The experience of creating and monetizing ShopTop.ru

I want to tell you about my experience in creating, developing and monetizing the ShopTop.ru online store catalog . And how this site turned from a hobby into a source of income. And, since the site has been safely existing since 2003, this experience has accumulated enough.


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History of creation

So, it all started back in 2003, when there was neither contextual advertising, nor exchanges of links, and electronic commerce was just beginning to gain momentum. It was just an idea to create a site with an unclear prospect of how to earn on it. Also, an important requirement was that the site develop and grow independently (the first makings of web 2.0). I decided to make a catalog of online shops. There were competitors, but they were either technologically backward, or they were simply a dump of references.

And, although I rather vaguely imagined how and how much I will earn on this site, the emphasis was still placed on the fact that the site should generate income. Commercial themes were chosen based on these assumptions. And the initial scheme of earnings was based on receiving interest from orders through my site, in other words, on affiliate programs of online stores.

The first site engine was built on the CNCat script (which, by the way, still exists). However, it soon became clear that it would not be possible to build a high-quality website because This is a boxed solution and is rather difficult to modify. Therefore, with the growth of my knowledge in the new-fashioned then PHP language, there was an understanding of the need for a complete reworking of the site. Two weeks of sleepless nights and the site was ready. The database was completely redone, new fields for filling appeared, sharpened specifically for online stores (for example: delivery region, payment methods).

The downside of this upgrade was the fact that we had to completely remove the old database and all online stores that had time to add to the catalog during the existence of the first version of the site. However, a notification was sent to these sites, and the base slowly began to be recruited again.

In the new version of the site, emphasis was placed on high-quality content. All stores were manually pre-moderated. I myself edited the terrible descriptions that added stores. Often it was just a set of keywords. At that time, people believed that with such a description one could get to the search engine tops (which sometimes happened).
The site already had a certain traffic (more than 1000 visitors per day) and the hoster began to complain that virtual hosting could not cope with the load. Then I switched to VPS, which had a positive effect on the download speed and a further increase in attendance.

In 2006, the site was again completely rewritten from scratch. The site design has not changed in appearance, but now the layout was not based on tables, but on (oh, miracle!) DIV'ah. New features have been added, a filter has appeared and parameters have been searched. And the store owners got a new office where they were able to replenish their balance and with this money raise their link up the catalog with pay per click, post banners and news on the site.

And so, most recently, in the fall of 2010, the site underwent another reincarnation. The design was completely redone, it became more convenient and clear. Were added thumbnails of sites, changed the system reviews and ratings. Well, there have been many minor changes. And plans for the future - the creation of the forum.



In the process of designing various sections and functions, many questions arose: how to do this or that thing. For example, how to sort reviews: new or old at the top? And over time, it came to an understanding of what to do for people. The first thing to think about is that it is convenient for visitors. Often, it is better to abandon the complex functions in favor of simplicity and ease of use. And then there will be happiness.

Promotion

As soon as the site was created, there was a reasonable need for initial content filling. For this was chosen method in the spirit of guerrilla marketing. The main competitor anonymously bought a database with emails of online stores. According to which spam was successfully conducted with information about the new catalog. Stores began to be added little by little, the site gradually began to appear in search engines for various requests. Also, to increase the rank, the stores were asked to install the 88x31 catalog button on their site, which in the future allowed them to accumulate a rather high TCI and PR.

No special actions were taken to promote search engines; everything happened by itself. Attendance gradually grew, the site began to go in search for quite bold requests, such as "shop", "online shopping" and others. Stores were added with enviable regularity, 5-10 stores per day. And to test them, we had to hire a moderator.

Recently, I still engaged in a targeted search engine, which attracted a special person. The goal is to double the traffic. Let's see what happens, but now I can say that such cooperation is useful, because many small but annoying shoals were discovered.

Monetization

We have come to the most interesting question - how can we make money on the site? As I said earlier, I did not seriously consider the site as a means of earning. Earned at that time on other partner online stores. But over time, the site began to bring quite a decent income. How many I will not say, but I will say that you can live on yourself quite well and not work on other jobs.

When there was no contextual advertising, the main income - affiliate programs and direct payments from store owners for raising their site in a catalog, didn’t bring much. When contextual advertising (from Google and Yandex) appeared, I started posting it. And she showed (and continues to show) a good result and became the main means of traffic monetization. The key role here was played by the commercial theme of the site, which affected the fairly high cost of the click (there is nothing to compare).

Next was the experience of selling links. I, at one time, placed the code for Sapa and began to look with pleasure as they were snapping up a hundred links a day. Counting the possible profit (if you sell 10 links from each page), I already began to present myself as a millionaire. However, after a month or two, when the site’s TIC sharply and steadily began to fall from 1200 points to 600 and PR5 dropped to 3, the prospects seemed not so bright. So that the site does not die at all, it was necessary to temporarily refuse Sapa and use it in the future with extreme caution, selling links expensive and scarce. In general, judging by the latest trends, search engines have begun to actively deal with purchasing links, so this way of earning and its prospects are very doubtful.

Also, on the site, I offer media banner advertising, but it is reluctant to buy it. For the sale of banners, I think it is necessary to have traffic from 10K visitors per day.

I tried a lot of things for a living. These are Soloway banners, affiliate programs from Quatrix, Runner, Rorer and a lot more. The result is one - the more advertising, the more clicks are sprayed and the income from the context decreases. Instead of increasing profits, often there was only a decrease. And at the same time, the site becomes like a Christmas tree. In fairness, I must say that I was pleased with the results from Rorer, the rest of the programs did not impress me.

findings

1. Make websites for people with quality content and really useful.
2. When developing a site, first of all think about the people who will visit it, because they are your breadwinners. If they are satisfied, you will be fine too.
3. Even if the monetization model is not clear, keep doing your job, over the years it will surely bring you success.
4. Constantly improve the site by the method of small everyday improvements. Also, sometimes a serious upgrade of the site is required, as the technologies do not stand still.
5. Experiment with the placement and appearance of contextual ads, until you achieve optimal results on the income / acceptability of appearance.
6. Pay a lot of attention to usability (convenience of the interface), this is the future and this is an important competitive advantage.