Domain Site Monetization
Monetizing a domain means different things to different people. To the external web browser, a charge for a post reading or blog product view becomes a limitation that can drive users away. Site traffic can dwindle when a crop of new users encounter a garage door slamming in their face. Before a site migrates to a paid participation status some metrics need to be examined.
A website that offers advice and professional consulting information has value. A marketable domain has SEO value. A popular site with flowing visitor participation has membership value.A website with qualified content and readable material has instructional, educational, and entertainment value. These values flow from visitors, users, members, RSS feeders, Pod readers, and more media outlets.
To some members of a secret cache of privileged users, membership and paid product class sites leverage a new status. Many online browsers want to equate a dollar value for a dollar spent. Many SEO result viewers may simply switch off and move onto another site for what they are looking for. These check-out visitors may be lost if permanent fees are required to see the site content.
If your product for sale or membership privilege confers a monetary value, this changes the scenario. The comparison instantly shifts, however, to the relative market value of the product and not the imputed value of the webmaster. A community of people who feel the same way must be present to support the pay-for-play scenario, and a significant percentage of those users must be willing to pony up the funds at the same time.
An outstanding value in a free website advice may not compare to the relative professional value of consulting that comes with liability, legality concerns handled and insurance against failure. Hanging out your shingle online could bring a host of time consuming customer service issues the webmaster is not prepared for. Negative customer service feedback can bring a site to its knees in no time.
A conservative estimate should be projected for revenue return on eliminating free content. Lead-in teasers with follow up billing popups can irritate previously happy browsers. Before the billing or charging programming should be done, reviews and rankings at other websites should be mounted first. Customers may Google or search inquiries for feedback. if they find nothing it augurs ill for the profit possibilities frontier.
Yet, another approach by many domainers is to gateway additional content beyond the teaser paragraph with a message popup politely requesting a Paypal donation. Paypal “donate” buttons can make it easy for sometime visitors and regular customers to show their love informally without the hassle or threat of chargebacks. Framing the support option as a donation is a softer sell that a flat fee.
Primary goals for a domain promotion website are to sustain SEO value and discoverability. If the content goes behind a hidden door, will the website loser visibility? Will paying site users be motivated to share the content for free elsewhere? And will the cost of vending the product outnumber any potential revenues to be earned? What is the risk of trying the pay-for-pay version of the site for a limited trial time?
Webmasters should consider any site with a pay-for-play option to be part of a robust marketing campaign. A time-sensitive banner notification that the site will be converting to a paid membership can alert visitors to sign up. A more aggressive approach would be to notify any comment contacts that unless they sign up as registered members, their url links will be deleted.
Diversifying paid content versus free content can also create a class of premium users with advanced access. Premium user class members might be able to access time sensitive reports or data twelve hours or so before the general site visiting public. A “free trial” option of limited duration might be advisable. Or, the site might publish limited premium series articles whose access to that article class might require a one-time fee.
The metrics have a way of working out. If a site has 3,000 unique visitors a day, then the webmaster might shoot for a one-tenth of a percentile conversion rate to a paid membership. If the paid membership was $3.00, then the webmaster would be in receipt of $9 a day via Paypal. That’s $3,285 a year annual return for a very conservative membership expectation.
Now the webmaster and domain owner can budget in design elements, content contributions, link directory costs, and any other promotional items. Additional revenues can spring from proprietary products like E-books, print publications, and video seminars or audio coaching recordings. The business model for the website assumes ongoing unique traffic at this rate, (or growth), and refreshed original content readers find compelling enough to return to.
The overall of the website should be examined. Is the goal to take profit anywhere and everywhere, or to build a consensus core of users who can proselytize the site outward? What other benefits can be realized for the domain owner?Are other sites available to be publicized, or other domain names ready to be marketed to a likely buyer-filled audience?
The webmaster must decide if enough SEO benefit has been reached with current content to qualify for the additional scrutiny and critical commentary leveled on paid content. If site traffic and user participation seems able to support the site business model for paid membership, the webmaster should commence the programming for the required payment portals.
The timetable for the site’s turnover from red to black should include conservative revenue assumptions, evaluation of the competition, reasonable assessment of the market, and emergency and contingency administrative planning. Having these things thought through in advance saves money and time. Plotting these elements and dynamics on pencil and paper can make the webmaster best qualified to make the paid site membership decision.
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