Monetizing tools improvements

[Canis]

Quote from @Matt  in the deprecation thread:

2 hours ago, Matt said:

We want to re-focus Commerce to be a community monetisation tool, so make subscriptions better, donations, micro-payments for better access, etc. 

There cant be  many forums, apart from maybe adult related,  that make significant money out of charging for access.

But lots of forums relies on advertising. Would have liked if IPB instead would use those resources for improving the primitive Advertisment system.

[Randy Calvert]

There are lots of subscriptions outside of adult content. Anything that has premium level access (education, clubs that collect dues, writers selling ebooks, etc).

I helped a friend sell subscriptions that included personal training videos and content around workout designs.  

I worked with someone else who runs a site similar to Angie’s list with highly curated recommendations for services in a specific city. They use subscriptions and charge for memberships as well as sell specific add-ons.

I absolutely do agree that advertising improvements would be useful and welcome… but I’m just noting that subscriptions, donations and other monitization systems ARE relevant and important. 🙂 

By the way… @Charles just posted that there IS going to be big improvements to advertising. 🙂 

 

That has to be the fastest I’ve ever seen a feature request be acknowledged!  😜 

[AlexWebsites]

I use subscriptions on two sites to offer premium access. In conjuction with ads. Its mostly ads for free users and no ads for premium users, along with some added features/access.

Subcriptions is good, but there are feature and enhancement opportunities.

[Charles]

Yeah subscriptions are extremely popular on all types of communities. Their use ranges from basic support to running an entire business in a community. 

2 minutes ago, AlexWebsites said:

Subcriptions is good, but there are feature and enhancement opportunities.

Yes it’s a big focus area for upcoming Commerce update. 

[Canis]

I have yet to see a forum that charges for access. But most forums have ads.

Can you give an example of a forum that gets a significant amount of their income from charging for access?

[Randy Calvert]

49 minutes ago, Canis said:

I have yet to see a forum that charges for access. But most forums have ads.

Can you give an example of a forum that gets a significant amount of their income from charging for access?

Think about any sort of private club or membership group.  An elks club, a fan club, or a personal trainer’s own site that I mentioned above that sells access to on demand personal training video sessions and customized workout plans. 

I actually know an HOA that uses IPB. The quarterly dues are paid through the website. Residents use the forums for discussion, but the pages application is used as a CMS to post meeting minutes, etc.  It even has private resources for members vs guests, and separate resources that are just for the board.  Commerce and Pages are PRIMARY applications for them honestly more than forums. 

You’re thinking in term only of a forum when that’s not what the suite is.  IPB’s roots was building forums, but now it builds communities.   Different communities have different ways of monetizing itself. Ads are one way but certainly not the only way.  Subscriptions… one time sales… micro transactions… there are lots of ways that could drive revenue!  🙂 

[MeMaBlue]

thank you for this discussion.  

On 3/7/2023 at 2:04 PM, AlexWebsites said:

I use subscriptions on two sites to offer premium access. In conjuction with ads. Its mostly ads for free users and no ads for premium users, along with some added features/access.

Subcriptions is good, but there are feature and enhancement opportunities.

could you please help and describe the way you have set his up?  which automated ways do you use?

How do you implement the no ads subscription? (via commerce, I guess, but is there a sample guide for me to follow if I am able to purchase it next month, so that I can set it up  straight away?) 

Mine is a forum rather than anything else and a non profit. It was done 17 yrs ago to help parents inform themselves and my business plan (as a non profit company) was to monetize the forum with ads so that the content is free.  .. need to find ways to monetize the 250.000 unique users visiting the site per month (about 1.200.000 pageviews per month), the issue is that they mostly read the thing they need  (medical psychological etc) and leave. 

Its like a database with personal information on how parents deal with things. 

• I would need a popup to appear after they visited as an exit message, prompting them to donate/subscribe about the possibility to read the website without ads. 

What I could also do, would be to sell

• consulting time / payment to get access to a one to one session with an associate, like "book an appointment" fee

can this be done?

My issue is that because its non profit, it needs to have a certain/different look. 

Display advertising in my country is no longer done directly as the previous many years. Greece is a small market and everyone in digital media is happily selling just FB or networks ads to their clients. I tried it out now for 2 months (orange click media and project agora) and they slow the page down / annoy users (without making that much of an extra revenue)...  Nowadays nobody buys from the source anymore, we are also not local...

Do you have good experience with ad networks?  Unfortunately mine was really bad (revenue wise) these 2 months. 

I read that there is a mention for programmatic in the commerce app. What is meant by that? Currently i have a script running at the global template,  from a network, without having the commerce app.

 

 

 

 

[Randy Calvert]

55 minutes ago, MeMaBlue said:

could you please help and describe the way you have set his up?  which automated ways do you use?

How do you implement the no ads subscription? (via commerce, I guess, but is there a sample guide for me to follow if I am able to purchase it next month, so that I can set it up  straight away?) 

You would have a member group (say “members”) that receive the experience that contains ads. You also have another group for your subscribers (say “VIP Members” or just “Subscribers”). Using the subscription rules, if someone purchases a subscription they’re moved into that new subscribers group automatically that does not have the ads included. If the subscription is ended, it can be even configured to automatically move the person back to their original group. 

Take a look at the following guide for more details:

1 hour ago, MeMaBlue said:

I would need a popup to appear after they visited as an exit message, prompting them to donate/subscribe about the possibility to read the website without ads. 

This is doable, but not done automatically within the software. You could certainly add the HTML code to do it within your theme relatively easily. 
 

1 hour ago, MeMaBlue said:

What I could also do, would be to sell

• consulting time / payment to get access to a one to one session with an associate, like "book an appointment" fee

can this be done?

In addition to subscriptions (which are recurring), you can also make one time sales such as what you described. 

See the following guide:

 

1 hour ago, MeMaBlue said:

Do you have good experience with ad networks?  Unfortunately mine was really bad (revenue wise) these 2 months. 

 

Based on the traffic you were describing, unless you had a very specialized niche that had valuable ad keywords, ads lately are not enough to live off of alone most likely.  You need huge traffic volumes to really be truly profitable. But it could certainly augment an overall monetization strategy. 

 

[AlexWebsites]

2 hours ago, MeMaBlue said:

could you please help and describe the way you have set his up?  which automated ways do you use?

How do you implement the no ads subscription? (via commerce, I guess, but is there a sample guide for me to follow if I am able to purchase it next month, so that I can set it up  straight away?) 

I have a free member group (no subscription required). Then a premium member group(s) (subscription required). You create the subscription(s) that move members into the premium member group(s). Under advertisements, disable showing each ad for premium member group(s). That's the easiest way to disable ads for member groups with a subscription. 

[MeMaBlue]

Thank you @Randy Calvert  for your input!. 

Since I wont be restricting content I will need to have it done as a donation (after reading, when trying to leave the website)  so 

"This is doable, but not done automatically within the software. You could certainly add the HTML code to do it within your theme relatively easily. " 

Is there an app that does this?  (i.e. to show a floating popup when you try to leave the page) Do I need a developer to make me a code that will display some message that will be linked and show options that I will have installed in commerce ? 

like:"Thank you for visiting us! If this content has helped you now or in the past, before leaving please consider to make a donation of xyz or purchase xyz  This way you will contribute / helping this content to continue stay available for everyone for free.  "

[maybe you will consider this option at commerce @Marc Stridgen since many might be in same situation with non profit causes  and maybe after reading and before leaving is a kind place to put this kind of popup? ] 

 

@AlexWebsites thank you! 

what if you have scripts of adnetworks, and adsense optimized enabled ? because currently they serve sticky/vigniette banners that are not displayed via the advertising module.  They appear through the script. 

I have advertisments, the simple tags, too. 

Would that mean, since the scripts are implemented in the theme global template,  that I would rather have to make a second theme, which will not have these scripts, and the usergroup that is the subscribers, would have that theme as their default theme; 

 

[David N.]

6 hours ago, Randy Calvert said:

Based on the traffic you were describing, unless you had a very specialized niche that had valuable ad keywords, ads lately are not enough to live off of alone most likely.

My traffic is nowhere near what MeMaBlue described and I make a living out of ads alone. 

You need to choose the right ad network. If you're using adsense then you're leaving money on the table. 

8 hours ago, MeMaBlue said:

Do you have good experience with ad networks?  Unfortunately mine was really bad (revenue wise) these 2 months. 

Is your traffic mostly from Greece? The ad networks I'm familiar with favor U.S. traffic mostly. 

[MeMaBlue]

Hello,  yes your market cannot be compared to the Greek. Your cpms will be completely different.  Yes 95% only from Greece. I just tried for 6 months now with the biggest ad networks (OCM and PA, they delayed the loading terribly .  (the bidding etc).   

I kept one adnetwork for only the sticky banner and have enabled google adsense optimization and saw, they themselves have enabled Vignette and Ancor (sticky) ads now, that look like the adnetwork ones!   

I have a question - have you changed in any way the order in which ads are loading - that they load after the page so that they do not delay the reader, if yes how did you do it?

The other thing is, adnetworks use (for better cpms) all the really posh graphics, (layovers, moving objects ) but they dont match the medical and seriousness of many discussions. If you read about your wife or childs or grandfathers medical things you dont want to be distracted by this kind of visual and wont click on it either.  Its a special case I know. 

So I am sure somewhere else they will be great!   (but still, the page load with a adnetwork script like that, was and is bad, thats just the way it is I guess, with all websites)

Edited March 14, 2023 by MeMaBlue