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Using Ad-Spot-Monetization to generate revenue from your domain name
This is the second part in a multi-part series dedicated to domain name monetization and revenue models.
For over 3 decades, I have always recommended that domain investors and resellers consider domain name monetization strategies to leverage their assets ability to generate at least a little revenue to pay their own renewals each year while they await the perfect end-user and not put all their eggs in one basket.
In Part 2 of the domain monetization series, we'll look at different ways to leverage Ad-Spot-monetization strategies to give you some ideas to research further in your quest to create new revenue streams with the domains simply sitting in your portfolio, collecting dust and stacking renewal costs every year.
Ad-Spot-Monetization Strategies:
- Sponsorship
- Donations
- Banner Ads
- Link Ads
Sponsorship Monetization
Sponsorship monetization is when an individual, company or organization pays some or all of the costs involved in the operations (Hosting, renewals, etc.) of your domain in exchange for something (Barter, advertising, etc.).
The most common sponsorship is for one of the following:
Quarter Page Spot
This is when a sponsor pays a portion of your domains operational costs in exchange for a quarter page ad spot. This can be in the form of an article with a backlink, mini-splash ad, or background slider ad.
Sponsored Article - This is pretty straight forward and common. It's when someone pays you to publish a specific article that promotes their business or marketing message with a do-follow link anchored with a targeted keyword/phrase. Unlike regular paid articles that pay once to publish and done, this type of article is in a prominent place on your site that gets steady traffic and the sponsor pays monthly to keep it there. This sponsored article takes up a quarter of the web page.
Half Page Spot - This is normally in the form of a Mini-Splash ad (Graphics or Animation) promoting a company, service, or product. This sponsorship type takes up half of your most popular page (Or lander), leaving you the other half for your own use.
Full Page Spot - This is when you rent out an entire page or lander to one sponsor to advertise their message in any manor they choose (As long as it's within your agreed terms). Unlike simply redirecting your domain (301/302), you aren't going to lose any of your traffic stats or get placed into the supplemental index, as long as your page complies with basic SEO/SEM standards. Sometimes, these campaigns are used to promote events, meet-ups, or even hold a contest.
Note: One of the biggest complaints about selling redirect (301/302) traffic, is that the traffic eventually dies off due to relying solely on type-in traffic, which takes a chunk out of your domains traffic value. Full-Page on-site spots can be a retention solution.
Donation Monetization
Existing site - Like with some of the more popular opensource or public data type websites that ask for donations (E.g. Wikipedia, WayBackMachine, etc.) to continue operations and maintenance of all the free resources they offer, if you have a large project hosted on your domain already, it can be as simple as adding a side-bar or header donation message.
No Site - In situations where you have an idea, but not enough capital for a new project, you can always put up a project description + partial business plan that resembles one of the big donation platforms (E.g. GoFundMe), but just for the development of your domain. This could also work towards attaining sponsors as well (Donation package/Sponsor package).
Banner Ad Monetization
Existing Site - Unlike with placing PPC/PPL banners, this is when you rent out banner spots directly to advertisers looking to benefit from some of your domain/website traffic.
No Site - Unlike with placing PPC/PPL banners, this is when you rent out banner ad spots on your domain sales lander. This generally only works if your domain has existing traffic coming to it and an alternative to redirect traffic sales.
Link Ad Monetization
Existing Site - Like with banner ads, this is when you rent out a footer or content link that is anchored with a keyword or phrase to help pass some of your sites value to their primary brand. Inline text links generally pass more value accompanies with relevant content to the advertisers than a simple footer link does.
No Site - Like with banner ads, if you don;t already have a website, this could work by renting out link placements on your domains landing page instead of using PPC/PPL.
Note: Renting out banner and link spots tends to be more consistent monthly (contracted) revenue than relying on and hoping for pay-per-click revenue.
How to find sponsors?
Wait a minute Eric, all the above is fine and dandy, but what about the hard part of actually finding sponsors?It's easy for anyone to come up with ideas to generate revenue, but ideas, themselves, don't make any money without the actual sponsors. So I'm compiling a list below of just a few places you can potentially find sponsors/advertisers for different types of domain and website projects. (There are many more out there)
- kickstarter.com - A crowdsourced sponsorship platform
- lookingforsponsor.com - A platform that connects creators with sponsorship opportunities
- blogher.com - There’s a wide range of blog opportunities for both sponsored posts and brand collaborations
- sponsorgap.com - Thousands of potential sponsors and filter them by industry, location, size, and more
- youtube.com/ads/brandconnect/ - Brands post opportunities and YouTubers can apply to them
- findasponsor.com - provides an overview of sponsors and sponsorships for informational purposes
- izea.com - They offer a variety of ways for brands to connect with creators
- sponsormyevent.com - A platform for event organizers to find sponsors
- linqia.com - A platform brimming with tons of sponsorships and content marketing opportunities
- mysocial.io/sponsors - Get sponsored on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok
- outbrain.com - They have a range of sponsorship opportunities, from banner ads to sponsored content
- go.taboola.com - They offer a similar range of sponsorship opportunities to Outbrain and also have a large reach
- aspire.io - Easy-to-use platform for finding sponsored content opportunities
- streamscheme.com/resources/gaming-sponsorships/ - Sponsorships for small audience gaming streamers
In conclusion:
That concludes Part 2 of the domain monetization series. Stay tuned for other monetization models in future parts of this series.Remember: At the end of the day, what works for one may not work for another, and vice versa.
Be sure to do all your own research before investing in anything in life or building out a brand as a new revenue stream.
Good luck in all your domain adventures!
Part(1) Reference:
If you missed the first part of the series that covered Pay-Per-Monetization strategies and the basics on getting a website or landing page on your domain, you can find that here: https://www.namepros.com/threads/domain-monetization-series-part-1-pay-per-monetization.1314434/
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