Feedback on "information sites" - Making ad money?

[my5cents4u]

I assume that everyone here has skills and experience in building websites and the topics are more advanced and not for newbie website builiders.

I'm not looking for advanced data base programming and integration, though I still have to learn that.

What I wonder is if someone has some feedback and success on websites like ehow.com or letsbefrugal.com

They have a bunch of subjects, disrelated links and topics. The obvious intent of the webmaster is the hope to drive interest and visitors and make loads of money on them clicking on the Google Ads.

Personally I find it annoying that every site that has some kind of info that you are looking for, has a blog and a Face Book connection. Is FB going to rule our lives forever in cyberspace now and you have to "like" and put your finger print everywhere? And you have to have a FB link to get the web spiders to get you indexed?

There are many of these "info sites" and I just wonder if these are making revenue worth the effort.

Maybe their subjects and topics are too broad and about everything and disrelated?

We have been instructed for years to build websites with a niche, have good content and keep it interesting and updated. That way you get more honest traffic instead of having to spend all day making YouTube videos, blog and blabber on Face Book.

Would appreciate some honest opinions and input - and advices if this would be worth the effort.

My wife wants to create a site for travel agency activity, but I would end up doing all the work until I can turn it over for her to create on.

But - would this "info site style" be a design approach or people just don't click on the Google links?

:blink:

 

[my5cents4u]

Did I say something wrong or stupid? I was just hoping for some directions or advice . . .

76 users have viewed it in 4 days but noboby has something to say?

 

[mhdoc]

My wife wants to create a site for travel agency activity, but I would end up doing all the work until I can turn it over for her to create on.

If you build it with a drag and drop tool like Weebly.com you will have to do almost no work before turning it over to her

 

[my5cents4u]

Thanks for the reply and that free website.

However, building and keeping the site updated is not an issue. I'm using Dreamweaver CS5 and it is easier to upload the Google AdSense javascript code in Dreamweaver and I suspect it will be an issue with one of those free programs like weebly.com

What I'm looking for is some more directions and advice to create an "info site" and if such site would be worth the effort?

For example letsbefrugal.com has 10 guys with different duties to keep that site updated. My curiousity is if they are all being paid for all their joint efforts?

Or what about eHow.com - they have these ridiculously simple steps or advices about almost every subject. 1. 2. 3. 4. and then step 5. includes often a disrelated Google Ad link. Are people really that stupid?

A different kind of "info site" would be Wikipedia which is not funded by ads but by donations. Very useful and informative, but a different strategy.

I want to make a load of money so I can retire on a website that is going to keep me busy keeping it updated - but my concern is to go too broad to cover almost any subject, making it unmanageble or if I should pick a niche or a subject to attract a specific audience.

Any input would be appreciated.

:blink:

 

[codyjames]

Well facebook is a genius tool for web developers to use, if used correctly can dramatically increase traffic. I have a website that literally relies on facebook traffic (gets none from search engines).

One of the reasons these "info" sites work is because they have high PR so its hard to beat them because of how many articles they can produce, the pr of their website but in saying that Googles latest update apparently slammed ehow and sites like this that offer low quality content.

Basically I develop minisites, I target a specific niche with low competition and write a few articles on the topic and do some SEO. If you do your research this can be great.

Adsense is great for certain niches but sometimes there are no ads available for a certain niche or the ads are very irrelevant.

Think of some of the most used ways to monetize ppc advertising (adsense), affiliate (amazon) or even selling your own products (ebooks). Each can be more effective then the other in certain topics.

Basically common sense and trial and error is the key, but to answer your original question. Yes these types of websites do make money, just keep your content unique and high quality

Just one more thing, donate sites normally don't make much. Wikipedia may do so but its the outlier and its because of how popular and well known it is.

Chucking a donate button on a website that a person will only visit once wont do anything.

- Cody

 

[my5cents4u]

Thanks Cody! That was great! Lots of informative input. I have a few questions in response, to start with - FaceBook.

I know how much the world is evolving around this and it is amazing how it is running our lives. My wife spends hours on it every day and I just can not find my time or get my mind to it for personal use.

However for running a website with a niche, I can see how I will spend time on it for marketing purposes and not to "find old friends".

What are the tricks, pros and cons?

Do you pick and register your domain name first and then something similar when creating a FB account?

What are the correct steps of getting it integrated and linked?

I tried to set up the section of "I like - or who liked" on my sister's website that I'm the web master for but it didn't work, so I must have done something wrong with the code. Any tips or directions on that?

Thanks for your time and sharing your experience. Hope to hear more

By the way - do you have the link where Google was slamming eHow.com ?

 

[codyjames]

I use it for personal use, only because its so fast to contact people. Between chat/inboxing and people always checking their facebook. But yes its a great tool for web developers to get their website noticed.

Some tips would be,

- Don't spam anyone (your account will get deleted)
- Only add people that would be interested in your niche


I spend way more time picking the right domain then I do the right facebook name, generally I just register a domain then create a facebook page with the same title as my website.

But depending on the website (if its just a mini website, only a few pages) then I might just update my facebook status with a link to the website or "like" one of my articles on my websites so its displayed on my facebook profile.

You can also create an account for facebook for your website, although this could be against their TOS and unethical.

To get the "like" buttons to work you need to sign up and verify your facebook account as a developer (its easy and free) then they will give you an access code and a secret number.

Also I dont remember the article in particular that I read but I did a quick google: http://www.google.com.au/search?sou...c.r_pw.&fp=bf7984dab00c4818&biw=1070&bih=1034

Many articles, give some a read. Basically after the update alot of their low quality content got slammed. With good reason, people were sick of finding articles that didnt really help, poorly written or didnt go into enough detail spammed with adsense.

- Cody

 

[my5cents4u]

Thanks for those tips - still doing some research and building up my resources and ideas.

I have to get back with you later on the FB and Twitter integrations, when I have my site live, but I wonder if anyone has some experience on a common kind of promotion that I see more and more. First it was with YouTube (and darn it - isn't that annoying those pop-ups at the bottom!??) and now I see the simlar on just pictures.

This is a cool website. I use CS5 and Dreamweaver, Flash and Photoshop myself and there are so many things to learn. I ran across these tutorials and if you check, every picuture has a pop up when you mouse over it.

http://www.netglos.com/undress-giraffe-with-photoshop/

The marketing promotion is by;

http://www.luminate.com/

which you see as an orange link on each picture too.

This site has the offer of free tutorials and free wallpapers - no viruses or catches - and he's obviously working on making money on his ads providing his special niche and skills.

Anyone with facts and figures from these kind of websites and promotions?

Google Adsense can not be the only one that has good response - though you see them on almost every site these days!