I'm hoping that there is some interest in the following topic.

I'm looking for good ideas on making our sites more profitable and popular. I'm a bit disturbed with the cost of maintaining sites, the lack of (or difficulty in obtaining) active participation and other 'thangs'.

I've tried Google AdSense... and am not impressed. Are there other ways that you've successfully managed to get Pay-per-click (PPC) to work. Are there better methods than PPC?

What say ye????

I am very interested in this, I have attempted the PPC approach as well as renting adspace (i.e XOOPS banner).

Both heavily depend on heavy traffic. Monetizing my domains sure would lighten the load.

I know it sounds simple, but you'd be surprised by the amount of traffic you can generate to your web site by posting news, comments or site announcements on relevant Yahoo, Google or MSN groups. And don't forget to add links to your site.

Hi George (and biteronboard...)

So how do I find the relevant yahoo, msn, etc. groups and news to post. Is the news a rehash of the newsgroups stuff?

George, do you have a cheat sheet or something you could share to lead a novice like me through these ropes????

hope xoops.org don't mind me posting this.
but i find this quite useful.

Its a contexual style advertising where you can implement in your site and they will highlight any words associated with the ads. words like hotels, travel, cars..etc etc. The forum is the greatest advantage for this sort of advertising.

I am earning fairly from this. its enough to cover the cost of my annual hosting and domain renewal fee.

if you are interested, hope you can register under my reference.

Hmm, this could be of help to me. Im living on disability, struggling to get websites online for a community service, paying for all the programmesdomains etc myself. The begging bowl is shiny from use!

Hi Mark, et al;

I mentioned earlier that one good, FREE way to promote your site(s) is by posting on select Yahoo, Google and MSN news groups. They provide a great way of networking with like-minded individuals on a global level.

There are literally tens of thousands of groups cover just about every interest imaginable. You can find a directory of the groups here:

Yahoo Groups

Google Groups

MSN Groups

Once you've narrowed down which groups(s) you'd like to join and you've become a member, you're ready to begin posting. If the group has a Links section, be sure to add yours to it.

As a courtesy, your initial post should be introductory - a brief hello is usually best, depending on the group. Let the members know who you are and a little about your interests before you start advertising yourselves and/or your site(s).

What you post really depends on your site's content. I run a lot of political and news-oriented web sites, so I usually post links to my latest articles and a brief summary of each. I get a LOT of hits this way. Designers and developers might want to make posts about trends in web design/development, post advice, ask questions, or just join in on the general chit chat. You might even ask people to take a look at a site you're developing to get opinions.

Try to make at least one post a week.

Always make it a point to include a link to your site whenever you make a post. The best place to put it is after your signature.


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Another good, free way to promote your sites is to make use of the RSS feeds that XOOPS provides by adding your site's newsfeeds to Yahoo & Google.

Add To Google

Add To Yahoo

Your site's feed will be indexed and picked up by other RSS sites and propagated across the Internet.

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"If you build it they will come" doesn't necessarily hold true with web sites. The key to getting people to know about you is exposure - let 'em know you're there. Once they're there, the rest is up to you by continuing to provide quality content and services.

More later...

George

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Concentrate on providing good quality content or a useful service, and update your site frequently. Try to encourage community participation if you can.

You might be better off trying to maintain one site really well rather than a whole bunch.

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You can say that again! I am slowly driving myself crazy; it's a nice ride sometimes, but the destination worries me.

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MadFish hit the nail on the head. No matter what you do to build a revenue stream on your site, you have to be able to draw people to the site. The key element here is to figure out what value your site adds to your customer.

Portals -- XOOPS is a portal-builder after all -- offer value through a confluence of content, community and commerce. If you are providing content of value then you need to make sure that you are delivery content that is of good quality and that is updated frequently. If part of your model is the community that forms around your site then you need to make sure that community is actively engaged. And don't forget the opportunity to engage in commerce. Your business may not look like an e-commerce shop, but there are always opportunity to sell goods and services to your customers. Subscription models for premium content depend on...well... premium content.

Regardless of the focus of your site, you need to be actively marketing it. People who aren't customers now need to know that they can be customers. And that involves, as was mentioned above, posting actively in message boards and groups that relate to topics of interest to your customers. If you know who they are and what problems they are trying to solve then you should be able to find the places that they frequent and get your message across.