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Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

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Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

#1

Post by charuhas »

Hey folks,

I run inpics.net, a computer tutorial site that's getting 1.3 million page views per month according to our Analytics stats. How should I monetize that?

I posted that question here a while back, and got quite a few suggestions along the lines of, "advertise for a sponsor on SitePoint." Tried that, didn't work.

I, like a lot of other people, think that display ads don't work well online, and never will. So, no banner or suchlike ads.

Right now, I'm using it to pimp consulting services, but I don't expect that will generate much revenue: most of the site's visitors are individuals learning on their own, not people using it at work.

Given that the site is used mostly by individuals to learn the basics of various computer subjects, what product or service would you sell at inpics.net?

Chris C.

Re: Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

#2

Post by apgwoz »

I think your site's layout is not really great for ad placement, which is why that failed. It's very much a brochure like layout that you'd see for businesses. Contrast this with http://net.tutsplus.com/ where it's "blog" like, but still a great format for presenting tutorials. If you're getting 1.3 million page views, you're almost certainly ranking high in search results, which is great, because those are the people who are exploring and clicking on ads. Check out what some of the other sites in your genre are doing, I bet they optimize their design for making money with ads.

Re: Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

#3

Post by yequalsx »

I have thought about doing something similar but with mathematics. My suggestion would be to package up various tutorials into a course. Instead of static pages I would add videos using Camtasia or Captivate. There are lots of colleges and universities that sell courses on this stuff and you could sell such courses for a lot cheaper.

Re: Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

#5

Post by aristus »

Your tutorials are one screenshot per page.... so I'd guess that your pv per visit is high but it's fluff traffic. No one is going to abandon the "slideshow" to click on ads. Your best points to put ads are at the end or near the begining of the process of viewing a tutorial. Consider taking the pv hit and putting the whole tutorial on one page.

You say your audience is mostly people at home, learning. Maybe you can advertise for rentacoder (eg "make money working with Access!") or similar services.

Think about what other computer-related problems someone in that situation might have, like anti-virus, certification, jobs.

Hmm. reading back these options sound kind of sleazy. You could experiment with a tip jar as well. Don't write off display ads either -- give them an honest try for a couple of months.

Re: Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

#6

Post by tstegart »

What about something that combines making money with instruction? For example, you could add anothger page after each big section where you put a list of links to other helpful tutorials/blogs/official websites, helpful books, etc.

I really think your opportunity lies in putting something at the end of your tutorials. It means you don't have to do a site redesign. Just stick another page at the end, which users get to when they click next. and then you sell something.

I think Amazon can be key. People are looking to learn. That means some of them will be open to buying a book about it. You appear to be an expert in many of these programs, and people will gladly take a recommendation from you about what books are good on which particular subjects.

I'm not saying randomly list books, I'm saying go get them from the library, read them, and actually list what you think are the top three tutorials for each subject you have on your site. If you're upfront somewhere on the site that you earn money from Amazon commissions, I know people don't mind it.

Re: Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

#8

Post by charuhas »

josefresco wrote: post #7

I would sell other e-learning products. Like the 'video professor'. Also, you could run ads in between slides, which might get you a higher CTR than alongside. Or start running AdSense, and get some sort of baseline for private ad deals.

Ran AdSense for a year. 1.3 million page views delivers about $400 through Teh Google.

Re: Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

#9

Post by charuhas »

tstegart wrote: post #6

What about something that combines making money with instruction? For example, you could add anothger page after each big section where you put a list of links to other helpful tutorials/blogs/official websites, helpful books, etc. I really think your opportunity lies in putting something at the end of your tutorials. It means you don't have to do a site redesign. Just stick another page at the end, which users get t…

Hmmm...you interest me strangely, sir. Supplemental materials may be the way to go. Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: How to monetize 1.3 million page views?

#10

Post by charuhas »

aristus wrote: post #5

Your tutorials are one screenshot per page.... so I'd guess that your pv per visit is high but it's fluff traffic. No one is going to abandon the "slideshow" to click on ads. Your best points to put ads are at the end or near the begining of the process of viewing a tutorial. Consider taking the pv hit and putting the whole tutorial on one page. You say your audience is mostly people at home, learning. Maybe you can…

Yeah, I figure that whatever gets sold there has to benefit the folks taking the tutorials. "You've learned the basics, now here are some materials to take you further." Maybe that's it...
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