I have been asked to make a feasibility report on a site which is a clone of about.com
My client aims for 5000$ a month .
I am tired of telling him that he's expecting the impossible ,but he fails to understand .
Being a very valuable client of mine , I dont want to lose him .
What would the esteemed members of this community suggest to make the site grow .
He is not selling any product ...just information .
& he may not be interested in PPC campaigns .....
I am confused on 1 point . I am not 100% sure if a website owner gets something out of the website hits ( no ad clinks ..nothing ...just when someone opens a URL of a site). & if yes ..then how much per hit .
I am desperately in need of a reply from you guys.
Please reply urgently .

Hmmm... I think the best way to make this money (without selling the information on a subscription basis) would be to put some ads on the pages, and make users click through the pages (more ad views, more money) to view all of the information.

What do you think?

I am ready to do a genuine SEO for the site , but tell me ...how many months will it take to realise such an earning .
I dont think any SEO can say for sure that his earnings will reach 5000$ a month .
He wants in pretty fast & this is what is giving me all the tremors . Can you suggest what all should I do ( apart from a PPC campaign ...since the guy is not interested in it ) to get the site going and what timeframe shall i tell him for a 5000$ a month return on his site ?

Payback period is a tad higher with ads wether they be CPC or CPM because no matter how good a SEO expert you are it will take you around 6 to 12 months or so to get your website ranked well on good keywords for SERPS and that is where you will get majority of your traffic from.

Wow, tough spot to be in! I always agree in setting the goal ($5,000 per month) and then working toward it, but you're right, it's very difficult to say how long that will take, even with professional SEO. Perhaps you should consider talking your client down to a more reasonable monthy income goal for the moment, and then nail it. Remember to remind them that search engines don't update as often as they used to, so any work you perform now will have a delayed result.