For millions of people web sites are the major sourceof income. Thanks to the various ways to monetize a site, it is possible to
make a living as a web master. However, this doesn't mean that every web master
is a millionaire. Well, if you know how to monetize your web site, you might
not get rich but at least chances are that under the worst possible scenario,
you will be able to cover your hosting fees and the other expenses you make for
your site.
Currently the most profitable ways to monetize your
site are CPM ads, CPC ads, CPA ads, direct sales of ad space, and selling
merchandise/goods/services. These ways are described in this article.
CPM ads (an abbreviation for Cost Per Thousand) is the oldest type of site
monetization. You put banners on your site and advertisers pay you based on the
number of unique impressions/page views your site has.
CPM ads are the easiest form of site monetization
because they require almost no effort on your side, but they are also the least
feasible because as a rule (unless you have really high traffic and your
audience is well-targeted), the rates are low. Some CPM ad networks pay as low as $.05 per 1,000
uniques, which means that you need millions of visitors in order to make
$100-200 a month.
Popups and layer ads pay a bit more ($.5-2 per 1,000
uniques/pageviews). They could bring you a few dollars a month but many
visitors find them especially irritating and this is why many web masters are
not willing to put popups and/or layer ads on their sites.
There are high-paying CPM ads – for instance ads
paying $2-5 per 1,000 uniques but usually the networks that run them have very
high traffic and quality requirements for the sites that are eligible. As a
result, it is very hard to get into these networks and take advantage of these
well-paid CPM ads.
There are many CPM networks we can recommend. For sites with
lots of traffic the choice better and some of the good options are Advertising.com,
TribalFusion,
CasaleMedia,
and ValueClick
because there CPM rates are good. AdBrite, AdToll,
Right
Media, and BurstMedia are also good. Some of these networks
are CPM-only, while others have other types of ads as well. Google also has CPM
ads, so you may want to try them.
CPC ads (an abbreviation from Cost Per Click) are different from CPM because
with CPC you get paid not when visitors view ads but when they click on them.
The good news is that CPC rates are much, much better and as a result, it is
possible to make a decent income even with a small site with not so high
traffic. The key with CPC success is to have a well-targeted site in a niche
where there are a lot of advertisers.
The most popular CPC network is Google
Adsense and even though there are other CPC networks, the income you can make from
Adsense is much higher. The reason is that Google Adsense has many advertisers
and if your site is in a profitable niche, CPC can be the best way to monetize
your site. Additionally, unlike some of the other CPC ad networks, Google Adsense is open to
publishers from all over the world.
Usually CPC ads are text ads and you publish them in
blocks. However, there are also intext ads, where the keyword is underlined and
when the visitor puts the mouse on it, a tooltip with CPC ads appears. Intext
ads are less obtrusive but it takes much more effort for the user to notice
them (and above all – to click them), which means that your chances to make
money are further decreased. Kontera is one of the most popular networks for
intext CPC ads.
The list of good CPC ad networks is not as long as the
list of CPM or CPA ad networks but still there is a choice. For instance, Google
Adsense, Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN), BidVertiser,
Chitika,
and Clicksor
are generally considered top choices but since many CPM ad networks pay decent
rates for clicks on their CPM ads, you might want to try them as well.
CPA Ads
Could Make You Rich
Currently CPA (an abbreviation from Cost Per Action) is the most profitable way to
monetize a site in a profitable niche. CPA, also known as “affiliate programs”, pays you
a commission when your visitors perform an action. Most often this action is a
purchase, but it could also be something else – i.e. download a free trial, or
signup for the service of the advertiser.
Affiliate programs can make you rich because there are
many products with really fat commissions. For niches such as health, finance,
travel, etc. affiliate programs are a real golden mine.
However, affiliate programs require a lot of efforts
on your side and still there is no guarantee that the offers you pick to
promote will convert well and will make you money. Sometimes even the highest
converting offers won't convert on your site and the only thing you can do is
replace them with other offers, hoping that they will convert better.
There might be hundreds of CPM ad networks but for CPA they are thousands.
It is practically impossible to try all of them personally and this is why we
would like to recommend some of the best to start with. Amazon, eBay, ShareASale, Commission
Junction, Clickbank, Max Bounty, Azoogle, Never Blue Ads, LinkShare,
or PepperJam
are just a few of the greatest CPA networks we can recommend.
If you are not happy with the CPM rates of ad
networks, or CPC and CPA don't convert well with your site, you could try to find direct advertisers. However, have in mind
that such an endeavor is not necessarily bound to succeed and if your site
doesn't have audience advertisers can't reach elsewhere, you will hardly be
able to negotiate good prices. Still, for some sites direct sales of ad space
are a viable alternative and this is why you could also try it.
Openads Ad Server and OIO
Publisher Ad Platform are two of the sites where you could try your
luck. AdBrite
also allowa you to price your ad space. In fact, almost any major network gives
you the chance to put a widget on your site to invite advertisers directly to
advertise on your site.
In addition to CPA ads, where you are selling other
merchants' products, you can try selling your own merchandise or
products/services with your brand. This technique works well mainly for popular
sites with loyal audience and is hardly the easiest way to monetize a site. You
could try to sell merchandise/goods/services as a supplementary service and if
you see that this monetization technique works, you can expand the business.
CafePress is one of the best places where you can sell merchandise with your
logo and the greatest thing is that they print on demand, which means you don't
have to keep your merchandise in stock.
The monetization techniques we described here can be
combined. You can run CPM ads together with CPA or CPC. You can also combine
multiple ads from the same type (i.e. CPM, CPC, or CPA) from different ad
networks, provided that this doesn't violate the terms of these networks. There
isn't a universal prescription about the best way to monetize a site. The basic
rule is that you need to try and see what works for you. The fact that a given
monetization technique works for somebody else doesn't mean that it will work
for you, so you need to try and see for yourself.
from: http://www.webconfs.com/seo-articles.php
from: http://www.webconfs.com/seo-articles.php
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