Buzvia Blog

It’s no secret out there that when ever you participate in an online publishing system, whether Revver.com for video sharing, Google Adsense for banner ads or Kontera.com for contextual advertising, you are splitting revenue. Some systems are straight about this, even telling you the exact percentage while others would make the keepers of the Holy Grail jealous!

Monetizing depends on traffic

There are different levels of monetizing systems out there, as you work your way up through the internet ranks, profit margins and general customer service really rev upwards. If you are just starting out, Google Adsense and Kontera along with an Amazon affiliation (possibly commission junction) are a good stepping stone. Sadly, these systems all require you to have a pulse, so if you are a vampire, you are out of luck.

Direct sales is about benchmarks

Every site is different, niche markets don’t require as much traffic as “general” ones or those trying to enter a large industry such as health care. As a general rule of thumb, unless you are a marketing wiz or dealing with customers who don’t know the first thing about the internet… I wouldn’t even bother going the direct sales route unless you generate at least 10 000 unique visitors a month. Depending on your pages viewed per visit, this is probably between 15 000 to 30 000 page views per month. If you generate over a million unique visitors a month, people will come to you so you will have an easy job but otherwise, just keep plowing away in your basement until you reach these numbers. So far, I have not gone the direct sales route myself though I have reached the above benchmark already. Reason being I have other passions I want to pursuit first… direct sales are coming to my network of sites, I just have more important fish to fry first.

Direct Sales Secrets

Alright, you are generating a tidy profit from Kontera, Google Adsense and a few other affiliates and generate at least 10 000 unique visitors to your site a month. Great! Here are three helpful tips that will get the ball rolling for you.

Have your statistics public

Nobody is going to buy a darn thing from you unless you can prove site visitors, a link to Alexa (if you are under 100K ranking) is nice but nothing yells out TRAFFIC like screen shots of Google Analytics or publicaly accessible systems such as SiteMeter.com.

Use Paypal SUBSCRIPTION

Alright, you have a few bites… great! The biggest mistake people do is try to handle the invoicing themselves, get a merchant account and contact the customer monthly for a new chunk of cash. WRONG! If your sales really start to generate some critical mass, you will have different deadlines for text, banner and many other sponsorship opportunities. Save yourself some time, some grief and increase your profits by setting up each and every direct sales customer on a Paypal monthly subscription. Automated billing will make your life a heck of a lot easier, giving you plenty of time to do more important things like eating and sleeping.

Take a look at OIOpublisher Direct

This is a nifty little program that will help automate the sales process across your network of sites… sure you got to pay for it but guess what, who cares if you are generating more then enough money from using it in saved time and headaches. (link below)

Mix and match sales

You will notice that, up until now, I have not told you to drop the systems that you started up with, there is a good reason for that. THEY ARE STILL GENERATING REVENUE! Direct sales are a nice way to boost your sites income but they are not in competition with the other systems you have on your site so keep them! One month, you may find Google Adsense kicks ass while the next, Kontera is your best friend and so on. Diversification is the key to a profitable web site but you need to develop a room worthy of entry first (ei: content).

The Bottom Line

As long as you continue to focus on improving the brand you are developing online, revenues will grow at roughly the same curve as site traffic.

Buzvia: SiteMeter.com, Kontera.com, Google Adsense, Commission Junction, Google Analytics, Amazon Affiliate Program, Revver.com, OIOpublisher Direct, Paypal.com