There are several lists with “ways to make
money with a website” on the Internet, but none of them seem to be complete.
That is why I decided to create this one. If you know a method that is not
listed below, just let us know and we’ll update it.
Notice that ways to make money with a website
are different from ways to make more money from it. Methods to
increase your traffic or click-through rate will help you make more money, but
they do not represent a method of making money per se.
For example, one could suggest that blending
AdSense ads with the content is a way to make money from a website. In reality
it’s not; it’s just a way to make more money by improving your ad click-through
rate. The real monetization method behind it is a PPC ad network.
The list is divided into direct and indirect
methods, and examples and links are provided for each point. Enjoy!
1. PPC Advertising Networks
Google AdSense is the most popular option
under this category, but there are also others. Basically you need to sign up
with the network and paste some code snippets on your website. The network will
then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to your website, and
you will earn a certain amount of money for every click.
The profitability of PPC advertising depends
on the general traffic levels of the website and, most importantly, on the
click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC). The CTR depends on the
design of the website. Ads placed abode the fold or blended with content, for instance,
tend to get higher CTRs. The CPC, on the other hand, depends on the nice of the
website. Mortgages, financial products and college education are examples of
profitable niches (clicks worth a couple of dollars are not rare), while
tech-related topics tend to receive a smaller CPC (sometimes as low as a couple
of cents per click).
The source of the traffic can also affect the
overall CTR rate. Organic traffic (the one that comes from search engines)
tends to perform well because these visitors were already looking for
something, and they tend to click on ads more often. Social media traffic, on
the other hand, presents terribly low CTRs because these visitors are
tech-savvy and they just ignore ads.
List of popular CPC advertising networks:
2. CPM Advertising Networks
CPM advertising networks behave pretty much as
PPC networks, except that you get paid according to the number of impressions
(i.e., page views) that the ads displayed on your site will generate. CPM
stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000
impressions.
A blog that generates 100,000 page views
monthly displaying an advertising banner with a $1 CPM, therefore, will earn
$100 monthly.
CPM rates vary with the network, the position
of the ad and the format. The better the network, the higher the CPM rate
(because they have access to more advertisers). The closer you put the ad to
the top of the page, the higher the CPM. The bigger the format (in terms of
pixels), the higher the CPM.
You can get as low as $0,10 and as high as $10
per 1,000 impressions (more in some special cases). CPM advertising tends to
work well on websites with a high page views per visitor ratio (e.g., online
forums, magazines and so on).
List of popular CPM advertising networks:
3. Direct Banner Advertising
Selling your own advertising space is one of
the most lucrative monetization methods. First and foremost because it enables
you to cut out the middleman commissions and to determine your own rates. The
most popular banner formats on the web are the 728×90 leaderboard, the 120×600
skyscraper, the 300×250 rectangle and the 125×125 button.
The downside of direct banner advertising is
that you need to have a big audience to get qualified advertisers, and you will
need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments.
After Google declared that sites selling text
links without the nofollow tag would be penalized, this monetization method
became less popular.
Many website owners are still using text links
to monetize their sites, though, some using the nofollow tag and some not.
The advantage of this method is that it is not
intrusive. One can sell text links directly through his website or use
specialized networks like Text-Link-Ads and Text-Link-Brokers to automate the
process.
Text link marketplaces and networks:
·
DigitalPoint Link
Sales Forum
Affiliate marketing is a very popular practice
on the Internet. Under this system you have a merchant that is willing to let
other people (the affiliates) sell directly or indirectly its products and
services, in exchange for a commission. Sometimes this type of advertising is
also called CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead) based.
Affiliates can send potential customers to the
merchant using several tools, from banners to text links and product reviews.
In order to find suitable affiliate programs
you can turn to individual companies and publishers like Dreamhost and SEOBook, or join
affiliate marketplaces and networks.
List of popular affiliate marketplaces and
networks:
The latest trend on the web are widgets that
let you monetize your website. Examples include Widgetbucks and SmartLinks.
Some of these services operate under a PPC scheme, others behave like text link
ads, others yet leverage affiliate links.
Their main differentiator, however, is the
fact that they work as web widgets, making it easier for the user to plug and
play the service on its website.
List of companies that provide monetization
widgets:
So small it could almost be a miniature
elephant
PayPerPost pioneered this model, with much
controversy on the beginning (related to the fact that they did not require
disclosure on paid posts). Soon other companies followed, most notably
Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe, refining the process and expanding the paid
blogging model.
Joining one of these sponsored reviews
marketplaces will give you the opportunity to write sponsored posts on a wide
range of topics. Not all bloggers are willing to get paid to write about a
specific product or website (because it might compromise the editorial
credibility), but the ones who do are making good money out of it.
If your blog has a big audience you could also
offer sponsored reviews directly, cutting off the commissions of the middleman.
List of sponsored reviews and paid blogging
networks:
With the quick adoption of the RSS technology
by millions of Internet users, website owners are starting to find ways to
monetize this new content distribution channel.
Feedburber already has its own publisher
network, and you can sign-up to start displaying CPM based advertising on your
feed footer. Bidvertiser recently introduced a RSS feed ad option as well, with
a PPC scheme.
Finally, some blogs are also opting to sell
banners or sponsored messages on their feed directly. John
Chow and Marketing Pilgrim are two examples.
9. Sponsors for Single Columns or
Events
If you website has specific columns or events
(e.g., a weekly podcast, an interview series, a monthly survey, a special
project) you could find companies to sponsor them individually.
This method increases the monetization options
for website owner, while giving advertisers the possibility to target a more
specific audience and with a reduced commitment.
Mashable illustrates the case well. They
have several advertising options on the site, including the possibility to
sponsor specific columns and articles, including the “Daily Poll” and the “Web
2.0 Invites.”
Problogger also runs group writing
projects occasionally, and before proceeding he publicly announce the project
asking for sponsors.
Some websites and blogs give away part of
their content for free, and charge for access to the premium content and
exclusive tools.
SEOMoz is a good example. They have a
very popular blog that gives advice and information on wide range of SEO
related topics. On top of that visitors can decide to become premium members.
It costs $48 monthly and it grants them access to guides, tools and other
exclusive material.
While the Internet is populated with free
forums, there is also the possibility to create a private one where members
need to pay a single or recurring fee to join.
SEO Blackhat charges $100 monthly from its members, and they have
thousands of them. Obviously in order to charge such a price for a forum
membership you need to provide real value for the members (e.g., secret
techniques, tools, and so on).
Performancing also launched a private
forum recently, focused on the networking aspect. It is called The Hive, and
the monthly cost is $10.
These are just two examples. There are many
possibilities to create a private and profitable forum, you just need to find
an appealing angle that will make it worth for the members.
List of popular forum software:
Needless to say that in order to create an
active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog focused on a
specific niche, and a decent amount traffic.
The advantage of this method is that it is
passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come
naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.
List of popular job board software:
Sitepoint is the online marketplace by excellence.
Some websites and blogs, however, are trying to replicate that model on a
smaller scale.
Depending on your niche, a market place that
allows your visitors to buy, sell and trade products could work well. Over the
time you could start charging a small fee for new product listings.
The problem with this method is that there are
no standard software on the web, so you would need to hire a coder to get a marketplace
integrated into your website.
14. Paid Surveys and Polls
There are services that will pay you money to
run a small survey or poll on your website. The most popular one is
called Vizu Answers.
Basically you need to sign up with them, and
select the kind of polls that you want to run your site. Most of these services
operate under a CPM model.
15. Selling or Renting Internal Pages
These websites sell for a single fee or rent
for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either
high Pagerak or high traffic, so that people purchasing a page will be able to
benefit in some way.
Implementing this method on a small blog would
be difficult, but the concept is interesting and could be explored further.
16. Highlighted Posts from Sponsors
Techmeme probably pioneered this idea, but somehow
it has not spread to other websites. The tech news aggregator displays
editorial posts on the left column, and on the sidebar they have a section
titled “Techmeme Sponsor Posts.”
On that section posts from the blog of the
advertisers get highlighted, sending qualified traffic their way. Considering
that the monthly cost for one spot is $5000 and that they have around 6
sponsors at any given time, it must be working well.
Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website
can be an efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog is on a niche
where readers learn and gain value from your content.
Personal development and productivity blogs,
for instance, tend to perform well with donation based systems (one good
example being Steve Pavlina).
A small variation of this method appeared
sometime ago with the Buy Me a Beer plugin. This WordPress plugin
enables you to insert a customized message at the bottom of each article,
asking the readers to chip in for a beer or coffee.
In-text adverting networks like Kontera and Vibrant Media will place sponsored links inside
your text. These links come with a double underline to differentiate them from
normal links, and once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising
will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money.
Some people make good money with this method,
but others refrain from using it due to its intrusiveness. It is also
interesting to note that very few mainstream websites have experimented with
in-text advertising.
19. Pop-ups and Pop-unders
Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of
advertising on the Internet. If you are just trying to make a much money as
possible from your website, you could experiment with them.
If you are trying to grow the traffic and
generate loyal visitors, however, you probably should stay away from them. Just
consider the hundreds of pop-up blockers out there: there is a reason why they
are so popular.
Ad networks that use pop-ups:
Also called PPP (Pay Per Play), this
advertising method was introduce by Net Audio Ads. the concept is pretty simple: play a
small audio advertising (usually 5 seconds) every time a visitor enters into
your website. The user should not be able to stop it, creating a 100%
conversion rate based on unique visitors.
The company is still rolling tests, but some
users are reporting to get from a $4 to a $6 CPM. Regardless of the pay rate,
though, this is a very intrusive form of advertising, so think twice before
using it.
Selling your website could be your last
resource, but it has the potential to generate a big sum of money in a short
period of time.
Market places on online forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint are
always active with website buyers and sellers. Keep in mind that they most used
parameter to determine the value of a website is the monthly revenue that it
generates, multiplied by a certain number (the multiplier can be anything from
5 to 30, depending on the expectations of the seller, on the quality of the
site, on the niche and other factors).
Some people also make money trading and
flipping websites. They either create them from scratch or buy existing ones,
and after some revamping they sell them for a profit.
Perhaps one of the oldest money making
strategies on the web, using a website to promote a related ebook is a very
efficient way to generate revenue.
23. Selling a Hardcover Book
While most of these people were already
renowned authors before they created their website, one could also follow the
other way around. Lorelle VanFossen did exactly that with her Blogging Tips book. First she built her authority
on the subject via her blog, and afterwards she published the book.
List of self publishing and publishing
services:
24. Selling Templates or WordPress
Themes
As more and more people decide to get an
online presence, website templates and WordPress themes become hotter and
hotter.
On this segment you have mainstream websites
like TemplateMonster,
as well as individual designers who decide to promote and sell their work
independently.
25. Offering Consulting and Related
Services
Depending on your niche, you could make money
by offering consulting and related services. If you are also the author of your
blog, the articles and information that you will share will build your profile
and possibly certify your expertise on that niche, making it easier to gain
customers.
Chris Garrett used a similar strategy. First he
created a highly influential blog on the blogging and new media niche, and
afterwards he started offering consulting services to clients with related
problems and needs.
26. Creating an Email List or
Newsletter
Email lists and newsletters represent one of
the most powerful marketing and money making tools on the Internet. They offer
incredible conversion rates, and the possibility to call people to action in a
very efficient way.
Creating a big list is a difficult task though,
so if you have a popular website you could leverage it to increase the number
of subscribers on your list.
Yaro Starak is a famous Internet marketer, and if
you visit his blog you will notice that right on top he has a section
encouraging visitors to subscribe to his email newsletter. Yaro generates five
figures in revenues each month from his email newsletters, proving that this
method works.
List of software to manage email newsletters:
People are willing to pay for someone or
something that will teach them and give them knowledge (as opposed to mere
information). Education is one of the biggest industries in the world, and the
online landscape behaves in a similar way.
Creating a mentoring program related to the
niche of your website could be very profitable if you manage to structure and
promote it adequately. There is a wide range of media and tools that you can
use to deliver the information, from text articles to audio and video lessons.
Brian Clark leveraged the success of Copyblogger to
launch a mentoring program teaching people how to build membership and how to
sell content online. The program is titled Teaching Sells, and
it costs $97 monthly. Sounds expensive, but they have over 1,000 members.
So small it could almost be a miniature
elephant
28. Creating a conference around the
website
If your website takes off and becomes an
authority on its niche, you could create a conference around it. Depending on
the size of your audience, the event could attract thousands of people, and you
could make money directly from conference passes and sponsors.
Search Engine Land, for instance, created a series of
conferences that visit several cities on the United States and on other
countries as well. The conferences are called Search Marketing Expo,
and the tickets and passes cost thousands of dollars.
