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View Full Version : ppc vs commission w/ fan sites



jonbraswell
07-17-2004, 07:17 PM
I run a few music fansites, http://www.goodcharlotteband.com, http://hoobastanksongs.com, and http://www.nickelbackmusic.com.

Any other fan site webmasters out there?

If so, what are your experiences with sponsors? Do you do better with ppc programs or programs like cj.com?

MarkB
07-18-2004, 03:00 AM
If I were you, I would try: 1. a good t-shirt merchant. 2. sell ads directly to good, independent online CD retailers that cater to your niche (get them to do promos when the bands release new material!), and 3. tie in with Amazon.

I ran an Iron Maiden fansite (which I'm currently planning on restarting) for 4 years. Although the main deal I struck was being taken on as the 'official fan portal' for the official site, I also did the above bar the t-shirt merchant, and did ok. Mind you, I wasn't clued into aff. schemes much back then ;) Hence my restarting it ;)

jonbraswell
07-20-2004, 12:01 AM
I just switched from Commission Junction to Google Adsense ads on my fan sites, and they are doing much better.

I don't really get a lot per click, but I get a lot more clicks than I did with the commission junction ads. This is due to Google having a variety of ads that are targeted to my fan site.

I'm sure you guys all already know all about adsense, but it is working well for me if any of you are in the dilemma I was in with switching sponsors.

incka
07-20-2004, 02:11 AM
I've never done well with CJ, however last night someone from them emailed me asking me to join... Several other ad networks/affiliate networks have done this before... I didn't think owned a large enough share of the market to get them inviting me...

chromate
07-20-2004, 02:55 AM
The problem is, finding stuff that's nicely related to your sites can often be hard. I get loads of emails inviting me to join CJ programmes. They basically all just get deleted because they're not suitable.

baggiho
07-20-2004, 07:33 AM
I feel ppc program like Google Adsense which is eaier to earn money. Even though commission can earn more profit, you may send more than 500k traffic and get one commission.

chromate
07-20-2004, 08:19 AM
Yeah. But just that one commision could earn you $50 - $100 in some cases. If your site is nicely targetted, and you make several sales a day, then you'll be earning a lot of money.

incka
07-20-2004, 09:31 AM
I often make far more with affiliate programs than I do with ad networks (inc google), but for alot of sites finding affiliate programs is very hard...

eCommando
08-11-2004, 04:28 PM
It depends on the kind of site. On most of my sites, AdSense revenues are the best. But on other ones, very targeted affiliate programs do really well.

intelliot
08-13-2004, 12:59 AM
I run a Google fan site :) http://www.googlecommunity.com

I have not tried programs such as cj.com on this site, but in my experience with other content sites they don't convert well without preselling and convincing people to go. AdSense, on the other hand, is easy to set up and yields impressive results.

In general, PPC doesn't do too well. but AdSense is a cut above the rest.

Mike
08-13-2004, 01:57 AM
Do google mind about your community intelliot? Just I remember someone having a problem because they had "google" in their domain.

incka
08-13-2004, 05:45 AM
GoogleTracker.info or something was it?

Mike
08-13-2004, 06:14 AM
Yes, it was Dan Grosssman's I think...

intelliot
08-14-2004, 12:37 AM
adsensetracker.info. I think he just posted "Google and Google AdSense are trademarks of Google." and is free.

Google has never contacted me, but there are many sites with Google in their domain name: google-ipo.com and google-watch.org to name a few.