Cashing in on your website

Cashing in on your website

By Wayne Marsh Sunday Finance contributor
Business – Excerpt from Jamaica Observer (Sunday, May 24, 2009)

I would hazard a guess that most Jamaican businesses have at least toyed with the idea of having a website but how many of those that have one have collected even a cent from them? I am sure the answer is too few. This is because most websites were developed without even considering their online objectives, much less any monetising strategies. There are over 100 ways to make money online; however, today I will focus on nine of my favourite ideas.


1. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

You can place ads from other networks on your website by cutting and pasting code from the particular network to your website. The most popular option for this strategy is Google Adsense. Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN) also offers similar services. You will need to sign up with a network to begin the process.

It works like this: you determine where on your website the ads will be displayed and set up the code accordingly. Visitors to your website will click on these ads and you will receive a certain amount of money from the network for each click. The amount received ranges from a few cents to a few dollars and is largely dependent on your website niche. The ads displayed are usually related to the content of your website.

2. Cost Per Mille (CPM) Advertising

CPM refers to the unit cost for every 1,000 page views an ad receives. For example, if the CPM is $2 and your webpage receives 50,000 page views monthly then you will earn $2 x (50,000/1,000) = $100 monthly.

To participate in a CPM network you must register with one of the many advertising networks. The CPM rates vary per network and the page views that your website receive will determine your eligibility to participate. For websites with low pageviews networks like ValueClickMedia.com is appropriate while Advertising.com caters to high pageview websites. The factors affecting your income when using this strategy are similar to those when using PPC.

3. In-text Advertising

In-text advertising is easily identified by a double underline that differentiates a word or phrase from normal text links. When a visitor places their mouse over the text an ad pops up. You will be paid each time the visitor clicks on the ad.

Web usability experts frowned at this strategy when it was first introduced but a number of mainstream websites have since adapted to its use.

4. Affiliate Marketing

Using your website for affiliate marketing is similar to acting as a salesperson for one or more companies in the brick and mortar world. To participate, you register to be an affiliate with a merchant and receive payment for each sale or lead that your website generates for the merchant. Visitors to your site will be sent to the merchant's site by clicking on links that you have installed for this purpose. This is sometimes referred to as Cost Per Action (CPA) or Cost Per Lead (CPL).

Search the search engines for "affiliate network" or "affiliate marketplace" to find suitable networks to join.

5. Banner Advertising

This option allows you to cut out the middleman (Google Adsense, YPN, etc) and set your own rates, unlike the previous options listed. The disadvantage is that you will be responsible for selling the ad space and managing the entire process.

The rates charged for banner ads are usually dependent on the size and placement of the banners. Therefore, cost for placing a banner on your home page is usually higher than those placed on your inner pages.

6. Website Sponsorship

Similar to a television programme having sponsors, you can opt to attract sponsorship for sections of your website. This is more common with video or audio content and is catching on with mini applications called widgets. However, any feature of your website can be sponsored, eg, a survey, special report, etc.
This increases your pricing options, while giving advertisers the ability to target a niche audience, with a reduced commitment.

7. Generating an E-mail List

Have you ever wondered why e-mail marketers are so persistent in getting into your email inbox? Because it pays! Email marketing is a numbers game and in this case size does matter. The bigger your list the more chances of you monetising it.

Generating a large enough list will take some effort but when completed you can use it to market products for advertisers or yourself. One of the best ways to use your list is to send out newsletters. You can then monetise your newsletters by selling ad space, advertising affiliate links or promoting your own products in each issue.

Please don't forget to adhere to anti-spamming laws.

8. e-Commerce

This may be the most familiar option to you so far. Adding e-commerce capability to your website will take some effort. You must setup credit card acceptance mechanisms, shipping options for non-digital products and, of course, add a shopping cart to your website.

9. Sell your Website

The steps to sell your website are not much different from selling a brick and mortar business. You must determine a value for your website which is usually your revenue times a number. The potential and quality of your website will determine the number used.

Just as there are real estate moguls offline who buy and flip property, there are online moguls who flip websites. There are also websites that operate as brokers for buying and selling websites.

Bonus

There was a Jamaican who bought an e-mail list of one million addresses. He sent half of them a tip that a stock was going up and the other half a tip that it was going down. He cut his list in half, keeping only the half who saw that his tip was right. He again gave contrasting predictions with a different stock. He continued this cycle until he was down to about 14,000 persons who saw him consistently predicting winners. He then sent his final e-mail inviting them to his $4,995 a seat seminar on stock price prediction.

This is not another idea; I just wanted to share an interesting story with you that is popular in my online community.

There are many persons who are using these nine ideas and more online; some have become millionaires, others are making a decent living and some have gone back to their day jobs. Just remember that the amount of traffic that your website receives will be a major factor in determining your success or failure.

Wayne Marsh is an Internet Marketing Consultant and can be contacted at marshwa@wsiwebprofits.com or www.wsiwebprofits.com.