website traffic

[JoeD]

Can anyone tell me how much traffic a website needs to get to make money through advertising? is it 100 visitors a day or 500 or 1000? My sister has just launched a website and she is getting 120 visitors per day (70% new visitors) which I think is good for only being a month old. Now she's got to decide whether to spend some money on marketing it or not.

 

[Twizzle]

To work out any return on any investment, you must first know what your investment is.

You'll need to know what the set up cost is and then what the running cost is.

Then you need to work out your return from advertisers ect, to see if it is paying for itself and then making a profit and is that profit worth the time you are putting into it.

Its just not as black and white as knowing how many hits a day.

 

[Willow]

Joe, tell your sister to try google ads first. The returns will be very minimal, but it will give you an idea. Plus it helps with search engine listings.

The corporate advertisers have been very tight for the last two years - It is far from a recession proof industry. Although we're hoping things will change for the better as the economy improves.

To answer, 120 visitors a day is a very small site. Encouraging for a new site - but generally speaking, only friends will advertise on it. Very difficult to put a figure on it as there are many other factors such as the website's content. But advertisers tend to start looking at sites with 1000+ unique visitors per day. With LU, I used to think 30,000 unique visitors per month was the magic number, but we surpassed that a long time ago and we're still haggling with advertisers.

With agencies, be cautious - as in life - be wary of deals with anyone asking for money. IMO, dealing direct with people you know (and without middlemen) is best.

The best advice is to work hard at building the website and be patient. Again, it depends on the content, but it can take years before the website starts to earn a reasonable income.

 

[JoeD]

She hasn't spent any money on it just her time. I guess what i was really asking is, is there some sort of standard for website advertising - ie 100 visitors = x amount income, 1000 visitors = y amount, 10000 visitors = z amount.

 

[JoeD]

Thanks Willow,

She knows she is small now but her dilemma is she doesn't know how much she should invest in marketing because she deosn't know how much her potential income will be. No point in spending $10k on marketing and increasing her visitors by 10 times if it still won't make her any money.

 

[Talanexor]

She hasn't spent any money on it just her time. I guess what i was really asking is, is there some sort of standard for website advertising - ie 100 visitors = x amount income, 1000 visitors = y amount, 10000 visitors = z amount.

Advertisers are generally looking at something a bit more specific than that. For example, if you can track some demographic data, that's far more beneficial in negotiating with advertisers.

If you can tell them that 70% of your visitors live in Sydney, for instance, or are between the ages of 20-25 then that starts to become a very useful vessel for advertisers. I don't know what kind of site it is, or what group/s it's aimed at, but some demographic data would be a great start.

Also, consider the size and placement of advertising space. Is the ad visible as soon as someone visits your homepage? Or do they have to scroll down lots before the see a 1cm x 1cm box buried down the bottom of an obscure page? You want to offer enough advertising space that businesses will be able to create effective banner ads, but without deterring visitors.

 

[Willow]

Unfortunately there's no real formula to it. Except for market forces.

Each advertiser has their own budget. And each publisher (website) has their own price list.

 

[Willow]

Thanks Willow,

She knows she is small now but her dilemma is she doesn't know how much she should invest in marketing because she deosn't know how much her potential income will be. No point in spending $10k on marketing and increasing her visitors by 10 times if it still won't make her any money.

Without knowing the contents of the site, we're only guessing. Depends on who it is aimed at, and where. Talanexor is right about demographics. Knowing your audience and/or customers will help to gauge the site's potential. Also it's important to know who else is 'competing' for that audience. At the the end of the day however, the people putting in the hours to build the site up are the only ones that can gauge the site's potential.

 

[JoeD]

Thanks for the input guys. I think the site is awesome and it has great potential as the little competition it has is poor quality in comparison. I guess its a common problem for people who are at the tipping point between hobby and business.

 

[Pierced Soul]

With LU, I used to think 30,000 unique visitors per month was the magic number, but we surpassed that a long time ago

thats pretty f**king cool

 

[Stuff]

Any advertiser with only half an idea would want to know what they are paying per view. Thus, using very basic numbers to explain, if your sister's site has 100 unique visitors per day and they are paying her $10/day to advertise, then they're paying 10c for each person that sees their ad.
It's then up to that advertiser to decide whether whatever they are promoting is worth 10c per view. Doesn't sound like much, but if only 1% of viewers actually become customers of theirs they have paid $10 per customer. If they're selling happy meals at $5.95 then ... and so on and so on, and on, and on, and... you get the drift.

BTW - what is the site?

 

[JoeD]

www.weddingwise.co.nz