How Would You Monetize This (GrayHat) Site

bojanpeic said:

Hey guys, hope you're doing well.

I've been wondering for around a week now which would be the best way to monetize the site I've made recently. I have the main source on monetizing it, but I want to see what are my side options here. Preferably someone that has/had experience with this.

I'm aware which Ad networks are available: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/top-100-ad-networks-adsense-alternatives.1045408/ - Just looking for opinions.

So, the website is kind of GrayHat (is that a thing lol?) since it promotes game download, but it's not all about that. The game is an old retro game which has to be played through emulator. Main sources of income are content lockers which lock the game and emulators download. The game can't be bought in physical form or on any platform like Steam etc. Only way to get it is from 3rd party sites just like mine.

Now, game has been really popular and it still is, so I made a lot of content around the download itself. Articles, guides, how-to's, easter eggs etc.. I have much more content around it than download itself. I also did SILO on the website and I want to make it kind of "authority" for the given game.

My question is what would be the best way to monetize my work on this website, since CPA content lockers will take 15% of the content. There is still 75% that I want to monetize somehow. Given the niche, I'm aware that lot of networks wouldn't accept me.

I do have ExoClick account and adds but I can say I don't like the ads they are placing on my site since they are irrelevant and look spammy. G2A or similar gaming affiliate sites are something I'd skip since payouts are awful.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on this? How would you monetize this kind of website?

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MountainGuy said:

If you have enough traffic you might be able to sale some banner space to someone.

A VPN company maybe.... Maybe reach out to the companies that use the ad networks that will let you advertise.

or maybe reach out to the competitors of the companies that use the ad networks that let you advertise.

Do you have any traffic yet

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bugulma said:

how much traffic mate, and do u sit on n1 for the keyword ? I am in such niches myself

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hibr3d said:

May I ask how much you are making from locking the downloads behind CPA content locker? Thank you.

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bojanpeic said:

Forgot to mention that website is fairly new so it doesn't get a lot of traffic. Maybe 10 a day, if so. However, it's a month old website, still being updated with content and doing final touches.

Anyways, from my experience and KW research, it will be receiving 10-15k/monthly at it's peak. Having this in mind CPM is really not an option.

I'll let you know about CPA earnings once things start to kick in.

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hibr3d said:

If you provide the rom or whatever you are making blog posts about, I'd say go with content locker aka ogads or cpabuild or something for desktop. No ad company will pay you as much as those bad boys

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bojanpeic said:

15% of the content. There is still 75%

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