I know a lot about a television show from the nineties. It had a bit of a cult following. However, the only merchandise in its history is a dvd set coming out this summer. I've always wanted to make a site about it, but I don't see how I could break even unless I choose a more marketable subject for my fan site.

I remember reading somewhere around here that entertainment websites are less profitable subjects, and I'm kind of starting to see why, but is there any way around it?

This is a good question. I had a site about a saop opera I used to watch back in 2002. While the site was pretty popular, I had a very hard time monetizing it. This was before AdSense so I couldn't even earn that kind of revenue but the only types of products I could find to promote were soap opera digest subscriptions (which paid almost nothing) and other books related to the show from Amazon.com and other book sites. And books don't hardly pay anything because most are so cheap.

If you can build up enough traffic you could earn revenue by joining some of the ad networks or generating 3rd party advertisers who want to advertise on your site, but you'd need a lot of traffic to make that work.

I think one of the reasons entertainment sites are hard to monetize is you don't know much about your visitor except they watch the show. So it's hard to PREsell products to these people unless they are directly related to the show. And as you said, there aren't a lot of high-commission products in the TV or entertainment world, so it makes it quite the challenge.

What does everyone else think? I get this question a lot and I think I'm somewhat biased because I've tried this and didn't have much success.

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Technically, all sites are fansites. Lisa created 2createawebsite because she is a fan of making money, water-garden.com was started by a fan of water gardens... etc.

You'll probably make money off of adsense, this is true--but it will take a while. Be prepared for the wait.

You can also promote products related to the show by a bit of a strech, I imagine--eg: merch. specifically from the actors (books they've written, posters) and similar shows or shows by the same director.

What is the show, just curious? ;D

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I guess you could put it like that augenauf but from what I've found is that selling posters, books, etc. take a LOT more sales than the average information affiliate site because those products tend to have very low payouts. I remember my old soap opera site sold like 25 books on Amazon.com one mont and my total commission was something like $3.00. If I were to sell 25 units of other products on my web hosting site I'd make a lot more than that.

Now I'm all about enjoying what you do, so if this show is your passion then by all means look into it. Just research the kinds of products you could offer and see what kind of revenue potential is out there. Sites like www.associateprograms.com and www.affiliateguide.com have a listing of programs by category.

I think part of the problem with my old site was that it was heavily visited by teens and of course they have low buying power. So that probably weighed in too.

Also, remember AdSense ads can really help monetize your site too. I didn't have this option when my site was around.

__________________
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 Create a Website | 2 Create a Website Blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recent Blog Posts...

My Thoughts on Lazy People
A MUST READ for Struggling Bloggers
5 Assumptions You Shouldn't Make

The show is called "Freakazoid", an old Steven Spielburg cartoon that was cancelled after two seasons because of low ratings.

It was a victim of misguided marketing. It was marketed towards children, but many jokes were over kids' heads. The humor was too silly and random for adults, making it perfect for teenagers and college kids, who are still fans today.

The business execs saw its low ratings, found it unmarketable to kids, and canned the show. Since they found it to be so unmarketable, the only thing an affiliate fan site could profit from would be the little dvd that's coming out this summer.

Oh well. It was a nice thought until reality set in.