How to make money with my website

[max928]

I'm creating a website that allows people to apply to and post internships. Besides advertising, the obvious way to bring in money is to charge per internship ad, but I rather keep them free at first. Some ideas I have are to have the first five job postings for free, then charge for each one after that. Anyone have any ideas? How much would be a reasonable price to charge per ad?
Thanks

[Elsoft]

My idea would be to keep it free.Dont have any payment aspect using your website to companies and interns as of now.Even no the ads to start with.Let your website become popular.Work on SEO and Promote professionally through Facebook and twitter.If possible go to local colleges and become a part of the notice board over there.Once you get good traffic and companies see the value of the talent they get through website.You can start monetising the website through ads by the companies posting,third party ads.Let it be free to students,because they are their to earn and let them flock to your website.You should target the companies,because they get people who work for them - fresh and talented.

[max928]

Thank you, great advice. I'm currently a business student in college, so I have plenty of communication and access to students.

[Elsoft]

No Problem.Glad to know it helped you.There may be many more great ideas coming from other members as well.

[daveb1]

If you are keeping everything free one way to possibly draw a little money is through a donate button (paypal makes these easy). If someone has success from the site they might feel generous and give you a little money. Also when people tell you how cool the site is or let you how appreciative they are for the free service you have the gentle "thanks but it costs a lot of money run so if you could donate a little that would be awesome" line in your back pocket.

Also I would almost never ever charge the employer per internship ad as you mentioned in the op. If you look at any major freelance site they do not charge the employers to post listings as that is whats drives the business/content .

They make their money by charging the applicants or taking a cut on the backend of a successful deal.

Sounds like a cool idea but it might be tough to do. I remember even when I was in college like 14 years ago (oh man I am dating myself) my school already had a very productive website to connect interns with employers and a bustling job resource center. If that was 14 years I can not even imagine what the resources and competition are like now.

[elliottrobertsje]

you allow like a probationary period where they can do like three or five post for free but than at that point after that you should make it a monthly subscription fee remember to keep it low like around 7 - 10 dollars a month were they can post and respond to any inquiries with there post (a lot of real estate websites do this) and that way they don't per post but you also have a lot of residual income so it kinda works both ways they can put up a lot of post each month or they can put up one but either way they are going to pay the same amount. Also this way it is easier to project how much you will earn each month or quarter. hope my idea was helpful

[BarbaraKParker]

Little by little establish your own profile. Once you become successful, it will be easier to attract potential clients

[GotLiveChat]

Alternative method is to allow free posting of internships, and charge membership for students looking for internships. So maybe offer a glance a few available internships, then ask for membership if they want to see all listings (and be auto-notified of new listings).

[barbaragabogrecan]

Of course how much traffic you have coming to your site is going to affect the value of an ad. So, not knowing that, I would say starting at $25 a month is reasonable and then go up from there.

[seoexpertpk]

That is really good for start and really worth . you should do it if 25$ X if you get 50 .

[max928]

Thank you for all the ideas, I will post an update of what I decide to do and how things are going.

[max928]

Anyone interested in reviewing my logos? I would like to run some designs by people and see what they think. Please just pm me, or post your interest in this thread.

[elliottrobertsje]

I would not mind giving you some feed back on your logos just email them to me and I will be more than happy to let you know what I think. elliottrobertsje@gmail.com

[GotLiveChat]

URLs for the logos? I'll take a look if you're still interested in feedback.

[AVLopez]

I always love websites that provide great services for free while I know their still making money threw Google AdSense and advertising. I would leave it free but make sure you build a quality website! Good Luck!