Monetizing your Pligg Install

[lateefx]

I was hoping that you guys and gals could share the methods you are using to monetize (make money off of) your Pligg install.

I've seen many sites affixed with Google and AdBrite ads.

Please share your experiences with changes in traffic patterns...where do you get most of your traffic. (i.e. Search Engines, Digg, etc.)

[bbrian017]

I use Google and I will share with you the results at the end of this month. You can see how they are implemented here, Blog Engage / Published Blogs

[gen3ric]

Private ad sales on Design Float bring in $1,500/mo right now and Adsense brings in around $100/mo. I played with paid featured stories for about a month and had 5 advertisers pay $200 to have a their article "featured" in the top spot for 24 hours but decided that it jeopardized the integrity of truly community driven content so I no longer offer that.

Here is my traffic breakdown:
- Referring Sites: (54.08%)
- Direct Traffic: (37.04%)
- Search Engines: (8.87%)
- Other 2: (> 0.00%)

[daveg]

Check my signature for the Pay Per Play advertising...I didn't get much luck with adbrite so I am in the process of switching to Pay Per Play. I will let you know how it goes

[blaze]

I make $1000 a month now -- and nearly 95% traffic is sent from Google. Not too many visitors though, as I only get about 500 per day. I get around $300 per month in Ad Sense too and it is climbing, so that is a good thing. The adsense pays for my server. :)

I just won a major keyword phrase in Google that currently lists me as number one. I do not advertise anywhere -- it's all 100% natural marketing. I am still working on getting about 5 other keyword phrases in my niche, and if I am successful, then I will be making about $5000-$8000 per month. It's a very realistic goal for me too, as 95% of my traffic comes directly from that single keyword phrase I am listed for number one in Google.

Referrals won't really help me out because of the niche I am in, so it's up to locking down those other 5 keyword phrases I am targeting. This is also why I am frustrated right now with figuring out how to get the meta and title tags changed for the category pages. If I could do that, then I could double my traffic within about 14 days by getting double listings in Google.

Here's a tip for some of you... I used a service called Service Wrap and I highly recommend them. It cost me about $159 to use their Gold service plan, but 6 months later, I got number one in google. I won't say what the keyword phrase is, but I will testify that this service works well. Also, the info they give seems shotty on their web site, but I am telling you now, it was the best dang $160 I ever spent for my web site.

Pligg can be very profitable if you have the right niche.

[gen3ric]

So blaze, are you using your Pligg site as a tool to generate affiliate sales? What forms of advertising make up the other $700?

[blaze]

Originally Posted by gen3ric

So blaze, are you using your Pligg site as a tool to generate affiliate sales? What forms of advertising make up the other $700?

That's exactly right. Affiliate sales is the entire site. The cool thing about Pligg is the mod-rewrite used for outgoing links. Google sort of penalizes affiliate sites, however, it does NOT penalize a pligg site being used for affiliate sales that uses mod-rewrite. As long as you remove the duplicate content by not having Google index your upcoming and tag pages, then you will do just fine. You just need links coming in to your site from other directories, etc. It does take time -- but if you play it right, you'll be making money in about 6 months time.

The $1000 I make are strictly affiliate sales. The $300 I make from Google Ad Sense pays for my server, so I don't include that in the total... but if I did, then I make $1300 a month on average, give or take $100 overall. This has been since the tail end of September 2007 when I hit my number one position in Google. I offer advertising, but haven't sold any spots at all. I strongly believe it is because I just don't have enough traffic yet. My page rank is only 2. But hey, I'm very happy... and Google Adsense is paying more now I noticed and I will likely get $375 this month, averaging $12.45 per day so far this month.

I don't want to start pouring money into PPC ads yet. I just don't know enough about Google ad word campaigns to start throwing away money... which is exactly what I'd do since I am such a novice at it. I am still learning the whole PPC market and have a long way to go towards discovering how to find the right phrases to pay for. In the mean time, I will focus on my other keyword phrases and try to get the rank naturally. One keyword phrase at a time -- that's my motto. :)

[gen3ric]

Great feedback! I've been researching affiliate marketing and trying to figure out ways to start integrating it into my project without being to invasive. Which affiliate programs do you use? I've been playing around with Azoogle and CJ...

[blaze]

Originally Posted by gen3ric

Great feedback! I've been researching affiliate marketing and trying to figure out ways to start integrating it into my project without being to invasive. Which affiliate programs do you use? I've been playing around with Azoogle and CJ...

Well, here's the thing... I only use ONE AFFILIATE source and they aren't listed under CJ or anyone else for that matter. They have their own genuine affiliate program and they provide all the stat data via login from their site. You see, the niche I am in has only one product to market. People that are looking for this product have a great desire to buy it rather than browse. I wouldn't recommend having an affiliate site with many different products. Keep it very selective, so the traffic you do get for it, while minimal it may be, will give you a higher CTR rate and sales. People get turned off when visiting an affiliate site, so you have to make it look like you're not an affiliate site, but rather just showing people the product line and having them vote on which one is the coolest.

For example, let's say you have 2 pligg sites set up with the same theme involving the sale of Sexy Girl Posters. One site you use CJ and signup with 100 different poster vendors. This site you create has well over 10,000 of the hottest girl in Bikini posters around, from Old School Farah Fawcett to New School Britney Spears. You got it covered. This site brings in 6000 visitors a day but you sell only 5 posters a day. Why? Because your site really isn't that much different from any other poster site and they will likely leave within 10 seconds after seeing your home page.

Now, your other Pligg site you devote just to 50 Farrah Fawcett posters. This site brings in only 600 visitors a day -- yet you sell 25 posters a day. Why? Because you're in a niche market looking for specific people who ONLY WANT A FARAH FAWCETT POSTER. This market is looking specifically for your product, so the odds of them being serious buyers are greater than being a passer-by. Not to mention, the other pligg site will be much harder to gain rank in Google due to the competitiveness of your broad range for keywords. But the niche site will rank high and very fast because fewer competitors are selling what you have to sell.

This is what I'd recommend. Find a good product that people are specifically looking for and then make a pligg site around that product -- but make it fun so people vote, comment and buy it rather than think your site is just another affiliate site. ;)

[bbrian017]

Originally Posted by blaze

I make $1000 a month now -- and nearly 95% traffic is sent from Google. Not too many visitors though, as I only get about 500 per day. I get around $300 per month in Ad Sense too and it is climbing, so that is a good thing. The adsense pays for my server. :)

I just won a major keyword phrase in Google that currently lists me as number one. I do not advertise anywhere -- it's all 100% natural marketing. I am still working on getting about 5 other keyword phrases in my niche, and if I am successful, then I will be making about $5000-$8000 per month. It's a very realistic goal for me too, as 95% of my traffic comes directly from that single keyword phrase I am listed for number one in Google.

Referrals won't really help me out because of the niche I am in, so it's up to locking down those other 5 keyword phrases I am targeting. This is also why I am frustrated right now with figuring out how to get the meta and title tags changed for the category pages. If I could do that, then I could double my traffic within about 14 days by getting double listings in Google.

Here's a tip for some of you... I used a service called Service Wrap and I highly recommend them. It cost me about $159 to use their Gold service plan, but 6 months later, I got number one in google. I won't say what the keyword phrase is, but I will testify that this service works well. Also, the info they give seems shotty on their web site, but I am telling you now, it was the best dang $160 I ever spent for my web site.

Pligg can be very profitable if you have the right niche.

What omg what am I doing wrong? I only made 11 cents today and had over 1100 hits!

Is it where my ads are placed, am I not doing something right. how come I always here these great stories of adsence revenues and I see nothing myself?