You're passing on $50k-100k per month of ad revenue from just basic banner ads... at least based on how RPMs were a few years ago. I respect that, definitely not the decision I'd make.
Even assuming a _very_ low $0.01/session, he'd be making $60k/mo.
More realistically, if he decided to do this right, and sell direct ads using something like Kevel, with "promoted" game slots or something on the homepage and search, he could do $10-$20CPM direct since it's a large and well known site with high purchase intent.
Let's say a conservative 4 impressions per page and 3 pages per session.
(12 imps per session * 6m sessions)/1000 * $10CPM is $720k / mo
This is a _very_ achievable number, quickly, for a site that is this close to purchase intent.
I don't understand. Even putting a single adsense ad at a $1 CPM would net him close to $20k/mo. This might be one of the least monetized sites I've seen at this scale.
I see your maths here but Cloudflare hits include any assets, images, and so on so one page views fans out potentially dozens of hits. Cloudflare also includes all bots and non-human hits.
Assuming $0.50 net CPM on one AdSense unit per page view, that would be $70k monthly/$840k yearly revenue. And since operating cost is $100, that's all profit. I'm no AdSense expert but I believe this would be super conservative, maybe an expert could chime in with higher realistic numbers. Even if you don't like advertising there are other ways you could earn money with a site like SteamDB.
Cloudflare stats are inflated. I have a site getting 30k visits a day according to Google Analytics but Cloudflare says it's close to 100k. So I think Cloudflare doesn't filter out bots in their analytics.
I'm not doubting the stats, just saying that Cloudflare is not an accurate gauge of website views and visits. Cloudflare shows 3x the pageviews on my site than Google Analytics.
I know nothing of this, but does .info reduce the numbers, compared to something like .com, all other things aside?
edit: err, it's a genuine question, from someone that doesn't work in/with advertising, and had a .info domain within the first month they were offered, in 2001. Here's a rephrasing: Do ad networks, or customers of those networks, treat TLDs differently?
Yeah I wish I wasn't anti-ad but it's so bad... Ads between every paragraph or ads that pretend to be a virus so some fake Microsoft/Amazon scammer can get you to call them.
It's funny I wonder about the influence of ads too like you by using ad block experience a better internet (no influence on behavior).
There's a hijacking thing too of intent, at which point I modify websites to hide these above the fold attention grabbers.
My kindle forces you to read an ad everytime you turn it on. I know you could root it, lost money on device, etc...
Agree with you. Ads make sites look bad and I say this as an owner of several websites that run ads lol.
SteamDB looks pretty amazing and sleek without ads. Putting ads would only degrade the user experience and force people to install adblockers or use adblocking browsers like Brave. Kudos to xPaw for keeping his site ad-free for all of us to enjoy.
Simply by the fact he runs SteamDB without monetization, I can safely assume he's much richer than me. I would'nt try to teaching someone who's richer than me how to make money.
More realistically, if he decided to do this right, and sell direct ads using something like Kevel, with "promoted" game slots or something on the homepage and search, he could do $10-$20CPM direct since it's a large and well known site with high purchase intent.
Let's say a conservative 4 impressions per page and 3 pages per session.
(12 imps per session * 6m sessions)/1000 * $10CPM is $720k / mo
This is a _very_ achievable number, quickly, for a site that is this close to purchase intent.
I don't understand. Even putting a single adsense ad at a $1 CPM would net him close to $20k/mo. This might be one of the least monetized sites I've seen at this scale.
Respect.