A Quick and Simple Tip for Getting More From Your Current Traffic

I was working on one of my affiliate sites that I’ve neglected for awhile.  I’m not a huge fan of affiliate marketing as a primary way to build a business, but I do have a few affiliate sites out there that make enough of a trickle of cash to make them worth keeping around.  The question I had the other day was, “What could I do to improve on that trickle and better monetize the site”.  Here’s a simple idea that you may want to use too.

Nothing fancy, just something that falls into the category of things that are “almost too simple to work”. 

The Basic Idea – Better Monetize Your High Traffic Pages

The idea is pretty simple.  Just take a look at which pages on your site are already ranking well or getting a good amount of traffic from other sites.  Then see how well they’re monetized and take it up a notch.

Background On My Neglected Site

So for the site in question, I have pretty good ranking for a few specific terms that bring a decent amount of traffic.  I took a look at which pages were getting the most traffic and realized that although some were pages I set up specifically to point to affiliate offers (pre-sell pages), a lot of these pages were just articles that ended up ranking well on their own, without me trying to SEO them all that much.

By the way, these are blog posts and blog pages for the most part, using Wordpress…no magic going on, just a basic site.  So I looked at those articles in more detail, looked at how each page was monetized (AdSense, affiliate banners, sidebar ads, text links, etc) and decided to change things up a bit.

What I Added / Removed

Added:

• Relevant Affliate Offers: I did my best to find affiliate offers that were super-specific to the article in question, rather than just being on the same general topic that the site covers.  A good option for this is something like the phpBay plugin for Wordpress, which allows you to pull eBay auctions/sales into your blog posts/pages based on a specific eBay category, keyword, etc.  Great tool to have in your toolbox!
• Better Copy / Content: I tweaked some of the copy on a few articles that were (admittedly) not the most well-written articles in the world.  I also plan to add some additional content to match some of the other keyword searches that are bringing me traffic.

Removed:

• AdSense Ads: They’re not making me all that much so I won’t be losing a huge amount of income as I test things out.
• Banner Ads: Again, not making a whole lot on these…probably less than AdSense.  I think they’re too generic and too “all over every other website online”.  So out they go, at least for now.

Notes:

If you’re looking for a good way to test ads on your own Wordpress powered sites, this free plugin works pretty well:

Datafeedr Random Ad Plugin for Wordpress

5 Responses to “A Quick and Simple Tip for Getting More From Your Current Traffic”

1. Jim from Hangover Cures says:

   October 7, 2009 at 4:42 am

   I had a couple of dormant sites that I kept live just for the link juice to my money sites. Adding AdSense and affiliate offers to them has earned me a nice chunk of extra beer money every month
   Jim@Hangover Cures´s last blog ..Hangover Recovery Guide
2. Tracy from medifast.com says:

   October 28, 2009 at 7:28 pm

   Great approach to making more money from your traffic. I have always leaned toward putting my PPC ads on high traffic pages and I see now that is quickly sending them away with the method that pays me the least.
   Tracy@medifast.com´s last blog ..Medifast Coupons
3. Geoff from La Jolla Homes For Sale says:

   November 2, 2009 at 5:52 pm

   I’m always somewhat reluctant to monetize the pages on my San Diego real estate website. The return from a single lead who becomes a valued client is so much higher than the click through compensation that it seems I’m better off to keep visitors on my site.
   Geoff@La Jolla Homes For Sale´s last blog ..Extend Home Buyer Tax Credit!
4. Eric from Unique Baby Blankets says:

   November 23, 2009 at 1:08 am

   Good point. I know I glance over banner ads and others as quickly as possible. If you are getting the traffic, then it’s always a good idea to tweak until you are optimizing for best monetization.
5. Brian from Margarita Maker says:

   December 9, 2009 at 7:17 pm

   Here is a tweak on your strategy. This works every time for me. Go into the stats and view the pages that get the most traffic. Log the keyword for each page that is associated.

   Then build more links to these pages. What you get is an improved rank for each of your high traffic pages.

   It’s simple however very effective. It’s a fast way to boost your revenue on your site.
   Brian@Margarita Maker´s last blog ..A margarita maker is the perfect tool for your kitchen