100k + traffic per month but struggling to find a way to monetize
Hey Hackers!
I've been building a character creator for six years now and I've got great traffic (4k to 5k user pet day). I've created a Patreon page and have a few patrons that have signed up but I lose as many as I gain currently.
I'm struggling to find a way to improve my offer, to make a product out of the application I've built. I'd like feedback from other entrepreneurs to see through your eyes what is lacking/broken in my offer.
Thanks!
A common way to monetize this type of visual asset is to let users download a png for free but charge for a vector download. This will typically let your “standard” users get what they need for free, since they won’t need a high quality graphic for rolling a DND character or having a visual reference for a book. But your “premium customers” who want to include their character in games or in print will pay to get the scalable vector.
This makes sense. You could also maybe try first two downloads free, something like that
This sounds like a good idea. You can always screenshot to get your PNG, putting a restriction on the SVG download makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
I'd keep it free. 4-5k users per day is plenty to force a paid video ad before the character propagates. I'd guess you'd make about $1000 USD per day, maybe more.
@ObjectionCo do you mean on load when the silhouettes are drawn or do you mean before the user can download the character?
My recommendation would be before the user can download it. I think most people wouldn't mind a 10-15 second video to get a free character. GLHF
Have you tried making a set of options for paying users only? What are users doing with these characters?
Yes, we're working on integrating the Patreon API to have a members section. Some people build 2D games, some are Authors that recreate their characters to have a visual reference, some are RPG gamers that create visuals for their characters.
I honestly find the Patreon model of payment kinda awkward for something like this. Why not just use something like Stripe?
Why do you feel like Patreon is an awkward fit? Can you explain a bit more?
Patreon was the 'simple' option. I'll look into Stripe integration and see if we can make that work. Thanks!
Nice. Do most users use your product multiple times? I wonder if there are users that would be more comfortable doing a one-time payment of $10-20 to unlock some extras. Might be able to integrate Gumroad quickly to test that out.
Yes, I have 14.5% return rate. I'll add that to my list of tests to do, thanks.
First, it's a great product you have developed.
In addition to earn more $$, you can have much more traffic and conversion (low bounce rate,organic traffic) if you improve your landing page.
For the ads, you can try admob, should be enough. You can go with Carbon ads too
Thanks. My landing page currently is the app. I'm thinking of adding more text to put the application into context. I'm going to check out the ads, could be a way to keep it free without burning all the runway.
Just my idea, but you display like 4 characters (random characters generated), and display a button near "create your own character".
I like that. I thought of doing something like that. It might feel less confusing when users first land on the page (some don't know what to do).
can we see some of these statistics? can they be broken down a bit for me?
also, i was featured on patreon once:
https://blog.patreon.com/monetization-strategies-bitcoin-pub
so, a lot of my thoughts about that platform sit there. it was a very good one, but, you had to really test-drive the rewards and the pricing. i shit you not, if it took us a while to figure out the right amount of rewards and their individual pricing (and if you could logistically manage them)!
the kicker was having a few $1,000+ pledgers for shoutouts on other channels. those held things together and we were eventually making like $12-15k per month. insanity-mode.
but, it was hard to keep that up and despite those numbers, we pivoted. maybe we did this wrong. only time will tell. lol.
Found a typo in the link above (404) for those who want to check it out: https://blog.patreon.com/monetization-strategies-bitcoin-pub/
ah, thanks for that! 🤦🏻♂️
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. What stats do you want to see exactly? My traffic went 10x in 3 years. It climbed up slowly. Returning visitors also slowly grew from 9% to 14.6% today. Avg. session duration went from 4:21 to 5:30 today. Bounce rate is pretty stable at 16%.
have you experimented with the prices?
Not yet, I was told I should increase them for 'perceived value'.
it doesn't matter what you were told.
it matters what you decide to experiment with (and the time boxes and outcomes).
run the experiment just like you would a middle school science project:
rinse repeat.
we did this for months/years.
Oups, forgot the important link! You'll find us at https://charactercreator.org/
Hey, just wondering what decision you ended up making with regard to monetization
I'd look at the Canva model. You have plenty of options for every Category. Have a few premium items under each category. For instance, analyze the most popular items under each category and make that premium - so the users have to pay something like $.50 to access that item. Or, users get access to all premium elements for a $5-$10 per month fee. I believe the money you make can add up over time.
Feel free to give PurpleAds (https://purpleads.io) a try.
Does PurpleAds work around ad blockers?
Not yet
With that amount of users there's always room to monetize. I'd go with Carbon ads, which are not too intrusive and target the design crowd, or offer a premium option for the svg as @Harrjm suggested.
Sounds promising! I'll look into it.
You can lease one of your pages to advertisers. They pay you monthly rent for space on your website.