23 replies to this topic

[DonnaFontenot]

Ok, I tried to stir up some fun tonight on Twitter, but no one wanted to take the bait, so let's see if I can get better results here.

I posed the following scenario / question: (expanded here since I'm not limited to 140 characters)

You've been handed an information site that gets 1,000,000 page views per month. 1 million per month is respectable, although it's no Facebook, ya know. Let's assume those page views are legit traffic. People actually interested in the topic matter.

Let's also assume that the niche isn't anything special....just average topic.

The question is...

What would you bet you could make ($$$) per month off a site like that from advertising and affiliate income?

Obviously, there's not enough info for an accurate assessment - let's just go for semi-realistic bragging here.

Now, on twitter, no one was "man enough" to throw out any brags. I find it difficult to believe that with all the internet marketers I know, no one is willing to step and say they could make ??? dollars if someone handed them a site like that.

So...what's your semi-realisting guesstimate?

Obviously, once we get some numbers floating around, I'd like to get creative with some ideas on achieving those numbers, but let's start with the bragging first.

Your turn... :emo10:

Edited by dazzlindonna, 23 April 2009 - 10:07 PM.

[EGOL]

Lots of unsaid variables here.... Different topics on my site make wildly different amounts.... newsy and educational don't make much but gadgety can make nice income.

People actually interested in the topic matter.

I believe that will be a handicap... the more they are interested in the content the less they will look at the ads.... I think that you will make the most from a highly distractible visitor.

Just tossing out numbers.... at $1.00/eCPM you would make $1000 but at $20.00/eCPM you would make $20000. Would be really hard to get that kind of traffic in the $20.00/eCPM themes and really hard to get advertisers (via an ad network) to fill all 1,000,000 impressions.

Now, are you talking gross or net? A site with that many page views will probably require staff and authors. You could burn some real money keeping a site like that stoked with a flow of content that will keep people coming back and attract the links needed to hold rankings in those high volume SERPs.

Edited by EGOL, 23 April 2009 - 10:38 PM.

[bwelford]

I think the lower end of your range is what we could expect, Egol. Let's say $2.00 per eCPM. However I think you have to avoid any fixed costs by relying on UGC. Ideally that should be viral UGC that has waves of intense buzz activity.

[EGOL]

I agree that the low end of the range is the most likely.

Its not easy to get that kind of traffic - and sustain it long term. Any viral UGC needs something deliberate and skillful to kick it off.

If I had to come up with that level of traffic I would attack high volume SERPs that are going to be fairly difficult.

[Wit]

Which target group?

Average handbags or average tech?

[iamlost]

What would you bet...

Nada. I don't gamble.

Page views alone are near meaningless - is that an average of 1, 2, 3, 4, or more page views per visit - as it is people that convert not views. How many are single views/bounces?

What are the monthly uniques? Monthly repeats? Also, the referer breakout is critical as conversion percentage differs by each. Plus what niche, they are not all created equal in the income potential department. And after saying all that what about the site, it's architecture, navigation, and most especially, it's content?

That said, I'd be unhappy (selecting niche, developing site) at anything under a dime per unique all revenue in. And given (you made up numbers so I will too) very rough and ready:
If 1-million page views excludes all single page views/bounces:
1-million page views == 300,000 uniques
300,000 uniques * .10 = $30,000/month

However, if the niche and site are, as you say, nothing special then a couple of cents per or $6,000/month.

Oh - if the site is a blog make that a tenth of a cent per unique or $300/month.

Else if 1-million page views includes single page views/bounces:
Multiple revenue amounts above by inverse of single page view/bounce percentage:
30% == 70% * $30,000 = $21,000/month
50% == 50% * $30,000 = $15,000/month
80% == 20% * $30,000 = $6,000/month
etc.

....................

The biggest mistake in entrepeneurial webdev is developing sites in niches without revenue scaling. To build a site without knowing the approximate niche rev cap and breakout is simply foolish.

[jonbey]

I would guess about $10,000 a month if I just slapped some Adsense in the right place. I have been average $1 per 100 visits for a long time. May have gone up a little recently, so at a push $20K per month.

If I had 1,000,000 visitors a month I would be sooooooo happy. I could emply people to do my job, and then just watch tele and eat pies.

[DonnaFontenot]

You guys are so funny. Not a real braggart amongst ya. Interesting to see that some of you think that a million page views would earn you so very little in some circumstances. Personally, I can't imagine being unable to monetize that kind of traffic into a pretty decent monthly income. Maybe if I clarify a couple of points...

I was assuming the traffic was pretty much always there; i.e. no extra work or content required to get it.

By "people interested in the topic", I meant that the traffic is real and not some fake bot/bought traffic.

By "average topic", I just meant nothing too high dollar, i.e. it wouldn't show up on anyone's highest paying adsense phrases report.

Wit, pick whichever target group you want - or both. Throw out a number for either.

[glyn]

Donna, not surprised you didn't get any feedback from your Twittering...You've got soooo many variables in there. Let's try and seperate them out.

1. Trust (Lots of traffic no-one gives a damna about the content...Pirate Bay)
2. Audience - If they're tech savvy the chances are they won't even see the ads, I know I'm invisible to anything remotely googled.
3. Content - does the content push people to the ads? If it's too interesting they might not want to go anywhere else.

I average out $8eCPM so that would be $80,000 I think as a base rate.

Probably if I were taking that kind of traffic I'd think about doing some sneaky stuff.

G.

[DonnaFontenot]

So for all you peeps talking about details, are you saying that if I walked up to you and said, "hey, I have an average, info site that gets a million real people page views per month, all by itself, without any hard work, and you can have it if you want it", you'd turn it down unless I gave you lots of specifics? If you wouldn't turn it down, why not? Surely, if you didn't turn it down, it would be based on the fact that you could DO SOMETHING worthwhile with it. Surely, that SOMETHING would be based on some $$$ signs in your head, yes?

[Ron Carnell]

I am soooo biting my tongue.

[joedolson]

So for all you peeps talking about details, are you saying that if I walked up to you and said, "hey, I have an average, info site that gets a million real people page views per month, all by itself, without any hard work, and you can have it if you want it", you'd turn it down unless I gave you lots of specifics? If you wouldn't turn it down, why not? Surely, if you didn't turn it down, it would be based on the fact that you could DO SOMETHING worthwhile with it. Surely, that SOMETHING would be based on some $$$ signs in your head, yes?

Of course we wouldn't turn it down - but the dollar signs don't have to have numbers attached.

After all, in the equation: "free site, lots of traffic, no extra work to get it started," it's hard to imagine ANY profit being insufficient to make the work worthwhile. I would be starting from the assumption that recouping the site's costs would be no effort at all; therefore any effort would be pretty much guaranteed profit.

Totally worthwhile - but I wouldn't attach numbers to my dollar signs without details.

[glyn]

Hey...If you gave me a site, sure I could monetize the hell out of it. But how is in my top pocket, on delivery of said property.

You've got a lot of people here being poker faced, but don't misunderstand the reasons why

Hold on...what's that on the floor? Jeez Ron, you bit too hard.

G.

[DonnaFontenot]

Sigh, you people are just no fun.

I need to go ask this in a poker forum.

[iamlost]

I am soooo biting my tongue.

Hold on...what's that on the floor? Jeez Ron, you bit too hard.

That's what you get for sticking your tongue out...

Sigh, you people are just no fun.

Huh? I think we're having a great time.
But then I am a (as my kids frequently tell me) dull, grey, and boring - and easily amused.

I need to go ask this in a poker forum.

They more likely to show their hole cards? Or overbid their hand?

Edited by iamlost, 24 April 2009 - 11:57 AM.

[Wit]

Donna, are you trying to sell us a site for 36x the prospective monthly income (asyoudo)? Soz I don't have that much cash right now.

But if so, then how come I get to pick what it's about?

I mean, if it's tech it will have to do with PPI ads, whereas if it targets the more click-happy of people, well,..... $$$

[DonnaFontenot]

LOL, nope I don't have a site to sell. I was just being goofy last night and thought it would be fun to play with egos. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really think that most of us have, at one time or another, heard about some site that gets good traffic but the owner can't seem to make it work. And we generally say something along the lines of "If *i* had that site, I bet I could make big bucks with all that traffic!"

So, I just decided to make up a random "average" site that gets a decent amount of real traffic (but not extreme amounts), and thought I'd see what most of us would throw out there as far as "I bet I could make $xxxxx with a site like that". I didn't expect everyone to be so danged picky, but I should know better. Y'all are smart cookies, but you're also mired in real business and natural skepticism. I was going more for fun than reality, although after getting a few numbers thrown around, I thought it would also be fun to then discuss a few ways of monetizing a site like that.

Jonbey came closest to the kind of response I expected. Anyhow, consider my little survey a failure. No worries.

[iamlost]

Jonbey came closest to the kind of response I expected. Anyhow, consider my little survey a failure.

Say what?
We all took your survey seriously (with the exception of our poet laureate)...
Just because we did not chase pie in the sky without foundation (isn't that a song lyric?) does not make the survey a failure...
Rather it shows what a loverly bunch of bananas we are...
:nanaparty: - typical Cre8 banana-versation

:angel: :nanadevil: - iamlost, a little bit nice, a little bit not...

- Ron, biting tongue, or not...

I suggest you rerun your survey at DP and contrast the (my hypothesis) subtle differences...

I really think that most of us have, at one time or another, heard about some site that gets good traffic but the owner can't seem to make it work...

'good' traffic is a matter of definition...and I suspect such folks forgot to make one...

[SEOigloo]

Alright...just to make it fun for Donna...


I COULD MAKE 7 BILLION DOLLARS OFF IT!!!



Seriously, I have no idea. I'm totally foolish when it comes to advertising. Not my department. My Adsense checks are ha-ha-ha.

But...

I COULD MAKE 7 BILLION DOLLARS OFF IT!!!

Is that better, Donna?

[Ron Carnell]

I would have tried to speculate. Honest, I would have.

But the thought of my traffic dropping to 1M page views threw me into a horror-induced seizure.

Ergo, the bitten tongue?


p.s Want a job, Miriam? Fifty-fifty?