Making a little extra income is always a good idea, but before you monetize your website, there are a few things to remember. Whether through advertising or product sales, turning your website into a moneymaker takes time and a bit of finesse.
Here are 4 simple rules to remember when it comes to monetizing your website:
- Decide Which Monetization Route to Take and Stick With It
There are plenty of ways to make money off your website, but that doesn’t mean you should take advantage of all the monetizing options available. Whether you’re trying to make some extra money or you want to support yourself solely on your website, it’s important to choose one or two monetization routes and stick with them.
- Products/Services – Selling your products and services through your website is one of the most straightforward monetizing options around. If you’re worried about taking payments directly through your site, you can always enlist the help of PayPal.
- Contextual Ads – Click-through, context based advertisements are a fairly common way to make a little extra cash through your website. The Google AdSense program makes the monetization process a breeze to set up – just remember the earning potential for contextual ads is pretty low.
- Affiliate Ads – Putting affiliate ads on your site works much the same way as contextual ads. The only difference is it is commission-based, so your click-through visitor must make a purchase from the company you advertise.
Traditional ad sales and conditional advertising are also monetization routes you can take with your website. However, these two options are much more involved and usually take a lot of legwork and management.
- Put Value First
As the following article notes, value comes first when making money off your website, which is why it’s 1 of 4 rules to remember when you monetize your site. If you don’t provide your visitors with an engaging, worthwhile website, then you won’t make a dime.
Monetizing your site takes traffic, which only a valuable website can bring. Miss the mark with value and it doesn’t really matter how many ads you have or products you offer. If your traffic and ad/product sales are slow, you might need to go back to the digital drawing board and create a more valuable website.
- Don’t Overdo It
A few tastefully placed ads here and there is one thing, but if your site is covered in advertisements, it will do more harm than good. In other words, you need to monetize responsibly by not going over the top or your site will come off as a greedy, and irritating, click-through trap.
- Be Patient
Putting an ad on your website won’t turn into a cash cow overnight. Making money through your website takes time and practice. You need to figure out your audience and include ads that are relevant to their lives. The monetization process will take plenty of tweaking, but you’ll know you’re getting close to your sales goal when the click-through rates increase.
When you’re ready to monetize your website, keep in mind the helpful rules above.
About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including online marketing and website management.
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