Movie Website Traffic

4 Factors Necessary to Make Money on a Website

I wrote previously about how to make money with a movie website but that was about monetizing your movie website. I spoke briefly of ad placement in that article but not in depth. That and three other factors that affect making money on a movie website are discussed in this article.

Content

Without content, no one will come to your website and no one will stay. Your content is housed on pages that also house your ads. Writing constant, interesting content is key (some articles on the subject: 5 Strategies for Writing and Publishing Website Posts Consistently, The 5-11-4 Rule for Posting Content on a Website, and Movie Content: Finding Movie Content to Write about). Interesting content will eventually draw people’s eyes to that page’s ads, if they are the right ads.

Relevant Advertisement

Ads that having nothing to do with the theme of your website will get very few clicks versus ads that are closely related to its subject matter.

If you are running a movie website, a Lexus car advertisement will get dramatically less clicks than a new movie release advertisement e.g. The Five-Year Engagement.

The Five-Year Engagement Google AdSense Ad

The Five-Year Engagement Google Adsense Ad

I previously wrote about the right movie ads here: Google AdSense 300×250 Ads are a Movie Website’s Best Friend.

Choose ad providers that send your site relevant ads. There are numerous, better ones out there besides Google AdSense. Some of them are listed here: Make Money Online and some new ones I found are listed here: 4 Ad Networks: Technorati Media, Value Click, Tribal Fusion, FOX Audience.

Traffic

Without traffic, there is no one to click on your site’s ads.

Traffic supplants even ad relevancy. If your site is getting tons of traffic, even non-relevant ads will eventually get clicks (its stands to reason that somebody will be curious or use one of those non-relevant advertised products and will click to get more information). A case and point of this would be Collider. They get tons of traffic during the week and have a gaggle of divergent advertisements, ads that have nothing to do with film yet the site makes middle triple figures everyday. Why? Great traffic.

Keep in mind, there are other ways to monetize your website besides clickable ads, such as Cost Per Impression ads and Direct Ad Sales.

Good Advertisement Placement

I see ads all over the place on websites, at the top, middle, and at the bottom of them.

Good ad placement begins with placing your ads above the fold of a webpage. It has to do with line-of-sight. Most people look at the top of a webpage first then move down. If your ads are at the top of the site, they will be one of the first things a site visitor sees.

I read in Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets (talked about here: A Professional Web Designer’s thoughts on Websites, SEO, SERP, HTML, and Search Engines) that people (studies were conducted) scan a page in an F pattern: the top of the page from left to right, then down, then back across from right to left.

Placing your ads across that path will properly be beneficial to your ads, your ad clicks, and the revenue you derive from them.

The F pattern is one of the reasons why you see a 728×90 ad at the top of some sites and a large right sidebar with a 300×250 ad on top of it. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an example of this (highlighted in red).

IMDb F Pattern

IMDb F Pattern

Some of the most effective ad placement I have seen has been in a post itself. One such ad placement can be found on Screenrant. They have an ad right in the middle of the article text (highlighted in red), completely blended into the page mimicking the text, its color, and the hyperlink color present on the page as well.

Screenrant In-Text Ad Placement

Screenrant In-Text Ad Placement

Another site, Slashfilm, uses 300×250 ads in the middle of their  articles, no matter what. This ad can be a little off-putting because it sometimes appears on top of embedded trailers but it is directly in the line of sight as the viewer reads the post. If the ad is interesting, they might get a click.

Slashfilm Middle of Post Ad

Slashfilm Middle of Post Ad

Since that ad placement has been there for years now, it must be working.

Conclusion

Content is king but site traffic trumps advertisement relevancy to your site.

About the author

Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook, ProMovieBlogger, and TrendingAwards.

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