How to competently monetize the site, even with insignificant traffic? How to get the maximum profit from your site, while not losing the trust of the audience to the site? In this article, we will cover all aspects of website monetization, from general principles to practical tips. We will also learn about the typical mistakes webmasters make in order to avoid falling into a rake.

Many webmasters devote too much time to website development or promotion that they forget about such an important procedure as website monetization. This is indeed a problem for many webmasters. The secret of financial success lies in the careful allocation of time between such actions:

1. Website development (design, layout, programming, testing, content)
2. Promotion and SEO (internal and external optimization, PR, branding)
3. Monetization of the site (selection of affiliate programs or exchanges, price management, provision of its services, etc.)
4. Analysis and planning (collection of statistics, data analysis, strategy development, etc.)

Maybe you think your project is too small for all this? This is not true! We sincerely recommend that you pay attention to all these actions, which should be carried out in parallel to each other. Even if you work alone, on your own. Plan your work in such a way that you regularly, as often as possible, perform all these actions. & nbsp; If you neglect these points, there is nothing to say about successful monetization!

Website monetization – what is it?

Website monetization is a set of measures to generate income (profit) from your website. The basis of monetization of the site is the search for a suitable affiliate program, its participation in the exchanges of links, traffic, articles, contextual advertising. There are also other, alternative, methods of monetization. Alternative methods include providing your own services and products, or the services and products of others, while receiving a percentage of the profits. We will talk about ways to monetize further.

Ways and methods of website monetization

Let’s consider all currently known ways to monetize sites. Look for more ideas on the pages of our website.

Selling traffic  is redirecting visitors to your site to another, for which you are paid money. This can be done through a popunder (a pop-up window, when clicked, the visitor goes to another site), a clickander (a person clicks anywhere on the page, the client’s site appears in a new window). These systems, as well as others, are available on traffic exchanges. The traffic exchange brings the advertiser (your client) to the webmaster (you), for which he takes his percentage. Each exchange has its own percentage, but it is small. You can also sell traffic directly, but for this you need to have a large traffic of 5-10 thousand unique visitors per day. In addition, you will have to look for a client yourself (on forums in networks, etc.).

Sell Links  – allows you to earn money regardless of your traffic. The main thing is strong positions & nbsp; in search engines and indicators of Titz, PR, AlexaRank is also important recently, although few people pay attention to this indicator. As in the case of traffic, you can sell links through link exchanges, or directly. For example, you can create an “Ads on the site” page and describe all possible options and prices. Links can be sold as eternal (they are sold once and for all the time, you have no right to remove it), and temporary (payment is made for each month the client’s link is placed on your site). In terms of the long term, it is better to sell temporary links, and buy eternal ones.

Contextual Ads  is a text ad, sometimes with small icons, that is embedded in an article or other page content. Today, contextual advertising is a mandatory attribute of website monetization. If your site has traffic from 300 people a day, a nice design and growth prospects, put Yandex Direct. If not, you can install Google Adsense even if you have 1 visit per day. Advertising will be paid for each click. Therefore, your income will directly depend on attendance.

Teaser ads  – unlike contextual ones, it has bright pictures and motivational text, which makes the visitor pay attention to themselves. But pay per click is much less compared to contextual advertising. Teaser ads are best placed on entertainment sites or women’s sites.

Article Posting  is when you get paid to post a client article on your site. It is especially convenient when you have a large number of subscribers and a well-promoted blog. In this case, the clients themselves will find you and offer to place their article. Or you can create an “advertising on the site” page, where you can describe all the details and wishes for the posted articles and set prices for this pleasure. A handy thing, in terms of having others write content for your site while paying you.

File hosting – provide payment for downloading files through their system. Naturally, you post a download link on your site. On the web, such sites are called “Varezniki”. These are sites where you can download this or that file. But this method of monetization fades into the background, due to the advent of torrent trackers.

<Affiliate Programs  are more personal offers from specific firms. For example, there are many affiliate programs on medical topics. Or for the sale of mushroom mycelium, the sale of abstracts. In a word, your site should be thematic in relation to the affiliate program. If you can understand all the advantages and benefits of affiliate products, and you manage to implement all this into a website, then you can make good money on this. There is a problem: you need to have marketing skills in order to advertise products and gain user confidence in your site and the products offered. This is direct work with people. And here you have to work hard.

Referral programs – almost every system has its own referral program, which allows you to receive a percentage of earnings from each of the involved system participants.

Providing your services and products  is no longer a way to monetize a site, but a worthy option for decent earnings online. Web marketing has its own specifics and therefore it is better to first get trained and save money using other methods of monetizing the site, after which you can successfully develop your business, your system on the Internet.

Your ideas – each of you should have ideas about how to monetize your site. If they are not, develop in this direction. Learn from other successful projects. For example: selling a rating for money, access to content, places for vip ads, and so on. If your project is small, do not be sad and write everything in a notebook. In the future, you will definitely come to this if you want. All in your hands!

Exchanges and affiliate programs for website monetization

In this section, we will lay out the most famous and popular exchanges and systems in the field of website monetization. You will find more systems on the pages of our website, as well as interesting research and reviews about them.

• Sape  is a temporary link exchange, the most popular, very easy to automate.
• GoGetLinks – exchange of eternal links. Sites are accepted only from tits 10 and above. The exchange is useful not only for making money, but also for buying cheap and permanent links for your site.
• MiraLinks – article exchange. Like the previous one, it selects only high-quality sites. You can earn decent money on this exchange.
• Popunder – traffic exchange. An old and reliable exchange with a good bonus system. Easy to automate. When adding a site to the exchange, it does not need approval, you can immediately earn money. Payouts from 40 rubles
• Wizard-Traffic – traffic exchange, very similar to the previous one. Everything works automatically, sites do not need approval, there is no pessimism on the part of search engines. Automatic payouts when you accumulate 200 rubles
• Webunder  – another traffic exchange. In this exchange, traffic is bought at the most expensive price, but sites accept traffic from 100 settlements. in a day. Traffic must be Russian.
• Adself – Yandex advertising network. In other words, Yandex Direct. For one click on contextual advertising, an average of 2 rubles. Very good system, they only accept quality sites.
• Rotapost – Exchange of links and articles with manual placement. It is enough to have a site in the .ru domain zone, which has more than 50 pages in the index, and the profit is already provided. Applications are received very often.
• RotaBan – Banner exchange from the creators of the RotaPost system. The principle is the same, only here is the placement of banners.
• AdvBox – Banner exchange with a very convenient placement and frequent applications. Site monitoring is based on visits. Place a banner on the site and specify the cost of impressions/clicks or the cost of placement per day/week/month.
• AdMitad – A powerful CPA system that allows you to connect various affiliate systems to your website.

General principles and practical tips for website monetization

We understand that you may have your own monetization guidelines based on your experience. Try to be open to new ideas and our advice. This will help you increase your income and avoid mistakes.

There is a website for each system

Each exchange or affiliate program has its own characteristics. Therefore, for each system, there is its own “ideal site”, which will bring maximum income within the system. A classic example is the creation of a website for sape. Of course, we do not mean that the site should be created specifically for one system. For example, if you are planning to sell links from your site, then the typical internal linking structure will not work. Also, for successful monetization of site traffic, when writing articles, it is necessary to take into account the popularity of queries and their competitiveness. Let’s look at everything separately.

To monetize a site with link sales, you need

1. Implement internal linking in such a way that there are as few outbound links as possible from the “selling pages”, but as many as possible link to them. In this way, the client will get the maximum weight on their site. And he is pleased, and we have money.
2. Take into account the fact that upon receipt of tits 10, links will be bought up by 90% at least. With zero parameters like and pr, with a good structure and subject, links will be bought up by no more than 30%. Therefore, strive to get a tick, even if you lose it in the future, 50-70% of the sold links remain.
3. Try to place links in the most natural way. Best in the context of the article. Even better, if visitors click on this link. Thus, the link looks useful and natural from the side of the search engine, which will increase the authority of the client’s site and your site as well. The page should not have more than 1 external link during the first year of the site’s life.
4. Inflate prices and lower them little by little. It is better to sell fewer links, but at a higher price.
5. Register site in multiple link exchanges. This will make it possible to set prices even higher and not lose a percentage of sales!

To monetize a site using contextual advertising, you need

1. Choose the right theme for the site. The theme should correspond to the offers of advertisers. This way you will get targeted visitors (those who, when they get to the site from a search engine, will be most interested in contextual advertising).
2. Embed ads in content context. As practice shows, less attention is paid to ad units located in the side columns. Try to match the ad unit with the design of your website. This feature is implemented in almost every contextual advertising system.
3. Increase website traffic. Since your income will depend on the number of visitors. Out of 100 visitors, as a rule, 2 click on ads. This is in a bad scenario. If we take women’s sites, then 5 clicks out of 100 visitors. Therefore, women’s websites are so valued.

To monetize a site by selling traffic, you need

1. Create a website for the Russian contingent. Russian traffic is valued 2-3 times more expensive than other CIS countries.
2. Make every effort to increase traffic. After all, your income directly depends on site traffic.
3. Register in several systems (traffic exchanges). Before selling traffic, it would be better to register and get approval from many systems. After that, using “stubs” (a code that is shown when there are no buyers of your traffic), connect the systems to each other. Thus, the penetration (percentage of income from the number of visitors) will increase.

To provide your services through the site, you need

1. Gain the trust of visitors. First of all, it is the quality of your site and your competence in the field of services you provide. There should be not only high-quality content on the site, but also a constant newsletter, which will help to keep in touch with visitors and strengthen their trust in you.
2. To form authority and public opinion about yourself. Article exchanges will help you with this (the best is MiraLinks), which make it possible to post an article and a link in it. Thus, you influence both the opinion of users and the search engine.
3. Study, study and study again. The option with exchanges and affiliate systems is simpler, since all clients are in one place, just waiting to be satisfied with a quality platform (website). It is more difficult to provide services, it is necessary to be intellectually aware, but the profit is much greater.

Practical Tips for Website Monetization

Based on our own experience, we offer our advice. Use them or not, your choice. I must say that in particular they were useful to me. I managed to increase my income from sites by 70-100%, that is, 2 times.

1. Start monetizing a site that is at least 6 months old.
2. First, register in many systems, and if you can set your own prices, then set them too high.
3. Don’t rush to recoup the money for the cost of the site, try to maintain its authority in search engines and the trust of users.
4. Create an “Advertising” or “Advertising on the site” page on the site in which you provide all the traffic statistics and growth of your resource. Also, prices and offers for different advertising options (posting links, posting articles, banners, etc.)
5. Try to automate all the work associated with the site as much as possible, even if your net income decreases. Try to free yourself from routine work (writing articles, buying links, etc.). Do not get hung up on monotonous work, the task of a webmaster is to manage the site. Naturally, if you are just starting out, you do not have the opportunity to automate everything and deal only with management. But you must strive for this and want it as much as possible. If you do everything yourself, you will not achieve great success and worthy financial reward!
6. Listen to advice, but try to check everything yourself. Look for new systems, exchanges, affiliate programs, read reviews and draw conclusions. Constantly do something in terms of monetization.
7. Keep your mind open to new ideas and possibilities. Even if you don’t have the ability to implement it at the moment, write it down and strive to achieve it.

You may think that all this is dry and useless. But it was these tips that helped us move forward. Do not follow in the footsteps of others, but pave your own path.

Answers to questions such as “how many links and where to put them”, “what price to set”, “which teaser network is better”, “what is the difference between one exchange and another”, etc. – you will find in the sections of our website. This information changes, but the 6 tips and 4 principles of financial success (described at the beginning of this article) will help you constantly develop and increase your income. And one more thing – your attitude towards money will determine your success!

In the same way, money will always be either a god or a tool. If money is god then man will hoard it. But if they are a tool, a person will use them. Curry Blake

The purpose of money is not idleness, the purpose of money is the multiplication of resources to serve the benefit of people. Henry Ford

Mistakes to prevent!

Many webmasters expect to receive everything at once. On a site aged 1-3 months, you can see ads, while attendance will be no more than 20 people per day. Given that the CTR (percentage of clicks on an ad unit) is rarely more than 0.03%, then ads will be clicked 1 time in 3 days. In this scenario, the site will earn no more than 15-20 rubles per month. It’s even worse when a young site sells links that do more harm than money. Sites like this don’t last long.

The one who stays on the market longer gets more! The task of the webmaster is not to “cut the loot”, but to gain the trust of visitors and take root in the top of the search results, in a word, create a strong & nbsp; foundation.

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