Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by MalcolmDiggs 4150 days ago
If you post the site url, I'm sure many of us would be more than willing to post some monetization-advice here for free. Just a thought.
1 comments

Thanks for the suggestion.

---

At the moment, I'm running only ebay ads incorporated into the following areas:

- 2 units per page on category pages like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches

- 2 units per page on brand pages like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko

- 12 units per page on individual item pages (found in the 'similar items on the web' section/slider) like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches/brand/seiko/fs-seiko-6309-50...

- 4 units on a search result page that has no matches like: http://www.lionseek.com/watches?seller_id=-1&has_photo=true&...

---

I have an Adsense account, Commission Junction account, and an Amazon Associates account it's just that none of these have been implemented. I can get self-serve ads implemented quickly. The site is responsive so the ads would have to work with a couple of breakpoints.

An ideal scenario is someone saying 'Stick a XYZ ad unit here stylized in the following way. Stick ABC ad unit here in the following format. This ad platform (XYZ) might help for testing and maximizing revenue.'

If you are confused about what the site is/does then take a look at: http://www.lionseek.com/p/faq

Any suggestions would be TRULY appreciated!

In your shoes, I think I'd start by incorporating generic adsense units in order to get a "baseline". It'd probably be easiest to start with the newer "responsive" ad units that Adsense offers, since those will fit the container you make available, and you won't have to worry about breakpoints and such.

I would run those plain ads for long enough to get statistically significant data on CTR and CPC. Adsense revenue will likely vary widely for a few days and then level-out in a consistent range after a while.

Once you've got that baseline, you have a metric by which you can compare other strategies and options. Then integrating something like CJ/affiliate ads becomes simpler. You just let that new strategy run for a small subset of visitors and see how the revenue compares to your "control group" (the visitors who saw adsense). Then you can be methodical and scientific in your approach, and test all options you have available to you. This is the same method by which you can test other adsense units, other styling options, etc. Split-testing software like Optimizely makes these kind of tests very easy to run and get data on.

Good suggestions - thanks!
The site seems to be marketing products that are targeting men. Perhaps the it's design can better reflect that? Maybe it can better retain customers. Right now it looks a little 'generic'. I noticed the colour scheme for the search page seems inspired by google. I've made <$500 in adsense revenue so no expert here.
You're right - the categories currently on the site are usually more popular with males than females.

To be honest, the design is the result of me fumbling around photoshop. In the future I hope to get a real designer involved ;)