Not sure how to monetize my site. Need advice
Hey fellow indie hackers!
I have come to you in a time of need.
I built a website called similarfont.io which helps web developers and designers find free font alternatives to premium fonts.
I am getting over 10k pageviews per month and it keeps growing, but I don't know how (or if even possible) to monetize the site.
My original plan was to affiliate with a ui kit I really like and place some banner ads on there hoping that through volume some people would eventually click on it and buy thus earning a commission.
Sad to say that it has been up there for two months with no sale.
My last resort is to just sign up for something like Ezoic and dump some display ads.
But I figured I would see if any one had any suggestions first.
Thanks in advance!
Ben
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Hey, I think you can apply for carbon ads. Their ads are more designer and developer-centric.
That's a good idea. It would probably result in a higher click through since it is more targeted
Hey, if it's a free service which helps people i think one option that you can add to your site is Buy me a coffee it's a donation kind of system. Remember not to just rely on this one there are more business models you can use but this one can be one option.
Add pop-up survey on your site with questions like "What they are? For what purpose they need the font? Give options: A. Building website B. Design Website, C. Other, etc. Give as many option as possible so you don't miss any visitors niche.
Display it for atleast for 2-3 weeks.
Evaluate the votes and answers. Then find out what's your majority of audience do and interested in.
Now run affiliate or display ads which matches interests of majority of audience.
Brilliant!
That's a good idea!
It's fascinating. Thanks, @appmetrix
A couple ideas...
The website looks great. I checked out finding a similar font but did not see where to download it. I'm guessing that the next step for me would be to go and google the free alternative as a download? Perhaps offering the font available for download for a low cost.
I like the ideas here from others about supporting font creators to be able to monetize their fonts on your site as well.
It would be no fun to have to put ads on the site because it is so gorgeous as is. Consider collecting email addresses from people before they view the alternatives, and then you can monetize that in an email newsletter using something like Swapstack.
You can sell featured listings to font developers, and some Adsense/Ezoic ads.
Did you create the font lists manually? I am trying to create a font directory but having a hard time collecting all the fonts.
The affiliate ad looks like an ad. Try blending it into the site. Plus it’s very small on mobile. Remove the purple border too.
People will only buy, if the mission they have when visiting your website, is fulfilled in a better way if they spend dollars.
What's the mission of people trying to find "similar fonts"? Are they building websites? Which websites and on which platforms? For e.g. if they are building for wordpress, you can sell them a plugin that they can use right on their website to search and try out different fonts.
It's hard to sell someone a utility like just 'finding similar fonts', so you gotta go one step further and find out what your users are actually doing with it, and how you can save their time by charging some $$.
Great idea though! Onwards 🚀🚀🚀
I would start with "who is my audience" and go from there. In this case, it's graphic designers. From there I would start reaching out to larger companies who have the same customers. Adobe, Figma, Sketch, ...and contact them directly to discuss monetization of your audience. Or larger providers of designer assets: envato, premium themes, etc..These often have affiliate platforms. Global event conferences. Etc.. So many options outside of the boring bannering. ;-)
@bsmitty92 Do you pick these all by hand? Have you seen https://www.typewolf.com/free-fonts ?
In my experience, I usually just check that pdf or google “closest free font to x”
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Also, after browsing for two minutes, I received a “An unexpected error has occurred.” error
Perhaps bundle some of your favorite fonts into packages and create a guide with tips for how to get the most out of them (plus any other value add you can think of). Call this a Premium Package and charge a small amount.
"Buy the Premium Package for $4 and get a shortcut to the fonts you need plus a guide on how to get the most out of them"
Perhaps people would be willing to save time for this tiny amount of money.
Keep track of who downloads what and create a newsletter sharing trends in Font use. Add tips, tricks, and time saving shortcuts. Require membership to get access to this newsletter.
Trying to be helpful but haven't come up with the killer idea yet. I'll keep thinking.
Selling premium fonts? Making them yourself or working with other good font makers to have a commission program with them? Plus there are good advertising networks like CarbonAds. Or selling display spots on your site for font makers to advertise their fonts?