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?

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

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.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

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.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

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?

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

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.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

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?

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

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.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

Unfortunately, sometimes monetizing a website comes at the expense of its readers and visitors. Obviously, in order to maintain a successful web presence, the site must be monetized in a way that is acceptable to visitors.

As this blog has grown in recent months this is something that I am dealing with and thinking about. This article is really just my thoughts about the issue at this time. I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on blog monetization since this blog currently only produces income through the services that it promotes. I am hoping to get some valuable feedback from others who are in a similar situation or have gone through the same thing.

I see these issues as being keys to monetizing a website without turning off your visitors (in no particular order):

1. Keep Advertisements On-Topic and Relevant

Advertisements will be the most successful for everyone involved and will be the least distracting/annoying if they are related to the topics covered by the website/blog and relevant to visitors. Of course the value for advertisers will be higher, but the ads may also be more useful and beneficial to visitors. Personally, I don’t like being on a site and seeing an ad for something that is completely unrelated to what I reading. For some reason these types of ads feel more invasive and annoying. If I’m going to see ads I’d prefer that they be for something that I might actually want or need.

Along the same lines as being on-topic and relevant, they should also be non-offensive and professional (assuming that’s the image that your website or blog hopes to portray). You will quickly loose visitors if they expect your site to have higher standards than the ads are displaying.

2. Keep the Focus On the Content. Don’t Make Readers Feel Secondary.

Your visitors don’t want to feel like they are less important to you than ad revenue. You can keep the focus on the content by not going overboard with ads and by keeping them in places that will not interfere with the content. Many bloggers effectively use a sidebar to contain ads.

I’m not a big fan of AdSense ads within the body of a blog post (especially at the top), but a lot of bloggers use them this way. Maybe I’m in the minority on this issue. It’s not something that will keep me from reading a blog, but I do see it as an obstacle to reading the article, and I’m never going to click on any of the links.

3. Mark Affiliate Links as Such

One of my early blog posts contained a few unmarked affiliate links. They were only to products that I had confidence in, but I got a few questions about why I used them. While I don’t think there’s anything unethical with this approach, I decided that whenever I use them I should mark them as affiliate links. It’s just not worth losing readers for the chance at an affiliate commission. If people want to buy the product, I think in most cases they’ll still use my affiliate link. This situation varies for different audiences, but in my situation visitors were aware that they were affiliate links, and a few of them felt that I was trying to hide something by not marking them as such. If your audience won’t even no what an affiliate link is, I probably wouldn’t bother trying to explain it as they are not likely to care.

4. Stand Behind the Products and Services that You Promote

The best way to do this is by promoting only products and services that you have personally used and that have satisfied you. If you sell ad space this doesn’t mean that you will need to have experience with everyone who pays to advertise on your site. However, some bloggers actually provide recommendations for their advertisers, and I think this is where it’s good to have experience with them. Anytime you’re telling your readers how great something is and why they should use it, they are likely to assume that you’re speaking from experience. It all comes back to trust.

When I’m reading about advertisers on other blogs I appreciate hearing some of the details of the blogger’s personal experience with the advertiser. The details make a reader feel a little bit more comfortable that the blogger has a good reason to promote something, aside from the money. An example of this is Daniel’s recommendation on Daily Blog Tips of Doreo Hosting. Daniel shares his personal experience with them and how their service has handled large volumes of traffic with no problem. This goes a lot further than just telling people they should use Doreo Hosting.

5. Don’t Let Ads Drastically Hinder the Performance of the Site

Most advertisements are going to include images (such as banner ads), which can slow down the load time of your pages. While this is natural and understandable to a certain extent, you don’t want your visitors to be leaving before the page even loads because they are tired of waiting. This is typically not a problem if you don’t go overboard with the ads.

6. Don’t Use Too Many Sponsored Posts

As a reader, I don’t have a problem with paid posts. If it’s something I don’t have an interest in I can just skip over it in my feed reader. In fact, sometimes it’s nice to know that the blogger is getting some money for their effort. But some readers don’t really appreciate them. Paid posts should be done in moderation. Don’t let them overpower the regular content that you provide for your readers. As with any other type of ad, it’s best if the subject is relevant to your readers.

7. Avoid Flashy Ads

I think we all know the impression we get from a website that has one of those huge banners that flashes in very bright colors. I always wonder who actually clicks on them. They obviously annoy visitors, and in the long run they probably cost you more money in lost potential than they make for you. Ads don’t have to be that flashy to be a distraction for visitors. Before placing an ad on your site try to put yourself in the position of the visitor and decide if it would be a distraction to you.

Of course, with some pay-per-click ads the website owner may want them to distract readers to draw a click and earn some money. My opinion is that this is a good or a bad idea depending on your ultimate goals for the website. If the website or blog is set up primarily to draw income from ads, it’s probably a good thing. For a blog like mine that aims to develop long-term readers and promote a business, I think it’s a bad option.

8. Avoid Pop-Ups and Pop-Unders

Modern pop-up blockers have really reduced the amount of these types of ads that are used, but many websites still use them. They are probably the #1 most annoying ad for visitors. Some websites use pop-ups very effectively for things like opt-in email subscriptions. If you are contemplating using a pop-up, make sure you consider the hidden costs of lost traffic. In some cases it may be worth it, in most cases it won’t.

Ok, so like I said earlier, those are just my thoughts. Now I’d like to hear yours.

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

If you are selling any type of product or service that involves online payments, one of the biggest barriers you will have to overcome is gaining the trust of potential buyers. Here are 13 things you can do to increase their trust in you.

1. Offer Your Contact Information.

Providing your contact information helps visitors in a few ways. First of all, it helps them to see you as a real person or business rather than someone shady who is hiding behind a website. Second, it obviously makes it easier for them to get in touch with you about their questions or concerns. Even if the don’t have questions at the moment, they will want to know that they can get their questions answered when they arise.

2. Provide a Money-Back Guarantee.

A money-back guarantee isn’t appropriate or possible for every type of sale online, but when possible it can be one of the most effective ways to relieve apprehension from potential buyers. If being able to get their money back doesn’t influence them, not much will. Of course you need to lay out the terms of the guarantee clearly to avoid any trouble down the road.

3. Free Trials or Demos.

Certain products have done very well by offering a trial or a demo that shows the value and potential of the product without requiring an immediate commitment from the buyer. The product will need to be of high quality to convince users that they need to buy the full version.

4. Display Testimonials from Customers.

If you have happy customers, be sure to let your visitors know about them. Solicit testimonials from satisfied customers and display them on your website where they will be easily seen to build your credibility.

5. Use Trusted 3rd Parties for Payment.

Buyers feel more comfortable when they see that you are accepting payment from trusted 3rd parties like PayPal, Verisign or even ClickBank. It’s not a bad idea to display the logo of these companies on your sales pages where visitors will see them before they have to make a decision.

6. Have an “About Us” Page.

Earlier I mentioned the importance of giving potential buyers your contact information. Many times that info will be found on an About Us page. Give visitors some basic information about your company’s history and operations. This can also helps to ease the fears of those who are not familiar with you.

7. Become a Member of the Better Business Bureau.

Online purchasers are encouraged when they see a logo that shows a business is part of the BBB’s Online Reliability Program . It’s just one more thing you can do to show that you are a legitimate business.

8. Provide a Privacy Policy.

If your website is selling products or services you are collected personal, private information. In this case you can provide a written privacy policy that shows visitors that you take their privacy seriously and you will not abuse the information that you receive.

9. Photos of You, Your Staff, or Your Building.

Photos can help visitors to relate to you and your business in ways that they can’t without photos. It gives your visitors a more personal connection to you and your business.

10. Video of You, or Video Testimonials.

Some websites are using video as an effective way of helping to sell more products. Video testimonials can be more powerful than written testimonials as it helps potential customers to see some of your existing customers and hear them talk about your products or services.

11. Have a Professional-Looking Website.

If you want to have a reputable business selling products online, your customers will expect you to look professional. The look of your website will have a subtle influence on the visitor’s perception of you.

12. Eliminate Typos, Spelling Mistakes, and Grammatical Errors.

This goes along with looking professional. Any professional business will do its best to avoid these mistakes. Having a website full of typos can make you look like someone working from his mom’s basement trying to make a quick buck online. That’s not an image that comforts potential buyers.

13. Don’t Throw Any Surprises.

As your visitors are moving through the online buying process they don’t want to be unpleasantly surprised by such items as shipping costs and unexpected fees. To earn their trust, provide this information up front before they start the purchase and they’ll be less likely to back out. Throwing surprises makes it look like your trying to hide some of the details.

What other methods do you use to earn the trust of your potential customers?

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.

Text Link Ads (aff.) – The leader in paid text link ads.
LinkWorth – Keep up to 70% of the ad revenue.
Text Link Brokers – Make money buy selling links in a directory on your site.
Live Customer – Static HTML ads with flat monthly rates.
LinkAdage – Matches advertisers with publishers
Direct-Link-Ads – Keep up to 75% of the ad revenue.
PaidTextLinks – A smaller text link program.
Kontera – Create contextual links automatically.
AdSter – Customize your ads to match your website.
Vibrant Media – Vibrant in-text advertising.
TextAd.biz – Basic text ad service.
SearchFriendlyAds – Not live yet.
YzMedia – Another text link option.

Direct Sales

KickStartCart – A shopping cart, merchant account and marketing tools.
PayPal – One of the lowest-cost choices for selling your own products.
EasyStoreCreator – Provides a package that includes hosting, merchant account integration, and shopping cart.
1ShoppingCart – Offers different packages with marketing tools, shopping carts and merchant accounts.
ASecureCart – An affordable shopping cart service
NetSuite – Full e-commerce option.
GotShoppingCart? – Free version available.
3D Cart – Includes marketing, statistics and more.
Americart – 30-day risk-free trial.
MonsterCommerce – Full of features.

PPC

Google AdSense – The industry leader.
Yahoo Publisher Network – Yahoo’s AdSense alternative.
Chitika – eMiniMalls is not a typical PPC program, it is different kind of pay-per-click product promotion.
Kanoodle – A second-tier PPC option as opposed to Google and Yahoo.
Ads-Click – You set the price per click for ads showing on your site.
AdBrite – Control and customization options.
ABC Search – Another 2nd-tier option.
BidVertiser – Large network PPC program.
Clicksor – Contextual ads program.
Qads – Ad program from Qumana.
PeakClick – Pays in Euros.
DoubleClick – Another targeted PPC
option.
RevenuePilot – Keep 60% of the revenue.
Search Feed – Another option for targeted PPC ads.
Targetpoint – For publishers of all sizes.
OneMonkey – Keep 80% of the revenue.
Miva MC – PPC ads plus the option for contextual PPD ads.
ClickBooth – Claims to have the highest payout in the industry.

Banner Ads

AdEngage – Not a typical banner ad, the’re photo ads with text.
AdDynamix – Also offers other options besides just banners.
BannerBoxes – Your keep 75% of the revenue from each click.

Affiliate Programs

Commission Junction – One of the leaders. Manages affiliate programs for all kinds of products.
Click Bank – All downloadable affiliate products.
LinkShare – Claims to be the largest pay-for-performance affiliate marketing network.
Azoogle Ads – Also claims to be the largest performance-based online advertising network.
Amazon – One of the oldest and most successful affiliate programs.
Context Links for Amazon’s Affiliate Program – Auto creates affiliate links to Amazon’s products.

Paid Reviews

ReviewMe – Get paid to review other websites and blogs.
PayPerPost – Make money writing about website, products, services and companies.

Parked Domains

Revenue Direct – Make money from a parked domain.
Parked – Another option for parked domains.

Random/Various

The News Room – Make money by placing news items on your site.
Tribal Fusion – Represents the advertising for selectively approved websites.
IndustryBrains – Has a few different options that would fall into various categories above.
Adknowledge – Options for email, web, and search engine inventory.
Yesadvertising – Lots of options, including contextual ads, email, banners and pop-unders.
ValueMedia – Several different options, including video.
Auction Ads – Make money by displaying Ebay items.
IntelliTXT – Contextual ads that include video.
PremierAd – Lots of different options. You keep 80% of ad revenue.
BurstMedia – A variety of different options.
Advertising.com – Multiple options, including video ads.
Openads – Online advertising software.
Casale Media – You choose what type of ads you want on your site.
VC Media – CPC or CPM options.
Ads by RSS – Places ads on your website, using RSS.
AdSpaceAuctions – Sell ad space on your website through an auction.
TextMarks – Monetize your blog with text message alerts.

Sell Ad Space

AdSonar -Provide content-targeted ads.
BlogAds – You control the ads that appear on your site.
Crisp Ads – name your price for direct sponsors.
ADSDAQ – Choose your asking price for ads and ADSDAQ matches you with advertisers.
AdVolcano – Set your own prices and ad sizes.

RSS Feed Monetization

Pheedo – PPC for RSS feeds.
PostPostWordPress Plugin – Display affiliate links or ads before or after your feeds (other uses beside just advertising).
Feedvertising – Runs txt link ads in your feed.
FeedBurner Ads – If you use FeedBurner’s services for distributing and tracking your feeds, you also have the option of using their advertising services in your feeds.
MediaFed – Automatically inserts ads into your feed.
FeedShow – Puts PPC ads into your feed.
Fedafi Publishing Network – Monetize your feed with the Fedafi WordPress plugin.
Yahoo Publisher Network – PPC ads in your feeds.

Job Boards

Joards – Put a job board on your site and keep 75% of the revenue.
Job-a-matic – Another option for making money with a job board.

WP Plugins

AdSense-Deluxe – Embed AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network ads into your blog.
AdSense Sharing Revenue and Earnings System – A plugin for blogs that have multiple writers. Let each of your writers make money from ads on their own posts.
AdSense Injection – Inject AdSense ads throughout an existing blog.
Google AdSense Referral Rotator Plugin – Make money by referring other users to AdSense.
Amazon Media Manager – Easily ad Amazon affiliate products to your blog.
WP-Amazon – Quickly search for products and add Amazon affiliate links while writing your posts.
Last Amazon Review Plugin – Displays your most recent review of a product listed on Amazon and includes your Amazon affiliate link.
Text Ads Link Widget for WordPress Sidebar – A simple widget that makes it easy to display text ads in your sidebar.
WPAds Plugin – Show and rotate ads on your blog.
AdRotator Plugin – Randomly rotates ads that you choose.
WP E-commerce Shopping Cart Plugin – Creates a shopping cart with tons of features and options for your WP blog or website.
EasyPayPal WordPress Plugin – Integrates your blog and your PayPal account to accept donations or fees.
Buy Me a Beer Plugin – Accept donations from your readers by asking them to buy you a beer (or coffee) if they liked your post.
CafePress – Sell your own products on your blog.
YAK – Simple shopping cart plugin.

What other methods do you use to monetize your site or blog? This post may be updated, so please leave your suggestions in the comments. If you own or represent one of the advertising programs mentioned on this page and you feel that you should be in a different category, please leave a comment. Thanks!

Looking to Hire a Designer or Developer?

Post a free job listing to the DesignM.ag job board for freelance, part-time or full-time positions. Your listing will be seen by thousands of talented designers and developers. - Post a job for free.