Making Money With A Content-Oriented Website
<span>Many
websites out there have quite a bit of content, but are untapped as a
resource for making money. Countless webmasters have heard the stories
about getting rich working from home on their website. Yes, many people
have done it. Yes, those who got in early on it did pretty well, but as
I tell people fairly often, the ways to make money online are only
limited to your imagination. The internet is the most free medium on
the planet. Now, a website which directly offers a service or product
is a no-brainer. You promote that produce or service and sell it and
you make money. However, if your website is a nice library of content,
but with no services or products to provide to the visitors, how can
you make some money with it? There are ways and here are a few of them:<br /><br /> * Traditional Banner Advertising<br /> * Form a subscription service<br /> * Host contextual ads<br /> * Sell affiliate products<br /> * Sell your own content<br /><br />Banner
advertising is the most prevalent method of generating revenue from
content sites. Content sites are valuable to internet advertisers.
After all, what gives any content site value is the eyeballs looking at
it. Its like an internet highway. In the real world, people will pay to
put billboards on the side of well traveled highways. The same occurs
online. Well trafficked websites are valuable for advertising. If your
content site does not have much traffic yet, then get busy promoting,
because the traffic is what gives your site value. Without the traffic,
your content is worth very little in the real world.<br /><br />There are
many sources of getting advertising in your website, and the easiest is
to join a network. A few networks are Burst, Tribal Fusion, Rydium,
FastClick, and Google Adwords. Each network has its own requirements
for applicants.<br /><br />Offering a subscription service is another
method of generating revenue. The trick here is to figure out what to
offer. The best bet is to survey your public for what they need and
want from your website and what they are willing to pay for. If your
content is updated routinely, you might be able to charge people a fee
for accessing it. You might also offer enhanced services of some kind
for subscribers. If you have an online forum, you could possibly offer
access to private forums or other enhanced profile capabilities for a
small fee. The trick on this is to offer something for free. It is the
free content which will bring traffic to your website, so finding the
balance is something you will need to work out.<br /><br />Affiliate
programs are something you can get into as well. In this case, you
don't have to come up with the product yourself, yet you can bring
attention to it and get visitors to purchase them from you. Find
affiliate programs in which the products offered are relevant to your
site. You want something that your public will be interested in.
Amazon.com has a popular affiliate program in which you can offer books
for sale on your website for a commission. You can also go to the
affiliate networks to search for programs. Some well known such
networks are Linkshare, Commission Junction and Regnow.<br /><br />You can
also come up with and offer your own products. This is where some
imagination comes into play. One possible idea is to author and sell an
e-book. You could sell white papers for your visitors to solve certain
problems they may have. There are a number of things you can do, and it
depends on the type of site you have. On the internet, though, your
best bet is to sell your knowledge and expertise. It is a 100 rofit
margin (after your initial investment of time to put it together).<br /><br />The
trick in any of these ideas is to survey your public and find out what
they need and want. People love to express their opinions, and you
should not be sitting there guessing at what people want and would
spend their hard-earned money for. Ask them! <br />
<br />
About the author:<br /> David Risley is a web developer
and founder of PC Media, Inc. (http://www.pcmedianet.com). Specializes
in PHP/MySQL development, consulting and internet business management.
He is also the founder of PC Mechanic (http://www.pcmech.com), a large
website delivering do-it-yourself computer information to thousands of
users every day. <br /></span></b>
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