Thread: any ideas for monetizing a jokes website?

My question would be: When making those changes, how has the click thru rate increased and has traffic dropped due to losing some of the appeal?

Originally Posted by Corwin

Hello, all. Thanks, Rob!

I've been on DP a lot, but spending WAY too much time discussing everything that is NOT work related. On NetBuilders I hope to keep the work mindset. I trust Rob so I know I'm getting solid info here. I need to step things up while having fun!

BTW, I've tried using AdSense in a polite way in text. The only way I see significant chickthrus is when I interrupt the text. is it a joke website that also makes money with AdSense, or is it a moneymaking AdSense website that gets reader's attention with jokes?

I'd be interested in seeing how that translates on your bottom line.

Be a good experiment to set some pages to have the ad befoRe the punchline, others to use them to separate the jokes. Conventional wisdom probably suggests placing prior to the punchline will be more profitable. The 'content is king' guys would say placing it between jokes enhances user experince.

For a business webmaster... The bottom line is the bottom line. Like to hear back on a sample experimenting between the two methods.

ps: yes... Getting people to trust me is part of my secret plan for world domination. Thank you for playing.

Most joke sites seem to be using Adsense only. I like the idea of selling fun shirts that has been said in the thread, but to convince people for buying shirts via your website it would take a lot of returning visitors imo. A newsletter could be interesting for that indeed, that way people get to see the jokes daily, and see stuff about the shirts, if it's easy and not too expensive to order them they might make an order .

Have you thought about selling advertisements directly on your website? Like contacting other websites related to 'fun'? Maybe there are also comedians that have DVD's you can sell as an affiliate through Amazon?

Just some ideas

Personally I think a text joke website is a little outdated to get a ton of traffic right now. Current trend is toward the picture memes everyone posts on Facebook. Saves them from having to think or own a functioning wit. Stick a goofy saying on top of a picture of a cat or Johnny Depp and you have a built in audience.

Originally Posted by Mike Dammann

My question would be: When making those changes, how has the click thru rate increased and has traffic dropped due to losing some of the appeal?

This was something I did five years ago, so I don't remember the improvements exactly, but in my situation I took an AdSense banner that was above the article title, and moved it here:

Article Title
Article Subtitle (teaser)
Author
AdSense Ad
Article Content

In this situation it tripled my click-thru.

The website has all original quality content and has been up since 1998. Unfortunately, despite the high volume of traffic, the target audience (electrical engineers) is marketing-adverse and doesn't t like to click on ads as often as, say, WWE fans. I suspect I can use my time more efficiently in other subjects and see a better return.