There’s no question that all websites want to grow their traffic. It’s a constant focus for most bloggers and publishers. Because with growth comes greater reach, influence and potential to make money from your site. And, heck, it’s nicebragging rights as well!
But here’s one reason why small is good for publishers. A recent survey by PubMatic shows that effective CPMs from July through September were $0.27 — down 27 percent compared with this year’s first quarter.
Hang on - $0.27?! That’s really, really low. (It means that for each 1,000 displays of an ad, you’ll make $0.27 cents. Not many Starbucks coffees in a day’s traffic for many sites.)
Clickz, however, note that the CPMs are significantly higher for smaller publishers: Sites with under one million page views per month drew eCPMs of $0.61, nearly three times that of sites with 100 million-plus views, where the average price was $0.18.
There are two takeouts for me in this data. The first is that making money online is very, very hard. You need to try lots of ways to make money online - which is why we set-up Revenue Solved in the first place.
The second is that display advertising - which was the focus of the survey - is not necessarily the best way to monetize your traffic. Consider affiliate organisations, widgets, games and other non-advertising ways to monetize your blog or website.
So here’s the pitch: why not get some suggestions using our monetization service and get tailored suggestions for your website.