There are many different ways that
firms and individuals have evolved to profit via the internet. And,
most of the great ideas occurred to some people a long time ago.
There is no point in spending any money until
you know that your site can generate revenue.
There are still a number of recent success stories
about people who set up websites and attracted a lot of positive attention
- high traffic, of course, means increased potential for profit.
Consider the websites that you visit regularly
and think about why you go there. Start looking around to see how
they might be generating revenue. Many sell things directly, transacting
business online using electronic cheques and credit cards.
Others likely feature things like news, weather,
kids sites, more and more - information. They likely generate revenue
by banner ads, and other links. These can pay by 'click', registration
for a free service, or commission on a purchase made by a visitor.
Your site's visitors can even be tracked...
The issues in both instances offer potential,
assuming that one has something marketable over the internet, beit a product
or information.
As you've probably noticed, the majority of
sites on the internet offer either information, or involve some sort of
software download. Information sites tend to link to retailers.
The information sites are compensated financially by the retailer through
Affiliate arrangements.
This sounds like the the easiest way to go towards
online success. It's certainly the easiest one to set up and maintain,
(you can do everything necessary from this site). You have to have
some reason for people to visit your site. Now you must think about
how much time you will realistically have to update content daily.
Actually, there are services that take care of that for you now - free.
You need more than that, but that's where your
good idea enters the picture.
Before you venture into this area on online
marketing, do a little tweaking to your browsers settings. This is
the world of tracking visits, spyware and a host of other concerns regarding
privacy. Much of this is rather harmless as information is used in
aggregate form. Still, you should adjust your 'cookies' settings
to accept only cookies going back to the originating source, (the site
you're visiting). Some sites send you cookies that go all over the
place, to parties unknown. If you don't have a firewall running,
get one. There are a few services that sweep 'spyware' on your computer
- this is software, packaged with the program that you actually meant to
download, that reads information from your computer and sends it from your
computer to theirs.
It sounds spooky, but it's been happening for
years to all of us, in one way or another.
Back to how to generate revenue from a website.
You can set up all of your favorite links on a page, along some theme or
other, but you have to know what keywords are used by people online looking
for something. Naturally, you need to host something that is of interest.
Links to popular software downloads, music or something else of interest
in popular, online culture. What is interesting is that there is
a growing segment in contemporary culture, that behaves different regarding
shopping habits, entertainment and information.
People can do virtually anything online in recent
years. Not everyone is part of this segment, so one has to consider
the different demographic and psychographic profiles of each segment as
they relate to a business' product or service.
You can purchase information relating to this,
which is often solid and useful, assuming the resources exist to effectively
analyze the information and derive opportunities for penetration into a
market. A potential online venture should be at the final stages
of planning, with long-term commitment to the project before, for those
operating on limited budgets.
A website can be easily and inexpensively created,
depending upon what functions are required. Given the growth in technological
applications, their ease of use for users has increased greatly.
Anyone who can use a word processor, can develope a website, (open
up Netscape Composer and play around with it, easier than many people think).
If you aren't an experienced developer, keep it simple, so that most browsers
see it the same way - they don't, often, by the way.
Webspace/hosting is the next step. Most
affiliate programs require a URL for the site that they are 'partnering'
with. Most internet users have webspace provided as a feature of
their internet service. This can be a starting place, however, space
such as this is usually limited to low traffic, and small webspace.
Many free hosting services have been starting
up offering more webspace, features such as free virtual domain names,
games, search engines etc., in exchange for displaying their banners -
this is how they generate revenue. They can also provide the same
technical services, or better, without their advertisers banners on you
site for a competitive fee. A new venture can be tested out on such
a server, as many useful features can enhance the site. In the event
that the site begins generating traffic, revenue opportunities can be enhanced
by paying for the service and thus removing the competing banners, as well
as receiving enhanced performance from the host.
If you are testing out an idea, try the no-fee
option first.
Tools and animations are useful and readily
available to non programmers. It can take a lot of searching though.
Competition amongst webhosting providers has resulted in their offering
increased capabilities in free services to members: domain redirection;
surveys; email functions; message boards etc. Look through all of
them and decide which your site could use - don't get carried away though
and try and use them all.
The revenue generating aspect can now be explored.
One can search out individual affiliate arrangements with compatible sites,
dealing with them individually, or use one of the online services that
brings a wide variety of retailers as options.
Bear in mind what the banner that your affiliate
is selling. Make certain that you think that it is something that
people will purchase online. It would be great if a website could
generate commissions on new care sales online, but how likely is it...
Don't waste space with too many banners/ads. some of them can liven up
a site's appearance, too many can look cheap. That is up to your
own creativity though.
If you are selling a service, your own as a
consultant, accountant, etc., payment arrangements are critical.
Given that a service could be provided two continents away, beyond the
jurisdiction of one's local small claims court. Good faith, using
cheques/money orders are one way, credit cards are more convenient, but
can be costly to set up. Competition amongst discount merchant account
facilitators has reduced the costs of payment though. Some of the
terms and conditions are not terribly convenient, but the most headache
free.
There has been enough discussion regarding domain
names. It's not an absolute necessity, but it is advisable.
Promotion of a website is
the most studied and competitive aspect of marketing online. There
are programs such as banner
exchanges, wrbrings,
(related sites linked together) and search engine registrations.
Depending upon the content of your site, all or one of the afformentioned
could work for your project. Time have changed though. A mere
couple of years ago, one simply had to go to a search engine's home page,
register a URL, (site) and find it via search a few days, to a couple of
weeks later. Many search engines now charge a fee for listings.
There are still free promotional resources for mulitple search engine registration
that work.
TrafficMagnet.net
– Instantly submit your site to more than 300,000 search engines and directories
worldwide. Drive traffic to your site with one of the world’s leading online
promotion services. Ensure online visibility and accessibility with TrafficMagnet
Site Submission Service.
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Author:
Kim Scruby B.A. has spent
the last four years as a Senior Consultant in Market Research & E-Commerce
Communications Consulting.
