Introduction

On the internet right now, there are literally thousands of services that promise you essentially the same thing—you can work from home, fire your boss, make millions, and retire at 30 without leaving your house, or even changing out of your underwear. Obviously, if all these services actually delivered what they promised, everyone would become fabulously wealthy, the whole economic fabric of society would come crashing down, and the world would be reduced to anarchy. Since that’s not the situation we’re looking at today, it’s safe to assume that these services are 99% BS.

The good news is that you can make money online, even without the help of some cash hungry demagogue. A business on the internet is just like a business in the real world; if you can provide a useful service, there are people who will pay you for it. If you have a website that gets hits, you’ve got a service that you can sell. There are many companies that will pay your to put their ads on your site, no matter how big it is or what topic it covers. You probably won’t be racking in millions, but with enough dedication, there’s serious money to be had online. You just have to start with the basics…

Know What’s Out There

The first step towards monetizing your site is knowing what’s out there. There are many ad services available, and different ad types work best for different sites.
The first option is to use popup ads; they’re windows that appear either in front of your site or behind it. Popup ad services will pay you whenever a visitor comes to your site; your visitors don’t have to click on anything. Popups are best for sites that are general interest and get a lot of hits. They’re not so good for sites that target a very specific audience. With popups, you also risk annoying your visitors with too many windows.

Cash per Click or CPC services pay you whenever your visitor clicks on a banner or text link on your site. They’ll either pay you a fixed rate per click, or they’ll give you a rate that varies depending on different factors. CPC services are best for sites that have a very specific audience with a high level of interest in the site. If your visitors are likely to click on something that interests them, then CPC ads are a good option. They’re also a good option for smaller sites, as you can make significant money (sometimes up to $1.50) for each click.

Cash per Impression (CPM) services pay you each time a visitor sees a banner on your site. The user doesn’t have to click on the banner, so these services are great for sites that get a large volume of visits. However, rates for these kinds of ads are generally far lower than rates for popups or CPC ads, so unless you have a large site, it’s better to stick with one of the other options. The good news; many CPC services also pay for impressions.

Figure Out What You’ve Already Got

Once you know what there kinds of ad formats are available, take a close look at your site and decide how you want to integrate the ads into your content. If you’re using popups, how many pages will you put them on? Will you put them on your homepage? If you’re going with CPC or CPM ads, will you place them next to your content, or in the middle of it? The better integrated your ads are, the more likely your visitors are to click on them. Also, try to keep your ads near the top of your site; if your visitor can see them without scrolling around, they’ll attract more clicks.

Choose the Right Service

Once you know what kind of ads you’ll have and where you’ll put them, it’s time to find an ad service. This is the tough part. There are hundreds of services out there, and many pay very different rates for the same thing. If you want to get the most money from your site, you’ll have to shop around. If you need help getting started, we’ve got lots of useful ad service reviews over at http://www.thegreattrafficexperiment.com

Here are some things to keep in mind: If you’re going for popups, look for a service that lets you regulate how often a visitor gets a popup: the “frequency cap.” If you don’t want to annoy your visitors, set the cap to every 24 hours; that way, even if they visit your site multiple times per day, they’ll only get one ad every 24 hours. If you want to make sure the visitor sees a popup on every page of your site, turn off the frequency cap.

If you’re going for CPC, make sure you find a service that offers “contextual targeting.” This is a technology whereby the ad service scans your site for keywords, figures out what each page is about, and then matches it with relevant ads automatically. Contextual targeting ensures that your visitors will always see ads that make sense on your page, and this will lead to more clicks. Google Adsense is an excellent choice for contextually targeted ads.

When searching for a service, use common sense. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Implement!

Once you know find the right service for you, sign up, sign in, and get the html code for the proper kind of ad. Then, simply paste this code into your site.

Monitor and Optimize

As your ads begin to appear, make sure you keep careful records of your visitors. Log how many visitors come to your site, and compare this to the number of ads your service is giving you credit for. Some ad services offer you good rates, but they later cheat you by only paying for visitors that come from certain countries or arrive during certain times of the day. If there’s a big difference between the visits you log and the visits you get paid for, take it up with the service, or take your business elsewhere.

Also, if you chose the CPC option, keep a close eye on your Click-Through Ratio. This ratio indicates the percentage of visitors who click on your ads. If it’s lower than you’d prefer, change the positions of the ads on your page, or draw more attention to them. If you’re using contextually targeted ads, make sure that your page has enough text on it for the targeting service to figure out what it’s about.

Sometimes it’s hard to find the right service, or to get your ads just right. However, with enough tweaking and some experience, there’s no reason why you can’t make significant money from your site, even if you do have to keep your day job.

Anyone may reprint this article at any time without prior permission, as long as they include all author information, as well as the links in the text and the byline.

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