I am frequently asked, “Is my site big enough for advertising?” And the answer is, if you want to put ads on your site, there is NO MINIMUM traffic number. However, in practical terms, some networks will only accept sites of a certain size, while others frequently have a minimum payout. AdSense, for example, will roll over all monthly earnings until your balance is at least $100. So, in practical terms, you might only get one $100 check a year if your site was making, let’s say, $9 a month in advertising.
Estimating out how much you could make with advertising is nearly impossible, but here’s a rough guideline. Start by assuming you can earn $1 for every 1000 pageviews. This is called $1 CPM (cost per millle) because in Latin mille means thousand. So if your site gets 30,000 pageviews a month, that’s $30 per month.
OTOH, if you are in a higher-paying niche market (such as automobiles or mesothelioma lawyers) or you sell your ads directly, you can earn more than $1.
I’m not saying that most ad-supported sites earn only $1 CPM, but if you are looking for a wild guess, that’s a conservative place to start.
Want to jumpstart the ads on your site? Talk to us about joining the Surfnetkids Publisher Network.
