Merchandising
If you are a blogger and you have a strong fan base, take advantage of merchandising opportunities.
You can use CafePress.com, which makes it easy for you to put your blog's logo on shirts, bags,
coasters and other items and then you can sell it. Or if you prefer, you may want to create and selfpublish
your own books with self-publishing services like Lulu, and you'll earn profits even without a
huge book deal. Besides books, you can also create hard-copy content on CD-ROM "book" with
cleanly organized content that can be accessed offline. Taking things a step further, sell subscriptions
for future updates to the system. Another merchandising opportunity is to design and sell custom
products with Printfection.com or GoodStorm.
Text Link Advertising
Text link advertising involves you placing a text link ad on your blog or website. Text links are text on your site that is hyperlinked to a specific page on another site. Your site which publishes the text links (called the publisher) gets paid by an advertiser who is trying to drive traffic to the linked page. Publishers can get paid based on the number of clicks on the text link ad (called pay-per-click) or they could get paid a flat fee for publishing the link.
Selling Services
Monetize your website by attracting new customers (clients, patients, ...) and rendering your
services to them, for which they pay you a fee.
PPC Advertising Networks
Sign up with PPC (pay-per-click) networks and paste some code on your website. The network will then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to the content on your website, and you will earn a certain amount of money for every click your visitors make. Some popular CPC Advertising Networks include:
www.google.com/adsense
publisher.yahoo.com
www.bidvertiser.com
chitika.com
www.clicksor.com
CPM Ads (Cost Per Thousand)
CPM ads pay per impression. The downside of this is that you're paid almost nothing for each
impression because rates can go as low as $0.10 per thousand impressions. The strategy is to use CPM in conjunction with CPC ads. CPM ads can be placed in less prominent spaces (below the fold) whereas CPC ads should have better position. Networks that offer CPM/CPC ads include
AdBrite
ValueClick Media.
Sharecash
cpagrip
Banner Advertising
For banner ads, you will need to have high traffic to make it worth the price for the advertiser.
Generally banner advertisers will find you rather than the other way around, so if you focus on
building traffic then have faith that they will eventually come. Another way is to join Technorati
which once you are approved allows you to add blank ‘ad space’ to your site which advertisers can select and pay for without you doing any of the work.
Create Job Boards On Your Site
With a job board, employers will post a job on your board and readers will apply for the job. This is a great method of monetizing a website for authority websites. For smaller blogs, it might not work as well because it’s competitive and if you can’t send them anyone to apply, it’s pointless for them to post a job. Jobs can be anything from, writers to trainers.
Paid Content
Devote special sections of premium content to readers who are willing to pay for the information. Here are some examples of paid content you can offer to your readers:
E-Books: It can be a compilation of your best tips or a new idea altogethe.
White Papers: This include a more technical version of your content.
Phone Calls: Sell one-on-one phone calls for advice and other consulting through Ether.
Miniguides: Package your tips and advice up into a miniguide.
Tutorials: Compileyour knowledge into a tutorial that relies upon your expert advice.
Members-Only Sections: Deliver products or content that your readers are willing to pay for.
TextMarks Inc.: Charge readers to get text-message alerts about your content.
X-Events: Project physical events online and create revenue by charging admission,
attracting sponsors and selling subscriptions to future events.
Podcasts: Some readers may be willing to pay to be able to hear your entries on the go.
Videos: Videos are value-added extras that readers may be willing to pay for.
Direct Sales
Sell your own products directly using shopping cart technology like:
KickStartCart – A shopping cart, merchant account with marketing tools.
PayPal – One of the lowest-cost choices for selling your own products.
EasyStoreCreator – Includes hosting, merchant account integration, and shopping cart.
1ShoppingCart – Provides packages with marketing tools, shopping carts and merchant accounts.
ASecureCart – An affordable shopping cart service
NetSuite – Full e-commerce option.
GotShoppingCart? – Free version available.
3D Cart – Includes marketing, statistics and more
Americart – 30-day risk-free trial.
MonsterCommerce – Full of features.
Affiliate Programs
Join and promote affiliate programs. There are hundreds (probably thousands) of affiliate programs to choose from. Most affiliate marketers create a website surrounding a particular niche and promote other people's products on their site. What this means is that the reader is able to click on a image or text links on the affiliate marketer's site and be directed to another merchant's product which relates to the subject of the paragraph or page of the affiliate marketer's website. When the visitor "clicks through" to your merchant partner - and buys - you get paid.
Selling or Renting Internal Pages
Some websites sell for a single fee or rent for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either high pagerank or high traffic, so that people purchasing a page will be able to benefit in some way.
CPA (Cost Per Action)
CPA ads pay per action. They are the highest paying ads. However, viewers don't just need to click on them, but they actually have to do something, either sign up/register or make a purchase. How likely your visitors will click on the ad and perform the desired action will depend very much on how relevant the ad is to your content.
Paid Reviews
A company will pay you or provide you a complimentary service for reviewing their product or
service in your blog. To get paid for writing reviews, approach a company directly, or use a website which pairs bloggers and advertisers – SponsoredReviews.com and BuyBlogReviews.com are two of these such services.
Email Marketing
Building a email list can make you a lot of money, help build a solid brand and of course help readers come back to your site, time after time. Email marketing can be seen to make you money in a few different ways, such as direct email promotions, to deliver free reports that are monetized and to drive traffic back to your site where you make money from other methods.
Asking For Donations
Ask your readers for donations in a polite way and the ones that truly value your work will likely be more than willing to help support your ongoing success. Here is how you can do it:
-Using PayPal: PayPal's system allows you to place a donation button on your blog.
-Amazon Honor System: This system allows you to accept online donations.
-Mailed Checks: Provide readers with a P.O. box that they can mail donations to.
-Buy me a beer/coffee: Asking for donations in the form of a beer, coffee or other special
item allows readers to reward you with something tangible.
-Amazon Wish List: This is not cash. This system asks readers to buy you items from your Amazon Wish List.
Parked Domains
Parked domains are additional domains which you host on your account. Parked domains are often used by businesses that want to have more than one web address for advertising purposes. You can use these services to make money from parked domains:
Revenue Direct – Make money from a parked domain.
Parked – Another option for parked domains.
RSS Feed Ads
With the quick adoption of the RSS technology by many people on the internet, website are starting to find ways to monetize this new content distribution channel. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed. Players in this field include:
www.feedburner.com
www.bidvertiser.com
www.pheedo.com
Sponsored Blog Posts
Sponsored blog posts are slightly different from paid reviews in that they may be a post written by an advertiser, or one written by you endorsing a product/service within it.
Membership Site & Premium Content
Premium content is paid for in a special members area, typically there is free content which attracts readers and then they realize they need more and will pay for it. Create a membership area for readers to login for premium content. Membership sites provide continuity income which comes to you month after month.
Offer Writing Gigs
After you have blogged for some time, you've provided a living resume to any blog network or news site that might be interested in hiring you.
Sell Ad Space
Once your website is getting substantial traffic and visitors, you can start selling ad space on your website. There are companies that provide content -targeted ads and you are able to control the ads that appear on your site. Another way is to get direct sponsors. This way you can name your own price for the ad space you are selling.
Selling the Website
Selling your website has the potential to generate a big sum of money in a short period of time. To determine the value of a website, the most commonly used parameter 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.
