Photographers have a growing number of options when it comes to selling photos. Stock photography sites aren’t the only option. Many different companies have developed ways to help photographers sell their work online through their own website, and many of these options allow for the sale of both digital (downloadable) files as well as prints. Some of them even handle the printing and fulfillment for you, if that is what you’re looking for.

In this post we’ll take a look at 18 companies that exist to help photographers with selling their work. Some of these options will provide the photographer with a website to display and sell the products, others can integrate with existing portfolio sites, and a few are marketplaces where photographers can upload their work to be sold.

If you’re a photographer you have probably thought about how you can make more sales online, so maybe one of these options would be a good fit for you. If you’re a designer you may have clients who are photographers. Some of these options allow designers to create customized sites for their clients, so if you work with a lot of photographers it can be worth exploring.

SmugMug

SmugMug gives you a customizable website to host your photos. You can choose from their selection of templates, customize it without any coding, or make changes to the CSS to fully customize the look of your site.  SmugMug includes a wide variety of features for displaying and promoting your photos, including the ability to publish photos to Facebook and Twitter or embed in blogs. You can sell your photos as prints or as digital downloads. The prints can be fulfilled and shipped directly to your customers. Prices range from $5 per month to $20 per month (or $40 per year to $150 per year).

Photo Merchant

Photo Merchant allows you to choose a website template and customize it to meet your needs. Each plan comes with unlimited storage and hosting so you can upload as many photos and create as many galleries as you like. The websites have an integrated shopping cart to allow you to sell your work to website visitors. You can choose to fulfill orders manually, or auto order fulfillment so prints will be shipped directly to your customers. Prices start at $9 per month, but you’ll need at least the $19 per month plan to use your own domain name or to opt for direct fulfillment.

Exposure Manager

With Exposure Manager you will get a website to sell your photos. You can use your own domain and customize the header and footer. Upload your photos and create galleries, which can also be password protected. For selling your work, photos can be sold as digital downloads or prints. Prints can be fulfilled by their lab, or you can set it up for self fulfillment. Prices range from $14.99 to $24.99 per month.

Zenfolio

Zenfolio allows you to create a portfolio site of your work. You can upload photos, create galleries, password protect galleries, and make your photos available for purchase. For e-commerce, you can choose from different labs to fulfill your orders, or you can fulfill them yourself. Prices range from $25 per year to $250 per year, with a 14-day free trial available.

DigiLabs

DigiLabs allows you to create photo galleries that integrate with your own website. DigiLabs can fulfill your orders or you can fulfill them yourself. You’ll also have the option to choose a plan with a flat fee or one with a commission from sales. Prices start at $40 per month or $150 per year.

ifp3

With ifp3 you can get a Flash-based website to sell your photos online. You can set up galleries (public or private) and pages to show your work. For e-commerce, the shopping cart can be set up to sell an unlimited number of products, both downloads and prints. The price is $30 per month if paid month-to-month or $20 per month if paid in advance for one year. A 10-day free trial is available.

More Photos

With More Photos you can choose from a variety of templates and set up a website for your photos. The shopping cart will allow you to sell your photos online in digital or print format. You can use their integrated vendors to print and drop ship orders directly to your customers. Pricing starts at $29 per month, but in order to sell your work you will need to $49 per month plan.

Instaproofs

Instaproofs allows you to create galleries and promote your photos from events. Customers can purchase your photos, and you’ll have them fulfilled at a lab of your choice. Instaproofs does not offer auto fulfillment. There are no setup or monthly fees. Instaproofs keeps 8-15% of the sale as commission.

Shutterfly

Shutterfly allows you to create a gallery of your photos at their site or integrate your own website with their ordering process. They have their own lab to handle fulfillment of your orders. Prices range from $99 – $199 per year.

PhotoBox

PhotoBox allows you to create customizable galleries and sell your work. Customers will be able to buy prints of various sizes plus magnets, mousepads, coasters and more. There is no cost to sell with PhotoBox, but they keep 10% of all sales as commission.

PhotoShelter

With PhotoShelter you get to choose from one of their customizable templates. You will upload your photos to the site and visitors will be able to buy digital photos or prints. You can choose to have orders fulfilled by their lab, or you can fulfill orders yourself. Plans range from $9.99 per month to $49.99 per month.

PicsCliq

PicsCliq helps photographers sell more photos to event guests, such as people who attend a wedding. You can use social media to promote photos to those who attended the event, and they can buy the photos from you and PicsCliq handles the fulfillment. There are no upfront or usage costs. PicsCliq makes money by taking a commission from sales.

Zazzle

Zazzle is an online marketplace that allows you to sell your artwork. You can upload photos and visitors at Zazzle can buy various items that use your photo, including t-shirts, mugs, photo cards, posters, calendars, and more. There is no cost to set up a store at Zazzle.

CafePress

CafePress is similar to Zazzle. You upload your photos or art and visitors can buy various items like t-shirts, posters, photos on canvas, and more. You can sell on CafePress for free or you can get a customizable shop for as low as $4.99 per month.

Other Options for Selling Photos:

RedBubble

PhotoReflect

FotoTime

Imagekind

For more posts related to photography please see:

• Learn Photo Editing
• 25 of the Best Photography Websites
• 25 of the Best Photography Websites- Part II
• 33 Marketplaces to Buy and Sell Stock Photos

Stock photo and graphic marketplaces are useful for designers to both buy and sell stock resources. Designers frequently need stock photos, especially when clients don’t have high-quality photos of their own. And other types of stock design resources (like vectors, icons, PSD files, textures) can save a great deal of time for designers. But selling stock graphics and photos can also be an excellent source of supplementary income, and in some cases it can even turn into a full-time income.

In this post we’ll showcase 33 marketplaces where you can buy and sell photos and illustrations.

iStockphoto

Fotolia

Shutterstock

Getty Images

Deposit Photos

BigStock

Pixmac

Corbis Images

Veer

Crestock

Stockfresh

Thinkstock

Photocase

Cutcaster

Photos.com

Reflex Stock

Jupiter Images

Alamy

Stocked Photos

Stocklib

Glow Images

Texture Vault

VectorStock

GraphicRiver

Graphic Leftovers

Inmagine

ShutterPoint

Epictura

123RF

PunchStock

PhotoSpin

Blend Images

Image Vortex

For more resources please see:

• 30 of the Best Websites for Online Photo Editing
• 45 Amazing and Free Photoshop Actions
• 25 Excellent jQuery Slider Tutorials and Plugins
• 25 jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Tutorials and Plugins
• 40 Sites for Finding Web Design Jobs

In recent years as the number of blogs and websites in the design/development industry has drastically increased, several ad networks have been established specifically with the purpose of serving this industry. Just like the number of blogs and websites in the industry increasing, new products and services are constantly coming out to target this audience, and the networks showcased in this post exist to bring advertisers and publishers together.

If you’re a blogger or a website owner in this niche you may be looking for a way to sell ads on your site. Here you’ll find 7 networks to consider. Many are invitation-only networks, but generally they do accept suggestions for new sites to be included in their network.

BuySellAds

BuySellAds is currently the most popular option for design blogs and other sites in the design/development niche. According to their website, over 2,900 sites are using BuySellAds. In order to place BSA ads on your site you will need to be approved for the program, but it is not invitation only. BSA provides publishers with a lot of flexibility in terms of ad sizes and even how the prices are determined (flat monthly rate vs. CPM).

BSA is unlike the other options on this list in that you are not limited to the number of ads that can be shown on your website. Of course, the number of ads will have an influence on how much you are able to charge advertisers, but you’ll be able to decide how many ads you want to use, what sizes, and where you want to place them. BSA’s commission is 25% of the ad revenue, so you will get 75% of whatever the advertisers are charged. BSA is also unlike other ad networks listed here in that advertisers will be buying and ad specifically for your site, rather than buying an ad that will be shown across the entire network.

The Vandelay Design Blog has been using BSA for over two years now and we have had nothing but positive experiences.

The Deck

The Deck has been around since 2006 and is a selective, invitation-only network. Only one ad impression is shown per page view, and The Deck is selective with the advertisers that are accepted. The ads that are served through The Deck are small 120 x 90 banners with room for 80 characters of text.

The reputation of The Deck makes it an appealing network for publishers who are able to get accepted to the program. Their website does not include a form to submit your site for approval, but they do recommend using a contact link/email to make a request.

Carbon

Carbon is a relatively new ad network that was started by Fuel Brand Inc. Carbon works by classifying publishers into “circles” that allow advertisers to target specific segments of the industry. Carbon’s circles include design, dev/code, photography, and art & culture.

Publishers who are using Carbon show only one ad per page, and ads are rotated throughout all sites within a a circle. Carbon is an invitation-only network, but from their site you can suggest your site for inclusion.

AdPacks.com

AdPacks.com is a division of BuySellAds. Unlike the standard ads through BSA, AdPacks.com is invitation-only and publishers show only one ad per page. Advertisers can purchase ads target sites that focus on design, usability/UX, or web development. If you think your blog or site would be a good fit for one of their AdPacks you can fill out their contact form to request inclusion.

Fusion Ads

Fusion Ads is an invitation-only network where publishers show only one ad per page. Advertisers can purchase ads for one month, a one week burst, or for one day. Ads are 130 x 100 and 80 characters of text.

InfluAds

InfluAds publishers also serve just one ad per page. The ads are either 120 x 90 or 154 x 70, both with 60 characters of text. Publishers decide which ad size they would prefer to show. InfluAds keeps a fee of 19.2%. InfluAds classifies publishers into the following communities: startups and entrepreneurs, work and productivity, design and UX, and web development.

You can request to join InfluAds through their site.

Yoggrt

Yoggrt is an ad network that is currently in beta. Publishers will receive 100% of profits during beta. The ads shown through Yoggrt are 160 x 90 with 80 characters of text. Yoggrt recently updated their site to say that they have temporarily closed the network to new publishers, but they plan to re-open in a few months.

What Ad Networks Have You Used?

If you have any experience with these ad networks (or others that are applicable to design blogs) please feel free to share in the comments section.

For graphic designers who are looking for some variety rather than just client work, stock photography sites can provide an opportunity. In this post we’ll take a look at some of the leading stock photo sites that also sell illustrations from graphic artists. There are even a few sites on the list that specializes in graphic art rather than stock photography.

iStockphoto

iStockphoto is probably the largest and most popular place to buy images and photos online. As a seller you can create an account and apply to be a contributor. Once you’re approved you’ll be able to upload your work and earn a base commission of 20% on anything sold, and exclusive providers earn up to 40%. iStockphoto offers buyers the option to pay for files individually or to become a subscriber, so there is a little bit more to the commission structure of the sellers than just a simple percentage. For more details, see their page with details on the program.

Vector Stock

Vector Stock is a good option for graphic designers because the focus of the site is vectors, not photos. To sell your work you can sign up for an account. Once you’re logged in you’ll have the option to request contributor status. If you visit their FAQ you’ll find some more information on selling your work. The payout is 25%, or 30% if you supply images for Vector Stock exclusively. You can potentially earn up to 50% with their accelerated payment structure for artists who have had a high number of downloads.

Graphic Leftovers

Graphic Leftovers is a new site with the purpose of allowing designers the opportunity to sell their unused work. If you are used to doing client work, the stuff that the client doesn’t want can be sold at Graphic Leftovers. They have icons, illustrations, and even some website templates for sale. Regardless of how much you sell, you’ll earn 52% commission. You can get more details about selling your work at Graphic Leftovers.

Stockxpert

Stockxpert is similar to iStockphoto in terms of the photos and images that are available, although the selection is a bit less than iStockphoto. At Stockxpert you can earn 50% commission and you can view your stats and earnings in real time. Get more information about selling with Stockxpert.

Crestock

Crestock is another popular option for buying and selling stock photography and images. Their site does not offer details on payment structure or commissions (at least not that I could find), although there is an option to apply to become a seller.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock only sells photos and images by subscription, not on an individual basis. As a seller, you’ll get paid $0.25 every time one of your images is downloaded. Once you’ve hit $500 in earnings your commission will increase to $0.30 per download. You can sign up to be a seller from their website.

BigStockPhoto

BigStockPhoto sells images individually, and you can earn $0.50 to $3 per download (or more on special license downloads). In order to be accepted into the program you’ll have to pass a test. You can get more information and sign up from their website.

Fotolia

Fotolia sells photos and images individually as well as through subscriptions. As a seller, you can earn up to 80% commission, with an average of 52%. You can sell your work with exclusive licenses and name your price. Get more information at their website.

Photospin

Photospin sells images by subscription. Their website allows you to inquire about becoming a seller, but there is no information about commissions or details.

Dreamstime

Dreamstime sells images individually. The base commission is 50% per download, but it can go as high as 80%. You’ll earn a high commission for exclusivity plus there are different levels according to how many of your files have been purchased. The more you sell, the more you make.

ShutterPoint

ShuttPoint is a much different option. With their service you will pay for the disk space that your images take up ($19 – $49 per year) but you’ll earn 70-85%. You can get more information at their website.

What’s Your Experience?

Have you ever sold your work on any of these sites?

Most web designers and web design firms have an interest in finding alternate sources of revenue in addition to providing design and development services for clients. While these other sources of income are unlikely to completely support the designer or the firm, they can be excellent complementary add-ons that are also a help to clients in addition to producing revenue. These are my suggestions for potential add-ons, feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments.

Hosting

Some freelance designers and a lot of design firms also offer hosting to their clients. Obviously, this can provide a nice residual income, plus it allows you to combine the design services and the hosting into a package that may be more attractive to potential clients. Re-seller hosting is a popular option in these situations because it provides the designer the opportunities without requiring as much time and investment. Re-seller hosting can still be more commitment than many designers are interested in, and in these cases affiliate programs are ideal. In the best situation, the hosting company that you use will offer an affiliate program so that you can refer a product that you genuinely believe in.

Domain Names

Although less profitable than hosting services, domain names will be needed by some of your clients. Becoming a reseller of domain names you can continue to offer your clients another essential service. Much like with hosting, you could also simply become an affiliate of a leading provider of domain names.

Premium Templates or Themes

More and more designers are jumping into the market of premium WordPress themes . By selling high-quality premium themes you can increase the potential earnings of your work. On the down side, you’ll also have to be willing to dedicate some time to providing support. WordPress themes aren’t the only option here. Premium HMTL/CCS and Flash templates are also fairly common.

Files and Scripts

Sites like FlashDen provide a marketplace for developers to sell their work. At FlashDen you can sell stock flash, audio, video and pixel fonts. You can create an account and upload your files. Then, every time one is sold you’ll earn a commission.

Vector Images

If your expertise is in the area of graphic design you can create and sell vector images at sites like Vector Stock, iStock Photo, and Stock Xpert. All of these sites, and several others, will allow you to create an account and place your images into their marketplace to be sold. You’ll earn a commission on anything that is purchased.

Icons

While many designers give away free icons to gain some exposure for their services, there is still a need from some clients for premium icons. Some designers, such as Dan Cederholm, sell packages of icons from their website.

Content Creation

Some full-service design firms also provide their clients with the option of paying to have content written for the site (although Vandelay Website Design is not full-service, we do offer content creation). While writing content for websites and blogs is a completely different skill than design, many designers are able to do well with this service because they have learned what types of content a website will need to serve its purpose and to attract visitors.

SEO Services

While the web designer does have certain responsibilities involved with building a search engine-friendly website, dedicated SEO services go well beyond this point. If you have the knowledge and the ability to produce desirable results for your clients in terms of search engine optimization, this can be a natural extension from design services. It’s not for everyone, but those who are experienced can really improve their business with SEO services.

Website Consulting

There’s much more to having a successful web presence than building an attractive website. Design services are part of the equation, but some clients are really seeking a service that will guide them through the entire process of building a strong website that will help them to achieve their goals. With consulting services you can help clients to bridge the gap between an attractive website and an effective website.

This is a guest post by Alan Johnson, find out how to build a
profitable website in 10 days over at TheRatingBlog.com

Are you excited about a certain idea of yours and think that there’s absolutely no time to waste? Are you eager to get started and see results? Well guess what, most webmasters out there choose the same approach and let’s just say that their results are nothing worth bragging about.

As an online entrepreneur, just like in your everyday life, any structure which is built on shaky foundation won’t be able to last in the long run. Do you want that to be your case as well? Sure, you may feel the need to skip past the planning process since you think that you cannot afford to waste time on it. But if the foundation upon which you plan on building is not solid to begin with, as a result of poor planning, the effects will be seen as soon as you start losing momentum.

At first, your personal productivity will be impressive, but as the momentum bubble bursts and as you realize that you will not be able to see results right away, things will definitely start to change and under such circumstances, most online entrepreneurs choose the seemingly easy way out by quitting.

Setting proper goals and planning is extremely important because that way, you will not be taken by surprise, as you would if you were to act on impulse. If you take the time to analyze everything and see things in perspective, you will understand that expecting results right away is not the way to go and that will automatically increase your chances of being successful.

Based on your long-term goals, you will, at any point, be able to analyze the project and determine if the direction towards which you are heading is still the right one and if not, make the necessary changes in order to get back on track. Your ability to set the right goals and put together a solid business plan will, in the end, make or break you as an online entrepreneur.

It is indeed hard to invest time and efforts into planning, especially when you think that getting started right away is a must, when you think that setting goals or working on your business model keeps you from acting, but let’s face it: if you want to reach a certain destination which you have never visited before, analyzing a map beforehand is always a wiser approach than just starting to drive and taking it from there.

While being 100% prepared is definitely impossible, trying your best never hurts. You have to never let the thought of acting on impulse and neglecting the important process of planning get the best of you if you are serious about long-term success. Of course, you should not over-do it to the point when you use planning as an excuse for not getting started but again, setting goals and putting together a solid business model or in other words, building your website on a solid foundation is an important first step which you can simply not afford to neglect.

You started a website or blog and you want to make some money (that is the goal of a business, so that’s not a bad thing). Maybe you created a product to sell, or maybe you’re using AdSense, direct ads, affiliate ads, promotion of services, or some other method to monetize your site. In order to maximize the income potential of your website you’ll almost certainly have to take advantage of multiple income sources.

Why Should You Have Multiple Streams of Income?

1. Security. Probably the most important reason is that multiple income sources provide you with increased security. There is no guarantee that any source of income will continue. What if your site only uses AdSense to make money, and suddenly you find out that Google has banned you from AdSense for one reason or another? It’s happened to plenty of people, and many of them didn’t even realize they were doing anything wrong. When you have money coming in from a variety of sources you’re much safer if one of them dries up. It might still hurt your bottom line, but it won’t kill you.

2. You can benefit more from the traffic you already have. If you’re trying to make more money online you may be thinking of ways to get more traffic. Why not try to find some ways to make more money from the traffic that is already coming to your site?

3. Higher income potential. If you’re getting all of your income from one source, you’re leaving more money on the table. All of the top earners online have found a mix that works for them.

4. More to offer to your customers. Having multiple streams of income will most likely mean that you are offering more to your customers. In How I Multiplied My Profits by Packaging Services Christine O’Kelly talks about the value of packing related services. In her case, she was packaging web hosting along with her primary service of web design. There’s a logical connection between the two services, and many customers would rather get both from the same place than go to two different places. Christine was able to offer her customers a needed service while making more money for herself.

5. Allows you to take more chances. Have you had an idea recently about a great new way to make money but held back because of the potential risk? If you have a stable income flowing from multiple sources you’ll be free to take more chances. If your ideas don’t pan out at least you’ll still have your existing income. This can be a big advantage for those who want to really aim high and push the limits.

Common Sources of Income for Blogs and Websites:

Selling Ad Space - Most major websites make money by selling ad space. This can also be done by smaller websites, but the ad revenue alone will not be enough to support the website owner. Ad prices are based on factors like traffic, the topic of the site, rankings (PageRank, Technorati, etc.) and more.

If you are selling ads on your website you can still make money in other ways. After all, what if your advertisers stop buying ads?

Affiliate Programs – Affiliate programs are a great opportunity for blogs of any size. New blogs with small audiences may not be able to find advertisers, but they have plenty of opportunities to use affiliate ads. Bloggers with large, established audiences will have the opportunity to unlimited income. (If you are interested in affiliate marketing, please see a recent post I wrote at Blogtrepreneur, 81 Useful Affiliate Marketing Resources.)

Paid Reviews – Although Google’s penalties have reduced the number of paid reviews that are being done, plenty of bloggers are still making good money with them.

Pay-Per-Click Ads – AdSense may not be right for every website or blog, but it can be profitable in the right niche. If you’re interested in learning more about making money with AdSense, read the series that Courtney Tuttle is currently working through about keyword sniping.

Product Sales – Selling your own products provides you with the opportunity to make more money than many of the other methods listed here, but it can also be more work and more of an investment. If you are looking to maximize your income it is something that you should consider.

Job Boards – This one is not really that common yet, but it can be highly effective in the right situation. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has a job board for blogging positions that charges $50 for a 30 day listing. At the time of this writing there are 17 jobs posted, which would account for $850 of income. Of course, most websites do not have the type of traffic and community that ProBlogger has, but even on a smaller scale this could be a great additional income opportunity for an industry-specific job board.

The Approach to Creating Multiple Streams of Income:

The idea, of course, is that a little bit (or a lot) of income from several different sources will add up to a higher end result. If you want to see this in action, check out income reports by the likes of John Chow or Blogging Experiment. You will see just how several different sources can really add up.

When monetizing your website or blog, it is important to realize that not everything that produces income is good. What may produce $50 for you this month may cost you in the long run if it has caused you to turn off a number of your readers. Be careful not to alienate your readers/visitors as they are the critical element to your success.

Those that have been able to successfully earn money from several different sources with their website have been able to find several specific ways to add value to their visitors. Ads can bring value to visitors if they are relevant to what visitors are looking seeking. Products sales and affiliate programs can also ad value if the products being promoted are top-notch and meet the needs of the purchasers. Paid reviews can even bring value to visitors if the right products and services are being reviewed, and if the review focuses on what readers will want to know.

Share Your Thoughts:

What types of income opportunities are you pursuing, or what do you plan on pursuing? From a reader/visitor’s perspective, what ways do you like to see a site create income, and what turns you off?

For blog owners, monetization options are not limited to just the on-screen real estate of the blog itself. In fact, with the growing popularity of RSS, many of your blog readers won’t even visit your blog. If they’re only reading in a feed reader, your monetization efforts on the blog may not be benefiting. However, RSS feeds present some unique monetization opportunities of their own.

Option #1: Sell Ad Space

The first option for monetizing an RSS feed is to sell ad space (or links) just like you would on your website or blog. The most popular method of selling ads in an RSS feed is to place brief text ads at the bottom of the feed (they typically do not appear on the blog itself, just in the feed) which includes a link to the advertiser. Advertisers will gain exposure by having their ad and link seen by your blog’s subscribers.

Another option is to sell ads within the body of your feed. Not many bloggers are currently doing this. John Chow offers a 300 x 250 inbedded ad that appears on blog posts as well as in RSS feeds. This is an option for any blogger, but many audiences will be turned off by an ad of this size within the feed.

Feedvertising from Text-Link-Ads is a free program that will help you to manage ad space within your feeds. For more information on Feedvertising, read this article from Tubetorial.

MediaFed provides another option that looks interesting.

Option #2: Pay-Per-Click

Pay-Per-Click advertising is popular with both advertisers and publishers. Of course AdSense is the leading choice for website owners who are looking to make money by hosting PPC ads on their site. However, PPC ads can also be included in RSS feeds. Typically, the ads will be placed at the bottom of the RSS feed. If you’re interested in monetizing your feed with PPC ads, here are a few of your choices:

Pheedo – Pheedo’s service is compatible with leading blogging platforms and with FeedBurner. Pheedo ads appear at the bottom of RSS feeds, and ad publishers have the option of including the ads on the site in addition to the feed.

FeedBurner Ads – FeedBurner users have the option of including Google AdSense ads in their feeds. This can easily be set up through your FeedBurner account. Simply login to FeedBurner and select your feed. Then click on the “Monetize” tab and you’ll be able to activate the option.

Yahoo! Publisher Network – The Yahoo! Publisher Network Ads in RSS is currently in beta. Those who are approved for inclusion in the program will be able to include Yahoo’s PPC ads in their RSS feeds.

Bidvertiser – One of the leaders in PPC ads has recently expanded to include PPC for RSS feeds.

Option #3: Affiliate Links

Another popular method of website monetization involves affiliate programs. If you are not interested in using PPC ads in your feed, affiliate links may be the answer. Selling advertising space may require having an established audience of subscribers. For those bloggers who are building their subscriber base, or for those who don’t want to take the time to sell ad space, affiliate links are an easy and potentially profitable solution.

Of course you can include affiliate links within your blog posts, but you can also use them anywhere that you would use direct ads. For example, instead of selling links at the bottom of your feed, you could include an affiliate link to a program of your choice. The down side of using affiliate links as compared to direct ads is that you don’t make any money unless someone clicks through and takes some type of specified action.

Promoting a lot of different affiliate programs can become a chore to track. If you’re promoting 20 different programs, you could have 20 different accounts to watch. For this reason third party affiliate managers are very popular and beneficial for publishers. A third party company may represent hundreds of different affiliate programs that you can track in one place, and you’ll receive one check. Most affiliate programs have a minimum payout, so if you miss the cutoff you’ll have to wait to get your check at a later time. With a third party service you may have a small income from several different products, but they will all be pooled together and you’ll get paid if your collective total meets the minimum payout.

If you’re looking for appropriate affiliate products to promote, here are some of the leading programs that you can join:

Commission Junction – One of the leading managers of affiliate programs, Commission Junction will allow you to apply for hundreds or thousands of affiliate programs in a wide range of industries. Most of the advertisers will provide you with marketing materials such as banners or text links.

ClickBank – If you’re looking for high commissioned affiliate products, ClickBank is a great choice. CB offers only downloadable products, primarily e-books, and many of the programs have very high payouts.

LinkShare – Very similar to Commission Junction, LinkShare manages many affiliate programs for a variety of different companies.

Amazon – One of the leading affiliate programs, Amazon gives you the opportunity to promote just about any type of product you can think of.

How Can You Include Ads in Your RSS Feed?

If you are selling ads or using affiliate ads for your feeds you will need to select an option for displaying these ads in your feed. The first option is to manually include them at the end of each blog post, which means they’ll also appear on your blog. Most RSS advertisements will appear only in the RSS feed itself, not on the blog, and there are a few options for doing this.

For WordPress users there are a number of plugins that allow you to add content to the bottom of your feed without it appearing on the blog.

PostPost – One of the most useful plugins I have used for myself or for clients if Doug Karr’s PostPost plugin. With PostPost you can log in to WordPress and easily add anything that you want to appear before or after your RSS feed (you can also add something before or after the post on the blog without it showing up in the feed). This is an easy way to include ads or affiliate links at the end of your feed.

RSS Signature – I have not personally used the RSS Signature plugin, but it allows you to add content after your feed.

All business websites intend to create some type of value for the owner. Maybe the goal is to sell products. Or maybe it is to promote services. A common approach right now is to make money with advertisements. There are primarily two different approaches to monetizing a website or blog with ads. Some website owners choose to build traffic first and monetize later, while others choose to include monetization attempts from the start. There are pros and cons for each approach, and we’ll take a look at some of the factors that should be considered when making a decision.

Approach #1: Build Traffic Now, Monetize Later

This approach involves starting a new website or blog with little or no monetization attempts. The idea here is to build traffic as quickly as possible and monetize the site when it is consistently receiving substantial numbers of visitors. Website owners and bloggers who take this approach feel that they can build a larger audience by not including advertisements and other such monetization attempts in the early days. As a result, a few months down the road the site’s traffic will be higher than it would be if ads had been on the site all along, and more effective and productive monetization is possible.

Why I Like This Approach:

1. It is true that advertising can turn away some visitors, and a site that draws the reader’s focus to content rather than ads may be able to build an audience faster. You can keep the attention on the strength of your website or blog and hopefully benefit from this.

2. It is also true that new websites and blogs are unlikely to make any significant amounts of money on things like advertisements and affiliate programs before they have established an audience. If you aren’t going to make much money, your ads may be doing more harm (causing you to lose visitors) than good.

3. Finding advertisers can be difficult for new websites with low amounts of traffic. Potential advertisers typically will not be coming to you, and finding the advertisers may take more time than it is worth. If you are handling the advertisements yourself rather than using a third party, maintaining everything can take some time that you could be spending on other things.

Approach #2: Monetize from the Start

The second approach is to build a new website or blog and attempt to monetize it from the start. Rather than waiting for traffic to reach a specific level, advertisements and/or affiliate programs will be used from day one. Although the website may not produce a significant amount of money early on, it may be able to cover costs of operating the site and possibly even some profit. Website owners who take this approach feel that a new site or blog has some value to advertisers even if it isn’t yet drawing thousands of visitors a day.

Why I Like This Approach:

1. The website that is monetized from the start will not need a re-design when it comes time to monetize. Ads need to be placed carefully on a website for it to effectively use ads without interfering with the content. Many sites that are not monetized immediately will require a re-design, or at least some changes to the design, in order to make room for ads. If the site includes ads when it is created, it can be designed the first time to include these elements.

2. Visitors will get a consistent experience. If you don’t use any type of ads on your site, some of your visitors will become accustomed to not seeing ads, and they may not like the change when advertisements begin appearing on the site. By including ads from day one, your visitors will have a more consistent experience without that change.

3. You may be able to make some money earlier. Although a website or blog is unlikely to make a lot of money when it is just getting started, you may be able to at least cover your costs. The costs of operating a site can be pretty minimal if you are doing the work yourself. In fact, hosting may be your only expense. It’s possible to cover your expenses by using ads even on a new website. Sometimes even seeing a small amount of money coming in will be enough of an encouragement or motivation to drive you on to bigger and better things.

Which Monetization Approach is Best?

I don’t think there is an answer that is absolutely right or wrong. Each situation is different, and the pros and cons should be measured and calculated on a case-by-case basis. Each option has several reasons that make it the best choice, but each option also has some negative impacts that could cause you to go in the other direction.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know that it had no advertisements for quite some time. When the blog was started there was no intention of using advertisements. At that time the goal was to use the blog to create more content that would draw search engine traffic and ultimately lead to more design work. As the months passed, the blog became sort of an entity of its own. Now the blog includes some monetization attempts. The reason for that decision is that some other forms of income will make it possible to spend more time writing and hopefully improving the blog.

In the past I would have said that I strongly favored not monetizing a website until traffic levels were high, but I’ve seen that this is not always the case. One of the biggest struggles if you choose the “monetize later” approach is knowing when is the right time to start using ads. So maybe you feel that traffic the first few months will not be enough to make any money, but do you have a specific amount of visitors or page views that you think will be enough? If you do, what is that based on?

You may think a specific number of daily visitors would give you the chance to make significant money, but what if that is wrong? If you underestimate the value of your traffic you could be missing out on money that you could have made by monetizing earlier. If you overestimate the value of your traffic you could go to the trouble of changing your website to include ads, only to find that it makes no money.

If you monetize from the start I think you will learn some things along the way that can increase your potential income down the road. What types of ads work well for your site? Are you better off managing ads yourself or using a third party? What locations on you website work well for ads? The answers to these questions will help you to make your website more valuable to you, to your advertisers, and to your visitors. Knowing the answers early on can increase your income.

One of the major factors that needs to be taken into consideration is the purpose of the website or blog. If the purpose is primarily to make money from ads and affiliate programs, why not include them from the start? Because the purpose of this blog at its start was just to drive some traffic to our design services, no ads were used. Ads could cause the loss of some potential business. Now that the blog and serving readers of the blog is becoming a priority of its own, apart from creating new design work, the goals have changed somewhat.

I’m currently in the process of setting up a second blog that will be primarily intended to provide quality information and make money with advertisements. There will most likely be no services involved like there is here at Vandelay. In this case, ads will be used from the start. I think a good example of this approach is Daily Bits, owned by Daniel Scocco. Daniel also runs Daily Blog Tips and Daily Writing Tips. From day one Daily Bits was monetized. Of course this is more realistic for Daniel because of his existing network of blogs. Advertisers know the value of his other blogs, and they are more likely to want to advertise on Daily Bits as well.

What Is Your Opinion?

I know many of you run websites or blogs. What do you think about this decision? Which approach did you take? Why did you make that decision, and would you do it the same if you had to do it all over again?

Most people view internet businesses as a hobby or interest while a more traditional (offline) business is taken more seriously. Anyone who has built a successful online business knows that it needs to be treated like any other business, with respect.

Sometimes those of us who are building businesses online tend to overlook all of the assets that we are building. However, just because something is an asset doesn’t mean that it could or should be sold. An asset is valuable because it helps the business to grow and succeed.

My point with this article is not to put a dollar value on intangible objects, but rather to point out all of the ways that you are building assets if you a running a website or blog.

What aspects of your website are assets?

1. Domain Name

A great domain name can sell for thousands on its own, even with no existing website or traffic. Domain names are constantly becoming harder to come by, so they certainly have value.

2. Traffic

If you sell ad space or if you use affiliate programs, your traffic will be an asset. If you have paid much attention to any of the recent blog sales, traffic numbers are always a factor in the selling price.

3. Subscribers

Building a large subscriber base is not easy, and having loyal readers is something to appreciate. Anyone who chooses to receive everything that you publish is contributing towards your success.

4. Content (Your Past Work)

Anything of value that is on your site is an asset. If you have a blog, your archives of published posts are an asset. You may also have tools or resources on the site, WordPress themes or plugins that you’ve developed for example.

5. Network

While it’s not something that can be sold, your network should be appreciated and valued. If you have developed a successful website or blog you have no doubt developed relationships with people who have helped you along the way. The relationship and connection that you have to these people can continue to help you in anything you do, and of course you can help them too.

6. Influence

Popular websites and blogs have a great deal of influence on their readers. This influence should be treated with respect at all times. The ability to be a leader and decision maker is powerful. If used properly, influence can be beneficial to both you and your readers.

7. Design

Many websites sales that I have seen recently haven’t put much emphasis on this, but a quality design is definitely an asset that has value. When Adnan announced that Blogtrepreneur is for sale, he listed the custom WordPress theme as one of the selling points, and I think he is absolutely right.

8. On-Screen Real Estate

If you buy or sell ads online, you know that screen space can be a hot commodity. There is only so much of it on each website that can be used for ads (unless it goes way overboard). The space that you have on your site is an asset regardless of whether you are using it for yourself or selling it to others.

9. Rankings

While website and blog rankings are limited in usefulness, they are often used as an indicator of what a website is worth. Look at any recent blog sale, some type of ranking will always be mentioned, whether it’s PageRank, Alexa rank, Technorati rank, or something else.

10. Inbound Links

One of the biggest challenges of promoting a website is building inbound links. If your site has existing inbound links, they are assets. Links can drive click-through traffic and improve search engine rankings. For these reasons links are frequently sold, which of course Google does not condone.

Long-Term or Short-Term?

Everyone has different goals for their website. Some want to quickly build a productive site and sell it for profit. Others want to take a long-term approach and build a site that will help them for years to come. There is no right or wrong approach, but your goals will influence how you view the assets that you are building.

If you take a short-term approach intending to sell the site you’ll be interested in whatever can give you the best return on investment within a few months. And the opposite is true if you are going with a long-term approach. In this case, short-term profits should not be chosen over what’s best for the long haul.

What about you? What is your approach? Feel free to mention anything that I missed in the comments.