Can money be made from web page hits?

The answer is yes, absolutely! This article will cover the 3 main ways that many people make money from their website. The most common of which is through sponsorship and advertising revenue. If this isn’t for you, you can also sell your own ads on your site, or by gathering data about demographic information on visitors to your site. These would be known as affiliate programs and are a great way for anyone with a blog or website to make some money! 

This article is primarily intended for bloggers looking to get sponsored and make money from their blogging endeavours but it's so valuable that we thought it was worth sharing more widely.

If you're thinking about how to make money from your website or blog, you've probably received a few offers from companies ready and willing to pay you for advertising their products. After all, it's a tried-and-true business model that works well for many blogs. 

But did you know there are other ways to monetize your blog? You can pull in sponsorship and ad revenue even if the ads aren't pre-packaged and ready-to-go. Here's how!

Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are posts that are written by the blogger who has been sponsored (in this case, you) but that still have content as though they were an original post on the blogger's site. 

The biggest benefit to sponsored posts is the control you have over your content. You can decide what should and shouldn't be written about. Also, you can set your own pricing for the sponsored post, so it makes sense for you to write it, even if you know that you’ll be selling a bundle of ads in the end. 

Your selling point with these will have to be that your blog has credibility and readership, or that your blog is unique enough to merit a sponsorship. Posting sponsored articles on your site will bring in advertising revenue as well as links from other blogs and sites.

Tip: include a disclaimer in your post that it is sponsored. Also, make sure that the products or services you’re writing about are relevant to your blog's readers. You don't want to alienate or disinterest them just to get some extra income.

Debating Sponsorships

Sponsored posts are often frowned upon by bloggers because they feel their readers will be confused as to why they’re advertising products or services on their site. Despite this, sponsorships can still be beneficial for bloggers if they’re done right.

Sponsored posts are a type of advertisement; however, they should not be written solely for the purpose of promoting a brand. Sponsored posts should provide value to your readers and still be relevant to the content on your site. 

If you decide that you want to do sponsored posts, be sure to play by the rules and make sure that any sponsored content fits in with your website’s style and tone. The key is to provide value with the sponsored post rather than focusing on selling a product or service. 

The downside for bloggers is that revenue from sponsorships isn’t always huge; it will usually range between $50-$100 per post.

Make Money With Affiliate Programs

These types of programs work best for sites with a large audience. If you have a site that gets several hundred thousand visitors a year, it’s likely that you'll be able to do well with affiliate links. 

Affiliate links work by providing a link that brings in the visitor and the advertiser at the same time. After all, if your readers click on an advertisement from your site, you stand to make money from the sale (if it happens). 

Affiliate programs usually pay out a portion of the revenue generated from affiliate links as well as commissions on any purchases made by the visitor. This varies based on which affiliate program you're using, but they are a great way to make money with your blog. 

To get started, create an account with your affiliate program and then decide which affiliates you'd like to link to in the future. You'll have to choose a category that you want to link too, so that readers know where they can go if they have questions about a product or service (or vice versa). 

When deciding which products or services should be linked to, it's important to consider what will benefit your blog while not alienating your readers. It’s a balance that will change as your blog grows and evolves.

Monetize With Ads

This is a no-brainer. You can make money by selling ads on your site. There are several ways that you can attract advertisers to place ads on your site, including:

Your own custom-designed ads (for bloggers who want to be very hands-on in how their website looks).  Or you can simply make or buy pre-packaged ads and put them on your site.  If you want, you can place the ads in a sidebar or corner of the website. If this is something you’re interested in doing, then we recommend using Google AdSense .  This is probably the easiest way to put ads on your site, plus it provides you with an income each time someone clicks on one of them.  To get started, sign up for a Google account here and then apply to have your website approved for AdSense here  (you don't have to have a website set up yet). You just need a domain name and some basic information.  After you've been approved and signed up, you can put in your ad code.  AdSense will provide you with the code that needs to be placed on each page of your site. This can work well for blogs that are monetized directly through ads (i.e. no money is going to the blogger).

AdSense can be a great way to monetize your site and make money, but it's not the only option out there. If you're looking for something that allows more control over how and where your ads will appear, consider an ad exchange .  These are like Google's AdSense, except that they allow you to place ads on other websites as well. This means that you don't have to use Google AdSense at all if you don't want to.  There are several different types of ad exchanges including Facebook's Instant Article Ads and Mobile App Install Exchange .  They allow you to place ads just as easily as using Google AdSense, but publishing ads on other websites can add a sense of authority and professionalism that is a lot harder to achieve with Google AdSense.

You can also sell your own ads by joining Amazon's Ads program .  This allows you to place adverts on your blog or website. It makes a lot of sense for people who are running sites where they make money from affiliate links; after all, Amazon doesn't take any commission when an item sells through an affiliate link.  You can learn more by clicking here .

Conclusion

It's important to note that there are several other ways to monetize your blog besides just making money from advertisements and affiliate links.  There are many free methods as well, like:

Franchises:  You can sell your own products or services through the website you're running. This is a great way to build your brand and make some additional income.

Sell Your Blog:  If you have a large audience, there's no reason why you can't sell ads on your own blog for extra income. You want to make sure that this is something that makes sense for you, though; otherwise it'll be a waste of time and energy.