Best way to monetize a "Natural Health" site?

avatar33

avatar33

e-Hustler
Dec 5, 2009
3,838
52
48
Calgary, AB
Hey all,

so I have been doing SEO and producing content for a new Natural Health site and I'm slowly approaching the 1st page.

My main keyword has 30k exact searches a month and my 20+ longtail keywords have close to 30k as well (combined).

If I manage to get 1st page for all of them (which I'm sure I will) that's some decent targeted traffic.

Now what would be the best way to monetize this baby? It's my 1st Health site and I know there are a lot of Health pioneers in here so any advice would be appreciated. Should I stick a few health-related affiliate banners? Stick an Adsense banner on homepage + inside all articles? Both? Sell the site? I'm thinking the 1st option would probably be best but what kind of affiliate links would be good for a "natural" health site? (people are coming to look for natural remedies & cures to common problems)... I couldn't find anything decent on CJ & CB, is there any trustworthy affiliate network that is particularly well suited for this particular niche?

For your time:
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Hey Avatar, you have some good ideas man. Most of the popular natural food sites have affiliate programs. There's really only one way to know for sure is test. No one is going to hand you what's converting for them you just gotta try a few things and see what works best for your traffic.

Thanks for the pic!
 
In all honesty I would shy away from the Adsense aspect. There are a lot of people that love the program and will defend it but I have really yet to see it outproduce and outprofit affiliating with straight sales of physical products. If you are creating an authority site with quality content then you wanna really offer legitimate advice, review products, and provide value through your product recommendations.

In my opinion, the best Adsense sites out there are ugly, with less than excellent content, and the type of site where users WANT to click away and get off the actual site.

I know you Avatar, and I know you have been in the game for a while...so I am pretty confident you arent putting all this time, money, and effort into the site in hopes that it heads that direction. It seems to me you are building an authority site that will be valuable to the user, and those kinds of sites are rarely built successfully around Adsense.

On that note, I love this place and I love being here...so I am in no way going to shit where I eat. However, if you want to talk in further detail about some specifics and potential offers, please feel free to PM me and we can take it from there privately.

Best of luck with the new site, and good luck with trying to dominate the first page.

PS-her breasts look awfully lopsided...Poor Girl...but we got a product for that ;)
 
@DC how do you know me so well? You are right, I am trying to produce useful content as much as possible. Health is a very sensitive topic to me. I don't want to be giving sick people shitty information and profit out of it. If I can make some good money while providing useful info, that's good for the wallet and the spirit. Becoming rich while feeling good about yourself, how can it get any better? :)

I agree about Adsense though... the thing with Adsense is that it's the easy way out. Launch a site, rank it, stick your banners on all pages and move on to the next site. You know adsense will always give you a steady revenue for the most part... with AM you have to keep flipping around offers and spend hours testing shit out... but eventually you make more money so it's worth it if the niche is AM-friendly. Like I said this is my first Health site so I'm still learning...

I actually have different category pages for each symptom/condition, so I'm thinking of sticking targeted offers on each one... (ex.: Men's Health could have Workouts and Sexual Tonics, High Cholesterol could have Weight Loss offers, etc...) I think this would be the best monetizing model, but I'd like to find a good affiliate network that has them all, instead of using a bunch of networks.
 
avatar33 said:
but I'd like to find a good affiliate network that has them all, instead of using a bunch of networks.
Click to expand...

This will be very difficult, if not, impossible. I would suggest signing on with 4 or 5 good networks (ie, W4, Copeac, Mundo, NB, CB, maybe even Market Health which is not an affiliate network but an affiliate program). Then run your situation and website by each affiliate manager at each network.

Assuming your AM is not a noob, they will most likely have an idea of some decent offers for your website. This really won't be as many offers as you might think -- so just take them (maybe 5 - 8) and start rotating them in.

That's not a lot of work considering the premium you will generate over Adsense. Plus rolling with a few networks gives you some bargaining power and lets you benefit from fierce competition in the CPA industry.

Also, was there an option to capture email addresses and monetize them on the back end? I would definitely do that either way.
 
@avatar - I have a site in that niche and I found the best way to monitize it was to use the site to build a list by offering free 8-10 page guides on natural cures for different problems.
With adsense they click and they're gone and you get jack squat. Build the list and build up the relationship - you said you're going to offer genuine, valuable information so that would work well in an email campaign. 5 or 6 useful updates to your list then toss them an offer.
Good luck!
 
I too have a couple of health related sites. I'm also considering a couple more. Being older than Methusala I can see what problems people have with health. My Dad (84) has Cancer, Heart problems, and his Bone Marrow is shot(from chemo).

Wife went through radiation therapy for breast cancer, and I've had two spine surgeries.

All in all I have a a lot of health related topics to choose from. And yes I could put out GOOD content that people can actually use. I too am interested in providing excellent content and just maybe making some cash from it all.
 
halfpennytoken said:
the best way to monitize it was to use the site to build a list by offering free 8-10 page guides on natural cures for different problems.
With adsense they click and they're gone and you get jack squat. Build the list and build up the relationship - you said you're going to offer genuine, valuable information so that would work well in an email campaign. 5 or 6 useful updates to your list then toss them an offer.
Good luck!
Click to expand...

I agree with this 100%, especially if you really are offering good content. It gives you a chance to own your customers and re-market to them (unless they opt out).

Plus, if you want to sell the site down the road, your list adds a ton of value to the site, allowing you to charge a premium. A high-traffic site is good, but a high-traffic site with a customer list is better.
 
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