defnydd wrote:
> Ive been running a Welsh American heritage site ( http://www.americymru.com
> ) for about a year. We frequently update the content, in fact the
> newspage is updated everyday. We have a goole pagerank of 1 which is
> not bad considering that its a very niche site with an unpronounceable
> name. We get about 3000 hits a month. Sounds pretty good so far?
>
> Here's the problem. In the course of our first year our total income
> from the site is $48. What am I doing wrong? Am I doing anything
> wrong? How can I maximize my return from the site? I am really
> desperate for suggestions as I have spent countless hours working on
> and researching for this site. I would like to make a bit more than 50
> bucks!!
>
> I recently started another site ( link-drop follows ) http://www.furtivepenguin.net
> and the revenue from that is almost non-existent too. I guess I just
> suck at monetization!
>
> By the way if anyone wants to link to either of these sites feel free.
> I will be happy to reciprocate if your site is relevant to my content.
>

Much as it pains me to direct people away from here, I think you would
do much better at forums.digitalpoint.com they have sub forums for
adsense where you can learn how to make more from what you have. SEO
forum where you can learn how to SEO your site free. Marketing forum
where you can learn to monetize your site. Lots of other webmasters who
might exchange links with you (you need some!). Tools to you follow
the SERPS that you do have. It's free and you won't get half the abuse
that you would here! :-)

Go there and introduce yourself in the introductions forum (after
registering) and have a good look around. Look me up - my username is Jez.

$48 in a year is not good. You need ! :-)

Jez.

On Nov 2, 2:36 am, Jez <j...@virgin.net> wrote:
> defnydd wrote:
> > Ive been running a Welsh American heritage site (http://www.americymru.com
> > ) for about a year. We frequently update the content, in fact the
> > newspage is updated everyday. We have a goole pagerank of 1 which is
> > not bad considering that its a very niche site with an unpronounceable
> > name. We get about 3000 hits a month. Sounds pretty good so far?
>
> > Here's the problem. In the course of our first year our total income
> > from the site is $48. What am I doing wrong? Am I doing anything
> > wrong? How can I maximize my return from the site? I am really
> > desperate for suggestions as I have spent countless hours working on
> > and researching for this site. I would like to make a bit more than 50
> > bucks!!
>
> > I recently started another site ( link-drop follows )http://www.furtivepenguin.net
> > and the revenue from that is almost non-existent too. I guess I just
> > suck at monetization!
>
> > By the way if anyone wants to link to either of these sites feel free.
> > I will be happy to reciprocate if your site is relevant to my content.
>
> Much as it pains me to direct people away from here, I think you would
> do much better at forums.digitalpoint.com they have sub forums for
> adsense where you can learn how to make more from what you have. SEO
> forum where you can learn how to SEO your site free. Marketing forum
> where you can learn to monetize your site. Lots of other webmasters who
> might exchange links with you (you need some!). Tools to you follow
> the SERPS that you do have. It's free and you won't get half the abuse
> that you would here! :-)
>
> Go there and introduce yourself in the introductions forum (after
> registering) and have a good look around. Look me up - my username is Jez.
>
> $48 in a year is not good. You need ! :-)
>
> Jez.

Firstly I would like to thank everyone who responded to what was, and
remains , a genuine appeal for assistance. My problem is that while I
am fascinated by the technical intricacies of running a (reasonably)
secure server and the challenge of generating (reasonably) worthwhile
content on topics that interest me, I am bloody hopeless when it comes
to marketing. Our efforts in that direction have centred around social
bookmarking sites and the occasional link-dropping campaign on
Craigslist RnR. Thus we are not really hitting our target audience. We
are getting "one-off" visitors who dont click on our ads and also our
content is skewed toward the sensational, humorous, crass, juvenile
etc just in order to attract peoples attention. I have even sunk to
the depths of putting together a sheep shagging page for americymru. I
would like to point out that I did have the decency to remove that
after about a week.

I take the point that I need more inbound links. But that leads to the
usual Catch 22. Sites want to link with other sites that have high
page rank and in order to get sites to link you need high page rank
in the first place. I suppose I could buy links but I dont think that
would give me good ROI, besides which I run Linux on my server, refuse
to use hosting companies and am generally determined to achieve
whatever I ultimately achieve ( perhaps bugger all ) without spending
large or even medium size sums of money in the process. What I am
prepared to do however is to learn and to spend countless hours of my
time in the process. Consequently I will be visiting digitalpoint.com
and picking up whatever tips I can from there and I will be paying
more attention to SEO.

Also I take the point that I need to be selling something. I intend to
develop a few new sites in the near future and when I do I will not be
so naive as to suppose that I can thrive on adsense alone.

Oh.... and once again I apologise for using the terms 'hit' and
'visitor' as synonyms. I know they are not and I fully appreciate the
difference between them.

Hwyl

CS

defnydd wrote:
> We are getting "one-off" visitors who dont click on our ads

There is nothing compelling about ads that makes people want to click on
them.

> I take the point that I need more inbound links.

No. You need compelling content that people want to link to or tell
their friends about.

> I suppose I could buy links

I have hundreds of in-bound links, and I have never bought a link. I
have never even asked for a link.

> but I dont think that would give me good ROI

Probably not.

> What I am prepared to do however is to learn and to spend countless
> hours of my time in the process.

Spend those countless hours on creating content that people want to read.

> I will be paying more attention to SEO.

I have done almost nothing about SEO, and I am at the top in Google.

> Also I take the point that I need to be selling something.

Not necessarily. You need to be providing something that people want.
That probably means selling something. But the key is that it has to be
something that people want.

If there was no internet, and you wanted to start a company, what would
that company do? Now, how can you use the internet to promote that
company? If you want to make money, you can't think in terms of being on
the internet. You have to think in terms of running a company. Do you
have a viable business plan?

> I intend to
> develop a few new sites in the near future and when I do I will not be
> so naive as to suppose that I can thrive on adsense alone.

You're learning.