We are at the point where we need to turn our web traffic and listener counts into revenue, and want to get a feel for what the market is like and how people are turning some profits in the internet radio world.

Some questions:
At what listener count are stations able to make money from on air ads?

On-air ad's or website ad's, which are more profitable?

Do you use the SAM broadcaster StreamAd's feature?

And any other input!

Thanks guys.

Good luck. Been at this for nearly seven years and have resigned myself to the fact that it's a hobby.

How many listeners do you get during peak hours?

Hello,
I don't know if i call it making money but i do have a revenue stream on the stations i operate
http://www.superalternative.net
http://www.alltimeoldies.com
http://www.randomradioonline.net

thanks

More revenue from your websites or stream ad's?

One week a month, I get a daily peak of 200-225 SLs. The other three weeks, I peak at about 100. Average listen time this month is 59 hours. playing.php gets around 45,000 hits each month. Their ad selections are ugly and embarrassing, so I tested adbrite and Google on some less-travelled webpages. I kid you not, I made 27 cents from this, total. If I put ads in playing.php, do you think I could make some reasonable money? I am reluctant to put all that Viagra/penis enlargement/hooker chatroom garbage on my most-travelled page.

i had 153,833 hits this month
i agree the ads are abysmal
i create my own
for my own sites
and for affiliate programs i joined

Current adsense stats



Page impressions / Clicks / Page CTR / Page eCPM [?] / Earnings
274,421 / 1,869 / 0.68% / $0.53 / $146.56



Last payment was end of sept.

Hardly enough to get excited about but every little bit helps to pay the bills.


1200-1400+ listeners at peak period. Having Windows media player open your site within WMP does help.


I have also just started advertising with a company called link share. Will see how that goes.

I have no ad's on playing.php as you cannot put google ads on an auto refreshing page. Also make sure you do not put any ads in the request pop up box as that is also not allowed.

I will probably put some of the linkshare partner ads on playing.php now though.

from what you're saying, maybe I could get $20-30 per month.

Possibly, with the right advertisements and enough traffic.

In 5 years of being online/on-air, I've netted not 1 cent, however, I did buy one of my T-Shirts from my cafepress shop.

As for listeners, I've not had more then 2 listeners in 5 years... I've posted my site in 1000's of forums, websites, etc... The ads for SAM thing, must be paying to someone Else's pocket, because nothing has come to me.

As the other guys said, its purely a hobby, and he's right... Unless you are SOMAFM or one of the stations with 5000+ listeners you are in my boat.

I'm at the break-even point.

I have Google Ads, Amazon Affiliate, direct-place ads and direct gifts to the station.
My hosting gets covered with that, and I have 200-400 simultaneous listeners daily.

It helps that I broadcast classical - those listeners are used to the "help us out" pitch from public radio, and I'm an PRI pro myself, so again, different model and it works.

Sure, I would love for it to really become an income stream, and actually pay myself a bit and hire 2 other hosts.

Maybe in time...maybe no.

I made $12.00 this year off the website, but it was enought to claim a loss on the most expensive 2 start up years on a buisness. Even if it becomes a hobby after that.
There are 2 local bars that will allow me to come in and do a live event there( using a laptop and my PA system) that makes cash, and once I even rented a hall, had some local acts play, and charged a cover price at the door to cover the expenses and put a little cash in my pocket.

These days even the local FM radio stations are closing there doors around here, but the ones that survive are out working the streets, not trying to do it from the computers.
I believe the internet radio is just one part, a tool, to make a valuable service for bars and local bands. They all love the exposure and pay in cash

I am running over 40,000 listener hours per month and my website gets 200,000 hits per day. I tried Google Ads and Adbrite and made [not kidding you] 27 cents. I was advised that if I optimized ads, I could make $20-30 per month, about 10% of my expenses. Since optimizing means a lot of idiotic sexy chatroom and Viagra ads, I decided not to bother.

If somebody tells me an easy way to make $100 a month with my traffic, I will do it. But I have not yet heard this yet.

have you tried getting the subscribers to pay to listen? one thing i think sirrus used to do was throw a teaser stream at very low kbps for free and have a subscriber section for higher bandwith to get subscribers to join.