Domain Rehabilitation: Monetization

The second item on my list of problems to clear up for this domain was the fact that because I hadn’t bothered trying to monetize it in a long time, I couldn’t tell potential buyers it would bring in any particular amount of money. To monetize a domain, you need to know these things:

• What ad network you’re going to use.
• Where you’re going to put the ads, and which sizes perform best.
• Whether your site layout or theme will accommodate those ad placements, and if not, how to find a theme that does.

Adsense

The easiest ad network to make money from is Google Adsense. Others used to outperform it, but not anymore. If you can use Adsense, it’s the best choice. Don’t like the text ads? You can choose image ads only. But if your point is to show what the domain can earn, this is the quickest way to do it. Plus, most domain buyers have Adsense accounts. Knowing what the domain can earn with Adsense will build their interest more than numbers from another network.

Be sure you’re not using AdSense on a site they consider inappropriate. Do that on one site, and you could get your whole account terminated.

What if you can’t use Adsense? AdBrite is another favorite of mine – the ads are pretty decent and the revenue’s okay, and they don’t have traffic requirements. If you have enough traffic to meet their requirements, ValueClick is often nearly as good as AdSense for revenue (depends on your niche).

Remember, you don’t want ads that are going to offend your visitors. You have to know who your visitors are to know what that means. I’m talking ads that are visually ugly or on topics your visitors don’t like. I avoid ads for gambling of any sort because Google has something against them, and there’s some confusing US laws regarding just what gambling sites are legal – I don’t want to be on the wrong side if they decide to “make an example” of people who make money off these sites. I also avoid ads for screwing your kids out of child support payments, ads with nearly-naked women on them, etc., because I don’t want to alienate women and teenagers at any of my sites. But you know, if the only visitors you care about are male assholes with no sense of personal responsibility, those might be just the sort of ads you need. I also avoid ads for supplements promising weight loss, hair restoration and other bodily miracles because I don’t want to be associated with something that later tragically kills some teenager in a highly publicized case, you know? You need to put some thought into what your visitors will tolerate. And hey, if you have personal morals about what you can make money off of and still sleep at night, that’s cool, too. You get a better class of visitors, I swear.

Never, ever do popups. Most browsers block them now anyway.

Ad Placement and Sizes

Generally speaking, leaderboard and rectangles in the first fold outperform everything else. Wide skyscrapers (160 x 600) do well, too. Other sizes can do okay, but I’m never thrilled with the results. As you can see, I’ve got a leaderboard and rectangle on this site, along with a wide skyscraper, and four slots for 125 x 125 ads to be sold through Show Your Ad Here.

Nofollow text links are another option you have for monetization. If your site is unknown or in need of rehabilitation, it’s very unlikely you’ll sell any – most link brokers won’t offer nofollow links, and most people who shop at link brokers are just after pagerank. Your best option is to sell them yourself, using something like the WP Text Ads plugin.

1. Domain Rehabilitation project
2. Domain Rehabilitation: recovering pagerank
3. Domain Rehabilitation: getting better inbounds
4. Adbrite’s new interface & options
5. Improving a domain is not just about SEO

Categories: Ad Networks, Affiliate Marketing, Domaining   |   Tags:  |  2 Comments »