How to make money from your website

[SoulRiser]

This will assume you already have a site. In order to make money from your site, you need to have visitors. More visitors = more money. It doesn't matter what the site is about, there's probably a way to make some money from it. For most sites, these methods should work:

Google Adsense
You put little ad units (mostly just text links) on your site and get paid whenever people click on them. How much you get depends on the ad, some are worth a lot more than others. As of right now (Oct 2008), I get around $100-120 a month from this.

Text Link Ads
They're a bit fussy about what sites they accept - you need to have a certain page rank and amount of traffic before they let you in. After that you get a fixed monthly fee for each individual text link (up to a maximum of 10) that people add to your site. It's all automated, though, but you can opt to review each link before it gets added. Payment depends on your page rank and traffic levels. I get 'bout $30-50 a month from this (Oct 2008). Also, be warned that Google frowns upon this sort of thing, 'cause it has an affect on page rank and they don't like people to pay for page rank. So don't be surprised if they drop a couple of points off from your rank if you use these ads. Mine went down from a PR4 to a PR0... and then back up to PR2. I'm not really sure it was related to the ads, actually.

Amazon.com
You can get 4% commission on anything that Amazon sells if the person came to Amazon from your site. This of course works best with expensive things. I've made a total of about $15 from this in the past 2 years.

Chitika eMiniMalls
Similar to Adsense in a few ways, but they have a lot of other types of ads. Most of their ads are more focused on sellable products, like Amazon... except you get paid per click, not per sale. They only work well if you get a lot of visitors from America/UK/Australia and the "main" english countries, but they are slowly expanding. They also recommend that you have at least 10000 page views per month to sign up. You could probably get away with less though. I get about $25 a month from these guys (Oct 2008).

The reason I put the date in brackets is 'cause a few months ago I was making half as much as I am now. So who knows what'll happen next year.

There are lots of other ad networks and affiliate programs and stuff, but I've just listed what's working for me. I'll add to this if I use others.

Also, Chitika and Text Link Ads also have an affiliate program where if someone signs up and puts ads on their site, you get a percentage of what they make for a while (but it doesn't make them get any less)... so yeah. Use my links plz.
Telling people to click your ads, however, is probably gonna get you banned. So don't do that. But with Amazon it's OK because you only get paid for sales, not clicks.

Another thing, most of these places state in the Terms of Service or wherever that you have to be 18 (or emancipated) to sign up...

Hidden stuff:

but I don't think they have any way of making sure. ...on the other hand, if they do find out, you'll probably be banned for life and won't ever be able to get back in. I know Google is really strict about anything that violates their guidelines. Be careful with them in particular.

Any questions?


UPDATES - March 2009:
Adsense now making $150-$200 a month
Text Link Ads now making $25 a month (lol, page rank drop... might have to quit this one sometime)
Chitika now making about $30-$40 a month

UPDATES - May 2012:
Adsense now making $3000-$3500 a month
Text Link Ads surprisingly still making about $20 to $25
Chitika now making about $100
Amazon.com now making anywhere between $300 and $1000 a month (on a new site I made, still making virtually nothing from SS)

[mihai_alexandru]

Thanks for the info SoulRiser, this all seems useful. I'm an admin at a website (http://www.cfronline.ro) and maybe we can make money out of these suggestions and make a small fund for the site.

[SoulRiser]

Chitika probably won't work for a Romanian site.. Google might, though. Dunno 'bout TLA.

Your site looks good even though I have no idea what is written there.

[mihai_alexandru]

The site is the supporter's website of CFR Cluj 1907, a football team from Romania that also plays in Champions League this season. We can say that we're having succes with the site, I think it's the 3rd most visited website about CFR Cluj, although we're far behind websites of teams with more supporters like Steaua Bucharest.

[Cryme]

AdSense is a horrible way of making income online if you're site isn't getting at least a couple thousand of unique visitors daily. That being said, it's extremely hard to get that amount of visitors daily.

[SoulRiser]

Quote:AdSense is a horrible way of making income online if you're site isn't getting at least a couple thousand of unique visitors daily. That being said, it's extremely hard to get that amount of visitors daily.

There's a lot you can do to optimize Adsense units though. Just a little optimization here and there can triple your income if you do it right. Also, the topic matters. Some topics get clicks that are worth much more than others.

Getting loads of visitors is either hard or easy depending on what topic your site is on (and on how you promote it). Getting 1000 people a day to SS took a helluva long time. Getting 200 people daily to my Werewolf Art site took a couple of months. At the rate it's going it's gonna get to 1000 a lot faster than SS did. Of course, it makes very little money, so there's also that.

It's always smart to have more than one income stream though.

[Cryme]

SoulRiser Wrote:

Quote:AdSense is a horrible way of making income online if you're site isn't getting at least a couple thousand of unique visitors daily. That being said, it's extremely hard to get that amount of visitors daily.

There's a lot you can do to optimize Adsense units though. Just a little optimization here and there can triple your income if you do it right. Also, the topic matters. Some topics get clicks that are worth much more than others.

Getting loads of visitors is either hard or easy depending on what topic your site is on (and on how you promote it). Getting 1000 people a day to SS took a helluva long time. Getting 200 people daily to my Werewolf Art site took a couple of months. At the rate it's going it's gonna get to 1000 a lot faster than SS did. Of course, it makes very little money, so there's also that.

It's always smart to have more than one income stream though.

Ah, yes. You are most certainly correct about what you say. I recently build some free blogger blogs based on some high-paying keywords. Not sure if it's going to work, but it's a shot I'm giving.

And also, I prefer to use those people that directly pay you to advertise on your blog.

[pinkycook]

very interesting topic, can I also make money from a blog? how can I insert those tips in my blog?

[SoulRiser]

A blog is a website. Everything applies.

[Jackass McAwesome]

Interesting, but I'll add a small something~

One thing I've seen people do is live completely off of donations. It takes a lot of time because your site needs to first get really popular. Prime examples are web comics like that of Dominic Deegan and VG Cats. Surprisingly, despite the shitty economy, people are still going to want their lulz from the Internets. It might even help to offer an insentive to donate, like desktop wallpapers, yanno?

[Faby]

Well, you can always start a website with self-made downloadables, like wallpapers, designs, whatever, and put ads on the site. As long as they're original and/or interesting, you'll get visitors. Same's with articles. Hell, same's with everything. People don't like copycats.

But I don't know how many downloadables you can put on a shared hosting. You have to optimise shit, in case you have large file sized stuff.

[SoulRiser]

Donations... Paypal. Er yeah, due to the tax fuckers in this country, Paypal won't let me receive any money, even if I never intend to put it in my bank account and only want to buy shit with it online. Stupid bastards.

But yeah, if you're lucky enough to be able to receive money, that could work nicely.

[Faby]

Yeah, I checked a few days ago - strange. I thought Romania was the most backward country, and I was wrong

Obtw, how do you receive the money you get from adsense? Check, or what? Describe step-by-step plox ^^

[Hanny]

Thanks, Soul! The site I DJ on has recently had a £300 license fee slapped on it and they might have to shut. This could seriously really help.

[SoulRiser]

Quote:Obtw, how do you receive the money you get from adsense? Check, or what? Describe step-by-step plox ^^

They send me a cheque in actual South African currency which I can just shove into an ATM's deposit slot. If they sent it in US dollars, I'd have to go into the bank and fill out silly forms.

Quote:The site I DJ on has recently had a £300 license fee slapped on it and they might have to shut.

Ouch.
They get a lot of visitors?

[Hanny]

I think between 50-100 hits a day if they're lucky.

[SoulRiser]

Then it might take 'em a while to get to 300 pounds... make sure they use the large rectangle ad sizes, and put 'em near the title of the page. That seems to work best.

[xcriteria]

SoulRiser Wrote:Donations... Paypal. Er yeah, due to the tax fuckers in this country, Paypal won't let me receive any money, even if I never intend to put it in my bank account and only want to buy shit with it online. Stupid bastards.

But yeah, if you're lucky enough to be able to receive money, that could work nicely.

What about Google Checkout? It's basically google's version of paypal... probably works in more countries. Or, if you just wanted to buy things online, you could have someone in a country they support make an account, and use the virtual debit card feature to shop online...

[SoulRiser]

I found moneybookers.com that actually allows South Africans to receive money... onto a credit card, though. But that's okay.

I always thought Google Checkout was just some kind of online shopping cart type thing. I mean, I have to actually sell stuff, right?

[xcriteria]

Yeah, I guess it could be a bit complicated. You could make up a product, like "jpeg of ss logo" and sell it, or mark up actual products like cafepress stuff a bunch. Amazon has a donation system but they are eliminating it. The easiest thing might be to work with someone with a US or other "approved" address... what do you need to withdraw money for, anyway?

[SoulRiser]

I don't, really. I mean, if more places supported moneybookers as a payment method (like Paypal), then I wouldn't need to. But the things I would want to use it for don't support it. So... if I don't withdraw it, it's just gonna sit there and do nothing.

[xcriteria]

Well, paypal will give you a "virtual" credit card # (mastercard) that you can use online... but I guess that's more or less the same as moneybookers giving you a physical card.

[SoulRiser]

They don't give you a card, they just let you withdraw money onto a card you already have.

[xcriteria]

I stumbled across a concept where people sell groups of pixels on a page on their web site... it's kind of like selling ad space, but it's a giant block of, say, a million pixels (1000x1000 or whatever.)

For example, http://www.paidbypixels.com/ is a site by people raising money for a tour of the US. It's basically a system for getting donations, like they charge $50 for a 10x10 block. They include banner ads with the purchase. Interesting idea... I guess the guy who started it made $1 million just out of the novelty of the idea: http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

[SoulRiser]

Kind of like buying a plot of land on the moon, right?

[patterson19]

Now that you've created a website, how do you make money from it? There are at least two ways in which sites can make money:

1. Advertising Revenue
2. Selling Goods and Services

I shall deal with the second case, "Selling goods and services", in another article. In this article, I will address the issue of how your site can actually make money from advertising.
Making Money From Advertising

If you look at many websites, you will probably notice that there are banner advertisements displayed on most pages. If you are a newcomer to the scene, you might think that you must either be a company or that your site must be famous before you can get advertisers, just as it is the case in hard copy publications.

In reality, anyone with a website can get advertisers. While it is true that if your site is well-known, you may get companies contacting you to offer to advertise on your site, you can get advertising revenue even if you are just starting out and your site is relatively unknown.

The way to do this is to join as an "affiliate" of various sites, either directly, or through an affiliate network. An affiliate network is simply an intermediary where you can select from a variety of advertisers.
Payment Schemes

Before joining any program, you should probably be aware of the different payment schemes available.

1.Pay Per Impression (CPM)

Here, you are paid according to the number of times the advertiser's banner is displayed on your site. The amount you earn is typically calculated based on the number of thousand impressions of the banner (impressions = number of times the banner is displayed), often abbreviated CPM (cost per thousand, with the M being the Latin numeral for thousand). That is, $5 CPM means that you get paid $5 for 1,000 displays of the banner. In general, the amount paid is usually small, but it is easy to earn since everytime a visitor loads the page, you earn. This is known as a "high conversion rate". Needless to say, this method will allow you to automatically earn more if your site attracts a lot of visitors.

2.Pay Per Click (PPC)

When you are paid per click, you are only paid when visitors click the advertiser's banner on your site. The amount paid is usually higher than the pay per impression scheme. Whether you get a high conversion rate here depends on the banner (whether it attracts people to click it), although in general, it has a higher conversion rate than the pay per sale method. A high traffic site will probably enjoy a higher click rate than a lower traffic site, although you will probably get better results if your banners are carefully selected to suit the target audience of your site.

3.Pay Per Sale or Lead

While you will probably get the highest payment rates with this method, it has the lowest conversion rate of the three schemes. You will only earn if your visitors click through the banner and either purchase an item from the advertiser or take some other prescribed action (eg, sign up for a service). Like the Pay Per Click method, you get much better results if you carefully select your advertisers to suit the target audience of your site.

In general, to avoid wasting resources in issuing cheques for very small amounts, advertisers will usually accrue the amount owing to you until it reaches a certain level (such as $25) before they pay you.
Where to Find Affiliate Programs

You can find a list of affiliate programs and affiliate networks on thefreecountry.com's Affiliate Program page at http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/affiliate.shtml

To join an affiliate network or program, simply go to the site and complete their online application form. Some programs will give you instant approval while others require a human to check out your application before it is approved. Once it is approved, you'll be given some HTML code which you can cut and paste into your web page. Note that some affiliate networks and programs will not accept you unless you have your own domain name. If you are planning to earn from your site, you should seriously consider registering your own domain name.
How To Choose An Affiliate Program

How should you choose an affiliate program? My suggestion is not to choose a program according to the payment scheme, but rather according to the kind of people who are likely to visit your website. For example, if you are targeting parents on your site, links to affiliates with educational software, books and the like may generate more revenue than banners that link to web hosting companies. The most important rule of choosing an affiliate program is to know your target audience.

Another point to consider is whether you really want to join every single affiliate program that comes your way. Some studies suggest that sites that make the most money from affiliate programs are affiliates of only a small handful of programs. Furthermore, concentrating your advertisements from one network may allow you to be paid faster. If you advertise for hundreds of different affiliate networks on your site, you may wind up earning only (say) a few dollars per month from each network. If your advertiser's minimum payment amount is higher than what you can earn each month, it may take you a long time before you accrue enough to be paid.

On the other hand, that formula does not necessarily hold true for every site (or every page on your site, for that matter). For example, if your site has a particular theme, and an affiliate network only supports one or two suitable advertisers, you might want to sign up for a few affiliate networks so as to get a greater number of relevant advertisers. After all, advertisements that are relevant to your audience are more likely to be taken up than general advertisements. (What's the point of putting banners from only one affiliate if nobody is going to click them?)
Automated Context-Sensitive Advertising

One of the latest trends in website sponsorship is to sign up with an advertising network like Google AdSense The advertising network automatically checks your web page and determines the most relevant advertisement for the page. As a result, without much additional effort from you, you get advertisements targeted at the interests of your visitors. As mentioned earlier, targeted ads tend to result in better performance and returns.
Get Started

Advertising revenue is one of the most effortless way to earn money from your site. You merely have to put the banner there and wait for the money to roll in. (Well, okay, not quite. You will still need to have some visitors first before you can make anything.)

Why wait? If you already have a website, let it earn even while you sleep (literally). Every day you let your site "idle" without advertising is a day of lost opportunity.

All the best in your endeavour! Remember also to check out our other article, Increasing Your Affiliate Program Income, for more tips on earning from your website: http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/moremoney.shtml

[Ahab]

thanks

I have a website at the moment which is designed to cater to a niche market (young overweight teenage males looking to lose weight and get in shape) so this is useful to me.

[~Mystery~]

Lol Soulriser makes her money off of Google which was founded by the United State's National Security Agency (NSA)

[Slick]

Great, now I just need to think of an idea for a blog, which
I don't have at the moment.

[SoulRiser]

Make a site about everything. And then put random things on it. And then once you figure out what you'd prefer to focus on, stop writing about the random stuff so much and focus on whatever you're... you know, focusing on.

Also, check this for ideas:
https://adwords.google.com/select/Keywo ... egacy=true

Aaaand I actually made a better guide the other day:
http://sharenoesis.com/article/money-website-part-1/183