by Daniel Scocco

There are several lists with “ways to make money with a website” on the Internet, but none of them seem to be complete. That is why I chose to make this one. If you know a method that is not listed below, just let us know and we’ll bring up to date it.

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See that ways to make money with a website are different from ways to make more money from it. Methods to increase your transfer or click-through rate will help you make more money, but they do not represent a method of making money per se.

For example, one could suggest that blending AdSense ads with the content is a way to make money from a website. In reality it’s not; it’s just a way to make more money by improving your ad click-through rate. The real monetization method behind it is a PPC ad network.

The list is divided into direct and indirect methods, and examples and links are provided for each point. Delight in!

Direct Methods

1. PPC Advertising Networks

Google AdSense is the most well loved option under this category, but there are also others. Basically you need to sign up with the network and paste some code odds and ends on your website. The network will then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to your website, and you will earn a certain amount of money for every click.

The profitability of PPC advertising depends on the general transfer levels of the website and, most importantly, on the click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC). The CTR depends on the design of the website. Ads placed abode the fold or blended with content, for instance, tend to get higher CTRs. The CPC, on the other hand, depends on the nice of the website. Mortgages, monetary harvest and college education are examples of profitable niches (clicks value a couple of dollars are not rare), while tech-related topics tend to receive a smaller CPC (sometimes as low as a couple of cents per click).

The source of the transfer can also affect the overall CTR rate. Organic transfer (the one that comes from search engines) tends to perform well because these visitors were already looking for something, and they tend to click on ads more often. Social media transfer, on the other hand, presents very low CTRs because these visitors are tech-savvy and they just ignore ads.

List of well loved CPC advertising networks:

2. CPM Advertising Networks

CPM advertising networks perform sweet much as PPC networks, except that you get paid according to the number of impressions (i.e., page views) that the ads showed on your site will generate. CPM stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000 impressions.

A blog that generates 100,000 page views monthly showing an advertising banner with a $1 CPM, therefore, will earn $100 monthly.

CPM rates vary with the network, the position of the ad and the format. The better the network, the higher the CPM rate (because they have access to more advertisers). The closer you place the ad to the top of the page, the higher the CPM. The larger the format (in terms of pixels), the higher the CPM.

You can get as low as $0,10 and as high as $10 per 1,000 impressions (more in some special cases). CPM advertising tends to work well on websites with a high page views per visitor ratio (e.g., online forums, magazines and so on).

List of well loved CPM advertising networks:

3. Direct Banner Advertising

Selling your own advertising space is one of the most lucrative monetization methods. First and foremost because it enables you to cut out the middleman commissions and to determine your own rates. The most well loved banner formats on the web are the 728×90 leaderboard, the 120×600 skyscraper, the 300×250 rectangle and the 125×125 button.

The downside of direct banner advertising is that you need to have a huge audience to get qualified advertisers, and you will need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments.

Related links:

4. Text Link Ads

After Google declared that sites selling text links without the nofollow tag would be penalized, this monetization method became less well loved.

Many website owners are still using text links to monetize their sites, though, some using the nofollow tag and some not.

The advantage of this method is that it is not forward. One can sell text links directly through his website or use specialized networks like Text-Link-Ads and Text-Link-Brokers to automate the process.

Text link marketplaces and networks:

5. Connect Marketing

Connect marketing is a very well loved do on the Internet. Under this system you have a merchant that is willing to let other people (the affiliates) sell directly or indirectly its harvest and services, in exchange for a commission. Sometimes this type of advertising is also called CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead) based.

Affiliates can send potential customers to the merchant using several tools, from banners to text links and product reviews.

In order to find suitable connect programs you can turn to individual companies and publishers like Dreamhost and SEOBook, or join connect marketplaces and networks.

List of well loved connect marketplaces and networks:

6. Monetization Widgets

The latest trend on the web are widgets that let you monetize your website. Examples include Widgetbucks and SmartLinks. Some of these services operate under a PPC scheme, others perform like text link ads, others yet leverage connect links.

Their main differentiator, but, is the fact that they work as web widgets, making it simpler for the user to plug and play the service on its website.

List of companies that grant monetization widgets:

7. Sponsored Reviews

PayPerPost pioneered this model, with much controversy on the beginning (related to the fact that they did not require disclosure on paid posts). Soon other companies followed, most notably Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe, refining the process and expanding the paid blogging model.

Joining one of these sponsored reviews marketplaces will give you the opportunity to write sponsored posts on a wide range of topics. Not all bloggers are willing to get paid to write about a point product or website (because it might compromise the editorial credibility), but the ones who do are making excellent money out of it.

If your blog has a huge audience you could also offer sponsored reviews directly, cutting off the commissions of the middleman.

List of sponsored reviews and paid blogging networks:

8. RSS Feed Ads

With the quick adoption of the RSS technology by millions of Internet users, website owners are starting to find ways to monetize this new content distribution direct.

Feedburber already has its own publisher network, and you can sign-up to start showing CPM based advertising on your feed footer. Bidvertiser recently introduced a RSS feed ad option as well, with a PPC scheme.

Finally, some blogs are also opting to sell banners or sponsored messages on their feed directly. John Chow and Marketing Pilgrim are two examples.

Related links:

9. Sponsors for Single Columns or Events

If you website has point columns or events (e.g., a weekly podcast, an interview series, a monthly survey, a special project) you could find companies to sponsor them individually.

This method increases the monetization options for website owner, while giving advertisers the likelihood to butt a more point audience and with a reduced commitment.

Mashable illustrates the case well. They have several advertising options on the site, including the likelihood to sponsor point columns and articles, including the “Daily Poll” and the “Web 2.0 Invites.”

Problogger also runs group writing projects occasionally, and before proceeding he publicly broadcast the project asking for sponsors.

10.Premium Content

Some websites and blogs give away part of their content for free, and charge for access to the premium content and exclusive tools.

SEOMoz is a excellent example. They have a very well loved blog that gives advice and information on wide range of SEO related topics. On top of that visitors can choose to become premium members. It costs $48 monthly and it grants them access to guides, tools and other exclusive notes.

11. Private Forums

While the Internet is populated with free forums, there is also the likelihood to make a private one where members need to pay a single or recurring fee to join.

SEO Blackhat charges $100 monthly from its members, and they have thousands of them. Obviously in order to charge such a price for a forum connection you need to grant real value for the members (e.g., secret techniques, tools, and so on).

Performancing also launched a private forum recently, all ears on the networking position. It is called The Hive, and the monthly cost is $10.

These are just two examples. There are many possibilities to make a private and profitable forum, you just need to find an appealing angle that will make it value for the members.

List of well loved forum software:

12. Job Boards

All the well loved blogs are tiresome to leverage job boards to make some extra income. Guy Kawasaki, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger… you name it.

Needless to say that in order to make an active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog all ears on a point niche, and a decent amount transfer.

The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.

List of well loved job board software:

13. Marketplaces

Sitepoint is the online marketplace by distinction. Some websites and blogs, but, are tiresome to replicate that model on a smaller scale.

Depending on your niche, a promote place that allows your visitors to buy, sell and trade harvest could work well. Over the time you could start charging a small fee for new product listings.

The conundrum with this method is that there are no ordinary software on the web, so you would need to hire a coder to get a marketplace integrated into your website.

You can see an example of a marketplaces being used on EasyWordPress and on Mashable.

14. Paid Surveys and Polls

There are services that will pay you money to run a small survey or poll on your website. The most well loved one is called Vizu Answers.

Basically you need to sign up with them, and brilliant the kind of polls that you want to run your site. Most of these services operate under a CPM model.

15. Selling or Renting Internal Pages

Million Dollar Wiki made this concept well loved, but it was being used on the web for a long time around (check Pagerank10.co.uk for instance).

These websites sell for a single fee or rent for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either high Pagerak or high transfer, so that people purchasing a page will be able to subsidy in some way.

Implementing this method on a small blog would be hard, but the concept is fascinating and could be explored further.

16. Highlighted Posts from Sponsors

Techmeme probably pioneered this thought, but somehow it has not apply to other websites. The tech news aggregator displays editorial posts on the left column, and on the sidebar they have a section titled “Techmeme Sponsor Posts.”

On that section posts from the blog of the advertisers get highlighted, sending qualified transfer their way. Considering that the monthly cost for one spot is $5000 and that they have around 6 sponsors at any given time, it must be working well.

17. Donations

Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be an well-organized way to earn money, especially if your blog is on a niche where readers learn and gain value from your content.

Personal enhancement and productivity blogs, for instance, tend to perform well with donation based systems (one excellent example being Steve Pavlina).

A small variation of this method appeared sometime ago with the Buy Me a Beer plugin. This WordPress plugin enables you to insert a customized thought at the bottom of each article, asking the readers to chip in for a beer or coffee.

18. In-text Adverting

In-text adverting networks like Kontera and Vibrant Media will place sponsored links inside your text. These links come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money.

Some people make excellent money with this method, but others refrain from using it due to its intrusiveness. It is also fascinating to note that very few mainstream websites have experimented with in-text advertising.

19. Pop-ups and Pop-unders

Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of advertising on the Internet. If you are just tiresome to make a much money as possible from your website, you could experiment with them.

If you are tiresome to grow the transfer and generate loyal visitors, but, you probably should stay away from them. Just consider the hundreds of pop-up blockers out there: there is a reason why they are so well loved.

Ad networks that use pop-ups:

20. Audio Ads

Also called PPP (Pay Per Play), this advertising method was introduce by Net Audio Ads. the concept is sweet simple: play a small audio advertising (usually 5 seconds) every time a visitor enters into your website. The user should not be able to stop it, making a 100% conversion rate based on only one of its kind visitors.

The company is still rolling tests, but some users are reporting to get from a $4 to a $6 CPM. Regardless of the pay rate, though, this is a very forward form of advertising, so reckon twice before using it.

21. Selling the Website

Selling your website could be your last store, but it has the potential to generate a huge sum of money in a small period of time.

Promote places on online forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint are always active with website buyers and sellers. Keep in mind that they most used parameter to determine the value of a website is the monthly revenue that it generates, multiplied by a certain number (the multiplier can be anything from 5 to 30, depending on the expectations of the seller, on the quality of the site, on the niche and other factors).

Some people also make money trading and flipping websites. They either make them from scratch or buy existing ones, and after some revamping they sell them for a profit.

Related links:

Indirect Methods

22. Selling an Ebook

I don’t know one of the oldest money making strategies on the web, using a website to promote a related ebook is a very well-organized way to generate revenue.

You could either structure the website around the book itself, like SEOBook.com, or launch the ebook based on the accomplishment of the website, like FreelanceSwitch did we the book How to be a Rockstar Freelancer.

Related links:

23. Selling a Hardcover Book

Many authors and journalists leverage their blogs or websites to sell copies of hardcover books. Examples include Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell.

While most of these people were already renowned authors before they made their website, one could also follow the other way around. Lorelle VanFossen did exactly that with her Blogging Tips book. First she built her power on the subject via her blog, and afterwards she published the book.

List of self publishing and publishing services:

24. Selling Templates or WordPress Themes

As more and more people choose to get an online presence, website templates and WordPress themes become hotter and hotter.

On this segment you have mainstream websites like TemplateMonster, as well as individual designers who choose to promote and sell their work independently.

Brian Gardner and Only one of its kind Blog Designs are two examples of websites that make money with the sales of premium and custom WordPress themes.

25. Offering Consulting and Related Services

Depending on your niche, you could make money by offering consulting and related services. If you are also the author of your blog, the articles and information that you will share will build your profile and possibly certify your expertise on that niche, making it simpler to gain customers.

Chris Garrett used a akin strategy. First he made a highly influential blog on the blogging and new media niche, and afterwards he started offering consulting services to clients with related problems and needs.

26. Making an Email List or Newsletter

Email lists and newsletters represent one of the most powerful marketing and money making tools on the Internet. They offer incredible conversion rates, and the likelihood to call people to action in a very well-organized way.

Making a huge list is a hard task though, so if you have a well loved website you could leverage it to increase the number of subscribers on your list.

Yaro Starak is a well-known Internet pusher, and if you visit his blog you will see that aptly on top he has a section encouraging visitors to subscribe to his email newsletter. Yaro generates five figures in revenues each month from his email newsletters, proving that this method works.

List of software to manage email newsletters:

27. Mentoring programs

People are willing to pay for someone or something that will teach them and give them knowledge (as different to mere information). Education is one of the largest industries in the world, and the online landscape behaves in a akin way.

Making a mentoring program related to the niche of your website could be very profitable if you manage to structure and promote it adequately. There is a wide range of media and tools that you can use to deliver the information, from text articles to audio and video lessons.

Brian Clark leveraged the accomplishment of Copyblogger to launch a mentoring program teaching people how to build connection and how to sell content online. The program is titled Teaching Sells, and it costs $97 monthly. Sounds expensive, but they have over 1,000 members.

28. Making a conference around the website

If your website takes off and becomes an power on its niche, you could make a conference around it. Depending on the size of your audience, the event could attract thousands of people, and you could make money directly from conference passes and sponsors.

Search Engine Land, for instance, made a series of conferences that visit several cities on the United States and on other countries as well. The conferences are called Search Marketing Expo, and the tickets and passes cost thousands of dollars.

by Daniel Scocco