4 Ways to Make Money with your Website
You are most likely aware that you can earn
money through your website by selling your products and/or
services via an online store. But, did you know there are ways
for you to easily sell other people's products without actually
having to carry their stock? And the news gets even better ...
you can also earn money from allowing people to advertise on
your website.
If you are starting a business, but are not sure what products
to sell or if you are having problems sourcing products, this
may be the solution for you. And if you already have a website,
there is no reason why you can't add to that revenue by adding
extra income streams.
1. Advertising on your website
You could approach businesses who have similar target audiences
as you and offer them space on your website to place banners or
ads, but the truth is this can be time consuming and if your
business is currently not getting much traffic it may be
difficult to find advertising partners.
The simplest way to add advertising to your website is through
Google AdSense. The way it works is this - Google AdSense places
relevant ads on your website - they match advertisements to your
site's content, and you earn money whenever your visitors click
on them. They even offer you different options of advertising:
AdSense for Content - the robot crawls the content of your pages
and delivers ads (you can choose both text or image ads) that
are relevant to your audience and your site content-ads so
well-matched, in fact, that your readers will actually find them
useful.
AdSense for Search - this allows you to provide Google web and
site search to your visitors, and earn money by displaying
Google ads on the search results pages.
Setting up AdSense on your website is very simple - all you do
is sign up for a free account and you will be provided with a
simple code that you (or your website designer) can add to your
website. You can choose different styles, shapes, colours and
sizes of ads.
You can learn more by going to:
www.google.com/adsense
2. Selling other people's products via Affiliate Programs
Another way to earn money through your website is via affiliate
programs.
An affiliate (also known as associate, partner or referral)
program is simply any type of revenue sharing program where a
website owner receives a portion of income for generating leads,
traffic, or sales through a graphic or text link to a merchant
website.
Merchants specify how much affiliates will be paid and under
what payment terms, how sales will be tracked and when/how
payments will be made.
The great thing is that it doesn't cost you anything to join and
you earn commission simply by referring people to the merchant's
website.
You don't need to ship any products or handle any payments.
Again, all you do is place special code on your website and the
rest is done automatically.
For an example of an affiliate program you can visit:
www.web4business.com.au/recommendedbooks.htm
There are hundreds of different affiliate programs, so you can
find products that complement your products/services. Check out:
http://www.web4business.com.au/ClixGalore.htm
3. Your Own Amazon Store (aStore)
Amazon takes your affiliate/associate program to the next level
by providing you a free online store with thousands of products.
No programming is necessary. The aStore setup tool will guide
you through the process and generate a URL to which you can link
or embed in your site. All Associates have access to aStore, and
there are no fees associated with building stores for your
sites.
You can select product categories or individual products. Again
you don't stock any items or process payments - you simply refer
people to your store.
To learn more about Amazon aStore, go to:
http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/info6.html
4. Selling Your Own Products & Services
If you want to sell your products online, you need a shopping
cart. Forget about having printable order forms or asking people
to email you to place an order, because in most cases they
won't. If you make it too difficult to buy your products, your
visitors will go elsewhere.
You have several options:
1. Get your web developer to create a custom shopping cart for
you, although this can be quite costly
2. Use existing shopping cart software (simply search for
"shopping cart software" online)
3. Set up a free Paypal shopping cart - all you need to do is
sign up for Paypal Business or Merchant account.
You may even consider setting up an affiliate/partner program,
which will allow others to sell your products. The great thing
about this is that you only have to pay them when they sell your
products. There are some excellent websites, which allow you to
easily set up an affiliate program. For more information visit
the following (or simply search on "affiliate programs"
http://www.web4business.com.au/ClickBank.htm
http://www.web4business.com.au/ClixGalore.htm
http://www.paydotcom.com/
If you are spending money on developing a website, you may as
well make the most of it. Affiliate/Associate Programs and
Google AdSense advertising are free to join and once they are
included on your website, you don't need to do anything, except
promote them.
 Ivana Katz makes it easy for you
to get your business online very quickly. If you're looking for a
professional and affordable website designer, visit
www.web4business.com.au and download a free
website plan.
You may republish this article for free as long as the
author information and website links are included.
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