Advertising feedback?

[Ari Bolden]

Hey guys:

I value your opinion(s) on this since YOU are the demographic I cater to.

As my site grows and get's bigger, it will (and is) starting to get companies interested in advertising on it.

Now:
1) I'd love to make money with my site so I can quit my nightclub job and work only at doing jj.
2) Making cash via the website gives me more time to do videos, make DVDs and grow.
3) What kind of companies to cater to? I have one company that is interested that sells those "over the top T shirts". You know, the ones that are not politically correct but funny as hell.
4) I get about 30 000 unique visitors a month and it is growing.
5) I don't want to clutter the site with tons of shit but in order to keep things free, I have to balance business opportunities.

You feedback....

[Andy]

Hey Ari, well you have one part down, about not wanting to clutter the site with tons of shit. I think you should just choose the major businesses and leave out the smaller, advertising business. That way you still get to grow and at the same time have a decent income until you become even bigger. Making money from a website I'm sure you know takes a lot a lot of time and dedication, so it's not like it's something that will happen overnight. I'd just build this up with one advertising over another, and let it move slowly. Hope this helps.

[Ryan]

Ari- I think you should try a combination of things that will equal great opportunity for everyone AND put money in your pocket.

Try this..... with MMA/BJJ sites such as this and others try a bartering system by putting their ads on your site for one of your banners on their site to try to get more people interested in BJJ or MMA to your site. THEN, with the t-shirt companies and such you can sell advertising spots on your site and get money from that. With the bartering you will get more business because your banner will be seen by others on another site and they will click on it to see what its all about. Also, GET A MYSPACE SITE JUST FOR SUB101!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!:D

[michaelwbray]

Ari - you should be able to make decent money off your site with that number of visitors. I used to make my living online. The first thing you need to do is setup an advertising program on your website so that you can allocate advertising on your site. Give advertisers a place to login and see how there ads are going etc. You can software like this free of charge. Check out http://www.openads.org/quick-tour/openads-makes-advertising-easy.html for a tour of top quality free advertising software.

Try to find advertising programs / affiliate programs that offer you an on going commission on sales. I used to advertise webhosting companies on my websites. Every website needs a webhost, which typically costs anywhere from $10 a month for a small site to $400 a month for a busy site. I get a 25% commission on all sales for the life of the customer. At one stage I had over 100 customers recommended giving me thousands of dollars a month just from that one program.

Google ads are another popular way of making money online.

I'd stick to keeping the videos for free, so that you keep growing with traffic. That is the key to your website. Selling DVD's and Shirts etc will get you some money, but advertising is the key to making big money.

Within a year or so you should be making $60,000 a year or so from your site. Aim to automate as much of the advertising as you can so it doesn't take up much of your time. That free advertising program above is the key to that.

You might even be able to put a listing of schools in other areas on the page. I.e. looking to learn iu jitsu, click here to find a school near you. Get other schools to pay a listing fee to get on the list. The possibilities are endless for making money.

[Ari Bolden]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Mike: Ad sense is already up and running. I like the school page idea and listings. I get a lot of people asking where to train in their cities.

When I launch Ver 2.0 in the next month or so, I'll be really looking into these possibilities....

Son't worry gents, the videos will reamain free and the site navigation will be 10 times easier.

peace

Ari

[michaelwbray]

Ari,

Another way to make more money is to setup the site is so that you can target ads geographically. I.e. if a user from Australia visits the site, you can target them with banner ads from australian schools etc.

A school may look at your site and think, I'd like to advertise there, but only 1% of the visitors may be from my country. If they know they can advertise, and have there ads only shown to relevant people - they will

a) be more likely to advertise on your site
b) pay more per click/impression for advertising

Starting a monthly newsletter for submissions101 with an ad or two in there is another way to generate income and create more traffic to your website through return visits.

[Fox1s2]

Great Matrix video ari.....genius.

[TheRob]

well I can help you get some hits by starting a thread about you elsewhere
you also might consider talking to RossBoxing.com and EliteFitness.com (I think)
Ross has a lot of good boxing stuff but thier mixed forum is lacking a bit of grappling knowleged so it would be good to linkyour two forums and would increase your traffic
and with Elite they have people sponsor thier boards and I got some price quotes from them, it's insane money dude you should talk to their mods and see what's up cus I mean I'm talking crazy money for NOTHING other then having "this board is sponcored by 'X'" next to the title...

[Tom Gavrilos]

Hey guys:

I value your opinion(s) on this since YOU are the demographic I cater to.

As my site grows and get's bigger, it will (and is) starting to get companies interested in advertising on it.

Now:
1) I'd love to make money with my site so I can quit my nightclub job and work only at doing jj.
2) Making cash via the website gives me more time to do videos, make DVDs and grow.
3) What kind of companies to cater to? I have one company that is interested that sells those "over the top T shirts". You know, the ones that are not politically correct but funny as hell.
4) I get about 30 000 unique visitors a month and it is growing.
5) I don't want to clutter the site with tons of shit but in order to keep things free, I have to balance business opportunities.

You feedback....


1. If you can do what you love full time and make a comfortable living you should pursue that option!

2. You should not have to rationonalize making cash from your site since it is also your work and in my opinion you provide a great service to people.

3. Im VERY careful who I work with and thats why www.mmawarehouse.com is the only other people I trust with my product right now. As far as venturing out I dont see why thats a problem for you.

4. That is a good amount of hits and I am sure it will keep growing. Your YouTube hits should be pretty healthy by now.

5. Welcome to my world:) I know how to get tons of hits to this forum BUT it would turn into every other MMA forum if I did it that way. There is something to be said for long term costumers and word of mouth in this day and age. I like coming here and I know most people here would not feel as open to say their piece at many of these other sites. No one flames you here if you are a jack@ss you are simply GONE.

You are a smart and moral person Ari Im sure the choices you will make will be for the rright reasons and you have my support 100%!

[Ryan]

Hey Tom, about to make another purchase.:D

[Tom Gavrilos]

Thx Ryan!
I dont have much stock left and I have some cool camo shirts. Ill throw one in there for ya bro : )

[Ryan]

Sweet! Very cool. Did you have the large Germany shirt in stock?

[Tom Gavrilos]

I believe I do in Gunmetal only www.mmawarehouse.com has some left in lack.

[Ryan]

Thats fine. You can send that color instead. I was torn between the two anyways :)