How to monetize JS plugin directory (mainly jQuery)?

Question

JavaScript

Good afternoon, dear habravchane!

A year ago I started the project plugindetector.com/ru/ which was supposed to be a catalog of high-quality and interesting jQuery plugins (but not limited to jQuery). A presentation article

was published , and the project was warmly received by the Habra community. However, after some time, the question arose of monetizing the project, and since no answer was found to this question, the project died out. In fact, now the project does not bring money, it has about 200 visitors a day. Such a visit was after the decline of the habraeffect a year ago and is still holding. In order to support the project, you need 3 people: - me, who will finish the functionality to the required




- a person who will add new plugins, and I will pay him for it
- a copywriter who knows English and will accompany the added plugins with technical texts and to whom I will also pay

Of course, for some time I am ready to add plugins myself (until how it will become profitable), but in order to do so, you must first decide how I will pay for it.

The text for plugins is needed in order for them to be searched in search engines. Without text, the added plugins will practically not be searched very badly.

Theoretically, the position of "adder" of plugins and a copywriter can be combined, but this is a rather rare combination for a front-end developer, for example, to write copyright (and know English); as rare as a copywriter who owns CSS, jQuery and, most importantly, wants to do it.

So the question is: how do I monetize this site?

Many options for monetization were considered.

At the moment, the only tool that is being used is Google Adsense (non-aggressive placement and number of banners), which profits a little more than what is needed for hosting and domain renewal.

The donations that some Habravchans asked me so insistently in the comments to the presentation of the project (initially I did not want to collect donations) did not live up to expectations. The donation was made by only two people, in total not significant for the fate of the project.

The next step was to connect buysellads.com/ but so far the project does not reach the minimum traffic bar for connecting to the system (50k page views per month are needed, I have 15k so far).

Further: some of my friends and commentators on Habré offered completely paid access to the site's content (subscription or one-time payment), but I have always been skeptical about this method of monetization.

There is also Yandex.Direct, and in general it is possible to connect it (you need to slightly increase the attendance to a minimum of 300 people a day), but I'm not sure that this makes sense, given that the main focus of the site is on the English version.

I came up with another option: access to the site is free, but for a one-time payment - to allow a person to download an archive of all demos with easy navigation. If a person does not want to pay, but needs to download a plug-in (let's say the site of the plug-in author has died), then he can do this by saving the demo in the browser, just less convenient than the downloaded archive on his computer, which will not go anywhere.

There was an idea to introduce a service on the site: “for XXX rubles we will install this plugin on your site”, but a lot of questions immediately appeared, and skepticism, the main message was that “no one will give access to the site to some dude whom they don’t know for the sake of a rather small work", and in general, I quickly threw this option out of my head.

Another option is the way a ruseller does: to sell some CDs with video tutorials or something like that. I myself am very far from it.

I summarize the monetization options:

- AdSense
- Yandex.Direct (only for the Russian part of the site)
- Buy Sell Ads
- Fully paid access to the site (subscription or single payment)
- Demo archive download service for a single payment
- Service for integrating plugins into customer sites
- sale of video lessons on disks

And I also care - what to do with the language versions of the site?

Options:
- Russian and English (as it is now)
- only Russian (it is easier to find a copywriter, less work on promotion, but the audience is limited)
- only English (also less work than with two languages, but I lose contact with the audience from which I can get feedback on in a language that I understand)

In general, all these questions are quite difficult for me (I have no experience in promoting English-language resources). And also, in order to bring the project to payback, you will have to invest quite a lot in it, money and time, and refine the functionality.

A month ago, I was sure that the project would remain frozen for another two years and it’s not yet a fact that it would come out of this freeze later, but something changed in my mood and I began to doubt. Maybe it makes sense to revive the project? Or not? What do you think? Can you suggest some other monetization options?

PS
If I could answer these questions myself, I would not write here.
I hope that you won’t kick much, just now we need someone’s help and advice from people who are more experienced in creating successful projects

Answer 1

I think that such a project should not be monetized. Much more profit (as an author) can be obtained if the project becomes successful and famous.
And the topic is very interesting, since front-end developers and designers need to navigate the variety of plugins and follow the latest. Personally, I adapted Evernot for this, but somehow it's not very convenient.
If you need help with plugins, ideas or design - welcome.

Answer 2

The question is, of course, a difficult one. But to earn real money on this project, in my opinion, will not work.
My opinion: I would not pay for something that you can get for free. Moreover, you, as I understand it, just have a selection of good plugins.
If you want to build a business on the site, then first invest in it (your labor, time, possibly finances, etc.).
If I were you, I would first think about how to promote it. The project is interesting and useful in its own way, you might think that users themselves promote it and talk about it.
PS Now I myself am writing a project, which I still have not found analogues. But now I don't even think about its monetization and I want it to be absolutely free. I don't even want to see ads on it. I just love it and it's my hobby. Yes, I understand that I will incur some expenses, but, again, I'm just curious.
In general, it often happens that any project can “shoot” from a completely different place.
In general, relax and enjoy. If it is not, then it is better to forget about the project.

Answer 3

I think it's better to do:
1. Paid archive of the entire site (demos + links)
2. Integration of plugins into the site
3. Your own advertising (website development using jquery)
and that's it.

Answer 4

Maybe some paid subscriptions for layout designers and web studios, with the provision of timely updates or a selection / refinement of the necessary plugins on request?

Answer 5

Oh yes, fill up the plugindetector.com/ru/books section :)

Answer 6

It is not entirely clear what this project is for? What are his goals anyway? What do I need to want to do to make this site better for me than Google?

Answer 7

I would look in the direction of content personalization, for example, like here on the Toaster.
those. tags/categories divide the content into groups (plugin topics, what the plugin is for [jquery, ptotorype., etc]) and the user is given the opportunity to view these collections by the date the script was released/updated. Set up automation according to the time of updating / the release of a new version of the script (most are developed in git and there will be no problems in automatic updating from the repositories). All this content is beautifully presented on the site + doing email newsletters (+ telegram bot as an option).
Thus, part of the information will be automatically updated, which saves time and money.
The next step is to add the ability to "verify" the status of the author of a particular script in some way and allow them to post their scripts. Gathering-attracting script authors is not the most difficult task, and since most authors want to be noticed, they will be motivated to host with you.
But then think further in the direction of monetization: there may be a banal sale of scripts with royalties to authors, additionally extended support for a month from the sale of the script to the user who bought it on behalf of the author. It is possible that the authors can somehow promote their scripts on your site (and this can be shareware, for example, due to the fact that N purchases in the future will go to you as the owner, and only then to the author of the script).
The main problem is that you now think of an ordinary article site, where monetization (except for adsense) is really hard. And as mentioned above, it is necessary to make efforts for such a project so that there is something to pay for already on the site.
Write, if anything, I can still be creative))