Erim Foster

I think in terms of the Amazon affiliate network specifically, the cons are the low commission and short cookie life. That's the time the cookie your referral URL sets lasts on the person's computer. Last I checked it's 24 hours for Amazon, which is super short, relatively speaking.

The up side is that Amazon converts much better than some random eCommerce site, for the most part. And, you may link to a book other item that'll make you $1, but the person could easily buy $100 from Amazon in the same purchase and you'd make $5. Lots of people shop regularly at Amazon, and it's a huge, trusted brand.

Like Adsense, Amazon is a good way to get started monetizing a website. But if you find you have targeted traffic and people are buying stuff, you'll probably be better off exploring more profitable affiliate programs, trying to set up your own relationships with vendors, or (ideally) creating your own products. But I realize that's not for everybody.

There are a lot of good replies here, but having used Adsense a fair amount in the past (I don't any more) I have a few other thoughts that might help.

There's a component of the Adsense algorithm that determines what you'll get paid for each click. Google calls this "Smart Pricing," and I believe it's similar to the Quality Score they give landing pages for Adwords ads (the other side of the contextual advertising system that is Adsense).

You can get a general, albeit often inaccurate, idea of the per-click average charge for an Adwords click by looking at specific keywords in the Google Keyword Planner. Bear in mind, the info you're shown for traffic and charge per click (CPC) can be wrong.

But, Adsense publishers are paid a portion of what the advertisers pay Google per click, minus whatever discount Smart Pricing may calculate. This can vary over time, based on the assessed quality of your page, the conversions of the traffic you send, etc.

Others have mentioned that you might not have a lot of control over what ads are displayed on your site. You have some, and you can white/black list domains, etc. But, also keep in mind that re-marketing, i.e. displaying ads personalized to a certain user based on their past behavior, is a huge part of these display ads, and growing. So, you'll likely not be aware of that, or have any way to know what these ads are.

The main benefit of Adsense is it's ease of use. If you have a high traffic site, it could potentially lead to a significant amount of income. Or, it could pay your hosting or your electric bill.

For most people though, if you're interested in a long-term and stable strategy to make money online, you probably be best served by following a content marketing strategy of identifying your audience, creating content of value for them, building a relationship, an email list, and creating your own products. Also, multiple traffic sources are as important as multiple income streams.

That is the million-dollar question, for sure. That's something I'd thought about, but obviously not enough. I think I was focussing more on the added value of enhanced features than the full scope of curation and authority. Obviously, it's tough to compare to PRI there.

Mainly I'm trying to think of an interweb idea that would add value to the community, and I thought this one was worth trowing out there.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody, I appreciate it.

Rebecca Norman wrote:If making money isn't your purpose, what if you contacted the above website and offered to volunteer for them? Maybe just a single aspect at first.

That's a good question. Mainly because it would be much easier to do with software designed for it as opposed to doing if from scratch. And I would prefer it be my own project so I could control how it evolved, mostly because I think it's a cool idea.

But if there are any Ruby on Rails developers out there who want to volunteer their time to permacultureglobal.org, that seems like a great cause.

Hi Dan, thanks for responding. I think you make some excellent points and mention a couple of the key issues with the whole idea.

As far as improvements, I think the map function could be improved quite a bit by having it better integrated and showing listings labeled by category. Also, the profile pages could be a lot better, including social media profiles, reviews, blog posts, video, events, classifieds, etc. Much of it would be enhancing what PRI already does. So hopefully not reinventing the wheel, but building a go cart. This would also be a dedicated directory site, so it could be extended and customized over time according to what people need.

As far as funding, I can build the site relatively easily. I should mention I'm not going to code all this from scratch, but use directory software built for this purpose. That's the number one reason it would be possible without a ton of work.

Hosting is no problem since I already host sites. The main investment would be my time, which would not be a lot to set it up. In the event it became popular, it would likely become a fair amount of work. At that point I would probably think about a Kickstarter, trying to monetize it with premium listings, some advertising, etc. Directories are not renowned for making a lot of money. I should say that any advertising would be limited and there would always be free access. If profit was my motivation, this would be the wrong project.

Seems to be that we can build great sites with amazing functionality, it all falls down when people don't participate and keep their information updated.

Absolutely. This is an excellent point. I guess that's what I'm trying to determine here. It's really a question of whether an enhanced version of Permaculture Global is something people are interested in and would use.

Hi all,

I have this idea stuck in my head to build a global permaculture directory, and I'd love some feedback to see if that's something that would be of interest to people here.

What I'm thinking of would be something along the lines of the Projects section of Permaculture Global http://permacultureglobal.org/projects, only (with all due respect) much better; i.e. mobile friendly, easier to use, better design, many more features, etc.

It would provide a place create a profile for yourself, your projects and/or your business and build content (like the /projects site). But it could also be extended to create and market events and classes, offer classified ads for people to sell/trade goods and services, sell land, and most anything else you can think of.

I came up with this idea mainly because I've been learning about permaculture and also planning to take a long trip through Latin America soon, and I want to try to visit as many permaculture projects along the way as I can.

And, I just think it's a cool idea. But cool ideas are not exactly scarce, so before I get ahead of myself and put a bunch of work into building something there's not much interest in (been there, done that), I figured I'd run it by Permies.

I've been doing website development and SEO for years, so if there's interest in this, I'm willing to build, host and maintain it. I don't know a lot about permaculture yet, but I think it's definitely the future if we have one and I'd love to create something that would serve the community.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you might have.

Hey, thanks Lorenzo. I'd read the first thread, but didn't know about the second. Much obliged.

You live in a beautiful place, by the way. I had to Google it. Someday I must visit Italy.

Cheers.

Hi all,

I'm a permaculture neophyte in California (at the moment), and even though I know next to nothing, I thought I'd say hi and introduce myself. Looking forward to learning from this amazing resource and one day having my own place on which to experiment. I live on a sailboat now, so options are somewhat limited. But I know that if human civilization has a future, it's in permaculture.

Thanks!

I love this idea. It's definitely a fascinating subject full of mysteries for the average person. Sounds like an excellent resource.

Alex, I've been doing website development for years. If you'd like any help setting up the website, please hit me up. I'd be glad to volunteer my services.