Still not making much money from site

[jamestl2]

So far I’ve made a whopping $12 from Adsense.

I don’t want to make money a primary concern of my site, as I still want to focus on writing valuable content, but I’m practically broke.

And I’m getting pressure from my parents, who want me to get a job, but getting one means it will seriously cut back the time I spend on my business. I’ve spent over 10 hours a day, 7 days a week on it for the past 6 months or so, thinking of new things to write, promoting the site, etc. Not to mention I had (have) a full college schedule (in the fall).

I’ve told them it takes time to build a site from scratch and generate income from it. But they seem to think I’m making poor life decisions and think my time would be better spent at getting an entry-level job, and I’m going nowhere in life.

I also realize that I may be biased towards myself (I think we all are), and an outside opinion would help me have a better perspective on things.

Sorry if I’m ranting here
I was just wondering how to generate more income from a website besides adsense? (Or if I could somehow convince them it will make money in the future?) And I’m more than willing to work harder at achieving it

[JimC]

I like your site. It certainly has potential for a money maker.

I would suggest some kind of user interaction. Maybe forums?

I would also suggest some pictures. Lots of images! Maybe a couple on your lists and one or two on the front page. Some people are visual learners and the only way to get their attention is through graphics. For example, I try to put at least 1 image at the top of all of my blog posts.

You could also try advertising it in your local newspaper and on craigslist. If you write to your newspaper and convince them that your site is the "hottest" new site on the web and has a huge future, they might do an article on you.

Also, we can exchange links and that might draw some traffic for both of us. PM if you're interested.

[edit] Almost forgot... I noticed you don't have any blog directory links. If you look on the sidebar of my site, you will see those small images "topbloglist", "blogcatalog" etc... those can help a lot for bringing traffic. Maybe submit to those?

[Minsc]

Do you need more income or more traffic?
(do you think you could be making more money from your current visitors or would it be more profitable to get more hits?)

EDIT: And I drop the registration if I were you.

[jamestl2]

Thanks for the vote of confidence

I wouldn't know how to implement forums into my site (I mean I already have a "submit a list" function)

I'm using wordpress, so I'd have to figure out how exactly to implement pictures into my theme.

I also tried submitting my site to those blog diretories a few times, but it was always rejected.

[JimC]

Originally Posted by jamestl2

I wouldn't know how to implement forums into my site (I mean I already have a "submit a list" function)

Most hosts have a way to install forums automagically. They aren't that important, however if you ever get decent traffic (like 5k+ hits/day) then it would be a cool thing to look in to. It's pretty simple to set up.

Originally Posted by jamestl2

I'm using wordpress, so I'd have to figure out how exactly to implement pictures into my theme.

That would be pretty difficult to fit them directly in to the theme. I was thinking of putting them in the posts that you make. Maybe an image or 2 to go along with the topic of the list.

Originally Posted by jamestl2

I also tried submitting my site to those blog diretories a few times, but it was always rejected.

It might have something to do with the fact that your site is not an actual blog. It's more of a service or resource. Either way, it's not a big deal.

[Chinese Dragon]

I like your site a lot. I might try swapping the positions of the logo and tagline if I were you, and keep your ads above the fold. Also I might try swapping the positions of the categories and recent top tens.

Originally Posted by jamestl2

I’ve told them it takes time to build a site from scratch and generate income from it. But they seem to think I’m making poor life decisions and think my time would be better spent at getting an entry-level job, and I’m going nowhere in life.

Don't listen to them! That's about all I can say, it can take many many months before a website becomes profitable, but in the long run it's worth it. If you're seriously broke then I'd say get a part time job.

Originally Posted by jamestl2

I was just wondering how to generate more income from a website besides adsense? (Or if I could somehow convince them it will make money in the future?) And I’m more than willing to work harder at achieving it

Text link ads, chitika mini mall ads, donantions, affliates, refferals, have you tried all those? And don't forget to optimize.

[JimC]

Originally Posted by Minsc

EDIT: And I drop the registration if I were you.

Yeah, that's true too. You can still moderate comments from anonymous users. That's what I do on my Wordpress blog. (Even though nobody is commenting )

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Minsc

Do you need more income or more traffic?
(do you think you could be making more money from your current visitors or would it be more profitable to get more hits?)

Preferably both, I’d like to increase traffic and maybe work on getting more ad clicks that way. Generally more traffic means more money, right?

Originally Posted by Minsc

EDIT: And I drop the registration if I were you.

What’s so bad about registering? One of the features of my site is visitors can write and post their own lists if they want. My TDOMF plugin allows users to do that.

Unless your suggesting have it so anyone, member or not, can post a list.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by JimC

Most hosts have a way to install forums automagically. They aren't that important, however if you ever get decent traffic (like 5k+ hits/day) then it would be a cool thing to look in to. It's pretty simple to set up.

Yeah, I’d figure it’d be better to build a small community first. Plus do you think forums would be a better way to have users submit their own lists rather than the system I have now.

Originally Posted by JimC

That would be pretty difficult to fit them directly in to the theme. I was thinking of putting them in the posts that you make. Maybe an image or 2 to go along with the topic of the list.

Good Idea, not sure about copyright policies though.

[JimC]

I think the submission system you have now is fine. Forums would help in the future though.

For copyrights, that's a good point. I try to find very common images for my posts. Also, a lot of images have a credit tag in it. As long as you don't crop that out, it's perfectly fine. If you don't see a credit tag, I'd ask the owner (if it's even worth it).

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Chinese Dragon

I like your site a lot. I might try swapping the positions of the logo and tagline if I were you, and keep your ads above the fold. Also I might try swapping the positions of the categories and recent top tens.

Thanks,
I think the way it is set up now has to do with the way the theme I chose is set up, some PHP might fix the problem, but it’s not an area that I’m that skilled in.

Originally Posted by Chinese Dragon

Don't listen to them! That's about all I can say, it can take many many months before a website becomes profitable, but in the long run it's worth it. If you're seriously broke then I'd say get a part time job.

That’s what I told them, good to know that it isn’t a completely useless idea.

I don’t think I’m that broke, as I have a bank account, and very few expenses, but I don’t want to keep draining it every time I have car or insurance payments to make (It’ll last for a while longer though)

Originally Posted by Chinese Dragon

Text link ads, chitika mini mall ads, donantions, affliates, refferals, have you tried all those? And don't forget to optimize.

Text link ads aren’t that big with visitors, I think steve tried them but he was receiving complaints about them.
Don’t know what chitka mini mall ads are.
I have a donation system on my site, hasn’t received anything yet though.
I do have a few affiliate and referral accounts (with amazon and ebay), but not sure yet how I would integrate them into my site.

[JimC]

Originally Posted by jamestl2

I do have a few affiliate and referral accounts (with amazon and ebay), but not sure yet how I would integrate them into my site.

I'm not sure about Ebay, but Amazon is very easy. As long as you have ?tag=yourname in the URL, it will pass the referral.

For example I use a small url with my tag... when I want to change the product, I just change the ID number (or ISBN)

"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/XXXXXXXX/?tag=smalltownbigs-20"
Where "XXXXXXXX" is the product ID or ISBN.

The link creation tool they give you is good, but it creates massive URLs... it's not really necessary.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by JimC

I'm not sure about Ebay, but Amazon is very easy. As long as you have ?tag=yourname in the URL, it will pass the referral.

For example I use a small url with my tag... when I want to change the product, I just change the ID number (or ISBN)

"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/XXXXXXXX/?tag=smalltownbigs-20"
Where "XXXXXXXX" is the product ID or ISBN.

The link creation tool they give you is good, but it creates massive URLs... it's not really necessary.

So that link is an example link to the product I’m trying to refer visitors to?

Plus I wouldn’t know what to refer, because my site has many varying categories, and not all posts refer to things Amazon might sell. (Because I would probably want to sell targeted products, right)

[JimC]

If you go in to your amazon associates account, there will be an option somewhere to generate html code for an ad box. The ad box works just like Adsense in that it shows products based on your content. I have that in my "books" page too.

[Minsc]

Originally Posted by jamestl2

Unless your suggesting have it so anyone, member or not, can post a list.

I'm suggesting that...
I doubt someone who wanted to just submit one comment would bother registering.

Text link ads aren’t that big with visitors, I think steve tried them but he was receiving complaints about them.
Don’t know what chitka mini mall ads are.

Didn't he complain about chitka mini mall ads, saying that they started off well and became less profitable over time? He has some text ads on his site.

[JimC]

Chitka seems strange to me. Their Alexa rating has went down a lot recently. It's also not showing a pagerank for them, which means my plugin is bugged out or they got Blacklisted by Google, which isn't good.

This might help:
Chitika eMiniMalls Review

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Minsc

I'm suggesting that...
I doubt someone who wanted to just submit one comment would bother registering.

I see what you mean, and I disabled the registering requirement.

Originally Posted by Minsc

Didn't he complain about chitka mini mall ads, saying that they started off well and became less profitable over time? He has some text ads on his site.

Originally Posted by JimC

Chitka seems strange to me. Their Alexa rating has went down a lot recently. It's also not showing a pagerank for them, which means my plugin is bugged out or they got Blacklisted by Google, which isn't good.

This might help:
Chitika eMiniMalls Review

Maybe I was confusing the two, at first I was thinking text link ads were those underlined words with popup windows offering to take you somewhere, maybe those are what the chitka things were.

[Chinese Dragon]

The best of luck with this site. I was feeling a little creative so I submitted something, top 10 worst inventions of all time.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Chinese Dragon

The best of luck with this site. I was feeling a little creative so I submitted something, top 10 worst inventions of all time.

Thanks, good funny list
2. The book on how to read, lol

[finandom]

Hi, I'm also in the same condition with you.

I rejected the offer from univercity and start my business when I was 19. at that time I spent a lot of time explain to my parent what is the problem of getting a job and the potential of a business.

Today I'm 24 years old and actually I don't bring enough money back to home too. My parent is good and try not to give any stress on me but I can feel that they are worry about me and my future. However, I keep believe that one day I definitely will build up a business that can support me and give a better life to my family. So this is the power that push me moving forwards

Back to your topic, I think that your site has the potential to grow big. But I think you should:

1. Add More content in your site
2. Build more value to your visitors
3. Do more marketing
4. Make more friends
5. Take more actions
6. Stop reading emails, articles and news from internet. That just waste your time

Well it really takes time to make money from a site. I just feel that yours is a new site. So spend your 10 hours per day to do something that really build up your site.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Back to your topic, I think that your site has the potential to grow big. But I think you should:

1. Add More content in your site
2. Build more value to your visitors
3. Do more marketing
4. Make more friends
5. Take more actions
6. Stop reading emails, articles and news from internet. That just waste your time

Yes, I’m always doing 1-3. I have to read emails, as they are related to my business, I do avoid those other things as much as I can. Although it sometimes takes time to think about what to write about.

Other things that are good to avoid include TV and movies, as nothing productive is accomplished from them just sitting there.

[Indy107]

I started my site almost 6 months ago and just now (this week) broke the $50 mark for Adsense and got my PIN - yay!

It takes time - but one thing I noticed on your site (I like it BTW) - but there's only 1 ad? Adsense lets you put up quite a few different ads. Look at my site. I have a few.

Another thing I did was make my site geared towards my local community, so I can go after local business advertising. I give them a mini-page, picture of their storefront, all the pertinent information, and a pdf file for $49/mo and I ask for 3mos payment up front.
Click on the Cornerstone Pub link and you'll see an example. People love the pdf menu.

I have 7 paid advertisers, and 3 of them have renewed for another 3 months. Do the math. It's not much but it seems to be working, and my site keeps growing.

Another thing I do is update the site daily. A new post every day. Every single day. No exceptions. It's hard to create new content every day, and sometimes I have to find the silliest things to write about, but I force myself to do it. A static website means noone will come back. Keep it new and changing.

Keep reading, there's lots of ways to monetize your site. I know I'm just scratching the surface with mine. But it does take time.

chuck underwood
Forest Grove Live

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by Indy107

I started my site almost 6 months ago and just now (this week) broke the $50 mark for Adsense and got my PIN - yay!

Congratulations, that’s hard to do in 6 mo.

Originally Posted by Indy107

It takes time - but one thing I noticed on your site (I like it BTW) - but there's only 1 ad? Adsense lets you put up quite a few different ads. Look at my site. I have a few.

How do you see only one ad?
I have four ads along the left side of my theme, and one ad in the middle of my content posts.

Originally Posted by Indy107

I have 7 paid advertisers, and 3 of them have renewed for another 3 months. Do the math. It's not much but it seems to be working, and my site keeps growing.

I have tried ad programs such as adbrite, but haven’t received any offers yet.

Originally Posted by Indy107

Another thing I do is update the site daily. A new post every day. Every single day. No exceptions. It's hard to create new content every day, and sometimes I have to find the silliest things to write about, but I force myself to do it. A static website means noone will come back. Keep it new and changing.

Keep reading, there's lots of ways to monetize your site. I know I'm just scratching the surface with mine. But it does take time.

I update mine regularly too. While I may not be able to think of something new to write every single day, it does sound like a good practice to get into.

[Savage]

I've seen this pattern countless times, going all the way back to my shareware days. Here's the formula:

Great product + no marketing = no income

Your site has an Alexa.com ranking of 1.67 million. So you have virtually no traffic. That's why the site isn't making money. No traffic = no income. It doesn't matter if you add more content if your traffic isn't growing, since no one will be there to see it.

Google shows you have only 4 incoming links to Toptenlisted.com - The Premier Source for Original Top Ten Lists, and all of them appear to be from your own forum postings. That means no one is linking to your site either, so your search engine rankings will be nearly nonexistent. This will hold you back for sure, and it implies you've been using the wrong strategy ever since you began.

It won't do you much good to keep adding content if no one knows about it. Content alone will only grow your traffic once you've established a reasonable baseline... say 100,000 visitors per month. You're currently tossing new content into a void where no one will see it. Given your traffic levels, hitting "Publish" is almost like hitting "Delete."

If I were in your shoes, here's what I'd do. It won't cost you a dime:

1) Curtail your new blog postings to about 3 posts per week: Mon, Weds, and Fri. Set each post to go live between 3-5am. You can post more often, but I'd cap it at 10 hours per week max.

2) Spend 1-2 hours per week doing blog carnival submissions of your best posts at blogcarnival.com. Do that every single week. Every round of submissions will get you some free links and grow your traffic a bit. It's free, so take advantage of it. If you do this consistently, you'll have dozens of new links within a few months.

3) Spend the bulk of your time commenting on other people's blogs and forums in your field, especially the most popular ones, and include your link in your signature. Share some of your article links if you can do so in a way that helps people and doesn't spam.

4) Make sure your blog is pinging pingomatic.com. WordPress does this by default.

5) Don't worry about trying to optimize your ads right now. The income isn't likely to be significant anyway until your Alexa rank is less than 100,000. Forget about adding new income streams, and put your energy into link and traffic building. If you can build the traffic, the income will soon follow.

6) Read (or re-read) How to Make Money From Your Blog.

This will take time, but you should start seeing positive results within 1-3 months. You're in a situation where new content isn't as important as gaining links. Links will give you some traffic, but they'll also boost your search rankings, which means more traffic. Don't worry about posting so much new content, since it's a waste of time given your traffic. Put 80% of your work time into building links to your site. Carnival submissions, blog comments, and forums are great ways to do that.

Once you have a good baseline level of traffic, then writing good content can be enough to keep it growing. But first you must do some marketing work to allow the site to put down roots.

Don't give up. Just adapt to what the numbers are telling you, and continue on with a more appropriate strategy.

[jamestl2]

Thanks for the superb advice, Steve

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I've seen this pattern countless times, going all the way back to my shareware days. Here's the formula:

Great product + no marketing = no income

Good equation to remember. I’ve done some marketing, but my marketing strategy was probably just completely wrong. (Post Content and get a few links. I’ll admit that posting good content was at the core of my marketing plans.)

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Your site has an Alexa.com ranking of 1.67 million. So you have virtually no traffic. That's why the site isn't making money. No traffic = no income. It doesn't matter if you add more content if your traffic isn't growing, since no one will be there to see it.

I originally thought that if I posted great content, people would come to see it and I would just naturally receive links. Probably not thinking much about where the links would come from, or how much value each may give my site.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

1) Curtail your new blog postings to about 3 posts per week: Mon, Weds, and Fri. Set each post to go live between 3-5am.

Is there any specific reason to do it between 3 and 5 AM?

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

6) Read (or re-read) How to Make Money From Your Blog.

I did read the article a couple of times, but I suppose I didn’t know just how much emphasis to put on the marketing strategies you suggested, or how long to apply them for. While I do have a very basic understanding of SEO, link building, etc., I wanted to be cautious and not try to “cheat the system” using black hat techniques.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Don't give up. Just adapt to what the numbers are telling you, and continue on with a more appropriate strategy.

I’ll try your methods out about blog commenting, leaving links, time frame, etc. (Although *technically* my site isn’t a blog, I’m just using blog software) and see how it goes.

[Chinese Dragon]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Set each post to go live between 3-5am.

Probably so everyone will see it the day it comes out regarless of when they check the site. You'd want to use the time zone where most visitors live.

[Dwane J.]

A Job might be a good thing. Why not try a part time gig just to get you away from the computer. Getting out and interacting with people will give you a fresh perspective. Who knows you might even get new site ideas.

I'm not saying you have to give up your site. It's always open 24x7x365.

btw, great looking site!

[Minsc]

Why don't you put your new lists on the front page, under the description of your site?

[finandom]

Wow, I found that what I am doing right now just like what Steve had said.

Everyone, let's work hard and encourage each other to move forward!

[InterfaceLeader]

For the record, I couldn't post a comment. :3 It came up "you haven't filled out the field for spam protection", but I couldn't find any field to fill out!

I stumbled it though, so you might start getting some traffic for that