What do the experts say about "monetizing" websites?

Posted by Sheila Conlin

If you look at these three websites you see three very different models for monetizing news and information.

In Rick Kupchella's "Bring me the News" site he boasts, in a video tour he gives of the site, that you will not see flashing adds and obnoxious pop ups. But they have sponsors that pay to put their "information" on the site.




But on Jim Hummel's site you have a very different model. He is a non profit news website that gets some funding from a government watch dog group. As well as accepting donations from the public. Here' is how he describes the latter on his site:

"The Hummel Report is in 501 (c)3 non-profit application. We do not sell advertising. We sell good government and we only accept donations."

Our third site is the one where Jill Burke works is much more of what I expected to see on a news and information website. It's a three column page and the column on the right is all about ads. I will be speaking with a manager there when I return from my 3-day shoot in Rhode Island and will be able to elaborate on their monetization plan - after that.

I also contacted a gent who makes his living helping corporations monetize their websites. I have sent him some questions and am waiting to hear back on his analysis of the three sites.
His name is Bill Hartzer. You can see his site by clicking here.
On his site he has this about our topic:

Monetizing Your Website

Just because you have a lot of visitors on your web site doesn’t necessarily mean that your web site is going to make you a lot of money. And you don’t have to have a lot of visitors in order to make a lot of money from your web site–you’ve got to have the right visitors looking for what your web site has to offer.

I realize that there’s a lot of different types of web sites out there–and it seems as if just about everyone has a different goal in mind. Bloggers blog to put their thoughts down online and share their thoughts with others, and other bloggers are passionate about their chosen topic (and thus they typically use Google AdSense to monetize their blog). Online businesses sell products using online shopping carts: their goal is to get someone to buy a product. Still, other web sites’ goals are to simply brand their products (many corporations’ products are too expensive to sell directly online). In any case, if you own a commercial web site you have a purpose for putting up that web site–and you want to somehow make money from that web site. If you don’t have quality visitors who are ready to purchase something or who are in part of the buying process, then you won’t be able to monetize your site; and you won’t make any money.

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2 comments

Derek   says April 7, 2010 at 10:22 PM

It's interesting to compare the approaches these news organizations have taken and the ones taken by the larger news organization like New York Times or CNN. As the larger groups try and find new ways to make money, I wonder if we'll see them adopt strategies pioneered by the smaller groups.

Sheila Conlin   says April 8, 2010 at 9:51 AM

Excellent idea! Part of the problem the big guys have is their "legacy" costs. Yesterday, I talked to the gent who runs the Alaska operation (where Jill works) and he sees his smallness as a real advantage over the "established news operations" in his state. The newspaper has print and distribution costs and does its web site on the side. The TV people have transmitters and broadcast equipment to maintain - plus its web site. He just has the website. The big guys can only use so many of the small guys ideas. This may be a time when the big guys (many of them anyway) get run out of business so only a few good ones survive. And interesting time in journalism. Thanks for your comments - Derek.

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