Affiliate Networks & Advertising Revenue

So you've designed and built your website and the visitors are starting to pour in, everything is going great, there's just one final problem to resolve - how are you going to make money from your website?

If your website is only intended to be a reference tool or is based around your hobby, then you may not feel the need to earn money from your website.  However, even the smallest website requires a certain amount of outlay to setup and maintain, both in the cost of the web hosting and the number of hours you spend working on it.  If your website is intended to be an extension of your business or you work full time as a web designer then you will definitely need your websites to make you an income.

Thankfully there are a number of ways to monetize your website, the primary methods being affiliate marketing and selling advertising space.  To help you get started we have compiled reports on the best affiliate networks and advertising agencies on the internet.  To find out more simply click on the links below.  For more information to help you understand the basics of both affiliate marketing and selling advertising space please read the articles below.

Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Networks

Affiliate Programs allow webmasters to sell third party products and services and earn themselves commission in the process.

There are many thousands of companies that use affiliate programs to help promote their products, and webmasters can join as many affiliate programs as they want. However, joining dozens of affiliate programs can be time consuming and confusing, as each program will need its own set of usernames and passwords, as well as its own advertising codes.

Thankfully there is a solution, and that is Affiliate Networks. An affiliate network is a company that pulls together affiliate programs from hundreds of individual companies, and presents them in one, easy to use website. By joining one affiliate network, a webmaster can have access to hundreds of individual programs and advertisers.

Affiliate Networks group their programs into categories or topics, such as 'Travel' or 'Business', so it is easy to find the type of product or service you want to advertise. Keeping track of your sales and commissions is simplified too, as you only have one set of reports to read.

In recent years there has been a large increase in the number and quality of Affiliate Networks available, and affiliate programs form the backbone of many websites income streams, including this one.

Sell Advertising Space through Advertising Agencies

So you've built your website, spent hours advertising it amongst search engines and directories and the visitors are starting to flow in. The next question you should ask yourself is how is the website going to pay for itself? If you've built a website to sell a product or service then the sales you generate will pay for the cost of the website. However, if you've built a site that isn't involved in selling products or services, you'll want to find a way to earn an income from the site, even if its just to cover the cost of the hosting package each year.

That's where advertising space comes in.

The simplest way to earn an income from your website is to sell advertising space. By using blank or left over areas on your web pages you can show adverts which earn you commission when your website visitors click on them. The amount you can earn and the way the adverts works varies from company to company, and there are a lot of advertising companies out there looking to sign you up, but in general the principle of selling advertising space works as follows:

Register your website with an ad company such as Adbrite or AdSense.

Select the size and type of ads you want to display.

Add the HTML code for the ad to your webpage and upload it.

Selling advertising space is very similar to using Affiliate Networks, however with Affiliate Networks your visitors have to actually purchase the product or service you are advertising before you earn a commission, where as you earn commission every time your visitors click on adverts run by advertising companies such as AdBrite.

As with many aspects of web design and internet marketing, selling advertising space is very easy to implement, however, mastering all the variables to achieve a good income stream without overloading your pages with adverts can be more difficult.