great question and I would not say that either you or me is right or wrong. I tried (which to some extent is difficult nowadays) to differ between a Social Network and a more traditional Media and Content site in my two postings:

- What and how to measure Social Networking websites
- What and how to measure Media and Content websites

Whereas I suggest using a Total time spent on site – KPI when meassuring Online Social Networks. I disregarded this KPI when looking at these more traditional Media and Content sites due to several considerations, but mostly:

a) That content is to a large extent created by the publisher not the user and the article serves as a purpose towards some kind of conversion.
b) A content site (if we look at the traditional newspaper) lives by the article – one at a time and meassurement (KPI) are mainly related to articles.

But we see a drift of traditional media towards online social media and as such a use of the Total time spent on site – KPI.

Cheers

N.B.
I am happy that the post could add some input to your research on the matter…

Nice article though, as I have been trying to work out how to value a content site.

See, that is not a bad question. However; the information is not as secret as you might think.

First let me answer your question: “it would be great if there was a reference table giving typical revenues for ranges of CTR / Month against various Ad models…Banner / Adsense ETC”

There is not a list (at least not at a level where you would not do your own research) that models ad types and revenue levels – and again, it depends so much on your site and industry that the “list” would be a database to make sense, but that might be a business idea :-). The general attitude is that AdSense (or any other contextual Ad-system) pays less than general Affiliate Marketing (if you employ experts) and that sponsorships (or other self managed display ads) can generate very high eCPM’s beyond Affiliate Marketing should your site be one of high focus.

I suggest you:

Use one of the bigger affiliate networks (for research) on the geographical market you plan to operate in (Or go with a global player like e.g. CJ) – and use their revenue median to get clear and real data on the prospective Revenue Per Click for your industry. You can of course use a number of affiliate networks to corroborate the findings. (it is typically free to sign up for any of these networks)

A real example using CJ and with the assumption that you want to play the Accessories industry (Handbags, Jewellery, Shoes and so on).

CJ Accessories Median EPC (Earnings per click – as they call it) = $0.23
(I would also suggest use an average of the e.g. 5 highest and 5 lowest retailer EPC’s in any projections to get an idea of the potential upside and downside)

Then comes of course the question of what is a valid expected CTR? :-) But that is a different matter. With a solution of course.

But for the fun of it: 100.000 page views per day * 3 Ad’s per page * 0.5% CTR average * $0.23 EPC = $10.350 per month in revenue.
(effectually an eCPM on $3.45)

I am not saying this is what to expect – more giving you an idea of how to work it :-)

Cheers