How to monetize a site with visitors but no current revenue?

I am new to the web business and am trying learn by buying revenue producing websites. I can see an opportunity in a site that offers children's stories that has visits but no revenue.

Please correct me if I am wrong but I am thinking adsense or some affiliate program is unlikely to work on this. Perhaps if it has enough visits over time, it might be worth money from link sales? Please feel free to direct me to some general resources about making money on sites, I am just getting started trying to learn.

 

More than adsesne you can offer space on your website to leading publishing house, book sellers and online shopping sites. It will give you a clear picture.

 

Thank you. That was very helpful.

 

If you haven't got enough traffic the leading publishing house probably isn't interested in advertising on your site.

 

I really like adsense, but build a list could be very interesting too... It`s up to you...

 

adsense is the best.But your PR should be good otherwise you will not get enough money.

 

Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate the advise to a newbie.

 

To add to the advice already given, you could check out Amazon's affiliate program for children's books and toys... stuff like that. You could pair that with building a list and text link ads, if you have enough traffic for those. Just remember to keep testing so you can find the best offer for your particular market!

 

What about the eBay partner network? It could show current Ebay listings for toys, or other chil products.

 

Thanks for the reply. I understand your reference to Amazon. I am not clear on building a list or text link ads. I really am just getting started so I don't have all the terminology yet. Please could you explain?

 

So have ebay listings for children's products on the site, and become an eBay affiliate so that if someone stops buy to look at the children's stories and decides to buy something on eBay, I would get credit, especially if they are new to eBay and sign up? I just want to make sure that I am understanding all these great suggestions.

 

That is how I understand it to work, yes. You could get some ads showing current eBay auctions, and if a purchase is made by someone who arrived through your site, you get a kickback from that.

 

Link sales are not bad for some little cash. You could also go the route of ecom and actually selling books of the stories on your site. Or other childrens books, dont know how viable that is but just a thought.

 

The link sales thing would usually come when you've got lots of traffic. It's a great idea, but it might be easier for you to focus on affiliate products and building a list. I don't know how the site is set up, but I would stick to basics and offer something of value to "bribe" people to opt-in for your email list. The reason a list is such a good way to go is because you actually create a somewhat self-contained asset that way, and you don't need to convince new people to buy from you over and over again. From there, you can promote products that seem appropriate for your market - with a list, you can always also just ask them what kind of stuff they're looking for.

Keep in mind, also, that just by building a small list you should be able to turn around and sell the site again for potentially quite a bit more than you bought it for.

If this sounds too complicated right now, just stick with trying to boost traffic and put Adsense on there. Every market responds best to a different type of offer. As you gain more experience and knowledge, you can always test out other methods like building a list. The most important thing is to just take action, and you can test and adjust as you go along!

 

Indeed the opposite is true This is a prime candidate for affiliate programs, especially amazon books & childrens department as mentioned. They have easy to use / install widgets that can you can use to show related / recommended products. Additionally you can link to products using affiliate links (amazons usually have &tag=youraffname strapped to the end).

Similarly adsense could earn you some steady income, however you'd be best to set up adzones using something like DFP, with adsense enabled, that way as soon as somebody comes along and asks to have adverts on your website, you can create a quick campaign in DFP and have the adsense swap out to the custom campaign for a set number of impressions / clicks, then swap back, without having to update the site.

There are also many partner/affiliate programs around cj.com and the like, or price comparisons, or custom products from sites like etsy - a whole world of people selling things your reader base would be interested in, it all comes down to taking a little bit of time and care to select products or stores your target audience will really appreciate, then serving them with affiliate links.

 

You can also advertise products in your blog posts