1) Google AdSense
Google AdSense is by far the best, most rewarding monetization resource for blogs, news sites and small, content-rich information sites.
Google AdSense, lets independent publishers, bloggers and news site owners to publish text-based, context-relevant ads next to the content on their sites. This is done automatically without you, the publisher, having to worry about anything else except putting small-sized code inside each of your web pages.
For every click on Google AdSense contextual ads, the publishing sites receives credit for a small amount of money, while Google keeps an undisclosed amount of the total advertising share.
Though many lament lack of relevance for the ads and little return for the increased info clutter on their pages - many silent publishers - probably the ones who consciously make less noise about this, are indeed making money on the web with this program.
What few understand, is that to make money with AdSense involves strategic work. Just placing the code on your pages isn't enough.
The focus of your site, the way the content is organized, the way web pages are coded, the titles you use and the color and position you select for placing your AdSense ads on your web pages all make a difference to the results you get. Significant.
What is important is that different rules apply to different types of pages and content. So no set of rules equally apply to all sites.
The key is for the publisher to keep questioning the integration of contextual, text-based ads by doing systematic, ongoing testing, experimentation and optimization.
For a focused blogger, this can mean from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month. For a dedicated publisher covering high-paying information areas, it is possible to get into the five-digit range without any major investments and with a relatively short time-to-market.
I am not talking about a blogger in the traditional sense, but rather to focused and very professional independent information resources like Search Engine Watch or paidContent, for example.
Google AdSense offers also the opportunity to monetize site searches while providing a powerful, lightning-fast search engine for your own site at no extra cost.
By providing search-relevant ads on your site's search results pages, Google AdSense adds another great opportunity to monetize premium service and access with relevant text-based
information about products and services.
Too bad Google AdSense doesn't let you select your contextual advertisers from its inventory.
Here some great examples of AdSense at work.
2) BlogAds
BlogAds is an effective solution to make money online with your blog that allows you to take control of your advertisers and comparing your profit share with your online ad agency.
As the name clearly implies, BlogAds is an advertising service for blogs that offers a great opportunity for small, independent publishers, blogs and news sites to sell their ad space in a direct and useful way.
BlogAds keeps 30 percent of your net revenue and sends you the rest by PayPal or check as soon as you reach a predetermined amount.
For your advertisers BlogAds provides a great bonus in terms of speed and simplicity:
"Ordering an ad takes just two or three minutes. Submit your image and / or text ad. Define its duration. Pay with PayPal's secure forms. You are done. After the blogger approves the ad, return to tweak and optimize clickthroughs, renew or order on new blogs."
With BlogAds, the publisher has total control over which ads to accept and which ones to reject.
Other self-serve ad platforms:
- Crispads is
an advertising network focused on blogs. Crispads allows publishers to
place ads in blog entries so that they're included in their RSS / ATOM
feeds to generate revenues for syndicated content.
- grokAds - an
advertising clearinghouse for both buyers and sellers which works with
any type of site. The service offers quick and easy advertising to a
specific market.
- AdBrite - AdBrite also lets you select which kinds of ads you want to sell to your website visitors as well as setting the prices you want to charge.
3) Amazon Associates
The Amazon Associates program lets independent online publishers make money online by advertising product inside Amazon's inventory as affiliate agents.
All it takes is adding a small, identifying code to the links that take your website visitors to a specific Amazon product page (books, DVDs, electronics, etc.).
If the visitors who clicked on your link buy an item - even if it's not the item you point to - you earn a small commission.
Though the amount of return with the Amazon Associates program is small, nonetheless it is another way to make money with your blog without adding clutter or not-relevant disruptive information to your valuable content.
References to relevant books add to the user experience as it helps those who want to search for more information on a topic to see immediate and hand-picked recommendations.
As a matter of fact, it is possible to earn as much as 10 percent per sale as an Amazon Associate.
4) Text Links
Text links are controversial for some purists, but for those seeking a way to make money online without adding clutter and intrusive ads to their content it is an interesting opportunity to explore further.
Text links are an advertising market that brokers small, text-only links, which often don't need prominent placement (the payback is not on the clicks) on your site pages.
What the advertisers want is a link presence on your site to gain extra "authority" (like the Google PageRank indicator) in an artificial way. This is why you may have noticed many of these text links being placed at the bottom of content pages or in other non-premium positions.
The goal of text links is to increase a site's value in search engines. The good thing is that the independent publisher has more and more options from which to select. Also, the publisher can approve and accept text links that are complementary and relevant to the site's content.
Though many text links point to second-rate services and products (online casinos, poker, Viagra, etc.) - this marketplace is becoming more visible, therefore more advertisers of mainstream products and tools are popping up in numbers. Since you are the one accepting such advertising contracts, the selection of what you display is up to you.
