How To Make Money With Your Website, Part 1 of 2

I can't even count the number of times that people ask me how they can make money with their website. Some want to create a website with the sole purpose of making money. Others, who have an existing website, want it to make some money for them.

There are two main ways to make money, selling your own stuff or selling someone else's stuff.

Selling Other People's Stuff

Many people offer Affiliate Programs. They set up an affiliate program, which lets you sell their products or services on your site, and in turn you get a percentage of the sale. Putting a banner, buttons or links on your site usually does this, and when someone clicks on them and buys something, you get credit for the sale.

People and companies of all sizes offer this kind of program. Amazon.com introduced its program in 1996. As of today, there are over 500,000 people who are affiliates for Amazon. This gives them the advantage of having a huge sales force.

I participate in two affiliate programs on my site. I have a page of books that I suggest people read. Each book has a special link to Barnes and Noble, and if someone buys one of these books, I get a commission. I also have a banner to a web hosting company, and as above, I get a commission for each sale. One advantage of the web-hosting link is that I can use it too. So whenever I set up web hosting for a website design client, I get a commission.

My girlfriend has the Google ads affiliate program on her site, and when anyone clicks on one of the ads, she gets paid up to a dollar. This can really add up over a year.

Affiliate programs are a great way to make extra money. Many people do extensive research on which affiliate program(s) to use, and make a large portion, or all, of their income this way. They look for programs that have high demand and the pay high commissions. Commissions usually range between 5% and 15%. Be sure to read the fine print to see what you will be paid, when you will be paid and all the other details they have in the contract. Also, be sure to pick affiliate programs that relate to your site so that the people visiting your site will be interested in the programs you offer.

While I don't expect to make a lot of money from the affiliate programs I use, last month I made $100 with the website referral program. Not enough to retire on, but I did nothing to make this money.

There is a dark side to affiliate programs. In order for you to get credit for a sale the person usually must buy the item when they click on the link you have on your site. If they click on the link, bookmark the site and go back later to buy the item, you will not get credit for the sale. This is because the banner, link or button on your site has a unique number that tells the vendor which affiliate the sale came from. So if the person buys something without using the link, there's no way to tell where the sale came from. It's just something you have to accept with affiliate programs. This probably explains why after more than three years I have not made any money from the many books on my site that have links to Barnes and Noble.

Another thing to watch out for are the affiliate programs that pay you only after you get a certain amount of money in your account. If you sell a lot of the item, or it has a high-ticket price, you should be fine. But I have friends that sell things that pay a small commission, and they're lucky to get a check once a year.

Next month's newsletter will be part 2 of this article, and it will cover selling your own stuff, and what to sell.