unit 300*250. (or 3XX *280)
#######################

One line of text is important because otherwise you could get banned. I am not sure if this still applies, but it was bad practice to put ad just bellow pictures and some people hot banned bacause of it, but with one line of text a was always fine.

 

[ContentWriter]

You should use adsense ad unit 300*250 abobe the fold just under the title on the left side.

Hi, @moonlighsunligh. Was that really on the left side or the right side?

 

[uncutu]

Find out who your competition is. Start reverse engineering their setup. They likely have it all figured out depending on how long they've been alive.
Write down where they put ads. What the ads are for. Where the ads go. Who serves the ads. Use that info to put the same stuff on your site.

 

[moonlighsunligh]

Hi, @moonlighsunligh. Was that really on the left side or the right side?

I tested it a lot and left side was always better performing. I think it was even better than having 2 ad unites side by side, but I guess this should be tested on every site, since every layout is different.

What is your experience?

Find out who your competition is. Start reverse engineering their setup. They likely have it all figured out depending on how long they've been alive.
Write down where they put ads. What the ads are for. Where the ads go. Who serves the ads. Use that info to put the same stuff on your site.

Adsense is much better that anything alse, in this niche. In other niches affiliates could be better.

 

[T2tkid]

Adsense is the best. But you should know that entertainment niche CPC/RPM will be low always. There are many other options to add, like media.net, content.ad etc.

 

[T2tkid]

I tested it a lot and left side was always better performing. I think it was even better than having 2 ad unites side by side, but I guess this should be tested on every site, since every layout is different.

What is your experience?



Adsense is much better that anything alse, in this niche. In other niches affiliates could be better.

I see a lot sites in my Education niche has ads on the right or left sides. I am going to implement it right away and see if there will be improvement. Mine is currently at the middle after the first paragraph and at the end of the article.

 

[moonlighsunligh]

Adsense is the best. But you should know that entertainment niche CPC/RPM will be low always. There are many other options to add, like media.net, content.ad etc.

RPM of $3-$5 is not that bad, and also it is easier to get traffic to entertainment sites than to lets say health site. So not a bad choice. If he has a lot of repeadeted visitors the RPM will be lower.

I see a lot sites in my Education niche has ads on the right or left sides. I am going to implement it right away and see if there will be improvement. Mine is currently at the middle after the first paragraph and at the end of the article.

Also the best color was 000080 for titles and links and the color of the text should match the color if your text which is I hope black.

I guess you should see about 100% improvement maybe even more, but I didn't test your setup so far.

Also it is important that the ad unit with the highest CTR, should be the first in HTML code.

 

[ContentWriter]

I tested it a lot and left side was always better performing. I think it was even better than having 2 ad unites side by side, but I guess this should be tested on every site, since every layout is different.

What is your experience?

Thank you for the response, @moonlighsunligh. It's been my practice to put a 300 x 250 ad on the right side right after the first paragraph. I'll shift it to the left side on August to see if that'll make a significant improvement in my AdSense earnings.

 

[moonlighsunligh]

Sure, let us know when you see the improvements.

 

[WootHosting]

Adfly an option mate?