Spending money to make money...

Hi,

I've recently decided to completely revamp one of my sites which has little traffic (because I left it alone for ages and didn't update it!) but which has a high page rank (5).

Although I can put in the hours to construct it and redevelop it, I don't have the time or inclination to update the content myself. I am interested in hiring someone to produce maybe 10 good quality articles on my niche per month, as well as add 2-3 shortish news items per day. I'm also considering hiring someone to manage the forum which I will setup and also post on other forums (and comments on other blogs) in order to generate signature traffic.

Basically, I'm interested in figuring out if this is cost effective. Will my efforts at paying for and updating the content, as well as establishing links with other sites pay more than the salary of the people I hire?

I realise this is rather vague in a cost sense, but I'm just talking about ballpark figures. If I monetise the site with AdSense or TextLinkAds could I expect to be getting a monthly profit in 6 months?

Mike.

 

will help u..Pm me.

 

Well traffic brings money

Revamping a site i think it will not help you very mutch

 

You have to project cashflows for this small site and weigh it in the greater set of your portfolio Once you do that, measure the impact of the reconstruction effort on the overall value of the site and see if the costs outweigh the earnings. You need to have figures here, the act of "revamping" the site doesn't indicate anything.

 

I'm honestly not sure if this will work (and I'm a freelance content writing). Those 10 good articles will probably cost 75-100 dollars and they might not bring traffic. You'll also have to submit each of those to ezines and article directories if you want them to get you more page rank and traffic.

This could get your PR up though, and that would let you earn a lot more money by selling text links.

 

my short answer, maybe. depending on who you hire, an article may be $15 (i won't advise going any lower than that). Suppose you have around 50 articles on your site (50 x 15 = $750). That's $750 on content alone.

if you market your site properly (i wouldn't advise outsourcing the forum posting to someone else, as the main and most important purpose is to establish yourself as an expert in your niche.

so suppose with all the other costs included, it comes up to $900.

build quality links, get traffic, if done right, can earn you maybe $100/month with adsense (this has to be XXX unique visitors a day). TLA will probably pay you, say, $200 for 8 links that you sell on your site.

you *may* not break even even after 6 months, but you'll most likely do so within a year.

my point is, it's not conclusive, but it's not impossible either.

i outsource ALL my content writing. i am paying close to $1000 for that alone. i'm building links and doing site marketing on my own. so for, it's been a month and nothing concrete yet. when i ahve enough traffic and steady visitors, and maybe a nice list (that would be at least 3 months more), i will put in adsense and start developing my own products to sell.

 

A $15 article would not be a high quality article. Most companies pay per word for quality articles. You'll never have a quality writer writing for minimal fees.

So pay the money and get quality which will make your site popular.

 

hence i said depending on who you hire. some of us (like myself) are content with 'minimal' fees because we aren't big companies.

 

While I am sure your a good writer, I think it more has to do with quality then amount paid. The ol' saying "you get what you pay for" has proven itself enough.

 

I think you should not open a forum before reaching enough number of visitors (depends on your niche and goal) daily. Without having traffic, it will just add extra cost to you imo.

And articles with backlinks generate traffic. So first concentrate on content and backlinks and then forum imo.

 

Ok, so with all of these suggestions in mind, I am basically going to consider this as my next plan:

Pay for some good quality article content, and also pay a monthly amount for somebody to update my news on a daily basis (these will be much smaller, more factual posts).

Devin, you said you don't recommend outsourcing the forum posting. What I meant in this case was paying people to post on OTHER forums in my niche with my site in their signature. Is this an effective method of advertising? Or do you still recommend I do this myself?

My current goal is not to expect a profit until AT LEAST 6 months time. I don't really like AdSense, as I think they look incredibly tacky (even when "integrated" into the look & feel of the site), but I do like TextLinkAds. They are unobtrusive and seem to pay well. I am also interested in going after companies who want to sell products in my niche - I think developing a relationship this way is more likely to lead to the big money. AdSense, I'm not sure about!

Thanks for all the tips though, keep em coming!

 

that's what i said. basically you wnat to establish yourself as an expert in other forums, so that people will be interested in your sig and click through it. the problem i see with outsourcing is, you don't know what they will be posting. if they spam the forums and you get banned, it's a big loss of traffic opportunity. of course, if you can monitor every single post they make, then by all means go for it.

it all depends on your monetization plans.

 

To ensure your site remains up to date and to keep people returning to your site, I would continue to publish longer in-depth articles, say once a week, as well as updating news on a daily basis.