Earn money with your website
Make your website work for you!
"I've got my website looking how I want it...now how can I earn from it?"
There are two ways you can earn from your website. You can sell your own products (which is all well and good if you're a business and would like to do this) or you can earn revenue from using advertising on your site for other companies.
Just about everywhere you go on the net there are ads. When you click on these ads and go to the advertiser's website, chances are you earned someone some money. It won't be much...but if your website has enough traffic going through it, that not-much-for-every-click soon adds up.
You can use either banner ads or text ads. They are exactly as their name suggests. Banner ads are graphical ads, and text ads only contain text. You will most likely find text ads have a better response rate, as you can integrate them into your site a lot better and most people tend to 'not see' banner ads as they've got used to them.
If your website gets a decent amount of traffic through it (not one or two people every other week!) then you have the potential to earn. Most people won't click on the advertising...but if you have integrated it with your site well, a certain percentage will. If you have a website about movies, provide advertising for DVDs or other entertainment sites.
If you have a site about motherhood/children, it makes sense to use ads for discount children's clothes or toys. Do you have a recipe site? How about advertisements for cookbooks or cooking utensils. It's all to do with targeting...deciding which type of visitor is going to come through your site, and what they'd be interested in.
There's a heap of companies out there willing to pay you to place their ads on your website. The only drawback with some is that they require you to meet a high minimum amount before you get paid, and if you don't have the traffic and clicks to amass a decent amount, then you'll never meet that minimum and never get paid.
You will need to check out each advertiser and decide if what they offer will work on your site, and make sure the minimum payout threshold isn't too high if you don't yet have a lot of traffic otherwise it could take you a long time before you get paid if you're just starting out.
The following is an example of some companies you can use on your website.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is a great ad network that inserts ads on your site and pays you each time someone clicks the ad. Depending on your niche, the value of each click can range anywhere from a few cents to hundreds of dollars. Most people are seeing values of around 20c - $5.00 per click.
Criteria for joining is fairly stringent. Your website is reviewed for suitability, and rejected if found lacking or is within an unacceptable niche. For example, I have seen websites rejected because they do not have suitable navigation. One used dropdown lists for navigation which wasn't suitable, the other used an ajax call to generate a menu based on selected item. Once static navigation was implemented on each of these websites they were then approved by Google.
Minimum payout: $100
Payment frequency: Monthly when selected threshold is met
Commission Factory
Commission Factory allows you to choose particular companies to promote on your website. You apply to companies you are interested in, and once accepted you can place their ad code on your website. You are paid a commission for any sales that come through your website.
Commission Factory requires you to sign up with an email account related to your website in order to prove that you have authority to place ads on the site. For example, if your website URL is https://mygreatsite.com, you are expected to sign up with an email account from that domain, i.e.: info@mygreatsite.com or jane@mygreatsite.com.
Minimum payout: $50
Payment frequency: Weekly when selected threshold is met
Clickbank
Clickbank, just like Commission Factory, allows you to choose particular companies to promote on your website. You apply to companies you are interested in, and once accepted you can place their ad code on your website. You are paid a commission for any sales that come through your website. Clickbank have a lot of companies, some of these are poorer quality (junk really) in that they are the 'latest' diet fads, 'Trump' dollars, etc. There are, however, some great companies in the mix so definitely worth a look.
Note that Clickbank withholds a small percentage of revenue for 12 weeks in order to manage any cashbacks. They also charge a monthly fee if your account is dormant for at least 90 days.
Minimum payout threshold: $10
Payment frequency: When selected threshold is met
Ghost marketing
Ghost marketing is a whole new ballgame when it comes to affiliate programs. As opposed to placing ads on your website and waiting to make a sale, you can go one step further and build up a personal brand to drive affiliate sales.
Building up a personal brand may seem a daunting prospect, and you may feel that it's not for you - but in reality, it is something everyone can probably succeed at. There are some great mentorship programs that will help guide you through this process, but you do need to be careful as some charge a lot of money and you may not get bang for your buck.
A program which we have personally used is Otherlife. For an up-front cost of $27, they introduce you to the concept of ghost marketing through their 7 Day Shift program. This seven day course is designed to shift your thinking so that you think like an affiliate marketer. The course guides you through setting up a system which allows you to develop your brand so that you can quickly build a targeted audience which is important in affiliate marketing because they will be receptive to any offers that you recommend.
In the 7 Day Shift you are taught what to look for when choosing an affiliate program so that you can maximise profits for the least effort. You are taught how to work with social media to develop your audience, which provides the hand-holding that most people need to get themselves over the line to building a following. At the end of the seven day course you speak personally with a mentor to discuss how the system will work for you going forward.
There are a lot of people seeing great success with Otherlife. One person who started in early 2022 is now achieving around $50,000 a month from affiliate marketing all from starting with the Otherlife mentorship course. Of course, not everyone will see results like that, but with an initial outlay of $27 that's not a lot to risk to introduce you to affiliate marketing and see if it's right for you.