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Ask HN: Converting traffic into revenue on a NSFW site?

8 points by YuriNiyazov ↗ HN
We just launched a slightly raunchy content site (just text, no photos - www.dearxdiary.com ) that is getting some traffic from NSFW and Sex subreddits. We slapped AdSense on it. The CTR is awful, and additionally, the ads are either "public service", or mostly irrelevant. We don't want to display porn ads - we want to make it so that people bored at work can browse it. We are looking into some other ad networks, which seem to have longer turn-around times and manual approval processes, so we are racking our brains in the meantime.

What other ad networks have you guys had success with?

What other information should I provide here so that you guys have a better picture of what's going on?

Any other ideas on how this thing can make money?

5 comments

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true_religion
I've worked in this industry. Congratulations, you have what a lot of people dream off--content that can easily be categorized, tagged, and used to make targetted ads.

I'd suggest you get a system to figure out what content a post is related to, then use CPA ads on it.

You'll have to essentially roll your own ad network for this because the major players have really poor support for targeted ads.

If CPA doesn't work out for you, it means your users aren't motivated to doing anything. However, CPA usually works.

By the way, Adsense doesn't allow NSFW traffic so you may get booted from the system if the NSFW community takes over your site and gears it in that direction.

proexploit
First, I'd remove the ads you've got right now and concentrate on gaining additional users. When I visited the page, it was running a banner for Netflix, a banner for Bathroom Vanities and text links to Bathroom and Bathroom Show Room. None of those are relevant and I doubt you'll make a significant amount of money from them. As for which ads to use? It's hard to say yet but I agree with true_religion that CPA is probably the way to go with this niche, just don't make it more prominent than your content.
true_religion
Yeah it was running a StockTwits ad for me, but that's because since the DoubleClick deal, Google has been showing ads not solely based on the content of the site, but also who the user is.

I get StockTwit ads all over the place because I search Google for stocks, and stock info.