How to Monetize a Niche Site
In the past, I’ve primarily focused on Google Adsense for my own niche sites. I did try out a few Adsense alternatives, but I came back to Adsense because its the highest paying contextual ad network out there…by far. Its easy to implement, pays the most, and just works.
However, as I set out to start my very first public niche site project, I have decided to use something besides Google Adsense to monetize my site. (You can learn more about the niche site project and live webinar to be held here).
I’m not going to pick a particular monetization strategy until I pick a niche and keyword. Right now, I’m thinking that I would like to build an email list and monetize that list with affiliate offers or my own products. However, this is not set in stone, and could change as I pick my niche OR as I test different strategies on the same site.
However, as I contemplate how I should make money from my new niche site, I am again reminded of how many options are out there. First, I’m going to list the general ways to monetize (categories like CPA, contextual ads, etc) and then I’ll number off the specific networks or options within each of those general categories.
Pay Per Click Contextual Ad Networks
These are networks like Google Adsense that have ads displayed based on the content of your site. Typically you will get paid per click from these types of contextual networks. Here are a few (there are likely many many more):
2. Media.net (now manages both the Yahoo and Bing ad Networks)
3. Infolinks
4. Kontera
6. GumGum (In-image ads)
7. Chitika
8. Clicksor.com (both eCPM and pay per click).
CPM Advertising Networks
Rather than paying on a per click basis, these ad networks pay on a per view basis (usually a dollar amount based on 1000 pageviews). Most of these networks require that you have a large visitor base to be approved to their network; therefore most of these won’t work for a smaller niche sites.
10. Tribal Fusion (500,000 unique visitors per month required).
11.Casale Media
13. ePom.com
14. Adblade.com
15. Advertising.com (part of AOL)
16. Burst Media (25,000 monthly page views)
17. CPX Interactive
18. Technorati Media