125 Ways to Make Money Online
Do you currently own your own business? Does that business have a website? If so, is that website generating revenue. If not, don’t you wish that it did? Whether you currently own a business, or have an idea for your own website, it can take time and money to accomplish that goal. If you take advantage
It takes a combination of two factors to have a successful website: a quality website and unique traffic to that website.
Question # 1 - What is a quality website, and how to I accomplish developing it?
Answer: First, you must decide what your website is going to offer its visitors.Five types of website’s that can generate revenue:
1 - Sell products - this would be an e-commerce website that sells products, either physical or virtual products - example: preferredprint.com which sells full color printing.
2 - Offer services - you would collect money in return for providing a service or services - example: iconwebsitedesign.com which offers custom website design services.
3 - Generate leads - have a lead generating website in various industries and resell them - examples: buyerzone.com and lowermybills.com
4 - Proprietary software development - fill a need, fill a void, or improve upon existing options - use the software yourself or resell it (license fees/monthly fees)
5 - Offering quality information and news - have an online newspaper or online directory or a blog with quality content that is updated often and make make money from advertising and/or industry related affiliates - examples: freebusinessdirectoryonline.com, fullcolorprintingnews.com, customwebsitedesignnews.com.
Next, if you want the website to be successful, you must keep in mind the following five things prior to and during the development process:
1 - It has to be user friendly. That includes loading quickly, being easy to read, having a strong call to action, and being easy to navigate.
2 - It should fill a need or void. That could be offering something better or something less expensive. That can also mean offering something new and unique.
3 - It should be visually appealing, and generate the confidence of the prospective customer and/or client. It should make you appear large and experienced, even if you are a new company or a company of one.
4 - The prospect customer and/or client should feel secure. This includes installing an SSL certificate on all e-commerce website’s, lead generating website’s, and/or members only website’s that request sensitive material, such as a social security number, bank account number, or health records. Examples of companies that can provide this security, including a trusted SSL certificate, are verisign.com, mcafeesecure.com, and godaddy.com.
5 - Work with a web development company with experience and quality testimonials/references.
If your website’s does those five things, you are now in a good position to be successful.
In regards to the advertising and affiliate marketing as sources of revenue:
Advertising - All five types of website’s listed above can make additional revenue from advertising. How much revenue can be generated is based upon the traffic that your website receives, and the positioning of the ads on your website. Advertising would be the primary source of revenue on an informational site, and a secondary goal on all other types of websites. Revenue from the ads can be based on a CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impression) model. An alternative option is to charge a flat fee for the ad space, but it will most likely still be based on the clicks or impressions. Advertising revenue is at its best when the site is receiving a high volume of organic traffic (little to no direct advertising/marketing cost to get that traffic) examples: myspace.com, facebook.com, youtube.com
An advertising platform that can be integrated into your website is https://www.google.com/adsense. It can be used for contextual, graphic banner or video banner ads that are sold by Google and put on your website. You then are profit sharing with Google, and do not need to sell ad space. The revenue generated is based on a CPC (cost per click) advertising platform.
Affiliate marketing - This is usually a secondary goal of a website to generate additional revenue (rarely a primary goal). You would place banner ads for affiliates on your website and receive commission per conversion (sales, lead, or application) rather than getting paid per click or impression.
Question # 2 - How do I generate traffic to my website?
1 - Search Engine Optimization - search engine optimization is the process of getting your website in the top organic search engine results in the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN for your site’s main target keywords. This is often the most cost effective way to drive traffic to a website on a long term basis. Through this process, we recommend making directory submissions, blog postings, comments on other people blog postings, becoming a member of social networking sites, and submitting your site to social bookmarking sites. These techniques will help improve your organic search engine ranking, but also potentially provide some direct traffic to your site.
2 - Pay Per Click advertising - You can get immediate traffic to your website though platforms such as Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, and AdReady. The ads can be in contextual, graphic banner, or video formats. Pay per click campaigns are highly customizable campaign, based on keywords, geo-target area, date and time, maximum cost per click, and maximum daily budget.
3 - Email Marketing - blast out a custom designed HTML email to a targeted opt-in email list
4 - Affiliate Marketing - sign up with affiliate marketing network and apply to become an approve online affiliate with hundreds, potentially thousands of companies.
5 - Direct Marketing - this can include TV, radio, and direct mail campaigns
In summary, if you can build a quality website, as defined above, offering quality products, services, or information, that is receiving unique traffic at a cost effective rate, you will have a successful online business.
Written by Seth Rand - Vice President of Icon Website Design and Internet Marketing Expert
About the author: Seth Rand is the Vice President of Icon Website Design. Seth’s role at Vice President includes being the project manager for all of Icon’s custom web development projects, and overseeing all of Icon’s internet marketing services, including search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaign building and management, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and online banner advertising. Seth has managed the development of over 250 website’s, along with over $1 million in pay per click marketing, and has achieved over 60,000 Top 10 organic search engine rankings for himself and his clients through search engine optimization. Seth is a licensed Google Advertising Professional and a Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador, as well as a member of SEMPO and the eMarketing Association.
Seth can be reached at seth@iconpress.com with any questions or comments related to this article, or for a free quote on any of your graphic design, printing, website design, and/or internet marketing implementation or consultation needs.
