“How the heck do I\u00a0monetise this website I bought?”, this question has been asked at multiple Flippa meetups this year. It’s a fair question too, especially as some buyers\u00a0have little experience in running web businesses – and buying a website on Flippa is their first shot.<\/p>\n
You probably didn\u2019t buy a website\u00a0so that you could make an extra few hundred each month. You bought it so that you could make thousands or tens of thousands each month. We want to help you achieve it. And this guide will teach you how to do just that. It\u2019s a big guide, so big that it\u2019s been split into two parts for readability.<\/p>\n
In part 1, we\u2019ll look at some of the more traditional methods that have been around for a long time. Strap yourself in!<\/p>\n
Advertising is the most basic form of monetization online. Readers come to your site, they see an interesting ad on your site, they click the ad, and you get paid.\u00a0Easy!<\/span>\u00a0While extremely quick and easy to set up, ads aren\u2019t always the most effective way to monetize. You need a lot of traffic hitting your site to make a decent amount of money from ads. This means months of hard work doing content marketing, SEO and social media marketing before you see a decent income.<\/span><\/p>\n Besides, if you\u2019re getting that much traffic, it would make more sense to try some of the other monetization strategies and make even more money. We\u2019ll come to that later.\u00a0<\/span>For now, if you\u2019re bent on monetizing through advertising, start with a Google Adsense account. It\u2019s free and easy to set up. You can then plug in ads in your sidebar, your header, in-content and other places on your site.<\/span><\/p>\n Another popular ad network is BuySellAds. With BSA you can set up your ad inventory and charge per impression. They have thousands of advertisers looking for targeted sites like yours, and if you get good traffic you can charge a premium.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, you can skip the networks and brokers and just contact advertisers yourself in what is commonly known as a private ad sale. Again, you\u2019ll need a decent amount of traffic so that you have negotiating power. Then you can simply charge a fixed amount per month to place their banner on your site.<\/span><\/p>\n Thinking about buying? View websites for sale<\/a> with an advertising\u00a0monetization<\/a>\u00a0method.<\/em><\/p>\n Paid content is getting a third party to pay you to publish their content on your site. It\u2019s basically like accepting guest posts, except you\u2019re charging people for it.\u00a0<\/span>In this case the third party, or advertiser, will write a post for your site in the hopes that your readers will see it and try to find out more about the topic or author. So you\u2019ll have to add a byline for the post letting readers know it\u2019s sponsored content and who sponsored it.<\/span><\/p>\n As with advertising, you\u2019ll need a decent amount of traffic before you can start charging people to publish their content on your site. No one will pay you if their post is only going to be seen by a handful of people.<\/span><\/p>\n The good thing about paid posts is that you get your blog updated and you get paid at the same time. Theoretically, you could just keep accepting a new paid post every day to maximize income, but you need to make sure the content isn\u2019t too promotional or your readership will dwindle.<\/span><\/p>\n Affiliate marketing is all about promoting someone else\u2019s products. It\u2019s kind of like advertising, except you can carefully pick and choose which products you want to promote.\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s very easy to get started as an affiliate marketer. Head to sites like Commission Junction, Share a Sale or ClickBank to find thousands of existing products. You can then sign up as an affiliate for the ones you like and get a custom affiliate link for each product.<\/span><\/p>\n Next head back to your site and write a post or create a banner with your custom link. When someone clicks on the link and buys the product you get paid a commission.\u00a0<\/span>Again, try not to alienate your readers by pressing all these products on to them. The best way to market it is to not market it at all. By that I mean don\u2019t be a sleazy salesman. Use the products you\u2019re an affiliate of, write honest reviews and let your readers know what you think.<\/span><\/p>\n You can make a fair amount of money as an affiliate marketer. You can even bypass the middlemen sites and go directly to the company and sign up as an affiliate. That way you get higher commissions.\u00a0<\/span>However, to get to the stage where you\u2019re making thousands you\u2019ll need to build up a large, dedicated and trusting readership. Only when your readers trust you and your judgment will they start purchasing products that you recommend.<\/span><\/p>\n View websites for sale with an affiliate\u00a0monetization<\/a>\u00a0method.<\/em><\/p>\n Lead Generation is similar to affiliate marketing except you get paid for leads rather than purchases. For example, in affiliate marketing, when a visitor to your site clicks on an affiliate link, you only get paid if that visitor purchases something on the site you\u2019re an affiliate of. In lead generation, you get paid regardless.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course nothing comes for free. Typically you\u2019d get paid less for a lead than for a sale. However, lead generation is more scalable in that you can send the same lead to multiple companies and get paid for them all.\u00a0<\/span>If you\u2019ve used insurance comparison sites you\u2019ll know how this works. You go to the site and enter your details and e-mail address for a quote. Now the comparison site has lead generation deals with a bunch of different insurance companies. All they have to do is pass on your information to relevant companies and they get paid for each lead.<\/span><\/p>\n To make lead generation work you\u2019ll need a readership of qualified buyers. That way the companies you pass the leads on to will have a higher chance of converting them and will get more value from your partnership.<\/span><\/p>\n A classic business model that\u2019s been taken online with the widespread use of the internet and the numerous free communication tools. Now you aren\u2019t restricted to finding clients in your area. You can provide services to people in North America while sipping coconut juice on a beach in Bali.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the most popular services are web design, web development, online marketing and content writing, to name a few. You can create a service out of just about anything.\u00a0<\/span>Remember, if you already have an established website with readers, don\u2019t be afraid to ask them what problem they face. You want to take advantage of that existing readership and create a service tailor-made for them. That makes it more likely they\u2019ll hire you.<\/span><\/p>\n2. Paid Content<\/span><\/h2>\n
3. Affiliate Marketing<\/span><\/h2>\n
4. Lead Generation<\/span><\/h2>\n
5. Services<\/span><\/h2>\n