| Tactic | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Ads are triggered only when users click specific links | Preserves a clean website look and a convenient user experience, which makes users come back |
| Give your CPM some time to grow | CPM climbed up steadily for a while – early dips don’t predict long-term performance |
| Customized ad placement (Popunders were moved to a particular area by request) | Adjusted and limited Monetag Popunder ads proved to be 33% more profitable than the previously located direct affiliate link |
| Clean and maintained website | Keeps pages loading fast, protects the website from possible DDoS threats and traffic overload |
$6.66 K for a Vietnamese Anime Fan Publisher [Case Study]
Did you miss our anime case studies? Bet you did, so here comes one more. Today, we are showcasing a Vietnamese anime-focused fan site that received nearly 3 MLN impressions and earned $6.66 K for our publisher over seven weeks.
Read on for the full workflow, stats, and tips you can apply to your own site!
Our publisher’s brief background
Before we start revealing the main part of the story, let us introduce our publisher.
- Niche: fansite
- Advertising approach: Smartlink with a Popunder ad triggered when visitors click specific webpage elements
- Traffic mix: organic search via Google (primary) + early-stage Facebook fan page (initial boost)
As our publisher told us, he likes anime and his fan website was initially created out of this passion and for himself, but later he developed it into a large project with a growing audience. Even though there are numerous sources of information about anime in Vietnam, he doesn’t really care about the competition and simply continues monetizing his hobby (sounds like a dream job, right?).
Before he started an anime fan site, he worked as a web developer for two years, creating simple sites for clients. The way from idea to first revenue took about 4-5 months. Now it takes 6-7 hours a day maintaining the site, searching for news about anime, and preparing the materials.
After testing direct partnerships (affiliate links with eCommerce brands), our publisher went exclusive with Monetag. In June alone, he earned $4K+ – a 33% more than the $3K/month he saw before! And now let’s find out how exactly.
Publisher’s strategy: step by step
Our publisher follows a lean, repeatable process that ensures fresh anime news hits the site quickly, ads stay non-intrusive, and revenue climbs steadily. He kindly shared the details of his work routine:
1. Spot and publish new content
- Monitoring: our publisher regularly checks major anime portals, Facebook fan pages, and Google Analytics to understand which anime series and characters are most trending right now. He adds:
When deciding on which content to publish, I don’t rely on my preferences or wild guesses – I rely on community trends and the newest popular anime characters.
- Regularity: to capture enthusiastic anime fans, our partner publishes new content every day.
At first, our publisher located his guest posts on a themed Facebook page for a short advertising campaign to get more traffic for his website. Then, once a stable stream of users appeared and they got used to the site, he stopped using ads (as he said, after all, the Facebook page reached only a limited number of people). After that, organic growth began through Google. He added:
Now I don’t use any promotional tools, since the site already has a stable audience. I think that if the site is good, it will attract new users through search engines on its own and retain regular visitors.
2. Implement SmartLink thoughtfully and mind the UX
- Classis setup: as we mentioned, our publisher relies on Monetag Smartlink tied to website links – when a user clicks and the new page opens, a Popunder ad is also triggered.
- + Customization: after launch with Monetag, he requested a specific limited zone for ads, as such, there are not so many ads on his website, so the UX is at a high level.
- Analysis and adjustments: regular checks of important metrics (CPM, impressions, and profit) in Monetag’s dashboard and fine-tuning timing and placement as CPM trends emerge.
- Maintain website performance: our publisher put extra effort to keep pages loading time fast, plus ensured DDoS protection and server optimization for uptime during traffic spikes.
He said:
I think that a good website is one with an attractive interface, fast loading time, no bugs, regular content updates, and communication with your audience (for example, I prefer doing that via comments section or giveaways to the users).
And now let’s get to the numbers and see how our publisher’s effort reflects in statistics.
Monetag setup and performance: May 10 – July 1, 2025
So, first, take a look at the ad format stats (please mind that SmartLink is labeled in user statistics as Onclick):
As our publisher’s manager said about this campaign, “CPM started under $2 but grew to $2.26 in a while, proving tests need time before you judge success.”
And now let’s check the stats by GEOs, showing you the most lucrative ones:
Pay attention that Asian GEOs, where anime is super-popular and the niche is rather competitive, are on top!
Now let’s briefly conclude and see which lessons we’ve learned from this success story.
Your actionable takeaways
And here is how our publisher describes his experience with us:
I prefer Monetag because of its consistent performance, ease of integration, and reliable support. If revenue remains stable, I’m ready for a long-term partnership.
Conclusion
So this success story underlines how strategic Popunders, combined with regular content updates and a focus on user-initiated ads, can produce significant income without compromising UX.
If you manage an anime or any other fan site/blog and value both UX and revenue, it’s time to test Monetag’s profitable formats on your traffic.
Ready to get started? Sign up with Monetag and see what our tools can do!
