Alright, alright, so now you have the site and now you’re promoting the site and getting traffic to it, whether it is organic or not organic really not mattering. But, the important thing that I am sure you want to know about is how to monetize the site. I am going to be honest and say that monetization is not just throwing up an Adsense ad and calling it a day. It can be very difficult to monetize a site; however, if you experiment, you can definitely start making money from the site.
Since we are playing around with the idea of a website about the Solar System, I am going to tell you how I would monetize this. If you can think of other ways, that’s fantastic. It is those that can be creative that will make the most money. So, for a Solar System website, you’re probably asking me what to use.
First and foremost, please go ahead and slap up an Adsense ad. However, play around with the colors. If you are getting moderate traffic, play around with the colors and the placement to see which is going to bring the best clicks. Try and place the ads near the content since that’s where the reader’s eyes will probably be. This will give you a CPC means of earning.
Sign up for Clickbank or Commission Junction or any of those and try to find a product that has to do with space. Perhaps promoting a DVD collection about space or something might get you some good affiliate sales. Sure, you may not make much from it, but if you can start getting more and more traffic, this could really help.
Another alternative to this is to use Amazon.com and their affiliate program. Although with the Solar System idea, it won’t make much, the nice thing about it is that they leave a cookie so that if I were to click on an ad on your site and then I buy something else on their site after you directed me to Amazon, you still profit. So, if you’re promoting a book and I buy a 50” TV, all the better for you.
Finally, sign up for John Chow’s TTZ program. I suggest doing this because even if you don’t make a sale, you make money because that’s another CPC. However, since it is products, that can bring in some money for you. Once again, it’ll probably be books and movies about space. It may not bring in much; however, we’re not looking for much.
In the end, what you are looking to do is try and make the site earning about $50 a month. If you can get the site to earn $50 a month, you’re going to definitely bring in a lot when you sell it. However, that’s the final step…How do you sell it? How do you really make the site bring in the most when you sell?
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Jacob is an avid guitar player as well as a biology major in college with hopes of becoming a professor. When not blogging on The Webmaster Blog, he is over at his political opinion blog.