How to Effectively Make Money With Your Website - Online Income Generation, Income Growth Strategies, Freelancing Income  
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If you are wondering how to make money from a website, you are not alone.  Lots of people are searching for ways that they can make some extra cash online.

However, you also have to be careful how you listen to, some actually have experience making money with websites and others don’t. 

When many start-up websites launched (including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others), they didn’t always have a plan for how they would make money.  Their primary goal was focusing on creating something that would attract attention and big traffic.

Once they had the traffic in place, lots of different ways to make money will present themselves.  Although, we might not be creating the next huge internet start-up (like Facebook), we would be wise to have a few things in mind when creating a new site.

First, we should make sure there is a market for our site (keyword research is big part of this).  Secondly, we should try to create something of value.  Finally, we should ideally find a niche that has money being spent in it.

So how will you put all of this together and actually make money from your website? This article will provide some helpful tips.

  • What Kind of Website Should You Make to Earn Money?
  • How to Make Money by Selling Websites
  • How do Website Owners Get Paid?
  • How To Create a Successful Website That Attracts Millions of Visitors
  • 20 Ways to Effectively Make Money from Your Website

What Kind of Website Should You Make to Earn Money?

Practically all websites can make money as long as you ca build up an audience. So before you start to worry about how you are going to monetize you should first focus on creating awesome content that will build your readership.

Read Also: 15 Practical Ways to Keep Visitors on Your Website

Once you have an established audience you can choose from all sorts of different ways to monetize.

Following are some examples of the most profitable types of websites that you can create right away to generate good permanent income online.

  • 1. E-commerce Websites
  • 2. Blog Websites
  • 3. Entertainment Websites
  • 4. Educational Websites
  • 5. Answers and Questions Websites
  • 6. Social Networking Websites
  • 7. Bio Websites
  • 8. Video or TV Streaming Websites
  • 9. Online Payments Websites
  • 10. Niche Affiliate Websites
  • 11. Business Websites
  • 12. Community Forums Websites
  • 13. News Websites
  • 14. Online Portfolio Websites
  • 15. Job Boards Websites
  • 16. Crowdfunding Websites
  • 17. Picture Sharing Websites
  • 18. Nonprofit Websites

How to Make Money by Selling Websites

Building profitable websites has never been easier.

One of the distinct advantages is that these websites can be created with just a bit of knowledge and very little start-up capital.

In most cases, all that’s needed is a domain name and hosting account, which can be purchased from any of the major providers for around $100 per year.

The lack of any major barriers-to-entry has made this an attractive model for those with little cash and plenty of time. With the right niche topic, a built-from-scratch website can go from nothing to earning $1,000, $2,000, or even $5,000 per month in as little as 12 to 18 months.

A lesser-known business model that’s been gaining traction is the building and selling of these websites to portfolio investors. Usually priced at a multiple of the site’s monthly earnings, a $1,000-per-month website could sell anywhere from $15K to $25K in upfront cash.

Many website builders prefer to sell their sites and use that cash injection to build out teams to repeat the process many times over.

If this model interests you, here are ten tips to help you get started:

1. Niche selection (and keyword research) is very important

Don’t bother targeting an industry. Instead, target a subset of that industry or a “niche.” Smart Passive Income and Dumb Passive Income have a couple of resources you can use to find the right target niche.
 

2. WordPress makes building websites easy

This content management system (CMS) has made it much easier for non-techies to get started, and there are thousands of different plug-and-play themes and layouts to choose from.
 

3. Start with simple monetization methods

Selling physical products can be rewarding, but you also have to deal with manufacturing, storing the items, shipping, etc. Instead, look at programs like Google AdSense, which pays you per ad click, or the Amazon affiliate program, which will pay you a percentage of any purchases made.
 

4. Starter websites are okay, but profitable websites are better

You can build out and sell unproven sites before they’re even earning. The advantage is that you won’t have to wait 12 to 18 months for the site to mature to the point that you’re making money. The downside is that everyone can do this, and the prices are awfully low for these sites.

5. Build a site for users, not search engines

While sites are generally priced at a multiple of net monthly earnings, buyers are willing to pay a premium for clean-looking, non-formulaic websites. Does the site look like it was made from a hobbyist in the niche? Great! Does it look like it was built with a template hundreds of other sites have been built on? Not so great

6. Expect to fail at the beginning

Everyone makes mistakes on their first couple of sites. Don’t worry – this is a skill one can improve with practice.

7. Maximize your profits leading to the sale

Cut down on any unnecessary expenses or spending. Since the price will be based on a multiple of net monthly profit, you want to maximize that profit for at least six months leading to the sale.

8. Plan a smooth transition for the new buyer

Buyers don’t want to purchase sites where all of the intellectual capital is inside the seller’s head. If you can write clear standard operating procedures (SOPs) the buyer can follow post-purchase, your website will be much more attractive to buyers.
 

9. Look for a strategic buyer first

A portfolio investor/buyer may only value the site through a multiple of profit, but a strategic investor may have much more to gain through your users, traffic, etc. If they’re in a similar or competitive industry, they may be willing to buy your site for a premium.
 

10. Continue to run the site until the deal is completed

Whether you’re listing the site for sale on an auction platform or through a website broker, nothing will crush the sales price more than a neglected site. Continue to run the site as if you were keeping it through the deal being finished.

How do Website Owners Get Paid?

According to Business Insider, 800 million active websites crowded the Internet as of March 2019. As the Go-Gulf.com website notes, 70 new domains, each hosting a single or many different websites, are registered every 60 seconds.

Not every newly created website launches to make money for its proprietor or owner, of course, but many of them actually do just that. How much money the average website owner makes from such sites depends on many factors, however.

Websites and Revenue

Whether a website makes its owner any money depends on the purpose of the website and the effort the owner devotes to making it a moneymaker. A website focused strictly on selling merchandise, for example, depends on sales revenues.

Websites properly set up, or optimized, to attract visitors from the Web looking for specific content are different. So-called content websites use several methods to generate revenue, which generally ranges from pennies daily up to thousands of dollars or more monthly.

Websites and Advertisements

To make money from a content website, its owner first must monetize it, or build it to generate income. Typically, noncommercial or nonbusiness websites attempt to generate income from ads posted on their pages.

Whenever Internet users visit a website and click on a posted ad, a small amount of money, usually about 15 cents, goes to the website proprietor from the advertiser or its agent. A website that generates a thousand ad clicks per day would earn its owner $15 daily or $450 monthly.

Website Affiliate Marketing

Content websites can also attract revenue from what’s called affiliate marketing. For example, a website about golfing could include ads from golf equipment makers.

Website-based affiliate marketers try to make money from commissions paid by hosted advertisers when website visitors click on ads and then buy whatever those advertisers are selling.

Owners of websites with affiliate marketing programs can make thousands monthly through earned commissions or even make themselves rich if they work very hard.

If you hope to make income from a website, ensure potential visitors can find it on the Web through major search engines like Google or Yahoo. Most website proprietors use a variety of search engine optimization techniques to attract visitors, such as providing fresh, high-quality content that Internet users are looking for. Popular websites usually appear on the first page of search engine results.

How To Create a Successful Website That Attracts Millions of Visitors

Choosing and Registering a Domain Name

Before you do anything, you must decide on a name for your website and purchase your .Com (or .co.uk. .org .net etc). To register your domain, go to a website called NameCheap.

A domain will set you back less then $10 a year and is one of the most important things to get right. Of course, feel free to shop around and choose a different registrar, the only main difference between companies is the level of customer support.

Host Your Website on the Internet

To do this, you rent some space on a server for around $5 a month and can put all your files on it and thousands of people can come and visit it without any hassle.

We recommend to start with, you use HostGator. They have 24/7 live support with agents who will always be happy to help you with any issue you may have.

One of the main reasons why we recommend hosting with HostGator, is because they have a tool in their user control panel called QuickInstall, which allows you to install WordPress (website software) with one click.

Now that you have a domain and web hosting, you have to let them know you want to use the two together.

You do this with Nameservers.

When you purchase your hosting from HostGator, they will email you two nameservers. You then login to GoDaddy, edit your domain settings and type in your nameserver address. Then your domain and hosting will be connected.

Switching Hosts? If you are thinking about switching to a new web host, NameCheap and HostGator offer a free migration service. This means, they will transfer everything from your old host, to their service.

Customizing How Your Website Looks

By using WordPress, you are now able to use over 100,000 already created blog designs. Some free and some much better that come at a small cost.

Once you have chosen and downloaded your blog theme, you need to log into your WordPress admin area. Then click Appearance on the left side, then click Themes. Click upload, find your theme and once installed, active it.

If you want to hire a designer to create a logo or website design, you could use Fiverr.

While we recommend buying a Theme and customizing it to your needs, there are plenty of free alternatives that can also be customized available at WordPress.org

With most good blog themes, you get a custom dashboard to edit the look and feel of the theme. On the left hand side of your WordPress admin area, click the blue button with the name of your theme on it. In here you can edit almost everything, it’s all very self explanatory, go through it and make the changes you want.

Next, click on Appearance >> Widgets on the sidebar.

Here you can move things around, adding, editing and removing widgets on your blog.

A widget is like a gadget or an attachment. Something not required for the site to function but can be used to improve it in some way. An example of a widget could be, an advert, an email signup box or popular posts.

Customizing How Your Website Looks

By using WordPress, you are now able to use over 100,000 already created blog designs. Some free and some much better that come at a small cost.

Once you have chosen and downloaded your blog theme, you need to log into your WordPress admin area. Then click Appearance on the left side, then click Themes. Click upload, find your theme and once installed, active it.

If you want to hire a designer to create a logo or website design, you could use Fiverr.

While we recommend buying a Theme and customizing it to your needs, there are plenty of free alternatives that can also be customized available at WordPress.org

With most good blog themes, you get a custom dashboard to edit the look and feel of the theme. On the left hand side of your WordPress admin area, click the blue button with the name of your theme on it. In here you can edit almost everything, it’s all very self explanatory, go through it and make the changes you want.

Next, click on Appearance >> Widgets on the sidebar.

Here you can move things around, adding, editing and removing widgets on your blog.

A widget is like a gadget or an attachment. Something not required for the site to function but can be used to improve it in some way. An example of a widget could be, an advert, an email signup box or popular posts.

Optimize Your Website For Search Engines

The majority of website traffic comes from Google. To rank high in Google, you need to work on your websites search engine optimization.

It’s best to get this step right from the very beginning because it will save you a lot of time in the future, not to mention you will get a lot more traffic sooner. Here’s a list of our top SEO tips for new websites:

  • Install Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress.
  • Choose your permalink settings, we recommend /%postname% – this will mean your blog posts URL’s will display as domain.com/postname – a lot of bloggers include category or date in permalink, but this is not something I would recommend because it makes it difficult to change categories or dates as it will change the URL.
  • Research keywords using Ahrefs. Keywords are the search terms you want to rank for in Google. Ahrefs tells you which keywords get what amount of traffic.
  • Make sure to add links in posts to other pages on your site and other peoples sites in posts. This helps Google figure out what your content is about and helps reduce bounce rate.
  • Don’t have duplicated content.
  • Add a sitemap to your website.
  • Don’t have broken links on your website.
  • Make sure your website is as fast as possible.
  • Google ranks websites higher for having HTTPS / SSL websites. Some web hosts offer this for free.
Monetizing Your Website

In our experience, the best way to monetize a website is to create and sell your own products. However, when you first start your website, this is often not possible because you need to spend most of your time creating content.

What we would suggest to anyone with a new website is, build an email list and focus on monetizing your website with affiliate links.

An email list lets you collect emails from readers so that you can email them later. Affiliate marketing is when you promote someones product and receive a commission when people buy through your link.

20 Ways to Effectively Make Money from Your Website

Add Banner Adverts

You can easily set up network adverts using Google Adsense or Media.net by copying and pasting code into your site to create adverts that are relevant to a visitor’s recent internet search.

Taboola is another increasingly popular service for bloggers monetising their content. It works by displaying relevant articles (rather than banners) from advertisers on their network.

These networks will pay you every time a visitor clicks on an advert (cost per click, or CPC), or per 1,000 impressions (cost per impression, or CPM).

You can also sell banner ads directly to companies with a relevant product/service. This option can be much more profitable as, not only will you set the rates yourself, but the advertiser will (hopefully) know that your audience is one that they’d like to target!

Use text link advertising

Sell basic text links to an advertiser’s website (in-content advertising) and charge a fixed rate per month (e.g. £20). Alternatively, you could charge per click.

There are plenty of marketplaces such as Backlinks and LinksPanel where you can both buy and sell links.

Affiliate Marketing

Being an affiliate means you promote a product or service to your website’s visitors in return for earning a commission if a purchase occurs through your link.

Join the Awin network to access thousands of affiliate programs, including major brands like ASOS, EE and Expedia. Then simply include an affiliate link (provided by Awin) when mentioning products from your chosen partners on your website.

Sell to Email Subscribers

The biggest regret we hear from bloggers is not starting an email list sooner. So get an account with AWeber from day one to capture your audience and communicate with them after they’ve left the site!

You can then email them with recommended products that they might be interested in (affiliate promotion), and earn various commissions if they sign up or buy something.

Publish sponsored posts

Sponsored posts, sometimes known as advertorials, are adverts in the form of an article, usually containing the advertiser’s website link. An advertiser may send you the article, but if you can write the content for them, you’ll be quids up as you can charge for your time too.

You can earn £35 to £200+ for a sponsored post, depending on your website’s popularity. Join blogger network groups on Facebook and share your website, as that’s where the advertisers are looking!

Note: Advertising regulations state if you’re paid to publish an article on your site by a third party, you must always write “Sponsored Post” on the page somewhere.

Review products

This one is especially applicable if you’ve got a niche readership, like new parents or keen gamers.

But even if your readers aren’t from a specific pool, you can still get on the product testing gravy train. As long as you’re happy to write a review of the product after trying it out, companies will be more than happy to send some freebies your way – and possibly even pay you!

Sign up with Toluna and SurveyBods as soon as possible to receive the latest opportunities.

Use Skimlinks

Skimlinks is fairly similar to Awin (and other affiliate networks), in that it allows you to earn commission on purchases made through links on your site.

The key difference is that, as well as allowing you to create individual affiliate links as and when you’d like, Skimlinks can also be installed on your website to automatically monetise your content.

If you link to a merchant in your content that’s part of the Skimlinks network, Skimlinks will automatically convert the link into an affiliate link! You’ll get paid if a visitor makes a purchase via your link, and commissions vary from 2% – 10%.

Include a business directory

Set up a business directory page, where companies pay you a set fee to have their business listed. You could charge a monthly or annual listing fee and charge anything between £20 – £500 (and beyond) per year, depending on your site’s traffic levels.

For example, say you had a website reviewing sound systems. Assuming that the likes of Currys PC World and Amazon are probably already pretty popular, you could charge independent retailers (both offline and online) to feature on a page listing places in the UK that sell top-of-the-range speakers.

Publish premium articles

If you can create incredibly useful content, you can earn from it.

Let’s say you have a gaming website, and you’re able to share some little known strategies in an article. You can hook the visitor in by sharing a few tips, then linking to a password protected page (this is an option within WordPress) for the most valuable information.

The reader gets the password to unlock the premium content once they’ve paid a fee to you via PayPal. Charge what you like, although £2 – £10 is a realistic price for a premium article.

You may have seen some of the big media outlets, like The Telegraph and The Times, using this strategy in recent years, so clearly it’s got some merit!

Sell Physical Products

Use your website as a base to sell your own physical products too. For example, you can create designs for T-shirts or mugs with Zazzle – perhaps even with your site’s branding on it, if you think people would buy it!

Or create handmade products to sell on eBay or other sites like Etsy.

But wherever you’re selling, just make sure you link to the marketplace from your site – straight off the bat, that’ll give you an advantage over the other sellers on the platform.

Sell digital products

eBooks, printables, graphics, templates and podcasts are all examples of digital products that can help you earn a passive and ongoing income from your site.

You could charge around £2.99 for a 5,000 word eBook – it doesn’t sound like much, but 20 eBook sales per month will soon add up!

Check out the Envato Marketplace for inspiration and ideas.

Add a membership forum

You can add a ‘members only’ forum to your site through the use of free WordPress plugins like bbPress. You can then monetise this by charging a regular subscription, or a one-off access fee.

Crucially, the amount you can earn depends on how much value you can create for forum members. If you can turn your forum members into a real community – one that networks and shares tips – you’re onto a winner.

Create an online course

Create an online course as an add-on for your website. This is another type of paid premium content where visitors pay to access additional information.

The course can be delivered automatically via AWeber to those who’ve paid and subscribed with their email address, or you can add it to Udemy to reach a wider customer base.

Check out this guide to free online courses if you’re after a bit of inspiration, or just have a think about what your readers might be interested in. If your website is about arts and crafts, for example, you could have a course teaching people how to crochet.

Create your own affiliate program

Once you’ve created your own website product(s), such as a course or an eBook, you can create your own affiliate program and recruit affiliates to help spread the word.

Read Also: How to Create Eye-Catching Content to Crush Your Competition

This can lead to more product sales and more traffic for your website. It’s a win-win, and there are plenty of free WordPress plugins to get you started.

Create a ‘Hire Me’ page

When you start your own website, you’ll develop some new skills that will help you earn money on the side, too.

Set up a ‘Hire Me’ page on your site and offer freelance blogging and writing services to start with. If you took a more involved role in setting up the nuts and bolts of your website, too, then why not also advertises your services as a developer?

Beyond your site, you can offer these services via Upwork as well. A freelance writer can make pretty good money, of around £20 – £50 per hour.

Ask for donations

Add a simple PayPal donation button on your website and ask people to donate a couple of quid (the equivalent of buying you a coffee) if they like your content.

You could also link to your Buy Me A Coffee page, if you have one. Some of the biggest websites out there run either partly or solely on donations, including your friend and mine, Wikipedia. Ultimately, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Create an Amazon store page

The beauty of Amazon is that it sells pretty much everything you could ever want. So no matter what your website is about, there’s a good chance that Amazon sells relevant products.

You can easily add a separate Amazon store page to your website, and if people see you as an authority on your topic, they’ll listen to your recommendations about which products to try that are relevant to them.

Amazon has its own affiliate program, and you’ll earn anything from 1% – 10% commission on product sales if one of your readers buys something through your link.

Create video content on YouTube

Creating video content for your website will not only help you to keep visitors entertained – it could earn you cash too. One of the ways you can monetise video content is by uploading it to YouTube and setting up Google Adsense .

Once you’ve created your video content, you can then embed your YouTube videos onto your blog. If your video goes viral, you can earn hundreds in ad revenue.

Become a consultant

If you’re an expert in a field, why not share your knowledge in return for an hourly consultancy fee? Advertise via your website and deliver your expertise through monetised webinars and podcasts, or even a Skype call where visitors pay upfront to benefit from your knowledge.

Whatever channel you choose, if people come to your website for your expert explanations and opinions, you should definitely consider charging for some tailored advice.

Sell your website

Once you have a website that’s already monetised and receiving good levels of traffic, you’ll have an asset. As with any asset, your website can be sold and, when the time is right, websites like Flippa and the aptly named BusinessesForSale.com are there to help you find a buyer.

Expect to earn 6–10 times your website’s monthly profit if you decide to sell.

Finally

It is good to keep in mind at this point that it might be suitable to combine several website monetization methods and mould them into a monetization strategy.

Carefully choose them and put the perfect monetization strategy work for you.

About Author

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MegaIncomeStream is a global resource for Business Owners, Marketers, Bloggers, Investors, Personal Finance Experts, Entrepreneurs, Financial and Tax Pundits, available online. egaIncomeStream has attracted millions of visits since 2012 when it started publishing its resources online through their seasoned editorial team. The Megaincomestream is arguably a potential Pulitzer Prize-winning source of breaking news, videos, features, and information, as well as a highly engaged global community for updates and niche conversation. The platform has diverse visitors, ranging from, bloggers, webmasters, students and internet marketers to web designers, entrepreneur and search engine experts.