Tips for monetizing your website!
It seems for each day that passes, yet another monetize your website or blog article becomes available online. If only the concept were that simple, “if you build it, they will come”. Unfortunately I would suggest that quick riches online are few and far between, only available for the true innovators, not the wannabes.
Traditional “Get Rich Quick” schemes have been around for a long time, and whilst a few people at the top can make some real money, it is the people underneath them that often fail miserably, all in the hope of chasing extra dollars to live a more fulfilled life.
In recent years the web has become victim to such scams, and has also allowed people to believe, that if they build it, they will get rich. Again only the people who bring real innovation will benefit from this. A website will not instantly generate money, in fact it will not generate any money at all on its own. If you want your website to pay for itself, then you have to dedicate time and resources to make that happen.
Blogging seems to be one of the biggest things on the web at the moment, some people are making good money whilst doing it. Check out http://perezhilton.com/ as a great example of a website which has a niche and by all accounts makes some serious money! Using the Perez Hilton site as an example, it has a niche, it has an audience, it offers a product (sort of 
) and it brings in a lot of traffic each month, making it easy to capitalize on advertising. First and foremost though, from what I have read, the guy who manages this site, enjoys doing it, he enjoys writing about celebrities, and it is this enjoyment, and love which no doubt has helped create a successful site, which makes money!
How can you make money from your website?
- Firstly do not think about making money from your website. Do not pin your hopes of raking in millions of dollars, just by blogging or by building a site. Instead, start a website about something you are interested in. If you are passionate about something, you will find creating new content fun and enjoyable. Plus you will have a better insight into that subject matter.
- Build traffic first, learn about search engines, social networking, article submission, digg and stumbledupon (to name a few). Get your name out there, get yourself known. If your content is good, the better known you become, the more people will respond to your content. By leveraging the networking effect of the internet, your site will have a nice stream of good traffic.
- Keep your users happy! Linked to point 1, if your users are happy visitors, they will no doubt become regular visitors, ensuring your site continues to grow. If your site is product focused, ensure you communicate with your customers, get their feedback, feed it into your systems and improve problematic areas.
- Once you website receives good levels of traffic, you can then realistically consider making some money from advertising. There are various programs out there which you could benefit from using. Google Adsense, Adbrite and affiliate schemes can offer easy money making opportunities, however in order to make good money from these alone you will need to be generating a lot of traffic, and have a massive site with lots of good content.
- Selling products directly online, without doubt, the easiest way to make money online, is to actually sell products! If your site has no products, then you have nothing on your site that someone will actually want to buy. How can you then expect to make money from your site? Online advertising costs are so cheap that you will be lucky to bring in enough money to cover your hosting costs in year 1. I am still waiting to reach my first $100 from Google adsense after 18 months of low advertising.
Taking the above points into consideration, and using the Perez Hilton site as a good example, what websites need to do is find their niche. Focus the content on a product you can openly talk about. Ensure your site is different from the competition. Build traffic to your site first, and sure enough sales or advertising revenue will increase. However, don’t give up your day job.
You won’t make millions instantly with a website, well not unless you are lucky! But spend time blogging, apply a networking mentality and in time you may have a website which generates some income. Better yet, sell products direct from your website, blog about your products, get other people to blog about your products, if possible blog about other peoples products, compare them to yours.
The web offers endless opportunities for promotion and potential monetization. Building an audience is the first step, it opens the door to a wealth of opportunities.