So you are thinking of creating a website or have one based around content that is of interest to you. What are the steps to making money with them? The answer is there are several ways to go about doing so. In fact, it is receommended that you have as many money making revenue streams. Lets take a look at some of the more common ways content websites are making money.

Contextual Advertising

This is Google Adsense and the (much smaller) others who match your content with advertisers interested in being seen by your visitors. Once registered, you are provided with a code which you place on your web page and advertising is automatically matched to your content.

Affiliate Marketing

Based on your content topic, you can go out and find related products / services and advertise them on your website taking a percentage of the sale each time you refer a customer. Popular programs online are Commisison Junction, Click Bank, Linkshare and Performics. These are affiliate networks where you can promote a wide range of products from many different companies.

Text Ads

If you have a decent Google Pagerank or have high volume traffic, you should consider selling text links on your website. There are broker services such as Text Link Ads that can find link advertisers for you. Although they take a hefty 50% cut off the top, it is a good revenue stream with little work involved.

Reviews

If you are running a blog or providing solid informational content, getting paid to write reviews of companies, products, or services may be a money making option to explore. Services such as ReviewME and Pay Per Post are marketplaces where you can list your website and have advertisers pay you to review them. Similar to text ads, companies take piece of the action when an advertiser orders a review.

Banner Advertising

There are several advertising networks such as Fast Click that allow you to register and put up banner ads from their pool of advertisers. You can select the ads that best fit your site and get paid on a Cost Per Click (CPC) or Cost Per Thousand (CPM). This method is probably the least effective of the options in this article. The conversions are low as surfers tend not to respond well the banners.

These are the common ways it’s done nowadays. I suggest you try and experiement with them to see which revenue model works best for you. Depending on your industry, traffic levels, and demographics, one or more of these money making options can work for you.

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