Site Monetization for an Established Community - How do you do it?

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mattgatten

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What a hella-helpful site. So much I'm learning and have yet to learn.

I started a photography related message board / photo gallery (on a dare) more than 4 years ago. Currently we have more than 800 members registered and, based on what cPanel says, about 350 uniques visitors a day. We usually average about 150k page requests per month.

I've tried putting up a few affiliate ads, some amazon, etc. I also have YPN on the site in the thread/forum listings on just about every page. All in all, I get a check for about 60 bucks from Yahoo every 3 months. Every now and then, a member will donate some cash to my PayPal. (It doesn't cover the hosting bill). I would like to at least get it to a point where it's self sustaining. The bonus would be if I could actually profit off of it. I've been so pissed off at that site some times I could just give it away or shut it down.

Sooo, with that, how do you go about monetizing an already established and loyal community that has your 'absolute trust' without chasing them off.

I'm not divulging the site yet so if anyone has some good suggestions that requires seeing the site, let me know. I'll either post it at your request or pm ya.

I'm not gonna be that new guy getting flamed for listing a site on with a 'single digit' post count!

Thanks dudes!
 


First things first, start expanding to attract new members. It's going to be hard to monetize your current ones if they're used to how things are. Second, blend in affiliate campaigns and whatnot into your existing structure. Maybe do a "how to" guide on how to get started w/ photography, with some affiliate links for cameras, equipment, etc.

Write a .pdf report and give it away for free as a way to generate buzz for the site. Maybe host a contest or three to get people interested- do whatever it is you think new members would want to attract their attention. Cleverly blend in adsense/affiliate ads, make everything as transparant as possible, and just continue to expand.

You won't be making big money off of 350 uniques a day to a general content site, so the focus is to expand on it.

and go!
 
350 uniques isn't really enough, unless you're selling something upscale like memberships to secret elite infoz or selling an expensive product like SLR lenses or something.

I wouldn't put Adsense on it... it cheapens the site. Adsense is for bulk bullshit.
 
Actual communities offer some rare monetization methods that every other webpage does not.
Namely, merchandising and events.

How many people here have asked Jon to get a CafePress with the WF logo on a mug or a hoodie? (Seriously, if he doesn't do it himself, I'm just gonna vectorise that logo and sublimation transfer it to one. It's a great logo!)
Surely, being a photography community, you've got a lot of great art floating about the place, and maybe even a few illustrator/designer types as well. See if they're willing to donate some designs that you can put onto things and promote them directly to members.
Mugs, sensible clothing and button badges are things that seem to do particularly well in this way.

Being in photography also gives you another great monetization thing that I don't think many people have thought of here. Development and sales.
Idea 1:See if you can hook up with a proper photography development lab, the ones that do touch up and will blow a 35mm negative up to a billboard. Ask them if they're willing to start a program similar to DevArt's, where they upload a hi-res image (or submit a negative) and the lab can print them out and send them to people. Then split the money 3 ways.
Idea 2:Stock art... People upload the hi-res photos. You have a sales section somewhere else, where advertising and design types who need rarely used or unique photos then go and pay $30 a pop for them. You take $5, the artists take $25... something like that.
Idea 3:Annual calendar. Run a contest on the site asking people to submit photography to a theme. Take the best 12, use them as a calendar. All people who had their images used get a free copy, and maybe give 1st & 2nd place prizes out (polaroid film... that shit's gotten expensive!) and give them January and December placement... Then sell the shit out of the calendar...
Idea 4: Greeting cards. People pay $4.95 for a birthday card here in Aus... I imagine prices are similarly ludicrous elsewhere. Undercut the market by $1RRP ($0.50W/S), and if they're good photos, newsagency chains will flock to them.
 
Ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.

Harvey, you're a friggin' genius. You just gave me enough ideas to hopefully 'keep the lights on' on this site! Profit would just be gravy for me.

Thanks a ton! All you guys! I've noted all the ideas. The cafepress thing is something I can use immediately.

Anyone have experience with them? Reputable? They are on on the Technorati Top 25 but I need to hear it from the troops on the ground. hahaha

Thanks again.
 
The fact that its in the Top25 should be enough, but yeah. Reputable. They are pretty well established in the ground already.
 
Great post, Harvey!

HarveyJ said:
Actual communities offer some rare monetization methods that every other webpage does not.
Namely, merchandising and events.

How many people here have asked Jon to get a CafePress with the WF logo on a mug or a hoodie? (Seriously, if he doesn't do it himself, I'm just gonna vectorise that logo and sublimation transfer it to one. It's a great logo!)
Surely, being a photography community, you've got a lot of great art floating about the place, and maybe even a few illustrator/designer types as well. See if they're willing to donate some designs that you can put onto things and promote them directly to members.
Mugs, sensible clothing and button badges are things that seem to do particularly well in this way.

Being in photography also gives you another great monetization thing that I don't think many people have thought of here. Development and sales.
Idea 1:See if you can hook up with a proper photography development lab, the ones that do touch up and will blow a 35mm negative up to a billboard. Ask them if they're willing to start a program similar to DevArt's, where they upload a hi-res image (or submit a negative) and the lab can print them out and send them to people. Then split the money 3 ways.
Idea 2:Stock art... People upload the hi-res photos. You have a sales section somewhere else, where advertising and design types who need rarely used or unique photos then go and pay $30 a pop for them. You take $5, the artists take $25... something like that.
Idea 3:Annual calendar. Run a contest on the site asking people to submit photography to a theme. Take the best 12, use them as a calendar. All people who had their images used get a free copy, and maybe give 1st & 2nd place prizes out (polaroid film... that shit's gotten expensive!) and give them January and December placement... Then sell the shit out of the calendar...
Idea 4: Greeting cards. People pay $4.95 for a birthday card here in Aus... I imagine prices are similarly ludicrous elsewhere. Undercut the market by $1RRP ($0.50W/S), and if they're good photos, newsagency chains will flock to them.
Click to expand...
 
Harvey, I've got to say man, the calendar idea is fantastic. Note that similar ideas could easily be "ported" to other styles of communities, not just photography. Rep.
 
You get enough page views that you may be able to pay for your hosting with CPM banners, like adsdaq and rightmedia

Better yet, sell your own space. Channel Herb Tarlek and get selling, shouldn't be too hard to find advertisers interested in photogs. There are plugins for just about any BB to rotate ads

Start a price comparison area of the site (not a board section) so your users can compare prices between ebay, amazon and any other merchant with an affiliate program that has a datafeed (you can also just scrape the info), any rookie programmer can set you up.

Start a product review section on the board so your users (or you) can review any recent purchases. If you set up a price comparison area you can link to that, or you can have a programmer write a plugin to add your affiliate id to product links in the posts.

You didn't say whether your community was made up of pros or amateurs. Pros probably already know how to make money online (with their photos) but amateurs may not know of all of the stock photo sites where they can get paid if anyone downloads their photos. Put up a "how to make money with your photos" article with links to these sites. Most of them have affiliate or referral programs.


You really need to build your membership base if you want to make any serious money.
 
you could also add a coupons/deals section with affiliate links to products. Google "goldencan"
 
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