"How much does that site make?" is the single most-asked question in the acquisition and affiliate marketing communities. The good news: with a free website traffic checker and the right formula, you can estimate any website's revenue with surprising accuracy in about 60 seconds. This guide shows you exactly how.
The Core Revenue Formula
Every display-ad website's gross revenue boils down to one equation:
RPM (Revenue per Mille) is how much the site earns per 1,000 pageviews. It varies dramatically by niche and audience geography. Get RPM right and you're within 20% of the actual number — get it wrong and you'll be off by 10× either direction.
Step 1: Estimate Pageviews (Not Just Visits)
Visitors ≠ pageviews. A typical blog sees 1.5–2.5 pages per visit; news sites 2–4; ecommerce 4–8; forums 6–12. Use a free website traffic checker to pull estimated monthly visits, then multiply by the niche's average pages-per-session.
Example: SiteWorthIt estimates 200k monthly visits for a SaaS blog. SaaS blogs average ~1.8 pages/session → roughly 360k monthly pageviews.
Step 2: Find the Right RPM for the Niche
2026 RPM benchmarks, pulled from AdSense/Ezoic/Mediavine publishers:
| Niche | Low RPM | Avg RPM | High RPM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance / Investing | $12 | $22 | $45 |
| Insurance / Legal | $18 | $35 | $80 |
| SaaS / B2B Tech | $10 | $18 | $30 |
| Health / Wellness | $8 | $14 | $22 |
| Home / DIY | $10 | $20 | $35 |
| Food / Recipes | $10 | $18 | $28 |
| Travel | $6 | $12 | $20 |
| Parenting | $8 | $16 | $26 |
| Tech / Gadgets | $5 | $10 | $18 |
| Entertainment / Celebs | $2 | $5 | $10 |
| Gaming | $2 | $4 | $8 |
| News / Politics | $3 | $7 | $14 |
Geography multiplier: US/UK/CA/AU audiences are worth 2–4× India/SEA audiences. Adjust RPM down if the site's traffic is 80%+ non-tier-1.
Step 3: Add Non-Ad Revenue Streams
Display ads are just one lever. A complete website revenue estimate should include:
- Affiliate commissions — typically 1–5% of pageviews convert, average commission $5–$50
- Digital products / courses — 0.1–1% conversion, $30–$300 AOV
- Sponsored posts — for sites with 50k+ monthly visits, $200–$2,000/post
- Email list monetization — roughly $1/subscriber/month for engaged lists
- Membership / subscriptions — if the site has a members area
Rule of thumb: affiliate-heavy niches (finance, SaaS, home DIY) earn 2–3× display-ad revenue from commissions alone. Ecommerce content funnels often double the display-ad baseline.
Step 4: Validate with a Free Tool
The fastest way to sanity-check your estimate is to drop the domain into SiteWorthIt's free website traffic checker — our dashboard returns a revenue range alongside traffic, using the same RPM and monetization heuristics you just learned, calibrated against thousands of sites with verified earnings.
Why Most Estimates Are Wildly Off
Common failure modes:
- Using a single global CPM instead of niche-specific RPM
- Ignoring ad density (1 ad unit vs 6 ad units = 6× difference)
- Confusing sessions, visitors, and pageviews
- Missing affiliate and product revenue entirely
- Applying tier-1 RPM to tier-3 traffic (or vice versa)
When to Trust Estimates vs Demand Proof
For casual research and competitor intel, estimates within ±30% are fine. For acquisition deals, always demand:
- Google Analytics read-only access
- AdSense / Mediavine earnings screenshots (last 12 months)
- Affiliate platform dashboards (Amazon, Impact, ShareASale)
- Stripe / PayPal revenue statements if digital products are involved