Making Money with AdSense, Affiliate Programs, Blogs and Websites
- This page was created because one person associated with SchoolFreeware kept having to help people who were caught in internet money making schemes. The only thing that you need to pay for is a domain name and web hosting. The best way of making money is to do the work yourself -
Introduction:
Lets face it, this economy is hurting and many people and non-profit companies are not doing well. Creating informative websites and blogs can be relatively easy to do. These sites can produce extra cash for the owner and can be created at very low cost. Money can be generated from the web by joining the AdSense and affiliate programs. Joining the AdSense program and becoming an affiliate is a simple as filling out a form. Even, with the downturn in the economy, there still is opportunity to raise extra money for yourself or for the organization. This blog will give you some ideas and suggestions on how to earn some extra cash by creating a website and/or blog.
Getting Started:
Although, we want to make money, it is more important to focus on creating good content than to try to make money at this point. Remember, the more people coming to the site, over and over again, will generate more revenue for your site. First, worry about creating good content, and the ad revenue will follow. Therefore, the first thing should be done, is to decide what the content is to be. When choosing content, pick something that you are interested in. If you like reading books, do book reviews and suggestions on what to read. If you are interested in software for children then reviews of software might be the answer. Many titles have trial versions and demos where you can have enough time to get to know the software and write the review without having to pay for anything. Writing about your hobby can increase your knowledge of the hobby and make it easer to create content for the site.
For non-profit groups, it might be best to create a different site with a different domain name to run advertising on, instead of your main site. Creating a blog or site to generate advertising revenue can make it look like you are promoting commercial products and can make the non-profit page look tacky with ads on it. Creating a different site isolates your main site from attempting to generate money.
Start-up Costs:
Keep the costs down as low as possible. If you are unemployed or worried about layoffs, this is very important. Avoid sites that offer to help you in return for your money. Many of them take your money and give little in return. It is going to take some time and some work to get your site going. You will be better off doing the work yourself than paying someone else.
It is wise to start creating the site with freeware. Once you have everything in place, then, pay for the domain name and web hosting service. This way, if things do not work out, during the creation of your site, no money is lost. Also, there isn't any guarantee that your site will generate lots of money, or any money, so keep the startup costs as low as possible.
Here Is The Breakdown Of What You Will Need:
1) A domain name. An example of a domain name is: schoolfreeware.com. Domain names cost around $15.00 a year or less.
2) If you do not have a web hosting service, one costs around $4 – $10 a month. Don't go any more expensive than that to start. (You can always upgrade your plan).
3) Authoring software to create the site. If you do not have website authoring software, here is a free program that is good enough to get you started creating websites: NVU.
4) If you are creating a blog, try using WordPress. It is also freeware.
5) FTP software to get your pages to your web account. Here is some free software to do that: FileZilla, One Button FTP.
6) Joining AdSence or a similar program is free. If there are costs involved, do not sign up for that program.
7) Joining an affiliate program like Google Affiliates, Amazon.com and Commission Junction is free. If there are costs involved, do not sign up for that program.
8) Creating a PayPal or similar account is free. If there are costs involved, do not sign up for that account.
For non-profit groups, paying people to create and update the site and blogs can be costly. Most of the money generated can go to the costs of paying people to create and maintain the site. An easy way to create the site in a cost efficient manner is to take information, that has already been created by your organization, and modify the information for the new site and blog. Better yet, get an intern or a volunteer to do it.
Some Web Hosting Sites For You To Take A Look At:
Self Promoting Your Site:
You want web surfers to find your site, and to have a better chance of surfers finding your site, it comes down to content. Build the best content you can and keep building. It can take some time before enough traffic comes to make the site worth the effort. The more quality pages that the site has, the more likely it will be to generate satisfactory traffic. If you are laid off or worried about being laid off, try having your spouse or kids create content as a family project. This can help build the site faster and generate revenue faster. Since Google is the current king of the web search, follow these guidelines when building the site.
www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769#1
Another way of promoting your site is to reference part of your site to another part. For example, there are links placed in this page, to another page, about FileZilla, NVU, and WordPress. As another example, this page can promote one of SchoolFreeware's programs, TyepIt ReadIt, by saying that it was used to proofread this blog. If you want to have a free program read text back to you, download the program by clicking here. By using referencing techniques, page viewing will increase, there will be a better chance of people using the site's ads and affiliate links to buy things, and the site will generate more money.
Getting Started with AdSense or Similar Program:
Once your site is posted, it is time to start making some money. The easiest way to start is to join Google AdSense. When joining, it is very important that you read the agreement carefully, because there are some rules that you must follow, to be accepted. Sometimes, a site will be accepted and everything looks fine until the site is removed from the AdSense program for some violation. It can be a little difficult at times to make sure that everything is correct, since there are lots of rules, and Google can change the rules at any time. Just do the best you can and everything will work out.
AdSense works by selecting ad types and placing the code Google generates in your site. Google will post the content of advertisement, when the page is loaded in the web browser. Generally, the kind of ads placed, depends on the content of the page. Money is made on impressions and the ad being clicked on. There are formulas for calculating how much money is being generated for views and clicks. Here are the links to the formulas and more information:
adsense.blogspot.com/2006/02/ecpm-what-exactly-is-that.html
Generally, the more unique visitors that the site has, and the quality of the content, are the primary factors on how successful AdSense will be for the site.
A few rules that must be pointed out for most AdSense / Advertising programs:
1) Stick with content that would be rated G or light PG. G is always more safe with content.
2) Do not click on your own ads
3) Do not alter the ads
4) Do not hide the ads
5) Do not encourage others to click on the AdSense ads
6) Monitor the AdSense account and try experimenting with different types of ads to see which ones work best
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7)Do not clog the site up with ads. SchoolFreeware has found that limiting the ads on the page and mixing up the ad types, for different pages, produces higher revenue.
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8)Do not post how much you get per ad clicked or viewed.
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9)Do not post items that infringe on copyright laws.
Remember, it may take a while for your site to produce decent money, so keep at it.
Google Search And Similar Search Boxes.
Google Adsense allows for the posting Google Search Boxes on your site. These search boxes can bring the largest page CTR and eCPM of your Adsense revenue, but are less likely to be used by your viewers. Also, once these search boxes are used, the visitor, most likely, will end up at other sites, thus leaving your site. Other search boxes, like Amazon’s, can greatly benefit your revenue. These search boxes allow the visitor to search for products that interest the visitor. This means that a product has a better chance of being purchased and you being paid.
Unfortunately, the look of Google’s Search is slightly different than what we normally see, when we use Google. This can cause visitors to do a few searches with the box then leave. If you wish, try the search yourself to decide if you want to use it. Do a couple of searches using the Google Search Box, below.
A working example of Amazon’s Search Box:
Moving to an Affiliates Program:
Once you are comfortable with AdSense, or something similar, try using an affiliates program. Amazon.com, Google Affiliates, Commission Junction and many other businesses have affiliates programs to join. Joining these programs are similar to joining AdSense. The difference with these programs is that the site will not make any money on clicks or impressions. The ad has to be clicked on and goods and services have to be bought. The site will then make a commission from that sale. Commissions can be very high, as high as, 100% of the sale or commissions can be very low 0.25% (one quarter of one percent). For sites that can generate large amounts of conversions, an affiliates program will generate more money than programs like AdSense. To be successful at converting, it is very important to be able select products and companies that have something to do with the content of your page and site. For example, if the site is about children's books, it maybe wise to have links to children's books on Amazon. If the page is about computers, it is wise to have some computer products posted there.
Many affiliate programs have statistics on how well a particular ad is doing. Some ads may have statistics for generating big money per 1000 clicks. These statistics can be a little deceiving. First of all, how many times will the ad be clicked on? Truck tires might have good looking statistics but may not get lots of clicks and end up generating little money. Book programs may have poor looking statistics but generates large amounts of clicks and sales, therefore, the poor statistic is made up in volume. Also, sites that are good at placing the right ads can beat the statistical average and make above average revenue on the ad.
To become an affiliate of a particular company, within the affiliates program, your site must apply to that particular company individually. Programs like Google Affiliates and Commission Junction have hundreds of companies listed with them. Being accepted can be instantaneous, or it can take a few days while your site is being looked at and reviewed (This is why it is important to create the site first then apply to the program). Sometimes, the site is denied. It is not to be taken personally. If and when it happens, just find a similar company to work with and apply to them.
Managing Your Ads:
Sites that have high traffic but can't seem to get their surfers to buy anything are better off with something like AdSense. Sites that can make sales will find the affiliate programs are the way to go. Many sites do both. Using techniques like having affiliate text ads mixed with AdSense ads can increase the number of ads on the page without making the page look like it is filled with ads.
The pervious paragraph already went over selecting the right ad for the page. What can work well, is to select hot products that have just been released. Currently, Kindle from Amazon is hot and the Macintosh/iPod/iPad line has been updated. Running ads for these two hot products might be a fast money maker.
PayPal:
PayPal can be used to ask for “donations” to help support the site. This sometimes works. Depending on the site and the type of person visiting will determine how much money is sent. This idea tends to be hit or miss when generating money, and, since the economy is hurting, people are less likely to give. It doesn't cost any money to have PayPal and it may generate some revenue. It's worth trying out to see what happens.
How about helping SchoolFreeware out by sending $2?
How To Submit Your Website To A Search Engine:
Once the site is operational, the next question is “How do I get the website up on Google (or other search engines)”? Most search engines have programs called crawlers (also called spiders, robots, bots, and indexers) that will automatically index your site to the search engine. This means that you do not have to do anything to get indexed with the major search engines. If you wish to submit your site manually, the next set of links allows you do that.
Link To Submit A Website To Google:
Link To Submit A Website To Yahoo!
http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Link To Submit a Website To Bing
http://www.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx
Link To Submit A Website To Ask.com
http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/webmasters.shtml
Conclusion:
This is a lot of information, so here is the recap. Produce as much high quality content as quickly as you can. If need be, get your family to help out. Don't spend any money until you are ready to get a domain name and web service. Do not spend any money on sites that offer services to help you create and promote your site. Read the agreements. Do the AdSense first, then, when you know what you are doing, try an affiliate program. It is wise to check with other site and forums that have tips and tricks on generating revenue. Keep working at your site, it can take some time to work out.
- Good luck and have fun