I need some advice...

[sunken]

ShadowWind Manor averaged over 25,000 page views this last month (from about 2600 uniques) and yet, I can't seem to make money on the site. I just don't know how to turn this traffic into cash it seems. Maybe it's just the site itself. Not sure. I'm thinking of just parking the domain and forgetting the website. Nahh, don't want to do that as it is very personal for me, but I would like to at least make rent.

Any suggestions would be appreciated (short of chucking the site)...

 

[daughterofeve]

first thing to do... if you need donations for the site.. let people know, and put up a paypal link somewhere people will see it..

..sell clothing with the logo on it? ..sell prints of the art there?

(heh, just simple ideas from someone who doesn't really know.. I've only really had one website so far)

 

[sunken]

Thanks for the suggestions. I really like the print one. There is several pieces that would make good posters, one in particular, Wings of a Unicorn II, one of my most popular. I'm not quite to the point of the donation thing. I am more frustrated than being in danger of not being able to pay for the site (which is very inexpensive). I guess my first posted sounded a little desperate. I just can't help thinking that I'm missing the formula here. It might be a loss leader and that's fine too, but I would at least try to make it work before calling it that and headed to other projects...

Maybe I can include a store with the prints, via CafePress or Zazzle and other fantasy or art related things from Amazon/All Posters. Is it possible to market a page of the site, or is it better to have a whole new site and intertwine them together?

 

[thetzfreak]

Personally, I don't suggest selling clothing or other merchandise with your logo on it. I assure you that you will not make any money off of that. I suggest getting sponsors for your site. Find a site that pays like 2 dollars per one thousand impressions. That would mean 25 x $2.00, lets see, 50 dollars??? :lala: It's not good, but it's a start. Then, put commission affiliates up. That's getting paid for people buying products/services through the link you put on that site. I've seen some affiliates that pay you 300% of the product... don't know how that works out. Usually, you could find more trusted ones that pay, for example, 25%. Plus, most of these affiliate have cookies which last up to a year. That means if someone buys something from the site within that year, you get sales commission. That's pretty likely, too.

I'm actually starting a site now that you saw already that you use to find affiliate programs... check it out again :D Real-Center I'm adding more and more everyday.

Those are my ideas. Hope I didn't bore you with all of that...

 

[sunken]

Personally, I don't suggest selling clothing or other merchandise with your logo on it. I assure you that you will not make any money off of that. I suggest getting sponsors for your site. Find a site that pays like 2 dollars per one thousand impressions. That would mean 25 x $2.00, lets see, 50 dollars??? :lala: It's not good, but it's a start. Then, put commission affiliates up. That's getting paid for people buying products/services through the link you put on that site. I've seen some affiliates that pay you 300% of the product... don't know how that works out. Usually, you could find more trusted ones that pay, for example, 25%. Plus, most of these affiliate have cookies which last up to a year. That means if someone buys something from the site within that year, you get sales commission. That's pretty likely, too.

I'm actually starting a site now that you saw already that you use to find affiliate programs... check it out again :D Real-Center I'm adding more and more everyday.

Those are my ideas. Hope I didn't bore you with all of that...

Thanks for the info as well. I don't plan to sell the logo, but I have had interest in posters and t-shirts of my artwork. So I may do that. Doesn't cost anything to try. I do have a lot of affiliates, some of which I gave you, running on the site, but thus far have not gotten much in the way of clicks or interest. Course artists are often a poor bunch (that's where starving artists came from). What places give you $2 per 1000 impressions? And is there a way to get that without popups?

 

[thetzfreak]

It's very hard to find websites that offer so much money per impression banners. I saw some once, but have no ideas where they are now. Plus one popup can't hurt :p. And, to add to that, i'd say that most people now on the net have popup blockers. Even if they block a popup, it still counts as one impression. You can basically just search for cpm above one dollar and get many results with popups.

 

[FedPrimeRate.com]

I just don't know how to turn this traffic into cash it seems. Maybe it's just the site itself. Not sure. I'm thinking of just parking the domain and forgetting the website.

Merchandising won't help your revenue at this stage of your site's development. I would just keep it going and focus most of your energy on leveraging the existing traffic to get your site even more traffic, e.g. create incentives for your current members to go out and recruit new members. Content is king and interactivity is a darn good thing too; your site has both of these going for it. So, whatever you do: don't give up!

I struggled to get my Wolof site profitable. I almost gave up. Then 2 years ago the traffic really picked up, not because of any effort on my part, but because the site was well entrenched on the 'Net from being online for so long, so it eventually got top SE rankings.

So I would keep your site going and push for more members (and the content they'll provide.)

As always, IMO.

AmCy

 

[sunken]

I was only kidding about the parking it. It doesn't cost me much to host and it's been a labor of love as it's a good place to display my art and others. We are getting some extra features from our provider which I think will help and there will be some other incentives as you said to post. I just haven't got it all worked out yet. I agree tha merchandising the Manor is not a good idea. I have been toying around with the idea of a gift shop for Amazon, AllPosters, and a few other affiliates that relate to the site though and maybe a few of my own products. I have a poster site, but it gets very little traffic, so I am thinking it would do better within the Manor's gates.

Google finally reindexed my site, but I think it's gonna take awhile for it to get back to where it was.

 

[RogueWriter]

Put Google's adsense on those pages. Some of the adsense ads pay pretty darn well.