How do you fund your website?

[BankFodder]

I've already tried once to begin a discussion about ad placement 

and it has drawn no responses.

So I'm trying again from a slightly different tack – how do you fund your website? Do you use Google? Or some other system?

If you use Google AdSense, then maybe people would like to share a little bit their experiences and how they've managed to refine it to produce the best results.

[Michael R]

I ask for donations, but it is mostly out of my own pocket.

I had Google and Amazon ads running for a while, but it's pointless. No one clicks on ads and the money you get from impressions doesn't cover the cost of the taxes...

[BankFodder]

Thanks. That's pretty miserable – this doesn't sound very optimistic at all.

[Steve Bullman]

Private ads are the way to go. Your niche and how well known your site is will dictate if this is feasible or not

[Joy Rex]

I've had success with a combination of donations, subscription packages (3.00/5.00/10.00/20.00 annually) and also having VigLink affiliate links (e.g., turns links to say eBay or Amazon in posts into affiliate links that if a click through ends up in a purchase, I get a small percentage of the sale.

I think also being transparent about the costs of running the site and the costs of the Invision software with your users helps tremendously in their understanding that to run a site costs money.

[Joel R]

I entirely rely on subscriptions and it completely covers all costs plus some.  It outperformed advertising by x10 in my three month test (and my advertising was an ad network in my niche too).  

[BankFodder]

Give us a link to your website.

[jesuralem]

36 minutes ago, Joel R said:

I entirely rely on subscriptions and it completely covers all costs plus some.  It outperformed advertising by x10 in my three month test (and my advertising was an ad network in my niche too).  

That is good to know.

What is your subscription model (price, service, duration...)?

[opentype]

All good suggestions already. 

1. regular ad networks: only if you have a huge amount of traffic. 
2. affiliate links/banners. can be effective depending on the niche
3. subscriptions: can be highly effective if you either have content that people are willing to pay for or if your users are very loyal. 
4. direct ad sales: probably the highest profits if there are businesses in your niche willing to buy ad slots
5. let users sell stuff and take a cut (e.g. in the Downloads app). Jackpot! 😉

 

[Joel R]

2 hours ago, jesuralem said:

That is good to know.

What is your subscription model (price, service, duration...)?

I have a very simple 1 month / 6 months / 12 months.  They all give the same upgrade to a new VIP group.  

[supernal]

2 hours ago, Joel R said:

I have a very simple 1 month / 6 months / 12 months.  They all give the same upgrade to a new VIP group.  

Just curious what perks or incentives do you offer your VIPs? 

[AndyF]

As my current one is just such a small 'hobby' site as such its all out of my own limited pocket, but costs are relatively low all-in-all really.

I did with my previous site about 6-7 years ago as that was a bit larger consider some form of advertising or perhaps getting some companies interested, as in a free ad spot for a bit of a member discount (as it was a specific vehicle niche site) but never really got much further than looking as that site itself was starting to wane. :)

[Lucas James]

15 hours ago, opentype said:

All good suggestions already. 

1. regular ad networks: only if you have a huge amount of traffic. 
2. affiliate links/banners. can be effective depending on the niche
3. subscriptions: can be highly effective if you either have content that people are willing to pay for or if your users are very loyal. 
4. direct ad sales: probably the highest profits if there are businesses in your niche willing to buy ad slots
5. let users sell stuff and take a cut (e.g. in the Downloads app). Jackpot! 😉

 

In addition:

• Gamification: buy credits through Commerce (real cash) --> Members Shop
• Classifieds: list items for sale/trade --> Classifieds System
• Bulk PM: Advert through mass PM/Email --> Mass PM