how can I better monetize my site?

[damenk]

Hi all. I am the owner of a martial arts website, www.fightingisyourfriend.com, which I have been running for ~1 year now. I'm adding new content pretty regularly, and while traffic (and revenues) have certainly grown - they are not where I want them to be.
The first half of 2008, I only made $7 total on the site. I'm now averaging ~$5/month - a definite improvement, but still not good. All of it has been through adsense - I have some affiliate links, but havent made any money through them yet.

What does all this tell me? It tells me that I'm doing something very wrong - and I want to fix it. Maybe it is the ads I'm running? Maybe is is the site design? If I knew, I would fix it So I am coming to you all. What am I doing wrong? What should I fix? I'm not looking to turn the site into an ad-fest in an attempt at a cash grab - I am in this site for the long-haul.

Thanks

[mike031]

sites with little or no traffic are hard to monetize......for obvious reasons

blogs especially

[damenk]

well, its not NO traffic
I've been averaging 1200 uniques/month for a few months now

[HarveyJ]

Well, as you're blogging, how about you start reviewing products on a regular basis, and stick in an affiliate link to them.
There's plenty of martial art suppliers on certain affiliate networks, and you can probably find places that sell tickets to major martial arts events.
And there's also the obvious one of putting in a directory of local martial art schools with affiliate links. Of course, that's going to be rather time consuming, but possibly the most profitable if it's a recurring billing thing.

But you know? Let me Google that for you...

[damenk]

thank you - I actually do have a very large listing of martial arts schools (though nationwide, not just local) on the site already

good stuff! I appreciate the assistance!

[harleyx]

Implement more text ads into your site, since the meat and potatoes is text. Blend them into the content as best you can.

The banners you have running currently are screaming "I'm an advertisement", and we develop a conditioned response against clicking on advertisements. I see you have an amazon affiliate account.

Suggest some good reads within your blog posts, and provide a link to buy them at Amazon. "I read this book a while ago and it really helped me get a handle on 'such and such a technique'.

One other thing you might consider is adding a little margin to the images you place next to text, so the text doesn't bump up against the side of an image. It will look and read much better.

Cheers!

[copper]

Originally Posted by damenk

well, its not NO traffic
I've been averaging 1200 uniques/month for a few months now

I hate to tell you this, but, that's not much traffic at all.
You'll need thousands per day, not per month.

Work on traffic first

[harleyx]

Originally Posted by copper

I hate to tell you this, but, that's not much traffic at all.
You'll need thousands per day, not per month.

Work on traffic first

True, but also entirely subjective to the advertisements being served. Some ads pay $0.02 per click, some pay $1.00 per click.

[damenk]

Thank you all - traffic last month was 2700 uniques, so it is definitely heading in the right direction!

harleyx - thank you very much for the tips!

[Banned: xondemand]

Originally Posted by mike031

sites with little or no traffic are hard to monetize......for obvious reasons

blogs especially

that would be the case ;-