One of the most beautiful things about being an internet marketer is the fact there are so many different revenue streams. Whether it’s contextual ads, affiliate marketing, advertising deals, you name it, there shouldn’t be any reason you can’t start to make a little bit of money from your websites.
So, how to most people do it? The answer might surprise you a little bit.
Despite claims of its death and lack of “real” revenue generating power, Adsense is still the preferred way of making money for most website owners.
Here’s how nearly 100 people responded when asked: What is your primary source of online revenue?
- Adsense – 70%
- Affiliate Sales – 15%
- Private Ads – 9%
- Product/Service Sales 6%
The reasons Adsense is still incredibly popular are pretty clear: it’s easy to sign up for and integrate into your site, you don’t have to continuously promote it, and all it takes is a simple click to make money from it.
Affiliate marketing is also a great source of revenue for many website owners, and it certainly has the potential to be much more profitable than Adsense. But with the added complexity of having to deal with people following through and purchasing the product you’re promoting (or, in the case of CPA, provide their information), you’re not “guaranteed” to make money.
That being said, the more involved with affiliate marketing I get the more I realize I will eventually shift most of my revenue generating focus from Adsense to affiliate marketing.
Private advertising deals are pretty nice because they’re sort of a set it and forget it system, especially if you can lock in to long-term deal, say six months to a year. However, unless you have lots of targeted and unique traffic these deals are pretty hard to come by or simply aren’t very lucrative.
Don’t get me wrong, $10 a month is still more than what you had, but if you can make more focusing on other revenue streams, you’re better off doing so.
Finally, direct sales is the toughest revenue stream, mostly because you actually have to have a product or service you’re selling. It also involves much more interaction with vendors and customers, so it’s a pretty time consuming process. If you’re just starting out online, or are doing it simply to make supplemental income, direct sales probably isn’t the way to go.
The best way to monetize your online ventures is to simply combine as many of these revenue sources as possible. For example, since adding affiliate marketing to my revenue streams, I’ve grown my monthly online income by roughly 65%, which makes me want to kick myself for waiting so long!