Yes, you read it right. Make more money with ugly sites. It’s weird how things work, huh?
First of all, notice how I said “ugly site” rather than “ugly blog?” It seems that a lot of ugly looking sites seem to convert better and will possibly make people attracted to click on your ads. I’m not fully sure how well ugly blogs work because you’re building a readership.
But with that said, readership is sort of the same as membership, right? Well, have you ever checked out that dating site Plentyoffish.com? Looks plain and I think it’s basically a match.com type of site, except they don’t charge a subscription fee. Well, they make their money off of Adsense. Matter of fact, it’s reported they make a six-figure income each month off of Adsense alone!
So, do ugly sites actually make you more money? Ask any super affiliate marketer and they’ll tell you that some of their ugly sites or landing pages tend to convert pretty well. And I know a few landing pages that people own and I have seen them and I can tell you some are just hideous.
Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure none of those people who showed me their landing pages would want me to reveal their sites to you. But you can check some out for yourself, it’s pretty easy to find. Just Google something on the line of “diet pills” and click on one of the sponsored links on the right hand side and you’ll see a few. A majority of those are landing pages for affiliate marketers to sell some sort of product.
Did you do it? You see how some are just ugly, right? Well, they still convert!
Even Tyler Cruz who has recently inserted himself back into affiliate marketing has noticed ugly landing pages convert better. Now, all of these examples that I mention are towards actual websites rather than blogs. But nowadays you can treat a simple blog like a full website and landing page.
Also, one gossip site that I used to go to mediatakeout.com, the site’s set up is horrible and it looks unprofessional and extremely ugly… though, they manage to get hundreds of thousands of unique visitors (if not more) a month and let’s say they make enough from that website to hire staff employees.
As most of guys know, I’m working on a few projects that also include testing out different niches. Well, one experiment is setting up a niche site with a very popular keyword but make the site look somewhat unprofessional to see how well it works. Of course, I’m only going to be implementing PPC ads to see if they get clicked on or not.
You guys can feel free to try this out as well. I’m sure there are tons of blogs that you stumbled across that you thought looked like internet throw up or something, yet, they make some decent money.
Oh, and I found another example in http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/ which uses the very basic and plain default template for blogger. Well, the owner, Peter, makes a six-figure income each year from his sites.
That must tell you something, huh?
So, do ugly sites make you more money? Well, it definitely seems that way but if you really look into it, it’s more about the content that people care for. If your visitor is there specifically for a product, in search of something that need, or for pure entertainment, then these examples will just show you people will not care how ugly your site is; they will still help you make more money.
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Now that I think about it, I can see exactly how this is possible. Nice job for the discovery!
Sly
http://slyvisions.com
Ha! Is this post based on the website I showed you that needed a face lift? Funny stuff. It is true though, ugly sites can convert… after all Jay, that site I showed you has made me decent money and you can testify that my design work sucks big time!
LOL, I’m such a web design snob that I’m not sure I could purposely create an ugly site. But I think I might try!
HelloKits last blog post..two days left to win some goodies
Sly – Thanks man! Though, it’s been known for quite sometime but a lot of AM’s…
Trent – LOL! I wasn’t referring to yours but I guess I can see your point lol. BTW, I never heard back from you on that.
HelloKit – Yeah, it’s hard trying that, huh? But sometimes you just have to lay back and not be so picky about things.
Jay
I also noticed that and it explains why one of my blogs, very ugly, is the top earner among all other projects. It is in French. Look at this : http://destination-tunisie.blogspot.com
Jay, hit me up via email again.
I want to go with some basic stuff to start, and then do more from there.
Thanks
Sell Porn Make Moneys last blog post..Naughty America Billing Issues Resolved
yes, i also notice some ugly site but successfuly. another sample is the google. if you notice, google have very simple search engine but successful, unlike some other SE which is vongacious.
Dilson Decanos last blog post..Adsense For Feeds Is Now Live
How powerful the magic formula of reverse psychology! It kinda reminds me Micheal Hung (or something), the winner of past American Idol. I’m really curious to check out those ‘ugly’ sites.
Yan
Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..20 Possible Ways to Optimize Your Blog
I find ugly sites (actually very simple sites) convert better. They also generate more Adsense clicks as well.
Is it possible the visitors pity the owners of ugly sites and purchase from them in hopes the owner will spend money on a site redesign?
Sometimes it’s all about traffic, what the hell am I saying it’s always about traffic, and Fish has it, their “free” model makes sense as you can see by their numbers.
BlogSavvys last blog post..Group Writing Project Top 13 Day 2
yeah, i noticed some of the successful website have making more money online than those who have beautiful website. and it’s weird i guess.
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Don’t know about ugly. I believe it’s about having a simple layout that has less distractions but get to the point. As long as the information is there with a easy to follow format, you don’t need too much fancy stuff.
I think it depends on who you are targeting. If you are targeting the soccer mom or average web user then chances are they won’t know the difference between a killer site and an ugly site. I’ve redesigned sites and showed my mom or even my wife and am dissapointed when they don’t see all the hard work I put in to making it better. To them it’s about searching in google and finding the info they are looking for, they could care less about how the site looks.