Wanted: Domain Appraisal skateparks.co.uk (and website)

[alex]

As some will know I launched https://www.skateparks.co.uk about 18 months ago and asked for some feedback (http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/the-skateparks-project-phase-1.133531/)

The feedback was very useful, with some being implemented and some postponed for a later phase.

Since then I've done very little in terms of web dev, but the website has grown organically and now receives 40k sessions / 100k+ pageviews / 25k users per month, and has also gained a number of .gov.uk backlinks (which appear on ahrefs.com but not OSE).

Having had a company offer high £x,xxx to buy and another offer £400 / month to advertise on it, we're about to give it a refresh to improve the design, allow a couple of non-intrusive ads and bring in some new features. However, time is not something I have much of so I'm interested to know what you'd value it at in its current state and what features you'd include to add value. Rather than adding featues would you focus on increasing traffic?

 

[accelerator]

Are you looking to sell it or do you want to improve it and keep it?

 

[alex]

Are you looking to sell it or do you want to improve it and keep it?

The goal is to get it earning >£1k per month and keep it. However I am open to selling, it's always nice to have a reasonably liquid asset, and from that perspective want to increase its value. I have a plan to bring in the income, but what I'm particularly interested in here is what other members would prioritise in terms of features to add value or to give some insight into how many x additional visitors adds x to value. That sort of thing. Offline, someone has suggested that it may have already reached its maximum value. What do you think?

 

[philiporchard]

Hi Alex,
Well done. A nice looking site, and good to hear traffic is on the up!
I'm sure a few ads won't hurt. That's probably the best way to monetise it.
Apart from that, I don't think you need to do too much more - like you say, there's a ceiling for how popular a directory site like this is going to be.

 

[Murray]

I'm interested to know what you'd value it at in its current state

Having had a company offer high £x,xxx

Apparently high x,xxx

It's hard to say since you haven't monetised it, how come you haven't up until now btw?

I wouldn't worry about non-intrusive, if you want to make any kind of money with stuff like adsense you have to slap the biggest possible ads on, preferably right in peoples faces when they go on the site and next to a menu they're likely to need to click on

 

[accelerator]

They say that money is always in the e-mail list, and they are right. So, I guess my advice is start building an e-mail list. Then you can be more appealing to advertisers and run offers yourself.

Also, start a YouTube channel as that could be very popular. Think of a way you can get skaters to submit the video for you so you don't have to spend time producing it yourself.

I hope that helps.

 

[martin-s]

First up, congrats on getting the engagement you have already. 25k uniques a month is not to be sniffed at

Financially, because it's community based, I'd guess you're always going to be best off looking at advertising and affiliate earnings.

As you said yourself in your previous post, bringing local skate shops onboard for advertising would seem to give you a good shot at monetising at a more granular level. Your product is good enough to do that now. You shouldn't wait any longer!

Looking at the company interested in advertising, who else similar might you target? Accelerator is right to consider your email list too, not just for advertising in the newsletter, but for solo ads if you have permission.

Traffic:

• Building out content for high performing pages, using the search console analytics to identify new target phrases (but you're probably already doing that)
• Specifically looking at "skateparks near me". "Near me" searches do big numbers (you rank number one already, but you'd do better to create a dedicated page with a better match on meta desc, to optimise CTR.
• Hell, SERPS CTR optimisation goes for all pages
• You're pretty weak on Facebook right now, but looking at the potential audience, it has the potential to give a huge traffic boost. With my mission to grow a page to 100k likes within 12 months, I've learned a lot on this if you want to speak privately about it. (1/4 of the way there, almost 6 months in)
• Likewise, it's crazy not to have a forum, or at least allow comments on park listing pages - these are the two easiest ways you can add UGC.
• The skate park listing pages are a bit empty. With your 'view members' page, are you planning some sort of social element? Skaters sign up for profiles, rate the parks they visit, arrange meetups, stuff like that?

Caveat: I know nothing whatsoever about skating

 

[alex]

Hi Alex,
Well done. A nice looking site, and good to hear traffic is on the up!
I'm sure a few ads won't hurt. That's probably the best way to monetise it.

Thank you. Yes I think that'll be the next step. But do you think banner ads are really that affective, or would you think something more like affiliate?

It's hard to say since you haven't monetised it, how come you haven't up until now btw?

Good question. Initially I refused ads because I was focusing on building a quality site that would not put off users. I think ads are probably now a good option as per above so not really any excuse considering the time and investment actually getting the site together. There have been a few other offers to monetise, such as integrating with a third-part shop, but right now it's time vs return. There's a big skate shop offering an affiliate set-up, or CPM ads at around £400 / month. Trouble is knowing which one works, but I guess I'll have to try to find out.

my advice is start building an e-mail list... Also, start a YouTube channel as that could be very popular.

I looked at these, but the time and effort of running a YouTube channel is just not worth it in my opinion. Mailing list could be good, but I'd have to offer something they actually want to read. People like the site to see skateparks near them and are less interested in the others.

@martin-s thanks for the tips and advice. Yes the member features is an idea for another phase which was started and not completed. I'll focus on Facebook for sure.


Okay so actions to get started are:
- Build Facebook
- Add some ads
- Build the member area that includes mail subscription

Let's see where that takes us!

 

[ian]

Community based so having members vote on their favourite parks, and what is local they may be interested in too (advertising to fast food joints, transport etc).

Also, as said, the email list is key here, allow it to be sorted by local area, update members with new skate parks added, and allow for more targeted advertising for local skate shops etc that don't have a large online appeal.

Because of the design of the site, I'd recommend an ad which blends nicely with the site, so any deals made have to be based around this sort of approach, otherwise google adsense ads etc will start to make the site look cheap.

Well done so far, I'm liking it.

 

[pberry4032]

I added Adsense banners to a forum I run and I can normally make £30 per month which is decent enough for little work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Admin]

Good job. You might do £100 a month on adsense or more or less, in any case, it's quick and easy to find out.

I'm going to give feedback in a different direction though. Think about the sale mechanics now. I'm a buyer of sites and I can tell you that the hardest and most frustrating parts of the process are the lack of ease in transferring the automated earnings. You cannot transfer a paypal subscription for example. So try and keep separate payment accounts for the site so that you may be able to pass them on with the site as part of the sale.

Adsense of course is easy but do ensure you have created unique ad units for the site so you can filter the earnings data by URL