Sep 21 2007
The Methods to My Madness - Monetising My Sites
I built websites for years because I loved sharing info I had, helping people out and being creative. I had attempted unsuccessfully to make money through Amazon and made a few sales through a hostel booking system but it took me years to start earning any decent money. Here are the ways I monetise my websites:
- Google Adsense - This program has been around for years and has been the cause of much frustration. When I first started out in late 2004 I was amazed to be getting paid more than pennies per click and my $30 in my first month was what opened my eyes to the possibilities of earning online. Adsense is something that I can count on to be pretty steady each month. There’s not a lot of fluctuation in my earnings at the moment and things are steadily rising but it’s a long term commitment and should only be one piece of the web earnings puzzle. Putting all your eggs in the Adsense basket is risky because Google can boot you out at any time with no explanation.
- Affiliate programs - I’m no expert on affiliate marketing but I do know that that’s where the money is! Finding programs can be time consuming and frustrating but when you get a good match it will pay off. Before I’d made my first decent sale with an affiliate program I could have sworn the whole thing was some sort of scam made up to taunt me. But I tried a few different programs and eventually I made a few sales and then a few more and now I’m all about affiliates! If you’re not getting any sales at all then try something else. Keep trying different things because something will work eventually.
- Link sales through Digital Point - This forum is a goldmine for link sellers even if your sites are crappy. Money flies around this forum like crazy and it’s a good place to come to top up your Paypal account. I’m trying to phase this out because I find the links to be a bit spammy but it’s served me well in the past. Finding this forum is what kicked my earnings up to the next level.
- Approach businesses to sell ads - This is something I’ve done twice and been successful both times. If you’ve got a site that is aimed at their target market and can manage to get in touch with the person who deals with their marketing then you’ll be in with a chance. If you’ve got a good website with a clear target market that is in line with the businesses you approach then you’ve got something to offer.
- Text Link Ads - Getting into this program should set you on your way towards earning some seriously easy money. Once you’re accepted and place the code, TLA do everything for you and the links appear automatically once they’re approved by you. The problem is that they’re a bit picky about which sites they let into the program. I’ve had a few sites turned down. They say they review the rejected sites once a month to see if they’ve changed their mind but I’ve yet to hear back from them. I think the problem is that the sites are only PR2. I would suggest waiting until your site is a PR4 before you apply to protect against getting stuck in no man’s land like me.
- Linkworth - I was doing well with Linkworth for awhile but then they dumped all my links! Little buggers. But they work for a lot of people so give them a go as well. They offer a bigger payout than Text Link Ads at 70% and you can set your own price but the process isn’t automated so you have to add new links manually. It only takes a few minutes though so not really a big deal.
If you’re totally stumped about how to monetise your site, have a browse around sites that are similar to see what they’ve done. Scroll over their links to see which affiliate websites they use and then head to the affiliate site for a browse around.
There are plenty of other ways to earn a buck like selling ebooks, doing paid reviews and… uh… other stuff that I can’t think of at the moment. I’m still relatively new to all this and will keep you posted on any new money making methods I come across.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go.
Kirsty - thanks for sharing the information - It is a big help to newbies such as myself.
I have this totally unproven theory that the longer a site is ad free, the faster it rises in pagerank/popularity, the logic being that it improves a new sites chance of being noticed and recommended (linked to) by those who make it their business to search for and recommend good stuff to their readers. That they will feel a site without ads is higher quality than site with ads.
What do you think, have you noticed any difference in how fast your sites rise in pagerank in relation to how much ad space is on them?
Supremely excellent article by the way, I’m gonna set up a link directory soon under webjourneyman.com. I’m going to have 5 chief directories: Making, Marketing, Maintaining, Monitoring and Monetising and I know just what articles I’m gonna link to first
Do you monitor the visitors to your site? Where they come from and/or what they read on your site? If they came from search engines, how do you see what words they used to search with? Do you monitor backlinks?
I’m not sure what maintenance would entail on a website since I barely have one, perhaps you can tell me. What are the routine (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) tasks that go with owning and operating a website?
Hi all,
Kirsty, further to you email I have began my quest to develop my own site. Before I can scratch the surface of what I want to do there is loads to learn. So, I’m posting again on my old pokerbackpacker.com site and using it to learn the basics, before I move on to (hopefully) better things.
I have basically fallen flat on my face at the first hurdle. As I have the blog up and running, I have jumped straight in at the monetising section while I continue to brainstorm my other ideas.
I’ve tried to the mot basic of things - add Adsense to my wordpress blog. I have got the code I need from Adsense, I just have no idea how to get it on my site. I have attempted the following 2 things:
1. I opened {view} {source} and pasted the html where I want it to appear. I save the file, but there is no change on the site. When I go back to notepad, the code i pasted and saved doesnt show up!? Someone mention uploading the file to my server, but I have no idea what that even is!!!
2. Pasting the adsense code into the wp-theme files. This is not even worth trying because for some reason I deleted all my theme files ages ago (bugger).
The main problem I think stems from the fact that a really helpful guy from the WN forums (Neale) helped me set this blog up. All I did was set up the wordpress account, chose a theme, and update the blog posts. He did the rest, even putting the Full Tilt poker banner on the blog.
If he can do this (i assume without even accessing the admin part of wordpress) how come I’m struggling.
Sorry, I am such a novice
Another good post Kirsty.
I’ve made the most from direct ad sales, and been lucky enough to have the advertisers approach me in those situations, which speaks to the value of having a clear (up front) way for people to contact you through your website(s).
I have only started to approach some companies about sponsoring my site before leaving on a RTW trip, however I’ve gotten no responses. I think I’m aiming too high.
That’s an interesting theory WJM. I have all kids of crazy theories but I reckon that one might have something to it. It’s not somethng I’ve ever really paid attention to so it’s hard to say if I’ve noticed an effect. Might be an interesting experiement though!
I used Google Analytics to monitor my stats but not to it’s full potential. There’s so much you can do with it but I’ve never sat down and learned. I don’t pay much attention to backlinks but I suppose I should. As for seeing what keywords people are using to find my site, I can do that with Analytics but check out http://www.103bees.com for more in-depth reporting.
Lee I’m afraid I’m not the person to ask since I really don’t know much about Wordpress. I’m pretty sure there’s a plug-in that makes adding Adsense really easy but I haven’t installed it because I don’t want Adsense on this site. None of my other sites use Wordpress so it’s just a matter of cutting and pasting the code and it works fine. Do a search for ‘Adsense Wordpress plugin’ or go over to the Wordpress forums and ask around. But I’m not sure Adsense allow gambling sites to participate so you might want to check that. Sorry I can’t help more… I’m still learning too. I’m trying to work out how to add a Google map to my site so take heart in the fact that you’re not the only one struggling with Wordpress.
Dave good job with the link sales. As far as approaching businesses directly I wonder if your site’s topic is too broad. The sites that have worked for me so far are extremely targeted. I’m not sure I’d be able to find sponsers for Travoholic.com (a site similar to yours in target audience) but I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble with my London site because it’s targeted to a lcoation and a specific audience. So if you don’t have much success at first, try narrowing your focus a bit or look to build some niche sites.
This is an excellent post!
I’ve just started monetizing my site with AdSense but I’m taking it slooowly. I believe that monetizing too soon could jeopardize some standing with search engines. Not only that - but schemes like AdSense depend on traffic. Unless you have decent traffic, you can’t really expect to make much money with this.
Another great Affiliate broker is Clickbank. It pays high commissions, and selling through them can be pretty lucrative. The only drawback is having to buy each product first - I won’t advertise anything I can’t stand by.
I agree totally Scribe. Adding moneymakers too soon will turn people away and might have an effect on the search engine results too. I’ll check out Clickbank, thanks. As for buying products before peddling them… have you thought about contacting companies for samples rather than buying straight up? You might be surpised by how many freebies can be scored this way. I think I might write a post about it soon, actually.
Since I’ve read workingnomad story and checked out the site - that’s how I found you. I love your honest-to-goodness down-to-earth presentation of this site. I love the responses that you have here especially.
I’d been trying to learn as much as I could (stalking the blogosphere) I supposed, but never having the courage to really start beyond setting up an account at WordPress.com. I still am not confident if I can get back to it, edit my content, etc….just paranoid…I might be putting out something I might regret later. But, I’m getting there. Everytime I come back to your sight, I get a little boost to get that blog rolling…soon I hope.
Thanks for the nuggets-of wisdom I pick up along the way. Even the responses here are really helpful, making me feel I’m not the only one drifting in the sea of ignorance…ha! ha!…at least without the arrogance. I hope I can anchor my ship any moment now. You are a beacon of light.
I’m hopeless…I can’t even get the feed to work, but I’ll be following you in your trip. Let me know if Philippines is in your list in the future.