How a Ugandan Blogger Caught Hype and Earned Real Money on His Movie Fan Site
Hard and long effort brings results, that’s true. However, sometimes, it’s just an art of catching hype – being at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.
This is the story of our publisher, a blogger from Uganda who turned his passion into a reliable income stream, building a global movie and news fansite and mastering monetization with Monetag.
Starting with a simple blog, he grew his site to reach over 336,700 impressions and earn $1,116 in profit in a short time, but that’s not the most prominent thing about this case. What makes it really special is that our publisher managed to do the right thing to make his website traffic skyrocket at a very special moment – during the latest celebrity scandal, namely – that story with P. Diddy that literally blew the Internet up for a while.
But first things first, so make yourself comfortable and we will start with the case overview and our publisher’s background.
Case overview
- Niche: Movies-related fan content and news
- Ad format: Popunder ads
- Main strategies:
- Leveraging trending content to drive traffic spikes
- Engaging audiences through Telegram groups
- Regular competitor analysis to identify content gaps
- Total impressions: 336,700
- Profit: $1,116
- Top-performing GEOs: Indonesia, India, United Kingdom, and Germany
Publisher background: How to build a popular fansite
Our publisher has been blogging for five years––starting it as a hobby to make extra income while at university. Just to let you know the full picture, he also works with Google AdSense and uses Monetag as a source of additional revenue.
Being passionate about movies, he posts reviews and other similar content, as well as news about actors, singers, football players, writers, and other celebrities (and this is why he couldn’t overlook that loud scandal about P. Diddy).
Here is what he says about his activity in general:
What had started as a small hobby soon transformed into a full-time career that supported me and allowed me to explore different niches and build a loyal audience.
Entirely self-taught, he developed his technical skills over time, beginning with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create his first website. As his experience grew, he moved to WordPress for greater flexibility and eventually shifted to cloud hosting to ensure his growing audience would have consistent access to his content.
“My knowledge of web hosting came in handy,” he noted, helping him scale his site to handle more traffic reliably. He continued to strengthen his coding skills by learning Node.js and React.js, making sure to master the technical side of managing a website.
During this time, our publisher experimented with different niches before finding his sweet spot with a movie-focused fansite and Monetag.
Experimentation and monetization with Monetag
As mentioned, our publisher didn’t limit himself to one approach.
He experimented, testing out what resonated most with his audience and what had the best potential for ad revenue. One early success came from his football fan site, where he first began working with Monetag:
“One turning point in my journey was the moment I monetized the site with Monetag. I was working in several niches, but the football one was the first to bring real revenues. That’s when Monetag’s team noticed me, and though it was challenging at first, I quickly learned how to optimize the process.”
Also, our publisher said that his manager made a significant impact into his success, and here is the quote:
I love Monetag now because of you [account manager]. Payment is prompt. You are great.
So, his initial results showed promise, but he knew he needed to refine his approach to increase his earnings.
Focusing on high-demand topics
Aligning his content with popular topics was key to our partner’s significant success. Actually, this is the most interesting part of the case study.
On October 6, our publisher posted about a trending documentary, a huge celebrity scandal, which was a topic of interest for millions of users online. This extremely smart and timely decision brought a sharp spike: 22,310 impressions and $220.65 in profit in a single day.
As you can see from the statistics above, most listed days didn’t bring him too much profit (he uses Monetag as an additional source of income, so it pays off for him in any case). However, when he caught that hype and did the right thing at the right moment – voila, an incredible boost happened.
We highly recommend all of you to track the current trends and do your best to respond to the existing interest of the wide audience. As you can see, this strategy can do wonders.
And now, let’s continue discussing our publisher’s smart approaches.
Choosing an ad format
As he experimented, he found that Popunder ads performed especially well. “Placing the Popunder ads on my index.html and across all my site pages worked best for me,” he shared, reflecting on how this format drove engagement without disrupting the user experience.
With guidance from Monetag’s team, he optimized these placements to boost profitability. Eventually, he shifted his primary focus to his movie site, which consistently outperformed his other projects, as he says, “movie-focused site because of its consistent performance.”
The results of his experiments were clear: his movie fansite became his most profitable venture, with Monetag’s Popunder ads as the primary driver of that success.
Results in numbers
Thanks to the nature of his site, it attracted an international audience, with some regions performing particularly well in terms of impressions and revenue:
- Top impressions: Indonesia led with 127,276 impressions, followed by India with 66,937 and the United Kingdom with 54,589.
- Highest earnings: Indonesia generated the most profit at $437.55, while the United Kingdom followed with a cool $193.44
- Top CPM rates: Germany had the highest CPM at 19.89, followed by Poland at 18.28 and the Netherlands at 11.07, showcasing the value of these regions despite having lower impression counts.
Our publisher’s secrets to success
Our publisher’s strategy for driving traffic went beyond content creation. He actively engaged his audience on Telegram, monitored competitors for trends, and aligned his posts with high-demand topics.
#1. Catching trends to double and triple daily income
Again, the main secret of our partner’s success was a fast and appropriate reaction to current trends. Posting some content about the recent documentary about a well-known musician everyone was talking about was a great decision.
Remember, trends pop up suddenly and disappear fast, but this short period of buzzing can and will bring you additional profit if you know how to use it to your advantage.
#2. Competitor analysis to spot trends
To stay on top of industry trends, he regularly checked competitor sites. “I check my competitors’ websites hourly. It helps me to identify gaps in the industry,” he explained.
This habit allowed him to spot trending topics early, positioning his content ahead of demand. He used tools like Hypestat for competitor traffic insights, which, while not perfect, gave him useful reference points.
#3. Direct engagement on Telegram
His Telegram channels were crucial to his success, “My Telegram channels remained a vital part of my strategy. They helped me share content directly with my audience and provided an easy way to promote new posts,” he said.
By sharing content in multiple groups and channels, he kept traffic flowing to his site. He also used one group to collect feedback from followers, allowing him to tailor his content to their interests.
I also set up a feedback loop through one of my Telegram groups, enabling me to stay in contact with my followers and improve the content based on their input
Final thoughts: Making a hobby pay off
What started as a side project turned into a profitable fansite. With a smart blend of ad strategy, audience engagement, and a nose for trends, our publisher took his movie fansite from a casual blog to a reliable income stream. His case proves that with the right approach—and a little experimentation—there’s real potential to turn a passion into profit.
Who’s to say your own site couldn’t be next?
