We have had the internet and websites providing us with information for decades now. However, even today, you will find many people who do not believe or even understand that you can make money from a website. Perhaps the concept feels too good to be true? Well, maybe it did seem so at one point but today, it is as real as any other source of income that people may have.
If you are looking for a way to make money online and want to enjoy doing it through a creative outlet, then a website would be the best option for you. This article will take a deep dive into the entire concept so that you can have all the information you need to not only do it but do it properly and ensure success.
What is a Website and Why should you start One?
For the uninitiated, you can imagine a website to be like a digital newspaper. It has pages containing information on different topics and you can get new information on it every day. However, that is all the similarity you can find between the two because a website goes much further than that. While newspapers only provide information on the latest social, political, and economic events, a website can be much more niche and cover things that a very niche group of people would want to see.
Instead of covering public events, websites can be used to provide information on everything from news to hobbies to commerce, art, technology, security, fashion, design, and a lot more. Not even the sky is the limit when it comes to the types of websites that you can find on the internet.
Of course, the functionality of a website can also be much more expansive than simply providing information. It can be used to provide people with resources like software, allow them to communicate with each other through different tools, and even be a source of finding other information like a search engine. Google is a great example of such a website. People even make websites just to share personal life updates. For anyone who has never had a website, there are plenty of different applications that you can explore and consider your expertise to determine which type of website would be most suitable for you. Some of the biggest reasons that we can find these days for starting a website are given below:
- Ecommerce
Online shopping has seen an incredible boost in the last couple of years, all due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, people being forced to stay at home was not the first reason for online shopping. The convenience of being able to browse through products and get them delivered to your home has already had its mark which is why successful billion-dollar companies like Amazon are already present. You can use e-commerce websites to sell practically anything to anyone, anywhere in the world. It is by far one of the most profitable types of websites that you can create.
- Business Presence
People use the internet for practically everything these days, which is a great way for businesses to find new clientele. If you are running a business and want to expand your clientele beyond your local area, then having a website is essential for you. It can allow you to make your services and reach go global, thereby promising potentially exponential growth.
- Information Sharing
This is one of the largest segments in websites and has many subsegments. Information can be of any kind and on any topic, so you can make a website to share information on practically anything at all. If you are a subject matter expert on something or are passionate about any topic or set of topics, you can broadcast your voice and opinions to countless people globally using a website.
- Education
Just like the previous reason, education is also a key player these days in website development. Countless people recognize the need for access to knowledge for every human being and are using websites to break traditional barriers left and right. You can share technical knowledge with people, both free and for a cost, depending on your preference and market demand. A website can help you find students and learners across the entire world.
- Communication
This type is also quite broad, as the number of ways you can communicate with people is practically endless. You can do it in the form of written word like blogs or make audio and visual content for a different approach. You can also make the communication process interactive and omnidirectional by creating social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Ways of Making Money from a Website
Considering the versatile nature of websites and the type of content they can carry; you can use your website in countless ways to make money is practically endless. To give you an idea of how versatile they are, we are sharing a list of things that you can do using your website that can make you money.
- Starting an online store is a great way of making money through a website. You can post details of your product with beautiful pictures and convince people to buy your products.
- Affiliate marketing is also a great way of making money and it involves posting content about other brands on your website in the form of blogs and videos and the company would then pay you for that marketing.
- Selling online courses has also become a huge hit in recent years as more and more people try to get their hands on specialized knowledge, especially on niche subjects. If you have expertise on a subject you can explain to people, you can publish it on a website for people to buy or subscribe to.
- Website ads are perhaps the oldest method of making money from websites. Any website that has gained a certain level of audience and popularity can use tools like Google AdSense to publish ads on their website which can make them money.
- With the internet bringing businesses online, selling business solutions using a website has become quite popular. From business analytics to financial reporting and other services, there is a lot you can provide using a website to businesses everywhere.
- Selling photos is also a great business option, especially for photographers. You can use a website to post your photos for sale and people can buy them from anywhere in the world.
- Help others by providing website design assets. Graphic design is a huge industry, and you can use a website to promote your services and play a key role in the design and development of others’ websites.
The list given here is only the tip of the iceberg and you can find endless alternatives to explore.
How to Start Marketing Your Website
Now that you have decided to make a website and use it to make money, you will also need to make sure people around you and around the world notice it as well. To do that, you need a solid marketing strategy. While the specific strategy varies for each website, there are some basic steps that everyone needs to take to maximize their reach.
- The most basic step is search engine optimization (SEO). If you think about it, you use search engines like Google to find practically everything these days. To do that, you write a specific text in the search bar and then see all the websites with information about that. The target is to ensure your website is on the first page of results, preferably the top one. That is what SEO is all about. You need to strategically place specific keywords that you would expect potential website visitors to use to search for your website. Of course, the overall scope of this is much bigger than just that.
- Keyword research is a strategy that ties in with SEO as it helps you identify all the different types of phrases and words that your site’s potential visitors may use. You can use this to figure out which words and phrases will maximize your chances of being the top search result.
- Backlinking is a process where your website is added by other websites in their content. This creates credibility for your website and helps improve your ranking on search engines. If a well-known website is linking your content in their own, their readers will automatically think that your website is worth visiting too.
- Another great way to market your website is to create YouTube videos for it. Having video content attached to your website can greatly impact your website’s ranking and make it visible to a much larger audience. What makes this marketing strategy extremely useful is the fact that very few websites use it actively for marketing.
Making Money from AdSense on Your Website
As mentioned earlier, one of the ways that you can use to make money is via AdSense. This is an advertising program created by Google that allows websites to make money by hosting ads for businesses that approach Google for their marketing needs. Once your website starts getting a steady flow of traffic, you can signup for an AdSense account for free and then use it to show ads on your website.
AdSense is an intelligent program that automatically figures out what type of content your website has and then promotes businesses that would be the most suitable. The purpose is to show ads that would have the highest chance of getting clicked on. The ads can be displayed in the form of banners or have their dedicated space on each webpage, mostly on the sides.
For each click and view, you get on your website’s pages with an ad, you get paid a certain amount of revenue by Google. This amount is quite small but with thousands and thousands of views combined, it can turn into a decent income.
Using AdSense Certified Partner Program (Increase Earnings)
For most people, posting ads may seem easy, but to make the most money from it, you need to be quite strategic. Doing that requires a lot of technical expertise and that is where the Google Certified Publishing Partner comes in. These are people and organizations who can optimize your advertising game and make sure you generate the maximum possible revenue on each webpage and each page view.
Companies like Ezoic are a great example of this service, where your entire website is analyzed to develop a strategy that maximizes your ad revenue. Of course, a service like this is usually comprehensive as is the case with Ezoic. They offer to not only optimize your AdSense placement strategy but also offer to help you optimize your overall website design and content strategy. The goal is to turn your website into a lean, mean money-making machine that your users can’t get enough of either. Finding that golden point requires a lot of insight that you can get from award-winning publishing partners like Ezoic.
While you can choose to give them full control, you also have the option to retain control over how the strategies are executed and how in-depth you want to go. Given the enormous competition, you also have the option to explore their services in detail for an entire month on a trial basis. However, once you get to see the results of the professional touch on your website, it would be impossible for you to go back to doing things by yourself.
Signing Up on Ezoic
The signup process is super easy and all you need to do is click on the Get Started button on Ezoic’s website. Once you do that, you will have two options to choose from; under 10k pageviews and over 10k pageviews. You can select the one that matches your website’s current viewership and then proceed with the signup process.
You will have to provide your email address, your website’s domain, and the things you want to improve, including Ad Revenue, Site Speed, and Analytics. At this point, the system will generate your dashboard and ask you to complete the signup process with further details, including integration with Ezoic. After the setup process is complete, you can start using the Ezoic dashboard.
Conclusion
Websites provide endless opportunities for anyone who wants to make money over the internet. Their versatility means there is nothing in the world that you cannot promote or sell on websites if you have the sense to market it properly.
Many people choose to do everything by themselves and keep managing their website in-house even after it grows beyond a certain level. However, there comes the point where having specialists for each task in maintaining your website has a lot more benefits than what it may cost you. This is especially true for website optimization for content and advertising and with partners like Ezoic, you can certainly see the difference within no time. So, what are you waiting for? Start building your new website right away!.
