Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

RacingColorado.com is the site that originated as the updated counterpart to a free newsprint publication.  The publication had calendars for Colorado running, cycling, triathlon, and Nordic events.  After a little more than a year I stopped the physical publication because too many events didn`t have the budget to advertise (and perhaps I wasn`t a good enough salesman).  It was too much work to justify a little over break even. 
I kept the web site because the calendar resource is still valuable to athletes, and while my calendars are not the most popular in the state yet, they are the most comprehensive.  Event directors can post their race and pdf entry forms if they wish for free.  The site is functional, but I want to do better at monetizing.  Some of my options:

1. I can sell some featured event banner ads on the front page (also randomly integrated throughout the calendars) to provide extra exposure.
   
2. Affiliate advertising represents another possible source of revenue from the site, but after 3 months the ads hove not produced.  I`m not sure what kind of traffic is needed to start getting conversions.  My hosting company analytics package says I have approx 8,000 unique visitors per month, while Google puts it at closer to 2000. 
   
3. Adsense is producing pennies per week.
4. I have 250 subscribers to an informal newsletter.  This also represents an opportunity to sell advertising, but the list is possibly to small to do much with?
5. I`m adding a Wordpress blog for race reviews & news to try to build a community, and thus, traffic to the site.  Question remains, how much traffic do I need in order for affiliate programs to start working?
6. I`m not selling anything at this point, but I could put up a page of Amazon affilitate links as a "recommended reading" feature.

These are just some of my ideas, but I`d like to hear advice from others on more effective methods of monetizing the site.  I don`t want the site to just be a hobby.

I think you`ve got some good ideas for monetizing the site.  It seems to me the problem is that you don`t yet have the traffic to make those ideas worth much.  It`s a very niche site for a geographic location teeming with outdoor athletes.  You should be exploring these ideas you have but also looking at ways to get more viewers.  I think that may be a bigger challenge than the monetization plan.