GUIDE TO WEBSITE MONETIZATION

A definitive guide to monetizing your website

Over the years MonetizePros have helped thousands of readers make money online through various monetization strategies. While the process of monetization can be challenging and complex, the concept is rather simple: website monetization refers to making money from a website or other online property.

This e-book covers the basics of monetizing online properties, defining what it is, and which methods are the most common and successful.

To your success,

MonetizePros

Guide to Website Monetization

Table of Contents

What Is Monetization? 1

Seven Most Common Monetization Methods 6

Which Monetization Method? 12

Seven Mistakes to Avoid as a Publisher 22

How Much Should My Website Make? 27

Chapter 1

What Is Monetization?

2What Is MonetIzatIon?

1. how much traffic a site generates (i.e., how many visitors

come to the site); and

2. how much revenue is earned from each visitor to the site.

this ebook won’t deal much with variable 1; there are countless sites

dedicated to increasing traffic via seo and other methods. We do,

however, offer resources and insights that can help you make more

money off of the existing traffic coming in the door already.

the concept of website monetization may be difficult to grasp, since

no hard currency is exchanged when someone visits your site. But

odds are that there are a number of companies who are interested in

reaching your website’s audience – the visitors to your site. the most

common source of monetization (the people who will be writing your

checks!) are third parties who are interested in communicating in some

way with the folks who visit your website. that communication may

take many forms; it could be as simple as showing them a banner

ad or getting them to click on a link to their own site, as complex as

gathering specific personal information from them or even making a

purchase of a product/service.

think of the website owner as a gatekeeper; he has the ability to connect

advertisers and other companies with his audience (in various ways).

Website owners will, of course, charge companies for this privilege.

that’s monetization at its most basic.

Many website owners also monetize their traffic bases directly,

accepting payment from their visitors in exchange for various products

or services. examples of this (which you encounter everywhere you

What Is Monetization?

If you own a website and are attempting (or succeeding) at making

money off that website, you already know a thing or two about

monetization. While the process of monetization can be challenging

and complex, the concept is rather simple. Monetization simply refers

to making money from a website. there are a wide range of ways to

monetize a website (more on this below) and endless permutations of

strategies that can be devised and implemented to make money. But

for many, the primary goal is straightforward: make as much money as

possible.

so the concept of “monetizing your web traffic” simply translates to

“making money from your visitors.”

Monetization is a function of two simple variables:

3What Is MonetIzatIon?

It follows that if you want to increase your bottom line revenue, there

are two primary routes to do so: 1) increase your traffic or 2) increase

your eCPM.

How Much Do Websites Make?

as in many areas of business, there is a wide range when it comes to

the revenue of websites. Websites that serve a relatively unattractive

demographic and are poorly monetized may have eCPMs of less

than $1 (meaning they generate less than $1 in total revenue for every

1,000 pageviews on the site). Websites that attract highly sought after

demographics and are monetized very well can see eCPMs well in

excess of $100.

obviously, this range of eCPMs can result in very different top line

revenue for two hypothetical websites of comparable size:

1,000,000 monthly pageviews

x $1 CPM

= $1,000 monthly revenue

1,000,000 monthly pageviews

x $100 CPM

= $100,000 monthly revenue

look on the Web) include paying for a product to be shipped to you

(e.g., a t-shirt) or access to a “premium” article or tool. (Check out this

good post on preparing to sell to your audience.)

How Is Monetization Measured?

as mentioned above, the amount of money you make from your web

site depends on 1) the volume of traffic and 2) average revenue derived

from each visitor or pageview. think of it as this formula:

Total Revenue = Pageviews x Revenue per Pageview

the most meaningful way to measure how effectively you’re monetizing

your traffic base is through effective cost per mille or eCPM. Put another

way, this metric measures total Monthly Revenue per 1,000 pageviews.

so if your site has an eCPM of $3 and generates 1,000,000 monthly

pageviews, you would have total monthly revenue of $3,000.

4What Is MonetIzatIon?

there are a number of factors that determine how much money you

can potentially make from your website:

1. Value of Audience: Different advertisers have very different

ideas of quality; one company’s target market may be wholly

unattractive to someone else. Generally, the wealthier an

audience, the more attractive it will be to advertisers.

2. Presence of Relevant Monetization Sources: Basically,

you will be able to more effectively monetize if your website

operates in a niche where there are multiple companies /

advertisers willing to spend to reach your audience. If no one is

looking to reach your audience, it will be difficult to monetize.

3. Monetization Efficiency: this essentially refers to how well

you take advantage of the opportunities available to you,

and how well you get the most possible revenue out of your

audience.

Ways To Monetize

there are several different ways to go about monetizing a website, and

different strategies will work more effectively for different types of sites.

the general strategies for web monetization are listed below:

1. Display Advertising: Most websites out there utilize display

advertising to generate part of their revenues; this stream

includes the banner ads that you see dozens of times each

day.

2. Affiliate Marketing: Many sites operate under an affiliate

model, whereby they attempt to send referrals to a partner

merchant. If the referral ultimately generates revenue for the

merchant, the affiliate gets a cut of the check. (Check out our

guide to affiliate marketing.)

3. Lead Generation: In certain niches, sites can generate

qualified leads for third parties who are willing to pay on a per

lead basis for information on individuals whom they believe

may ultimately become paying customers.

4. eCommerce: online stores are another money maker for

many websites; selling goods or services online is a way to

generate revenue from your traffic. Many websites operate

exclusively as ecommerce sites, while others may incorporate

an e-store into a content-heavy site.

5. Subscriptions / Premium: some sites make their money

primarily by selling access to their content. this can be a tough

niche to break into–many major publishers have been moving

away from it in recent years–but if the nut is properly cracked

there can be a big pay day. Don nicholas has a good post on

profitable subscription website models if you’re interested in

this option.

Daniel scocco at DailyBlog tips has an even more extensive list with

28 ways to monetize your traffic. Michael Dunlop at Income Diary also

has some creative ideas for making money off a website.

5What Is MonetIzatIon?

Bottom Line

Website monetization is far from an exact science; there’s no manual

with the steps you need to take to maximize earnings from your site. In

most cases, there is plenty that can be done in order to more efficiently

monetize your traffic, including opening up new revenue streams and

cultivating relationships that will allow you to make more from your

existing sources of cash flow. the best advice any website owner can

heed is to experiment regularly and think creatively; always be trying

new things and maintain a willingness to think outside the box (wild

ideas are oK!)

Chapter 2

Seven Most Common Monetization Methods

7seven Most CoMMon MonetIzatIon MethoDs

though the concept of display advertising is generally straightforward,

there are several ways to tweak and optimize this revenue stream.

Perhaps the biggest distinction is between selling directly to advertisers

(or their agencies) and using a middleman network to sell your ads.

Within each of those streams lie countless further decisions and

opportunities to optimize. on ad networks such as adsense there are

a number of experiments you can run to improve cash flow; similarly,

the direct sales process can be optimized in several ways to boost your

overall revenue.

If you want more on this topic, check out this guide to direct ad sales.

Seven Most Common Monetization Methods

here’s the good news: if you’re looking to make money off of a website

you own, there are a lot of different ways you can go about effectively

monetizing your traffic. the exact approach you should take to

maximize your cash flow will depend on a lot of different factors, such

as the nature of your audience, the subject matter you cover, and the

presence of third parties willing to work with you. Below is a brief outline

of several different avenues you can go down in your monetization

quest; and next, we’ll discuss which types of monetization techniques

generally work for specific types of sites.

note that these revenue streams are not mutually exclusive; many

websites employ multiple monetization strategies to maximize overall

revenue.

Method #1: Display Advertising

Display advertising is the monetization technique with which most

webmasters are probably most familiar; this is the banners and text

ads that you see when you visit most websites. Display advertising is

bought and sold in several different ways. some ad inventory is sold

on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis, meaning that you will receive a

predetermined amount for every 1,000 ads you display. other networks

such as Google adsense will pay you for every click your visitors make

on ads (don’t be tempted to click your own ads, though!)

For many websites, display advertising is the largest single source of

revenue. there are countless examples of display advertising out there;

here is one of a viral photography website that is advertising a movie.

8seven Most CoMMon MonetIzatIon MethoDs

Method #3: Lead Generation

Lead generation is exactly what it sounds like: using your website to

generate information on qualified leads (i.e., people) to whom third

parties may be interested in marketing their products and services

or otherwise communicating. Lead generation may be completed

by asking visitors to supply certain information about themselves–

generally including a way to reach them such as phone number or

email address–and passing that information to a third party that wants

to market their product or service to them.

there are lots of niches where lead generation can be a substantial

source of revenue; if you run a website about wine, you may be able to

sell information about your audience (e.g., their email addresses and

Method #2: Affiliate Marketing

another popular source of revenue for websites is affiliate marketing,

which effectively involves partnering with a third party to help them sell

their products or services to your audience. In exchange for sending

your visitors in their direction, these third parties will offer you a cut of any

sales they ultimately make. Perhaps the most common affiliate marketing

arrangement involves amazon.com, who places buttons on partner sites

that take visitors to their own website (i.e. amazon.com). amazon then pays

a portion of any sale proceeds generated from that visitor to the referring

site. so if someone goes from your site to amazon.com and buys a DvD,

t-shirt, whatever, you get a portion of the revenue generated from that sale.

similar to display advertising, affiliate marketing relationships can be

established either directly with partners or through networks that match

up “buyers” and “sellers.”

9seven Most CoMMon MonetIzatIon MethoDs

With direct email, you will generally maintain complete control of your

list; you won’t have to reveal the identity or contact information of any

of your visitors to the third party behind the email. You may also be able

to control which portion of your audience gets the third party contact

by only “renting” out part of your list.

here’s an example of a sponsored email that might be sent out to the

distribution list of an investing website:

wine preferences) to a wine of the month club.

Ryan erisman has some more detailed thoughts on monetizing sites

through lead generation, and CDFnetworks has a good list of proven

lead gen niches.

Method #3b: Co-Registration

Co-registration, or co-reg, effectively involves getting your audience

to sign up for a newsletter or other offering from a third party. Most

commonly, this is done when your users are signing up for a similar

product on your site; for example, you may present them with offers

to sign up for third party newsletters as soon as they’ve registered for

your newsletter.

Under co-reg agreements, which can be entered into either through a

network or directly with a partner, the publisher will generally receive a

fixed amount for each registration credited to them. For example, you

might be able to generate $2 for each newsletter subscriber you add

to a partner’s list.

Method #4: Sponsored Email

sponsored email or third party email, represents a way to generate

revenue from a list of emails that you’ve already captured. this strategy

generally involves “renting” out your email list to a third party who is

interested in communicating with your audience. so you may allow a

third party to send an email to your audience highlighting their products,

and charge them for every 1,000 subscribers to whom the message

is sent.

10seven Most CoMMon MonetIzatIon MethoDs

improve your conversion rate. the exact mix, of course, will depend on

the niche and specific site.

eric holmund has a good video on creating a members-only area

of your website, and sean nogle has a great article at Location180

highlighting some of the benefits and challenges.

Method #6: Online Store

a significant percentage of websites out there function as online stores,

selling goods and services just as a brick-and-mortar establishment

would. ecommerce sites run the gamut from extremely broad-based

(think amazon) to highly specialized (most sites focus on a specific

niche, such as t-shirts, pet accessories, or sports memorabilia). If

you’re interested in doing this, try our beginner’s guide to shopify.

Method #5: Subscriptions / Premium

there are two general sources of revenue if you’re a website owner:

third parties and your audience. If you have or can build content

that you think your audience would be willing to pay for, a premium

package might be worth exploring. this source of monetization can

take a lot of forms, but generally involves charging users of your site

for access to certain features. Many websites operate on a “freemium”

model, making a significant portion of their total content available at no

cost while charging a fee (which can be one-time, weekly, monthly, or

annual) to access certain “premium” content.

there are a lot of decisions that go into launching a premium site,

from what content to include to how to price appropriately to how to

11seven Most CoMMon MonetIzatIon MethoDs

strategy involves some combination of the methods above; it’s up to

you (with our help) to figure out which approach is right for your site.

of course, you don’t have to be a dedicated ecommerce site to set up

a store and sell merchandise. a number of publishers with popular and

established brands have set up “shop” sections of their websites where

visitors can purchase branded goods.

annoying orange, one of the most popular channels on Youtube, is a

great example of a (video) publisher that is making money through the

sale of merchandise online.

Method #7: Events

If you have a sophisticated audience that is willing to attend an in-

person or online event, it might make sense to start marketing webinars

and other events to them. If you have a big audience (both in recurring

traffic and email addresses), this method can work well in the form of a

partnership–meaning you bring the audience and someone else brings

the content.

this can work particularly well if your audience needs continuing

education credits to maintain their professional certification and you’re

capable of putting on such an event. In that instance, you may be able

to monetize a webinar or online conference in multiple ways, including

charging attendees and finding a sponsor looking to reach the audience

in question.

Bottom Line

Websites are like snowflakes in that no two are the same. similarly,

the ideal monetization strategy for a website will vary depending on

the audience, content, and many more factors. Most likely, the optimal

Chapter 3

Which Monetization Method?

13WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

Method #1: Display Advertising

What It Is: one of the most common forms of website monetization,

display advertising simply refers to the banner and text ads that you

see on most sites.

Good Fit If: this monetization route is often fruitful for sites that have:

• Significant Traffic. as an extremely broad rule of thumb,

most sites can make somewhere between half a cent and five

cents per page view from display advertising. that means that

in order to make significant revenue here, you need to have a

pretty big audience.

• Valuable Audience. note that “valuable” can take many

forms, depending on what the advertisers out there are looking

for (more on this below). Generally, the wealthier an audience

is the more attractive it will be to advertisers–though that isn’t

always the case: for example, an audience of thirty-something

women may be extremely attractive to someone looking

to advertise jewellery, but relatively worthless to someone

promoting a new role-playing video game.

• Relevant, Active Advertisers. this is perhaps the biggest

factor that will impact your success with display advertising;

if there is an abundance of active advertisers who would be

interested in appearing on your site, your odds of success

here go way up.

Which Monetization Method?

We recently covered the seven most common monetization methods,

or ways that websites can make money from their traffic. as noted in

that post, the method that’s most appropriate for a specific site will

depend on the specifics: the niche, the audience, the type of content,

the amount of traffic, and the loyalty of visitors (among others). today,

we’ll help you figure out which monetization method is the best fit for

your specific site.

as we’ve noted previously, most websites should be monetized via

multiple revenue streams and it’s likely that the best route for your site

to take may involve more than one of these:

14WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

an amazon widget into a sports blog; for each sale generated through

that widget, the publisher gets a portion of the total purchase price:

Bad Fit If: Display advertising is a popular monetization method, but

of course it isn’t for everyone. specifically, any sites with paying users

may want to think twice, especially if there’s any risk that you’ll annoy

your subscribers with an abundance of banner ads. andrew sullivan’s

The Dish stands out as a site that made the conscious decision to

avoid display advertising and focus instead on subscription revenue.

here’s an excerpt from the subscription page there: “that’s why we’ve

begun a new experiment in web economics: no ads; no corporate

owners; just readers paying for content they enjoy and value.”

How To Proceed: If you think display advertising is a good fit for your

site, your next decision will be whether you want to sell ads through a

network (such as Google adsense) or try to sell directly to advertisers

and ad agencies. Going through a network will get you immediate

results with little upfront costs, but selling direct will ultimately lead to

much higher revenue.

stephen Chapman at zDnet has some good tips for boosting adsense

revenue, while While steven at Dukeo.com has thoughts on conducting

a blog advertising audit.

Bottom Line: even if you’re not going to make a ton off of display

advertising, the ease of implementing this monetization method makes

it worth embracing for most website owners out there.

Method #2: Affiliate Marketing

What It Is: affiliate marketing involves steering your visitors to products

and services of a third party merchant; if that merchant converts your

referrals to a sale, you get a slice of the action. Below is an integration of

15WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

a network will be more immediate and easier to set up but direct

relationships can be much more profitable over the long run.

Bottom Line: Like display advertising, affiliate marketing can be very

easy to implement (and start collecting affiliate payments) if it’s a good

fit for your site.

Method #3: Lead Generation

What It Is: Lead generation can be thought of as a cousin to affiliate

marketing; it involves capturing information about qualified visitors (such

as email address or phone number) and selling that information to a

third party who may want to sell to that “lead.” thumbtack generates

leads for a wide variety of businesses, from handymen to pet sitters to

legal assistants:

Good Fit If: Lead generation can be an extremely profitable business,

but most publishers probably won’t have a site that accommodates

this monetization method. If your site meets these criteria;

• Needy, Engaged Audience. By this, we simply mean that

you cater to an audience that comes to your site looking for

more information on a particular topic (and may be in the

market for additional services that you can’t provide online). If,

for example, you publish a home improvement blog, you might

attract readers who could have use for a general contractor.

as such, you might be able to capture leads that can be sold.

• Professional Services Focus. Lead generation tends

to work really well when there’s a high potential value of a

converted client. that’s generally the case when any sort of

Good Fit If: affiliate marketing can be a good fit for sites that feature

regular product reviews or include a forum:

• Product-Centric Site. If your site features regular reviews

or head-to-head comparisons of products, software, or

other services, there might be some good affiliate marketing

opportunities available.

• Easy Integration Into Content. affiliate marketing can be

most effective when affiliate links can be integrated seamlessly

into existing content on your site.

• Forum-Centric Site. affiliate marketing can also be an

effective monetization route for for sites that feature active

member forums.

• Profitable Niche. You can likely make a bit of money via

affiliate marketing in most niches, but of course some will be

much more lucrative than others.

Bad Fit If: again, affiliate marketing may not be an ideal monetization

route if your audience relies on you to be an objective expert on a

subject or if they’re paying you for the content you produce. there’s

almost always some trade-off between the amount of money you can

make via affiliate marketing and the level of trust that exists with your

audience. If you’re not willing to sacrifice a bit of that relationship,

affiliate marketing may not be for you.

How To Proceed: similar to display advertising, affiliate marketing

involves a choice between utilizing a network (e.g., Commission

Junction) or setting up direct relationships with merchants. again,

16WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

game is to work with one of the major lead aggregators out there, such

as Quinstreet. spencer haws has some good thoughts on lead gen

niches; Dragan sutevski has a detailed series of posts on the basics.

Bottom Line: If your audience is right for it, getting into the lead gen

business can be relatively painless–and very profitable.

Method #4: Email Rental

What It Is: email rental is exactly what it sounds like: renting out your

email list to third parties looking to promote their products or services

to your audience. You essentially agree to send an email on their behalf

to your distribution list; they provide the content and call to action in

the email, and you provide the audience to whom it will be distributed.

Good Fit If: email rental is appealing because it can fetch some

premium rates; it isn’t uncommon to be able to charge $50 or more

professional service or big ticket item is up for grabs; lawyers,

insurance agents, universities, and car dealers are able to pay

handsomely for highly qualified leads. If you have a site that’s

a logical fit in one of these niches, lead gen could be a good

opportunity.

Bad Fit If: Lead generation won’t work well if your site doesn’t cater

to a targeted audience with a consistent and logical need for some

product or (more likely) service; for example, a general news site or

political blog doesn’t have any logical tie-ins to third parties who might

be interested in acquiring leads.

Lead generation can also be a poor fit if you have a relatively small but

loyal audience that visits your site regularly. this monetization method

is more effective for sites with a high percentage of “one off” visitors.

How To Proceed: the easiest way to get into the lead generation

17WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

per 1,000 addresses on your distribution list. It can be good for your

site if you have:

• Big (And Expanding) Distribution List. If you’ve built

a big email distribution list (for example, through offering

an e-newsletter), email list rental could have some serious

potential.

• Regular Email Communication. If you communicate with

your audience regularly via email, they’re likely to be willing to

tolerate an occasional promotional email. (think of it as the

price they pay in exchange for receiving high quality content on

a regular basis.)

• Relevant Advertisers. In order to make serious money off of

email rental, you need to be able to find renters–third parties

who want to promote themselves to your audience. It helps

if you have a targeted audience (i.e., interested in a particular

topic) and there are other companies in the space interested in

tapping into that audience.

It’s unlikely that email marketing will be your primary source of revenue;

this monetization source is often tapped in conjunction with display

advertising or other methods listed here.

Bad Fit If: email list rental won’t work if your audience isn’t willing to

tolerate what are essentially third party ads being emailed to them.

so if you don’t provide significant value to your list via email on a

regular basis, pursuing this strategy could result in an extremely high

unsubscribe rate.

18WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

be more successful in expanding to a subscription model if

you’ve already built up a loyal following to your free site.

• Freemium Opportunity. a subscription model generally

works well if you have the ability to provide the bulk of your

content for free while charging for a smaller portion of the

premium content. this can take many forms–keeping more

articles free while publishing a handful of paid-only articles

each week, for example.

Bad Fit If: there’s a fairly high hurdle to clear here: your site has to

have content or tools that users are willing to pay for. Just because

you’re putting out content that users are happily consuming for free

doesn’t mean that they’ll immediately fork over a monthly payment if

you offer a premium package.

How To Proceed: email rental can be done through networks who

hook you up with interested parties, or you can go directly to potential

partners and attempt to cultivate a relationship without a middleman.

Bottom Line: If you can pull it off without driving a wave of unsubscribes

or spam complaints, email list rental can be a very attractive and

significant supplemental income stream. David Ronick at Inc. has a

great article on the economics of e-newsletters, and scott hardigree

has some good insights as well.

Method #5: Subscriptions

What It Is: subscription revenue is generated by charging visitors to

access content placed behind a “paywall.”

Good Fit If: Your ability to effectively make money off a subscription

business depends on the quality of your product (i.e., is it worth paying

for?), the size of your audience and your marketing skills.

• Valuable Content. a subscription revenue model really only

works if you have content that’s worth selling. that sounds

obvious, but it’s something that a lot of website owners don’t

fully appreciate. take an honest inventory of your site or, even

better, a survey of your users; if your content is truly unique

and worth paying for, a subscription revenue model might

make sense.

• Large Audience. In addition to a quality product, you need

someone to sell it to. starting a subscription website from

scratch can be a daunting task; you generally need to have an

existing audience to whom you can sell. In other words, you’ll

19WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

who visit your site multiple times a month and love the content

you put out, you just might have the makings of a successful

online store. these users are most likely to want to purchase

some branded merchandise, and will be more likely to respond

to an emotional appeal from you to support your site.

Bad Fit If: You have a transient audience. If visitors to your site are

primarily from search engines, who have searched for terms related to

your website and not your products, they may not be willing to purchase

anything from your store.

How To Proceed: again, there’s a lot of work that goes in to setting up

an online store. You’ll need to figure out how you’re going to make the

merchandise, tackle shipping logistics, and of course nail down how

you’ll be processing payments.

Bottom Line: For most publishers, this won’t be a big money maker.

But it can be a nice supplemental revenue stream for sites with a strong

brand and power users who like to show their support.

a subscription model might also be a bad idea if you’re making decent

money on display ads; putting content behind a paywall means it gets

fewer pageviews and lower ad revenue.

How To Proceed: setting up a subscription site requires quite a bit

of behind-the-scenes work before you can accept payment. You’ll

need to figure out how you’ll process user payments, what your pricing

strategy will be, and what content and/or features will be behind

your “paywall” (among many other details). MemberGate has a good

checklist for adding a subscription business; Danny sullivan also has

some great insights on pricing models.

Bottom Line: adding a subscription business on to your existing site

can be a great opportunity to open up a lucrative revenue stream–

provided that you have (or can build) a product worth paying for and

have an audience capable of paying for it.

Method #6: Online Store

What It Is: exactly what it sounds like: a store online (i.e., a section of

your website) where users can buy branded merchandise.

Good Fit If: opening up an online store might be a good move if you

have a strong brand and an audience that identifies with it:

• Strong Brand. If your brand is well recognized, a store could

be a good fit. You don’t have to be a household name across

the country. It’s fine if your brand recognition is on a micro

level.

• Loyal Audience. If your audience consists of “power users”

20WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

you’re able to worry only about supplying the audience. If you

have a partner who can provide quality, worthwhile content

for the event and leave you to focus on getting the attendees,

your odds of success go way up.

• CE Credits Available. In order to make money from online

events such as webinars or conferences, you need an

audience who would be willing to show up. that’s much more

likely to be the case if they need to do so in order to satisfy

some sort of continuing education requirement.

Bad Fit If: no one is going to show. even if you have a relatively big

audience, getting them to show up for a live event can be extremely

challenging. Unfortunately, this is going to be the case for most

publishers out there; no matter how big and targeted your audience is,

and no matter how much they love you, they’re probably just not that

interested in a webinar you host.

How To Proceed: Get to work lining up a content partner (if you

decide to go with one) and, more importantly, a sponsor. then be sure

to fill those virtual seats so that you deliver value to everyone involved!

Carol tice at entrepreneur.com has some good thoughts on making a

webinar a success, and andrew spoeth at Marketo has some tips for

increasing attendance.

Bottom Line: online events are a lot of work. But the payoff can be

huge; there’s an opportunity to make as much in a few hours as you

usually do in a month if you can get the proper sponsors.

Method #7: Online Events

What It Is: a webinar or conference that users pay to attend and/or a

sponsor pays to put on.

Good Fit If: online events are tough to pull off, but can pull in some

major dollars if you can find a relevant sponsor.

• Relevant Content Partners. Pulling off an online event is

going to be a challenge, but will be much more manageable if

21WhICh MonetIzatIon MethoD?

education (Ce) credits (e.g., psychologists or financial advisors) online

events could be a money maker.

Do you have direct relationships with any potential advertisers or

merchants?

If “yes” follow these relationships to a monetization method; if it’s a

potential advertiser, get a display advertising arrangement set up. If

it’s a merchant, kick off an affiliate marketing relationship.

Questions To Ask

Below is a series of questions to ask yourself about your website,

along with some direction to monetization methods depending on your

answer:

Do you communicate regularly with your audience via email? Do you

have a large collection of email addresses?

If “yes” to both, email list rental might be a good fit.

Do you have a high percentage of loyal “power users” — repeat

visitors who come directly to your site?

If “yes” an online store, online events, or affiliate marketing could be

worthwhile.

If “no” lead generation might be a good fit.

Is your audience considerably wealthier than the general Internet

population?

If “yes” display advertising and email list rental could be your biggest

opportunity.

What is the subject of your website?

If your site covers products (e.g., electronics or books) or includes

a forum covering just about anything, affiliate marketing could be an

opportunity. If your site touches any sort of professional services or

big ticket item (e.g., insurance or weddings) lead generation could be

profitable.

If your site caters to an audience that needs regular continuing

Chapter 4

Seven Mistakes to Avoid as a Publisher

23seven MIstaKes to avoID as a PUBLIsheR

Many get uncomfortable serving text ads, feeling that these are too

“spammy” and indicative of a lower quality site. that’s probably true;

a site with slick flash ads images just seems to be of higher quality

than one with text ads only (note the comparison above). But it’s also

undeniably true that text ads work. they make more money, all else

being equal, than image-based ads. so utilizing exclusively image ads

means that you’re leaving money on the table in exchange for the higher

indication of quality that comes by not having text ads all over your site.

For some properties, the “brand value” derived from showing only

images may make it worthwhile. But be aware that this decision costs

you a significant amount of cash revenue; make sure you know just

how much it costs you.

the general piece of advice here is to conduct ongoing experiments with

your monetization strategies. Don’t be afraid to be constantly testing sizes,

colors, layouts, and other factors in an effort to find just the right mix.

Mistake #2: You’re Running Default Color Schemes

another easy win on the display ad side can come from literally adding

a bit of color to your site. If you’re running adsense (or a similar display

ad network) on your site, odds are that you’re running the default color

scheme that was in place when you initially activated your account.

Seven Mistakes to Avoid as a Publisher

Website monetization is far from an exact science; there’s no manual

handed out to each webmaster with the specific steps needed to

get the most out of his or her site. With so many variables to each

individual site, it’s often easy to overlook some of the easier tweaks that

can be made to boost your site’s earnings. Below are seven common

mistakes website owners make; correcting these can make a quick

and meaningful improvement to your bottom line.

Mistake #1: You’ve Turned Off AdSense Text Ads

For a lot of website owners, Google adsense (or another ad network)

is a primary source of revenue. Yet many have a far-from-optimal

implementation of adsense on their websites, which means they’re

effectively leaving money on the table with each visitor that comes through.

one of the biggest decisions relates to serving text ads or image ads

on your site: you have the option of showing only image-based ads on

your site or including text ads as well.

24seven MIstaKes to avoID as a PUBLIsheR

Mistake #4: You’re Missing Out On Email Addresses

If you’re not collecting email addresses and building a contact

database, you need to reconsider your strategy. email addresses are

easily monetized in many verticals; there is almost always someone

who would be happy to pay you for access to your audience (not to

mention the fact that it provides you the flexibility to market your own

products / services).

Launching a newsletter is the easiest way to encourage visitors to give

you their email address (as well as generate additional page views by

making transient visitors into repeat users). even if you’re not quite

ready to start monetizing these email addresses, you can certainly start

collecting them immediately (which will increase your pay-out down

the road). Check out this post from GetResponse on places where you

may be missing out on email capture; odds are you’re dropping the ball

on at least one of these.

It’s important to note that you need to also be careful about

communicating your intent to monetize email addresses to your

audience before you collect them; if you don’t let them know that you

may send them third party advertisements from time to time, you could

be setting yourself up for legal headaches.

Mistake #5: You Only Have A Single Tier Premium Package

If you sell a “premium” product or service on your site, there is a lot of

work you can put into optimizing that entire process. one of the most

significant changes you can make includes adding multiple tiers of

experiment with different color schemes with your adsense ads; try

colors that both blend and clash with the rest of your site and see how

the CPMs change as you vary the colors.

Check out a great post from Caimin Jones for more thoughts on how

to boost your adsense earnings.

Mistake #3: Your Site Is Suffering From “Banner Blindness”

Websites that make money primarily through display advertising often put

surprisingly little thought into the layout of their page–where the content,

ads, and other “calls to action” are physically located. that can have

the undesirable side effect of limiting the revenue potential of your site,

especially if you’re making money on a CPC basis. If you put your ads in

a place where visitors are unlikely to notice them–and therefore unlikely to

receive the advertisers’ messages–the performance is going to be poor.

You may be surprised at how important the page layout is, and how

significant the improvement in revenue can be by thoughtfully placing

banner ads within a page.

25seven MIstaKes to avoID as a PUBLIsheR

Mistake #6: You’ve Overlooked In-Text Ads

another monetization technique that perhaps gets a bad rep is in-text

ads. You’ve probably seen these somewhere: linked text within a piece

of content that display ads when hovered over. these text ads can

be extremely effective when implemented correctly in the right niche,

allowing you to reach an audience that would be otherwise banner blind.

In-text ads aren’t going to be a good fit for every site, but if you run

a property in a niche with high CPC and CPM rates, you might be

pleasantly surprised at the impact that throwing in text ads can have

on your overall earnings.

Providers of textual ads include vibrant, Infolinks, and Kontera. (Check

out a good comparison of the options from hellbound Bloggers.) here’s

an example from a site that uses Infolinks:

service. at its simplest, this would be having both a “base” level (say $19

/ month for this example) and a “gold” level that includes more features at

a considerably higher price point (say $99 / month in this example).

the reason: there is a part of just about every demographic that will

always pick the highest pricing tier and highest level of service. the

presence of a higher pricing tier will also help to enhance the apparent

value add of the lower tiers; users will feel they’re getting a bargain by

taking only some of the features at a much lower price point.

here are some examples of premium product offerings that come with

multiple price points. If your paid product is a one-size-fits-all type, get

busy brainstorming ways you can add some new features to justify

multiple tiers. above is the sign-up page for the new Yorker, which

includes multiple price points for different levels of access.

For more on this topic, check out a great post from nathan Barry at

thinktraffic.

26seven MIstaKes to avoID as a PUBLIsheR

Mistake #7: You’re Too Proud To Beg

If you have an affiliate marketing relationship in place, or if you have any

kind of products / services that you sell on your site, let your audience

know what they can be doing to support you (i.e., making you money

by supporting your affiliate advertisers). this can be as simple as firing

off an email that lets them know what they can do to make you money.

of course, you’ll want to put some thought into how you phrase it; you’ll

probably be much more successful if you ask them to help you keep

your content free as opposed to asking them to fund your vacations.

this can be particularly effective if you provide high quality content to

your audience for free; if they recognize the value you add at no cost to

them, they are likely to be willing to support you.

a lot of website owners feel uncomfortable emailing their audience and

asking for support. Don’t. You’ll be surprised at the response you get;

being straightforward about your affiliate marketing relationships and

aggressive in asking your audience for support can pay big dividends.

Bottom Line

When monetizing a website there is always a temptation to seek out

the home run that is going to send your revenue skyward. But it’s much

more realistic (and effective) to cobble together a series of singles

and doubles that will gradually boost earnings. above we’ve laid out

a number of relatively easy changes that can potentially have a big

impact on your overall monetization picture. the key, as always, is to

be willing to experiment and be disciplined in your evaluation of what

works and what doesn’t.

Chapter 5

How Much Should My Website Make?

28hoW MUCh shoULD MY WeBsIte MaKe?

What It Is: the huffington Post (colloquially, huffPo) is a popular news

website and content aggregator. the site features content from third

parties as well as from unpaid bloggers. the huffington Post was

acquired by aoL in early 2011 for about $315 million.

What It Makes: huffington Post had about $30 million of revenue in

2010, almost all of which came from display advertising. according

to publicly available data from Quantcast, the site received about 4.8

billion pageviews in 2010. (nate silver at the new York times has a

good in-depth study of the economics.) so that means that each 1,000

pageviews generated about $6.25 in display advertising revenue.

Bleacher Report

What It Is: one of the most popular sports websites in the world,

Bleacher Report leverages a network of contributors across the country

to publish hundreds of articles daily. Bleacher Report was acquired by

turner in the summer of 2012 for about $200 million.

How Much Should My Website Make?

If you’ve ever owned a website, you’ve probably thought a lot about

how much your property could be making. If you try to find a good

answer to that question, you’re unlikely to come up with many

concrete answers: revenue depends on a number of factors, such

as audience composition, industry, blah, blah, blah. so instead of the

usual ambiguity, we’re presenting some real-life revenue statements

from well-known websites.

Finding meaningful revenue information for websites is a challenging task;

most avoid releasing detailed financial information, and those that do

publish financials are often not relevant to publishers out there. But through

acquisition news, press releases, and other sources we can piece together

pretty good estimates of what many popular sites pull down in revenue.

The Huffington Post

29hoW MUCh shoULD MY WeBsIte MaKe?

What It Makes: at the time of acquisition, techCrunch was making

about $10 million in revenue annually (or about $835,000 each month).

It was doing that on about 3.8 million monthly uniques according to

comscore, which translates into about $22 for every 1,000 unique

visitors. note that this figure reflects revenue per unique, while the

above figures reflected revenue per pageview. also, the actual unique

visitors are often considerably higher than what is reported by

comscore–often by at least a factor of two.

In other words, techCrunch was generating CPMs quite a bit lower

than $22 at the time of acquisition–likely in the mid to high single digits.

SB Nation

What It Is: sB nation is a sports network that includes hundreds of

individual sites dedicated to various teams.

What It Makes: Piecing together a Bleacher Report’s revenue

statement is a bit trickier, but information released around the time

of the deal makes it possible. according to a source close to the

company, BleacherReport was on pace to generate about $40 million

in revenue in 2012. While comscore had the site at about 10 million

monthly uniques, the company claimed that it was actually closer to

40 million. at about five Pvs / unique, that translates into roughly 200

million pageviews using the internal estimates.

estimating monthly revenue at about $3 million at the time of acquisition

means BleacherReport.com was generating about $15 in ad revenue

for every 1,000 pageviews.

TechCrunch

What It Is: techCrunch is a popular tech blog. the site was acquired

by aoL for about $30 million in september 2010.

30hoW MUCh shoULD MY WeBsIte MaKe?

What It Makes: this one might be a bit dated, but we can piece together

some revenue estimates from an october 2011 article in the atlantic

Wire. the author referenced screenshots of internal traffic figures

indicating 9.8 million uniques the month before. assuming about 3.5

pageviews per unique (a rough estimate from the Quantcast profile),

that translates to about 34 million monthly Pvs.

the article also estimated annual digital revenue at about $8 million,

or $667,000 a month. that means that TheDailyBeast.com was

generating about $19 in revenue for every 1,000 pageviews at the time.

Business Insider

What It Is: Launched by DoubleClick founder Kevin Ryan, Business

Insider is a popular business and tech news website.

What It Makes: according to a Forbes feature in late 2012, parent

company voX Media had annual revenues of about $25 million off of

9.4 million monthly uniques. We’ll assume that similar to BleacherReport.

com, comscore uniques are significantly lower than actual internal

figures. assuming actual monthly uniques were approximately 4x

higher gets us to 37.6 million. assuming about three Pvs / unique

(based on the Quantcast profile), that means that monthly revenues of

about $2 million came from approximately 113 million monthly

pageviews. that gets us to the neighborhood of about $18 in revenue

for every 1,000 pageviews.

The Daily Beast

What It Is: Founded by a former editor of vanity Fair and the new Yorker,

the Daily Beast is a popular news and opinion website. In november

2010 the company merged with print publication newsweek.

31hoW MUCh shoULD MY WeBsIte MaKe?

What It Makes: Business Insider posted its own revenue figures for a

while; in Q4 2010, the company had a shade under $2 million in

revenue. a recent techCrunch profile suggested the company has

plans to generate $11 million this year so it seems reasonable to

estimate that the annual run rate at present is in the neighborhood of

$8 to $9 million.

the same article indicated 24 million monthly uniques for BI, which

would translate into almost 75 million monthly pageviews if we

approximate three pageviews per unique (that’s a rough estimate given

the nature of the site).

Using these assumptions, Business Insider generates roughly $9 to

$10 per 1,000 pageviews.

If you’re looking for revenue figures for smaller sites more comparable to

yours, check out Pat Flynn’s smart Passive Income Blog. Pat includes

real monthly income statements for several of his websites.

Next Stepsas you can see, there are several different ways in which you can

monetize a website. throughout this guide we have referenced

various sources but our best resources are all free for our readers

on MonetizePros.com. Check out our free guides for in depth advice

on topics such as affiliate marketing and e-mail monetization to lead

generation and display advertising.

You can also learn more from MonetizePros and others in our community

by joining us in our private mastermind.

Build. Grow. Monetize.

We’re here to show you the way.

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