Secrets to Earning $1,000+ Monthly With Content-On-Demand [Case Study]
What motivates you to make something a success?
For some of us, it’s curiosity.
For others, it’s financial gain.
And for this Argentinian publisher?
His family.
For 12 years, he’s poured his heart into building a content-on-demand website, first motivated by his son’s arrival.
It became a massive success, but after a solid run, the ad network he relied on started losing its effectiveness. Their payouts just weren’t keeping pace with his website’s growth.
Then, life threw him a curveball: An illness that demanded he generate more income from his site ASAP.
That’s when he discovered Monetag.
Monetag offered CPM advertising that paid more than other ad networks. After making the switch, his earnings jumped to a comfortable $1,143 monthly.
So, grab a coffee (or mate, if you’re in Argentina!), as we take you through this publisher’s story –– his 12-year ride, best content-on-demand tips, and how he switched to Monetag to make serious cash when other ad networks left him hanging.
Key takeaways
- Site type: Content-on-demand website
- Traffic acquisition strategy: Organic SEO
- Monetization format: Popunder
- 5-week results:
- Top GEOs: ES, MX, PE
- Total impressions: 997,553
- Total profit: $1,208.078
- Average CPM: 1.24
Background: How our publisher got started
12 years ago, our publisher was going through a lot. He was expecting his first child, about to finish his graphic design studies, and his country was struggling.
He knew he needed to think creatively to provide for his family and overcome these challenges –– and the solution presented itself while he was surfing online:
In 2012, I was scrolling fan websites about movies, and I thought, all this work cannot be free.
After some research, he learned many sites were making money with CPA advertising. He thought:
If they can do it, I can too!
And so it began.
Getting set up: Tools and tactics
So, what did it take to set up his site?
According to him, not much.
In his words,
At first, the economic investment is very little. All you need to create a website of this style is time and willingness to learn.
He started with Blogger as his first site. Besides written content, he decided to record short videos about films and chose VK as a video player because it was cheap. Then, he dedicated time to studying and trying things out to see what would work, learning through trial and error.
In those early days, he also focused heavily on research. In particular, he focused on learning about organic SEO –– a cheap and effective way of getting traffic.
His research taught him two important things that shaped his approach:
- Content had to load fast
- He had to use as few ads as possible to reduce bounce rates
Traction and scaling
Once he had nailed the fundamentals, our publisher shifted his attention to gaining audience traction and monetizing his site.
Traffic acquisition
He built upon his initial research to attract traffic to his website. His new strategy followed 3 core pillars:
- Competitor SEO: Study competitors to figure out why they rank in the top 10 on Google SERPs
- Ad limits: Limit the number of ads on online content
- Loading speeds: Keep loading speeds fast, always
He notes that this strategy was a long game and did not yield instant results:
It took me almost 2 years of work practically with very little income.
Monetization
In the beginning, he experienced success with CPA ad formats on different ad networks, but this setup deteriorated over time.
He states that publishers were forced to use more aggressive advertising tactics that required upwards of 30,000 daily visits to generate decent income:
At first, the most profitable was CPA, but over time, everything changed, and we were forced to use more aggressive advertising, and worst of all, you need more than 30K visits per day to have a decent income
The problem was suddenly aggravated when our publisher experienced an illness that demanded he make more income. He started trying other networks to generate more income with mixed results until he discovered Monetag:
“I worked with many networks. But, due to an illness problem, I had to look for another company to try to generate more income.”
I managed to generate 25% to 30% more with Monetag than with another network I tried, this is helping me a lot because I am going through a complicated time with my health.
It’s clear that finding a reliable ad network was important for our publisher, and he wasn’t disappointed with Monetag. He shared more about his experience with us:
“I was surprised at how good Monetag is. They are the company with the best CPM today, I have reviewed their advertising and never found anything that is related to adult advertising, which is essential to avoid any penalty from Google”
Results in numbers
So, how is our publisher’s content-on-demand site performing today?
He gave us a sneak peek into his recent performance between April and May 2024. The numbers are impressive and highlight the success he’s achieved with his proven approach and the support of Monetag.
Between April 8, 2024, and May 16, 2024, his site garnered a total of 974,553 impressions across multiple GEOs, resulting in a total profit of $1,208.076, and an average CPM of 1.24.
Publisher’s tips for running a successful content-on-demand site
So, are there any secrets to running a successful content-on-demand site?
We asked our publisher to find out.
Here’s his top advice, drawing from his decade-long experience:
#1. Start with the right attitude
Our publisher stresses that starting a site isn’t some get-rich-quick scheme. Newbies should be prepared to study, learn, and work before they start making money.
The first thing is to understand that you are not going to generate a quick income, it is essential to study your competition and shape a long-term project. Remember that sometimes less is more, do not seek to be a millionaire but endure over time with a stable income that allows you to live fairly decent.
#2. Brand your site
Instead of focusing on SEO, our publisher decided to focus on building a brand when he chose his domain name. In his view, this helps you stand out and be easily recognized within your target audience.
The name is simply the fusion of two words of movies. Over time, it generates a brand, a name that is remembered within the niche of movies.
#3. Be prepared for Google to change
Over the years, he has adapted to many changes in the industry. If SEO is a core part of your strategy, our publisher warns that you need to be able to adapt to change with Google’s updates.
He handles this by working alone or with a maximum of one other person to stay as adaptable as possible to changing traffic.
“In the last 12 years, a lot has changed, Google is getting more and more complex. It implements more and more regulations.
On the other hand, more sites are investing a lot of money in specialized players, they are like small companies. I have always worked alone or with 1 person because I need to work 100% my way.
If you make a mistake, let it be mine, my traffic has changed, and I have lost 40% of organic traffic by Google regulations.”
#4. User-first content for SEO
Our publisher has been very open about how important SEO is to his strategy. And in 2024, SEO success hinges on understanding search intent.
“It’s essential to solve the intention of search and lower the bounce rate. This increases the time spent by the user and speeds up the loading of the web.”
For the best possible content, he advises against using A.I., instead opting to write by hand to reduce the likelihood of errors:
I have never used AI in my projects, everything is done by hand, each post or video added, the SEO applied to each website is all done by hand, it is a work of many hours, but it really gives me peace of mind to work that way, I feel that the margin of error is smaller.
#5. Optimize your website for users
On top of creating high-quality content, keeping your website up-to-scratch is non-negotiable for our publisher. He emphasizes that the number of ads on the site and the loading speeds have a direct correlation with SERP rankings:
“The loading speed of the site are factors that help to position content in search results. Do not put advertising in the first months. As we know, Google does not like this style of website, therefore, it is increasingly complex to position in the top search results.”
12 Years of lessons learned
Our publisher’s 12 years of experience provide a roadmap for anyone looking to build and grow successful content-on-demand sites. Understanding your audience, delivering quality SEO content, and staying adaptable in the face of challenges are the key components of taking a site from good to great.
And when it comes to monetization, Monetag can be the network you need to generate the income you want.
