Ch. 6: Same Traffic, Triple the RPM

Ch. 6: Same Traffic, Triple the RPM

My first site was a personal-finance blog. 22k sessions, display RPM of $31 — solid. But I was burning out competing against fortresses like NerdWallet for every keyword.

For site two I deliberately chased a high-RPM, low-competition pocket: commercial HVAC and solar informational content. Same Mediavine ad code, same effort per post. The RPM came back at $54 because advertisers in that vertical pay savagely for B2B eyeballs.

The math reframed everything. 12k sessions on the HVAC site earned $648/mo. 22k on the finance site earned $682. I was doing nearly double the work for the same money on the harder niche.

I sold the finance blog and went all-in on industrial verticals.

Lesson banked: pick the niche by revenue-per-session, not by traffic potential. 12k well-monetized sessions can beat 22k cheap ones.