5 Easy Ways to Earn Money Off Your Website

You may be one of the many people who has a website but doesn't know you can earn money from it. Even though your website may not be an official business, there's no reason why you can't take advantage of the amazing online income opportunities. Extra money is always good, right?

It doesn't matter what type of website you have - business, personal, hobby, affiliate, charity, etc. you can make money. But for some reason, most people aren't doing it. If you have targeted traffic already coming to your website, blog, or MySpace page, you can monetize it by implementing any or all of the tips we'll discuss below.

1. Google AdSense

One of the easiest things you can do to immediately earn money from your website is to add Google AdSense. Just sign up for an account, get the special code, and add it to your website where you want AdSense to appear. Based on the content of your page, Google will serve relevant text ads. The more targeted and relevant your content, the more targeted the ads will be (and hence more clicks). When someone clicks an ad on your site, you'll earn money from the advertiser! It's easy, quick, and can be very profitable depending on the amount of traffic to your site and the relevancy of your content.

2. Affiliate Programs

There are thousands and thousands of affiliate programs with products online. It's a simple concept - merchants pay you commissions when you send customers to them. If you have targeted traffic coming to your site why not promote related products and earn extra money? For example, if you have a blog about your favorite TV show, you could recommend the DVD box sets of earlier seasons. The people reading your blog would be interested in the DVDs and you could earn income when a sale is made at the merchant's site from a customer that originated at your blog.

You need to identify who your customers are and what they would and would not be interested in. Then go look for merchants offering those products. In fact, while searching, you will probably come across products you never thought of. To get started, Google your website topic and 'affiliate program'.

You can also visit one of the many affiliate program directories online. I always recommend considering residual income affiliate programs because merchants will pay you commissions/revenue share for the life of the customer. Simply, you get customers to buy once and you receive commissions on any re-order or monthly subscription thereafter. If your website is down or it's a slow month, you can still be making income from past customers!

Once you sign up, get text links and banners from the merchants and put them on your site where people will see them. If you're devoting a page to a product, include your affiliate link to the merchant website in the text. This will appear as a recommendation by you and people will be more likely to click it and visit the merchant. If the merchant product is relevant to the entire site or is more general, add a banner ad. Don't be afraid to recommend products and place affiliate banners in your content. Sometimes you have to get right into your customer's face for them to notice!

3. Sell Products

Instead of sending traffic directly to a merchant, you can appear to sell their products on your site. Although still an affiliate program, the merchant provides code that you place on your site to make it appear the customer is buying from you. This is accomplished with a popup window or iframe so that the merchant's website opens in your website. For example, you can sell website templates or dating memberships on your site simply by including a snippet of code. Merchants will even provide content, co-branded stores, galleries, and more so that more of the selling is on your site instead of the merchant.

4. Newsletter List

Every website should have a newsletter/mailing list. Customers voluntarily give you their email address so you can send them related information that they'll be interested in. Not only are they receptive and more likely to read what you send them, it keeps your website in their mind and encourages them to come back where they can then click your AdSense or affiliate links. You can also send them some of your affiliate links in the email itself. It's really a great marketing opportunity that's easy to implement. Your web hosting probably already includes a newsletter list you can enable. If not, there are many online that are free or for purchase.

5. Sell Advertising Space

If your site gets good targeted traffic and has a good page rank and reputation, companies may want to take out advertising on your website. You never know, one of those merchants with an affiliate program might be willing to pay you to place their banner ad on your site. If I was a merchant selling hiking boots and your website was a popular hiking site with local routes and tips, I might want to place my ad on your site because your site is my target market. Figure out a reasonable fee and ask merchants if they would be willing to advertise with you.

There are actually a few companies online that make selling advertising space really easy by bringing publishers like you close to advertisers. Two of the best companies are AdBrite and Text-Link-Ads. In both cases you set a price of how much it would cost to place a text ad on a page of your website. Advertisers who are interested can purchase the ad space you've offered and it will show up automatically. All you do is place the block of the code given to you where the ad will be shown. This is a great way to automate this process so you don't have to find advertisers on your own - they'll find you!

In Conclusion...

Even if your site is not a traditional business website, you can earn money from it. All you need is targeted traffic and valuable content and you could be making a great income at home from your website. Why not monetize your website today?