Monetization ideas for an Authority blog - ideas?

[tyrian1601]

Hello All,

Over the last few months I've developed what is hopefully becoming an authority site in the quantitative finance (mathematical finance) niche, a personal interest. I provide quality information and articles, all written by myself. It got PR1 a few days ago (with PR1 on some of the inner pages) I haven't done any real work on link building apart from answering questions in forums and providing links to my website. In Yahoo SiteExplorer, I have 101 inbound links.

I have 40 articles currently, and I'm getting 120 UV/day through organic Google traffic. My visitors are people searching for technical information on quantitative analysis in finance. I have visitors from companies like Citigroup, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, investment banks, universities all over the world, as well as people just interested in investment. A good mix of students, private investors and professionals I expect.

I'm currently monetizing through adsense. In October, I got 26 clicks at a CPC of $1.1 (I sometimes get clicks for one cent, sometimes for $3). My CTR is 0.3%. Not great, I know. I have one 300x250 block on the top-left of my articles, and 468x60 at the bottom of an article (both text/image).

I want to invest more time into developing the site, but I need to monetize it better to justify my time (I have a proper job as well)

I've split-tested my ads, and nothing works outstandingly well. Perhaps it's just the niche I'm in. People come to my site for technical information and articles, so it's not product-oriented.

I'd be very happy if I had a CTR of 1%. But I'm certainly happy to explore other monetization ideas.

If anyone has any cool ideas, then I'd be happy to hear them

Tyrian1601

 

[scorpion king]

Sign up with a good Forex affiliate. This is easily convertible than other CPA offers. Also sign up with a CPA company speak with your manager what offer you can promote. He will suggest you the best offer. On one knows this business than him.
Always try campaigns and offers do some research it will take some time to figure out which suits you best. Stick with it.

 

[pepelongo]

Maybe you can write an eBook and charge for it, or maybe a report or white paper.

Good Luck.!

 

[poziko]

I guess in that field adsense is probably your best option. The location of your ads seem to be good. But maybe you need to make your site more dull so that the ads stick out. Try to get the font color more grey than black and don't have any other distractions for your visitors. Try to minimize the menu so people can't browse too much on your site. Don't display any categories or tags.

That's all I can think of right now. When I started with adsense a few years ago I followed a guide from x-factor. I think you can get the 2nd course for adsense here on BHW in the downloads section. He's quite successful with adsense. You could probably get good tips from his courses.

Edit: Found the link to the X-Factor guide: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...-get-xfactor-authority-adsense-guide-new.html

 

[tyrian1601]

I guess in that field adsense is probably your best option. The location of your ads seem to be good. But maybe you need to make your site more dull so that the ads stick out. Try to get the font color more grey than black and don't have any other distractions for your visitors. Try to minimize the menu so people can browse too much on your site. Don't display any categories or tags.

That's all I can think of right now. When I started with adsense a few years ago I followed a guide from x-factor. I think you can get the 2nd course for adsense here on BHW in the downloads section. He's quite successful with adsense. You could probably get good tips from his courses.

Do you think I could PM you my site? I'd appreciate your opinion on its design.

I've tried to maintain a good, clean reader experience throughout the site (with a minimum of distraction), but I guess I need another pair of eyes on it to gauge its suitability for adsense.

T

 

[poziko]

Sure go ahead, I can have a look at it. But I am in no means an expert. I also edited my previous post and added the link to the X-Factor course. I think this guide will really help you.