Web-project monetization

Question

What are the ways of monetization educational web-project?

Actually I consider just Google AdSense because it's not very disattractive for users. Can anybody tell me how much users per day do I need to earn $500 per month with AdSense (it would be enough to maintain and develop the project)?

Suggest any other ways of monetization such or related kind of sites.

About project: it's educational site about java (actually), with articles, video and audio lessons, verification of completed tasks and questions-flow (like StackOverflow, but questions about java or about client-side programming and it's very simple now).

Thank you for all answers.

Answer 1

You should find out whether your target audience would find advertising acceptible. If your site is designed to be used in schools then you might find that they'll be put off by the advertising as they fear for what might be put in front of their pupils.

It might be better to provide a two-tier system where the general functionality of the site is available to all, but you provide premium services for those who sign up and pay you some money.

Another alternative is to become a merchant for some other site. For example, linking through to Amazon for educational books/DVDs/software.

Answer 2

There is no way to get rich, fast. If there were, we would all be rich, fast. I don't know about the current click rates (number of visits : number of clicks). Remember: You don't get money just by signing up, you get money when lots of people visit your site and click on the ads.

My last memory is that roughly 1 out of 1'000 visitors clicks on an ad. So to get get $500/month, you need to attract several million visitors per month (since you get only a few cents per click).

My advice: Get a job which pays for your hobby or find a patron to pay you for this kind of work.

Answer 3

It's impossible to say how many users per day you will need to make $500 a month. You need to consider a couple of things:

1. It depends on how much you are getting per click on each ad. Not all ads are priced the same. Viarga, for example will no doubt very low wheres as ads for more expensive items may net you more per click but have less pageviews.

2. Users might not necessarily click on your ads. The percentage of clicks to visitors is always low.

To give you some idea, I run a hearing aid site and I get about 600 unique visitors a day and make roughly $400-$500 a month from adsense.

This may be a bit of a generalization but I'd say that tech/programmer visitors are less likely to click on adsense than non tech-savvy users so you might find it difficult to make money from adsense on a Java site IMO.

Once your site gains some traction in search engines and has some visitors you could think about approaching companies directly about buying advertising space on you pages. eBooks, webinars etc are also a good way to monetize but, again, I'm not sure that'd wash in the teach arena unless you present something new/better/different, which'll be hard.

Good luck!