My Websites are Making Money – an Internet Success Story

I have about a dozen websites, some make good money, some make a little money, and some don’t make any money at all. Not all sites are designed to make money online though. Some sites are designed for other purposes. For instance, I have a website about asparagus harvesters that was not intended to make money online, but rather get some interest in my experimental harvesting machine, and maybe find a backer.

The site, asparagusharvester.com, fulfilled its function. Washington State University became aware of my machine through the site, and ended up funding the development of the machine for a number of years.

The first site I built, in 1998, after teaching myself HTML online, was to market an invention I had come up with, the Chilipepper appliance. It’s a pump that pumps hot water from the water heater to the fixture very quickly, and without running water down the drain. You get your hot water quicker and save quite a bit of water.

But how do you market something online that no one has ever heard of? No one would be searching for it because they did not know anything like it existed. When I first built the site, I optimized it for the keyword phrase “Hot Water”. I got very good rankings for the phrase and zero traffic. It turns out no one searches for the key words “hot water” and why would you?

I thought about it and decided that I would build into the site a section about water heaters. It would cover how they work, and how to maintain and repair them. I know a lot about water heaters since I worked with them quite a bit while inventing the Chilipepper hot water circulating pump.

Eventually the site obtained very good rankings and I was getting about 1,000 unique visitors a day. I had been reading about this new affiliate stuff and decided to try putting some advertising on my site. I joined Commission Junction and selected some affiliate programs, placing the ads on the water heating related pages. I don’t put ads on the main pages of the Chilipepper demand system since I want them to stay and buy a Chilipepper. Pretty soon I started getting checks for commissions I earned. People were actually clicking the ads on my site, going to the advertiser’s site, and making purchases. And guess what they were buying…tankless water heaters. I still can’t believe people buy tankless water heaters on line, but they do.

So there I was, making about $200.00 a month on commissions from affiliate programs. Then I read about a new program called adsense. I put adsense ads on my Chilipepper site, and on a website that I built while on cruise ship vacations. My wife and I cruise quite a bit, and while on the cruise we update the site. We review all of our cruises on the site. I put adsense ads on the site, cruisesrfun.com. I put hem on a site I built about inventing, inventionspatents.com, and a few others too. Instantly I was making quite a bit more money from these sites than with the affiliate programs.

Recently I’ve started receiving requests from advertisers to place their ads on the pages of some of my sites. Sometimes they want to put an ad up permanently for a one time fee…I always say no. They offer usually around $75 to $150 per ad. It just doesn’t click with me for some reason. Just a couple of months ago I got an offer from an ad outfit offering me 50 cents per 1,000 ad views on one of my sites. No clicking necessary!

For some of my sites the $/1000 page views is in the tens of dollars, while for other sites its just a few cents/1000. The ad agency lets me put two ads per page, and both ads have to be above the fold. I get $1.00 for every 1,000 page views. I have two more ads below those, and they are adsense ads. I still make money from the adsense ads, not as much as before, but when you ad the two together it is substantially more money than with just the adsense ads alone. I also like the idea of not having all of my eggs in one basket. I’m not totally dependent on Adsense.

Another new thing I am trying is 5 second audio ads. It’s a new program that has some very nice features. When a visitor lands on one of my pages, a 5 second audio ad plays. I get paid for that ad. My visitor doesn’t have to click on anything. My visitor does not leave my page. The ad is short enough it doesn’t bother my visitor, and it won’t play another ad to the visitor for at least 3 minutes. It doesn’t affect any of my other advertising, no problems with Adsense, and doesn’t take up any room on my page. It also does not cost anything to join so I’m not risking anything.

The audio ads program is in beta right now, and is slowly ramping up, but I am already making money, and I expect the audio ads to nearly double the income from the advertising on my sites once it is in full swing.

My sites are informational sites, and so my visitors are looking for information, not fancy graphics and whatnot. So I build simple sites with simple navigation. No search engine spider has trouble finding any of my pages. I write with humans in mind…I’m probably not always successful in that endeavor but I try. I keep my ads to a minimum. When I land on a page that is cluttered with ads and banners I usually leave quickly.

I make sure my Title meta tag has an appropriate and effective title, incorporating my most important key words whenever possible. I make sure the meta description tag has a well written description meaningful to humans. I try to have my main key words worked into the text in a few places on the page, but not too many. If my pages have images I use the alt text to describe the image and work in a keyword or two. Do not overdo it though.

If you trade links with other sites try to make sure you trade with other quality sites that have some kind of connection that a search engine would recognize.

And finally, I have patience. It just takes a long time to reach the point where you get significant traffic from the search engines. I figure at least one year and possibly two before I’m getting thousands of visitors on a particular site. You can opt for paid traffic and get those numbers quickly, but I am not willing to buy traffic, and I doubt it would be profitable, at least for the sites I have.

So there you have it. Build quality websites with information people are looking for. Monetize your sites with a variety of advertising, but don’t overdo the ads. And while you are waiting for the income to develop, get on to your next site.

My Websites are Making Money – an Internet Success Story! / William Lund

William Lund is a sucessful inventor and webmaster. Visit Mr. Lund’s website at Internet Marketing Success
Pay-Per-Play Audio ads – More Infot at: 5 Second Audio Ads for Profit

The Home Business Marketing Adventure

Running a home business is something millions of people want to do, but only a few truly succeed at. What is their secret? There are a few tips for ensuring a home-based business will not fade into oblivion.

It is important to note that one of the most important actions you can take to help your success is to start a web site. A web site introduces a company to new clients and gives those who are curious a platform to view the company. Then your visitors see why they should invest in your products or services.

Next, determine your niche. You start your website development with a concept or theme in a particular market niche, a subject you are passionate about, a subject you believe you can make into a business. Then, find a marketing agenda that best suits your product or service and start looking at your marketing options.

For many home businesses a great response is generated through ad campaigns. This is a simple way of getting the word out about your product or service. Take ads out through classifieds, banners or in periodicals or newspapers. It may be a publication from a rival business that will likely bring the most success. Those successful enough to have their own e-zine will have an established base of readers and subscribers. This is a benefit, and as you develop your website, you should focus your attention on building a subscribers list.

For any ad, learn what to place within the allotted space. Some publications online may prohibit animated banner ads and that is a benefit. Many web surfers automatically draw negative assumptions about a company from annoying flashing ads.

Classified ads are organized by lines. Ads are given a certain number of lines with a certain number of characters per line. Make an impact within that space. Use free classified listings available online. This gives a good idea of what draws responses and what doesn’t.

A banner ad online is priced based on size and placement on the page. If possible, self-design your ads; this can greatly reduce your marketing overhead.

Article marketing is a great way of letting people know about your product or service by offering free content related to your product or service. Join a marketing distribution service and compose regular articles on relevant topics. For example, if a business pertains to camping equipment, submit articles about the best camping sites around the country.

The reason article marketing is popular is the mutual benefit to all involved. The writer is allowed an “author resource box,” to place links, credentials and a sentence or two about the author. Other webmasters, in turn, receive free content to use as much as they like, so long as the article and author’s information remain intact.

Blogs are another avenue of promotion that a home-based business benefits from. Post information on the company, product, sales events and latest news. Many people find it very interesting to see what happens behind-the-scenes at their favorite web sites. Use blogs to build an email list and build your web site link popularity.

Email marketing is a great tool for getting information about your products out there, but it should be done appropriately. Reserve this for your subscription list. Many “mailing list,” companies are often seen as tools for spammers. By using such a list there is risk of being labeled a spammer and people will add that email address to their filter list. There are many companies online who will help build a subscription list. They have the tools to compose either plain text or HTML emails. HTML emails are nice to look at, but may be seen as spam and discarded.

Link building is another great tool, but also carries some rules. Build links by exchanging them with other webmasters. To be successful, the rules are simple. First, stay within areas similar to your own web site. Avoid link farms as they will cause the loss of status with search engines. Second, personalize requests to exchange links and be polite. Never demand that a webmaster link up with you. Limit links displayed to 25 per page. Lastly, never give another webmaster a “bait-and-switch.” This is unfair and poor business practice. This is a habit many webmasters have of linking mutually, then deleting the outside link a short time later. Many webmasters keep up with their traffic and a sudden drop from any site will encourage them to examine and see why.

Social networking is another viable option to those with a home business to promote. Meet people in the same profession. This is one of the most beneficial aides to a business. Be open to new advice, tips, ideas and warnings. Networking with others is builds relationships that have an immense influence on the success of a business.

A home business is an exciting adventure, but it doesn’t have to be frightening. The ease with which marketing is achieved today gives everyone an extra air of confidence when taking that first step. With the right organization and skills, your business will be as successful, but you will have to work hard and make the right choices.

The Home Business Marketing Adventure / David Ogden

David Ogden is the editor for www.at-home-business-world.com, a resource website for good information about home business opportunities without all of the “Sales Hype.” For more ideas, resources, and tools in starting your home business subscribe to the At Home Biz News: At Home Biz News