Making Money Online

The first iteration of Project Paradox started sometime back in 1999. In seven years, I never considered it more than a hobby site, something to develop my skills and talk about my interests. As of May 2006, it has finally become something more than that. Thanks to advertising revenue, Project Paradox is now an actual source of income for my family and I.

Granted, the amount of revenue still isn’t much to write home about. I certainly don’t consider it a viable means of supporting my family. After all, that’s what work is for. Still, it’s gratifying to know that something I made from scratch is now turning a profit. I’ve always known that, between my experience as a webmaster and my expertise with search engine optimization, I had the know-how to create such a website. This only serves to validate that belief.

For those of you interested in doing the same thing, I make no “get rich quick” guarantees. Some people find making money online to be easy, but most people consider it to be quite difficult. My website’s potential has grown along with my expertise, leading me to conclude that it also takes a lot of general knowledge about websites and online marketing. If you’re willing and driven, however, here is my advice on website monetization.

Website Monetization

Google AdSense

First, you’ll need to find a source of income. As most bloggers and non-ecommerce website owners will tell you, the best option out there is Google AdSense. This is a program offered by Google that generates contextually-targetted advertisements for your website. There is very little work involved beyond initial setup, and the ads are automatically tailored to the content of your pages. Your account accrues revenue every time someone clicks on one of the ads.

Text Link Ads

Another popular option is Text Link Ads. Unlike AdSense, no action is required on the part of your users to utilize this service. You simply place text links on your webpages and allow them to remain there for a period of months. You are then paid each month that a link stays on a page. The amount you earn depends on the estimated popularity and search engine value of each page, the number of links sold, and the amount of time they stay there.

Content

The second, and most important, step is to develop good content. Nobody wants to go to a website with nothing but advertisements on it. In polite circles, this is known as spam. No, people go to a website because it has some sort of valuable information. Naturally, there are many sorts of “valuable” in this sense. Your site could be interesting, informative, or just entertaining. As long as someone has reason to want to see what you’ve got, your site has value.

The real key here is to develop a website on a topic about which you are passionate. Perhaps you’re a racing afficionado. By all means, make a website about racing. You can blog about cars and events, post pictures of drivers and vehicles, show placements on current and past races, or whatever else tickles your fancy. You get the idea.

Link Building

The last step in this process is to make your website part of the greater internet community. Leave comments on blogs and forums related to your topic of interest, making sure to drop a link back to your website. Talk about what other people in your sphere are saying. Develop linking relationships with other notable websites. As any SEO expert will tell you, good links are the fastest way to draw qualified traffic to your site.

Generally speaking, if you follow these steps, people will surf to your site. Most will only visit for the information itself, but others may find one of the AdSense ads interesting and click on it. When that happens, congratulations, because you’ve just turned your hobby into a source of revenue.

Of course, it isn’t as easy as I make it sound. It took Project Paradox well over a year to become at all profitable. I am optimistic to make it even moreso in the future, but it is and ever shall remain a hobby site. I find that approaching the endeavor like that (i.e. as a hobby) helps minimize the risk of getting swept away in grandiose dreams of becoming an internet millionaire overnight. Remember, some people earn a living this way, a few rare individuals earn a very good living, but the rest of us should be content to earn a few extra bucks on the side.

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[…] That all changed a few months back when, after posting an inquiry on the forums, I was informed of their “no ads on free sites” policy. Honestly, this didn’t seem unreasonable; after all, why should I make money from my site if they’re losing money to host it? Since the site was finally making money, I decided to shell out the dough for a paid account. […]