Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#1

Post by smattiso » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 3:19 AM UTC

I own a website that has 2M page views a month on 275k uniques. Right now my monthly revenue is ~$8000 USD, of which half comes from ads. To be honest the website looks like it came out of 1999 and I haven't investigated too much into other revenue streams.

I'm wondering whether I should invest time and money into improving the user experience, SEO, advertising deals, and other revenue streams. I know this is a very ambiguous description of my situation but I am hoping that others who manage similar sized websites can comment on their revenues.

My main question is whether I am generating a decent amount of ad revenue for that amount of traffic. The average user spends 10 minutes on the site.

Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#2

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 3:21 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#3

Post by BrazilVC » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 3:31 AM UTC

You can try running some affiliate programs... if you find some that convert well with your users you can probably make a lot more money!

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#4

Post by broccolilettuce » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 4:06 AM UTC

I think the expected rate is about $6 /1000 impressions for ad based stuff

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#5

Post by 42tree » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 4:43 AM UTC

calculate the NPV of (incremental revenue - required time & money to invest). If NPV > 0, go; Else, no go

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#6

Post by chewxy » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 5:06 AM UTC

broccolilettuce wrote: post #4

I think the expected rate is about $6 /1000 impressions for ad based stuff

Where in the world did you pull a $6 CPM value from?

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#7

Post by jack9 » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 6:00 AM UTC

chewxy wrote: post #6

broccolilettuce wrote: post #4

I think the expected rate is about $6 /1000 impressions for ad based stuff

Where in the world did you pull a $6 CPM value from?

He got it from 2004 I think

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#8

Post by sixQuarks » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 6:00 AM UTC

How do we contact you?

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#9

Post by smattiso » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 6:01 AM UTC

42tree wrote: post #5

calculate the NPV of (incremental revenue - required time & money to invest). If NPV > 0, go; Else, no go

that is impossible to estimate. If I were able to estimate that I wouldn't be asking this question. Also, your usage of the term NPV is flawed. Thanks though.

Re: Ask HN: I own a 2M pageview/month website, am I capitalizing on this?

#10

Post by dangrossman » Wed, Mar 06, 2013, 6:16 AM UTC

Unless your audience is in a particularly valuable demographic, you're doing better than average on ad revenue already IMO.