How to monetize a site with variable user content?

[legato]

I have a website http://www.aggreddit.com/ which allows users to select and quickly view the popular links from reddit subreddits. I was originally using AdSense, but serving was disabled due to the links (content from reddit which I have no control over).

Is there any way around this? People are after all only getting the content they request! Or can anyone suggest alternative advertisers?

I'm not looking to make big money from this, but visitors are growing and I'd like to be able to work on more ideas I have for the site.

[trcollinson]

Wow, this is really a neat product. I see so much potential here! It might be an uphill battle. Heck, a lot of good ideas are an uphill battle. Keep going!

Now, as for monetization. AdSense is simple and certainly ubiquitous but it is not the only game in town. There are a lot of advertising networks that pay very well. I would imagine that if you got your user base up you could have some very direct advertising areas.

One thing I would push for quickly is a way to ingrain the advertising a bit closer to the content. If you can do so in a elegant way, I think you'll be onto something. I imagine a "story" at the top of each reddit feed actually being a paid advertisement. You can even mark it as paid, no need to try to trick people into clicking on things. If you can find a way to target the "lists" with content specific ads, I think you'll have a big win. It's not as hard as it seems.

I, for one, will be using your service.

[unsquare]

Could probably get a few bucks out of ; http://projectwonderful.com/ (nsfw friendly) until you compartmentalize the content properly for adsense to not flag/ban you.

[mp4box]

Off-topic: You might wanna sanitize user input

http://www.aggreddit.com/?r=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28%27xss%27%29...

[legato]

Thanks! Should be fixed now.

[mp4box]

It seems not:

http://www.aggreddit.com/?r=%22%3C%2Fa%3E+%3Cscript%3Ealert%...

[sarciszewski]

Yikes. :)

OP, you might want to check out HTML Purifier (if you're using PHP) and htmlentities().

[ColinCera]

I didn't think I'd find this kind of site very useful, but after playing with it for a couple minutes I quite like it. Once you've implemented a few more features (e.g., options for filtering, combining, hiding, etc.), I could actually see myself using the site and paying a small amount for the privilege — say, $5/year.

I don't know how many other people would be willing to pay for such a thing (probably not enough for it to be your full-time income, I'd guess) but you could give it a shot and see.