text ads on IH
hey Courtland
I'm trying to monetize my niche web app (http://colormind.io), and I'm considering selling text ads similar to IH since you've mentioned that it's a much easier source of revenue.
Do you sell your ad slots on a CPM basis or a flat rate month-to-month? Which affiliate programs do you have the most success with, and are there any you'd advise against?
I actually sold ads on a week-to-week basis, and I charged a CPC rate based on estimated numbed of clicks. This estimate came from past ad performance. So a weekly text ad might cost $200, because I charge $2 CPC and estimate 100 clicks/week.
As for affiliate programs, I used a variety of random things, most notably Amazon. None of it really moved the needle compared to selling text, newsletter, and podcast ads.
wow, those are amazing CPC rates. Do you have this arrangement with codeforcash/placeit? I thought those were just affiliate links.
Nope, not affiliate links. Also, I'm not quoting exact prices, although my prices were similar.
The only way to find out what prices you can charge is to get to work making sales and gradually raising prices. I didn't start charging these prices on day #1. Instead, I spent months talking to sponsors on the phone, over email, via chat, etc. and trying to close deals.
[off-topic] congrats on Colormind, love it!
Suggestion: try to add "deep learning" in the title. There are many palette generators, and "smart" is vague. I only tried it out because I thought there was a bit of a Deep Dream artist there concocting the mixes ;)
When the title came up on Buffer, I changed it to "Colormind - deep learning for color palette generator."
thanks for the suggestion! I think this might depend on audience - I actually changed it after a few people asked me what "deep learning" meant.