Advertise on Your Website

Once you have your website up and running, you can make additional revenue by placing advertisements for other people’s products/services on your website. This is remarkably simple. There are three main ways you can accept advertising, listed from easiest to implement to hardest:

Google AdSense

With Google AdSense you display Google ads on your website and get a commission when someone clicks on those ads. This is the simplest way to generate income from advertising on your website. Sign up for a Google AdSense (Google.com/AdSense) account, determine how you want the ads to display (vertical, horizontal, etc.) and place the Google generated code onto your website. Google analyzes the webpage and provides ads that are contextually related to your content. For example, if your website is about snow skis, Google provides ads about snow skis. You (as the website owner) get paid whenever someone clicks on those ads.

At least, that’s the idea. Firstly, there has to be people paying to advertise for snow skis. Secondly, Google has to accurately read your webpage to provide the right ads: it’s possible to have ads for water skis show up on your page, which is of no benefit to anyone.

Most people using AdSense make a few cents to a few dollars a day, though large websites can earn several hundred to a thousand dollars a day. The name of the game is traffic: the more traffic that visits your site and the more people click on the ads, the more you get paid.

By the way, don’t think Google can’t tell if you’re clicking your own ads- they can, and will revoke your account!

Affiliate Advertising

Affiliate Advertising is similar to Google AdSense, but in this case an advertiser places an ad on your website and you receive a commission if the prospect goes on to purchase their product. You can advertise other people’s products on your website and advertise your products on other websites. This is further explained in the Affiliate Marketing Section.

If you want to place an affiliate ad on your site, visit their website and see if they have any promotional ads you can use. Many sales letters have a link at the bottom for Affiliates, and provide the code for you. While AdSense makes you cents every day, these ads will pay you dollars only when a sale is made-which might be awhile.

Charge by Impression, or Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA)

This method is more in tune with traditional advertising like a newspaper. Let’s say your website receives 10,000 views- known as impressions- per month: you can charge advertisers $2 per thousand impressions, meaning you earn $20 per advertiser per month- even if no sales are made. This takes a little more time to set up because you’ll need to initiate and actively maintain relationships with advertisers.

These are the three main ways you can earn money by allowing others to advertise on your website.