Whilst e-commerce sites tend to generate the majority of their revenue from tangible (real life) items, content sites rarely have this luxury. They must generate money using other avenues, the most obvious and popular being advertising. Other revenue opportunities exist for content sites, such as donations. However, by and large, it is advertising that is the major money spinner.

Visit only a handful of Web pages and you will struggle to avoid advertisements. They have been, and will persist to be, a focal and accepted fact of Internet life. Adverts are everywhere: on popular sites and also on smaller, niche sites. Even the owners of some personal sites use advertising to help cover the cost of hosting.

However, the Internet has not always been so commercial. Yahoo! once agonised at length over whether to begin accepting advertisements on their portal. Google did not always display ‘Sponsored Links’ either.

But where there is money to be made, it will be. The Internet now resembles a corporate playground where big bucks rule the roost, and few people actually provide worthwhile information without wanting something in return. We are exposed to an increasing amount of advertising on a daily basis, especially on the Web. Even sites such as Facebook, once free from advertising, now subject visitors to increasing (and often irritating) adverts. Whether you agree with it or not, overt commercialism on the Web is here to stay.

If you are the owner of a content site and wish to begin generating money online, there are now more opportunities than ever. We will now take a look at some popular methods to generate revenue.

Banner Advertising

Advertising using banner images is the most recognised and traditionally the most popular method to generate online revenue. In fact, it persists to be the most commonly used method to monetise content sites. Despite some commentators proclaiming the banner has seen better days, it still has a crucial part to play in online advertising. Not so much to attract traffic, but more so for the purpose of branding.

Over the years, Web surfers have conditioned themselves to filter out elements resembling advertising. However, much in the same way as billboard advertising, banners are most effective when used in conjunction with an integrated marketing strategy. And despite the majority of banners generating very low click-thru rates, their branding intention and message is often sub-consciously absorbed by the visitor. This has equally (if not more) lasting value than a single click, which often results in ‘no sale’ anyway!

In terms of generating revenue for a content site, most banners use measurements known as CPM (Cost Per 1000), CPC (Cost Per Click), or a mixture of both. These figures vary depending on the campaign.

Unless you have a LOT of traffic, it is unlikely banners will generate a great deal of money for you. This is especially the case if you opt to use advertising brokers, who invariably take a percentage cut of the total sale. Therefore, you may find it more beneficial to sell advertising yourself. However, this is often difficult without a dedicated sales team – or an individual drumming-up new business. You may have some success with “Your Ad Here” plastered on your pages, but don’t count on it!

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing, whilst actually being around for well over a decade, is still a relatively young industry (albeit a tremendously fast-growing and lucrative one). It is both low risk and highly effective for advertisers.

The success of affiliate schemes is in no small part due to the ‘pay per results’ nature of the system. CPA (Cost Per Action) is how most affiliate models function. So rather than purchasing advertising space in the hope it will generate new sales, advertisers only pay when a customer meets pre-determined criteria, whether that be a sale, a subscription, a sign-up, a download, etc. In the industry, this is known as a ‘lead’.

Publishers (the owners of content sites) are able to pick and choose related campaigns to run. For instance, if a site deals with holidays, a plethora of ‘holiday’ campaigns are available to implement in the form of a variety of banners and text links. Affiliate networks often contain hundreds of campaigns to select from, so if you’re a publisher wishing to supplement your income, there are ample opportunities.

Some affiliate networks to consider are Affiliate Future and TradeDoubler. Also visit FreebieList.com’s excellent list of free affiliate programs.

Google Adsense

Google has its own method for publishers to earn revenue online. It’s called Google Adsense - a system delivering targeted advertising to match site content. Many small to medium sized sites use Adsense thanks to its ease of use, flexibility and variety of advertising formats. The system effortlessly serves text links, banners and also video. There are no traffic requirements either, so even sites with little traffic can benefit.

More importantly, the targeted nature of Adsense often equates into higher click-thru rates, since targeted advertising is more likely to appeal to a typical visitor. The targeting in Adsense is based partly on the Google search engine algorithm, meaning any advertisements served are likely to be more relevant than banners from advertising networks. This consequently equates into greater monetary return for publishers.

However, there are some drawbacks to using Adsense, the most notable being the number of poor quality sites using the system. To avoid being tarred with the same brush as trashy ‘For Adsense Sites’, publishers should use advertising units sparingly (no more than two strategically placed units per page should suffice).

Sponsorship

The Sponsorship method can be used in conjunction with, or in isolation of, other advertising. Create interesting content and it’s only a matter of time before somebody will be willing to sponsor your site. By and large, the less sponsorship spots available, the greater the premium a publisher can command, and the higher response rate the advertiser will receive.

Sponsor adverts can take the form of a simple tagline (i.e. “Sponsored by Barry’s Fish and Chips…), an image or text link. There are no rules when it comes to sponsorship, and the variation is as numerous as the number of sites that are advertised. Often the most original sponsorship formats are the most successful, so feel free to experiment!

Pay Per View (PPV)

Despite this being a relatively rare method to generate income online, pay per view could be perfectly feasible as long as the content is exceptional, particularly newsworthy or timely. The concept for pay per view is simple: visitors must pay for a membership to gain access to content. A site could be either entirely PPV or offer small ‘teaser’ articles, which entice visitors to register if they wish to read more.

In order to utilise this method effectively, articles must be unique and deliver real benefit to the user. Content such as tutorials, e-books, historic records, or other ‘insider’ information are prime candidates for pay per view. Examples of this method include dating sites, family tree sites, people records search, online newspapers, etc.

Other Considerations:

Successful content publishers do much more than simply place advertisements on their sites. They create the perfect blend between content and advertising. Think about this for one moment: too many advertisements and visitors will find a site too intrusive. On the other hand, too few advertisements may not generate sufficient revenue. One fundamental rule of thumb that cannot be stressed enough is: put emphasis on good quality content first. Online advertising must always be a secondary consideration. Do this and you won’t go far wrong.

Carefully placed advertisements can actually enhance a Web site, as long as they are relevant and high quality. But beware: poor quality imagery or overly promotional language and visitors may begin to switch off!

Of course, publishers always have the option of taking the moral high ground and accepting NO advertising!

Too many people just go through the motions of ‘promotion’ and expect their site to become successful. What they often fail to realise is the two most critical aspects of the Web promotion process:

1)    A site that is a useful resource for visitors.
2)    Quality content and the credibility that this breeds.

This may be a shock to many readers. Did you expect me to talk about link building or directory submission? Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. The fact is, unless you have a truly outstanding Web site, your promotion will suffer. However, combine good solid promotional techniques with a quality site, and you immediately give yourself an advantage. You never know, people might actually start linking to you without asking anything in return (and this will seriously help you on the search engines).

Many people are often attracted to the Internet after hearing the numerous success stories. However, what many people neglect to tell them is that it’s not always THAT easy. There ARE overnight millionaire successes, but these are really few and far between. The best sites, those which have been around for many years, all have one thing in common: they put their visitors first.

Far too many people pay for Internet marketing advice without ensuring their site is of sufficient quality. As such, they go through the motions and end up disappointed. In many cases large sums of money has been spend unwisely and unnecessarily.

Before embarking on any Internet marketing project, you need to ensure your site is top notch. Ensuring the site is as good as it can be is the first priority since this is the foundation everything else will be built on. You then need to continually improve your site on a regular basis and generate a keen, loyal audience. This can also be viewed as a secondary foundation. These loyal visitors will be your core audience. Continue pleasing those visitors with quality content, and the word will quickly spread. You can then focus on other online marketing practices as part of the process, but your main concern should always be your core visitors. Treat them like royalty, continually improve your site, and you will be rewarded!

Even if you already use a CMS, it could be very worthwhile to research the latest applications available. CMSs have come a long way since the early (and often ugly) in-house attempts by various organisations. Modern CMSs are flexible and some even allow you to update content on the move. ‘Mobile blogging’ is the latest trend and if you’re the owner of a smartphone (such as an iPhone, Blackberry or HTC device), you can write posts from virtually any location you like.

From an Internet marketing perspective, a CMS could be of real benefit. Here’s why: If you intend to author regular content, you need to spend most your time concentrating on the important aspects: that’s focusing on providing good information for visitors. What you don’t need is distractions such as uploading files using FTP.

Any good CMS will separate content from design, meaning structural and graphical elements needn’t be accessible to authors. This allows content producers to do what they know best without the fear of accidentally modifying important site templates or settings.

Aside from the more obvious benefits, some CMSs generate ‘clean URLs’ (necessary for good search engine visibility), include blogging facilities as standard, and allow you to organise content into categories, by date, and also other criteria. Additionally, the majority allow you to implement a search feature directly out the box. You may be surprised at how feature packed the latest systems are, and if a feature is not included, it’s a fair bet that somebody, somewhere, has created a handy plug-in just for the very purpose.

Perhaps more interestingly, modern systems give users the opportunity to leave comments on your articles. This can add an extra element of interactivity to your site and could even forge a community spirit when combined with, for example, a message board. We are seeing a gradual movement away from static content sites to user-centred, community-orientated ones. The success of sites such as Facebook, YouTube and MySpace are testament to this. This is why a modern CMS could give you serious competitive advantage over rival businesses.

So what things do you need to think about when selecting a system?

Before we begin on this, I recommend you perform thorough research before choosing a CMS. Obtain the assistance of someone familiar with multiple systems, their advantages and disadvantages. It can be a real pain switching software, so it pays to do the research beforehand!

Some questions you need to be thinking about include:

Does it generate clean XHTML/CSS based code? – Some CMSs have trouble functioning correctly in all browsers. It is important to ensure your CMS uses clean, correct code (ideally XHTML/CSS as opposed to old-fashioned tables).

How easy is the system to learn and teach others? – This is especially important if the system is to be used by numerous people. You may be required to coach another person to use the CMS, and if it’s a steep learning curve, they’ll quickly lose interest.

How secure is the application? – Some CMS providers issue security updates regularly, but this does not always amount to the safest solution. Thorough research into security is vital (especially if you are running a ‘mission critical’ site).

Will I need the system to perform any specific tasks? – Establishing the necessary features in a CMS will allow you to determine how suitable it is. That may sound obvious, but remember: a system may have similar features as another, but they will excel in different areas. Some CMSs are more suitable for basic blogging, whilst others may be intended for multiple blogs with multiple authors. Then we have systems that perform best as a general CMS. Whichever you select, it must be capable of performing the tasks you require.

What about scalability? – If your online business grows and you need to expand the site, can the system handle this? Could the system handle large volumes of traffic?

Are add-ons available? – A large number of add-ons is excellent and shows a thriving development community, but not all third party add-ons are thoroughly tested, and they may cause problems. Therefore, be on the lookout for official ‘endorsed’ add-ons.

Is the CMS established? Are there many developers specialising in this system? – Try and select one with a proven track record. You do not want to install a system only to realise the project has been abandoned.

Can it be easily customised? – Some systems are easier to customise than others. Some require the use of a competent PHP coder, whilst others can be personalised fairly easily with some HTML and CSS knowledge.

How search engine friendly is the system? – This is crucial if you are aiming for good search engine visibility. Just some of the things you need to be on the lookout for include: unique title creation, clean URLs, clean code, and the ability to input meta data.

How flexible is the system? – Another consideration you must think about (and this ties in with the purpose of your site). If you decide to head in another direction at a later date, can the system function adequately in a variety of roles? Will the system suit my requirements in the future and could it be adapted to meet unforeseen needs? These are questions you should be asking yourself.

Will the system function on my server Operating System (i.e. UNIX, Windows, etc.) – Many modern CMSs function on various platforms, but they may be more suited to a particular OS. In many cases, unless you are using ASP or Windows applications, a UNIX-like system is recommended (such as Linux or FreeBSD).

Is support easy to access? Is there are large user base and community surrounding the project? – This is crucial since you will likely need some support, whether that’s during installation or customising your site. ‘Open Source’ CMSs, such as Wordpress (the system this site is running), has hundreds of thousands of users, so help is readily available.

Are there any costs or is the system free? – Do not be deceived by this. Free CMSs can be as good as – if not better – than commercial ones. The fact is, it depends on your requirements. I use both free and commercial systems, and they each have their advantages and disadvantages. With commercial, you usually have access to superior support, but free alternatives invariably have active communities where you can ask questions and gain assistance.

Availability of themes – Nearly all modern CMSs have ‘themes’ (used to customise the look and feel of your site). If theming is important, it may be wise to select a system with a large variety of official, professional and also user-contributed (free) themes.

Is the system updated on a regular basis? – Once your system is up and running, it will require updating to ensure the latest build versions are in place for security and also functionality. Most major CMSs update their software frequently, but regular updates do not always indicate a better product. The main purpose behind establishing this is to determine how active the development team is and if they keep on top of the latest trends.

Last, but not least, test the system on a ‘test server’ beforehand. See if the end user(s) will be comfortable using it and ensure everything is to your satisfaction before taking the system live!

Now before we get too deep into this post, I want to point out that I am all in favour of “getting the word out” on the Internet, and I am equally in favour of earning links where they are due. I’m also in favour of exchanging relevent links for traffic purposes (note: if you think link exchanges are any use for search engine promotion, you need to do some serious reading).

Deliberately seeking links for the purpose of ‘link building’, however, has a serious number of flaws. Read on and you’ll discover why.

Link building is a superb money spinner because the demand is enormously high, but it’s unfortunate too many people are willing to fall for the sales pitch: “you need links, loads and loads of links from all over the place”. It’s true, you do need links, but rather you need good links (that’s one-way links from high quality sites). ‘Link building’ in the spammy sense can rarely provide this.

What many don’t realise is that most of these links will be of no real benefit, especially in the long term. Link builders will submit to numerous directories, despite the fact you can count on one hand the number of ‘quality directories’. Link builders often attempt to set up link schemes purely for search engine gain, and they’ll probably make the critical mistake of attempting to get a link on a competing site (great way to tip them off about your marketing exploits!)

What else might a link builder do?

Set up link exchanges – A link exchange with a related site is not forbidden but will it help you THAT much in terms of rank? No. Here’s why: it is unnatural, so search engines will not give you any credit for those links. It may help to send targeted traffic to your site, but if a ‘link building’ maverick has anything to do with it, that’s unlikely to be true!

Remember: Outbound links should be to sites worthy of a link and they should enhance a visitor’s experience to your site and provide them with additional reading material related to the topic.

Create an article and submit to trashy ‘article directories’ – Waste of time.  It will let a search engine know you’re there, but offer little other benefit. Who reads these poorly researched, spam-ridden articles anyway?

Try to utilise social media sites – The intention here is to obtain links to increase your ranking, but since most social sites are ‘no follow’, they provide no benefit anyway. Social sites are not stupid, they know what’s going on, and the Big G does, too. You can use these sites to establish a following on the network in question, but not for any real link juice.

Blog commenting – Any blog worthy of a link has ‘no follow’ enabled for comments. If you find a ‘do follow’ blog, don’t get too excited. Blogs that allow the crawling of links are usually spam infested, and as such they are worthless.  Every other spammy link builder in the land will have had the same idea as you. Be wise and write an informative article for your site instead!

Remember: Don’t associate yourself with spam, associate yourself with clean, safe sites.

Buying links - They might buy links with the intention of manipulating rankings – another big NO NO!

PageRank boasting - Somewhere along the line, they will attempt to earn your approval by boasting about how much your “PageRank” has risen. I am not even going to begin explaining what’s wrong with this.

Remember: The site with the most links does not automatically rank higher. This is a myth and it depends on numerous other factors as well. The quality of many links derived from ‘link building’ are worthless to poor in most cases. In addition, toolbar PageRank has NO direct impact on your ranking.

Are you beginning to see the problem? Search engines view all these methods as UNNATURAL, and will most likely penalise sites using their algorithm. In extreme cases an outright ban could be in order!

So what’s the best way to get links? Here’s how: You earn them, pure and simple. The problem I find is that so many people have ‘chasing links’ engraved in their mindset. It’s longer, it’s harder, but natural linking pays off. Well I didn’t say it was going to be easy, did I?

It is ‘anti-visitor’ because the very concept promotes modification of content to suit search engines, rather than visitors. Followers of keyword density are more concerned with meeting the correct % than ensuring the text is suitable for a human. Big mistake! What does keyword density do to help you create good content for your visitors? Absolutely nothing!

Does a page with 5 keywords out of 100 (5%) fare better in the search engines than a page with 10 keywords per 100 (10%)? There is actually no clear cut answer. In many cases a site with 2 keywords per 100 could outrank both. Then again, a site with 15% ‘keyword density’ may enjoy even better rankings. Some search engines consider over 100 different factors when deciding where to rank pages. As such, keyword density is not something you need to get hung up on. A well-written paragraph of text – perfectly targeted for a human visitor – could be the difference between making a sale and losing out to a competitor. Never forget this.

The same applies with counting the amount of text needed per page. The answer? As much as you feel your visitor requires. Too much will be over facing; too little will leave them wanting more.

Always produce your Web site copy for visitors – never search engines. Include keywords, yes, but only because they fall within the flow of the text. You should not find yourself ‘editing’ paragraphs and inserting keywords willy nilly. Even if you only use the word or phrase once, this may be sufficient. Google themselves, in their recommendations to webmasters, have said to ensure your keywords are on the page. They said nothing about repeating them again and again.

Google wants to deliver the most relevant results as possible, especially when it comes to geographical location. Therefore, if you access the Internet in the United States your results will likely differ still. If you are sat at your computer in the UK, even google.com listings will be tailored - at least to some extent. In the future we will no doubt see more of this.

Depending on the audience you want to target, you can make changes to begin appearing in various Google country indexes. The benefits obviously being you will connect with your main target audience.

1) Country-specific domains – if you use a .co.uk domain name, this guarantees you automatic entry into the Google UK index. Likewise, if you register a .in domain, this is right of passage into the Indian Google, and so on.

2) Where you are physically hosted – this is important because your Web host may have its head office in the UK, but the servers could be housed in Germany. This is why the physical aspect cannot be reiterated enough. The country your site is hosted in effects which Google country your appear in. Sites hosted within the UK but using a “.com” domain will still appear in the Google UK index on account of the server location. See how it works?

3) Inclusion by association – If most of the sites linking to you are German and based in Germany, it’s a fair bet your site must be interesting to German people. There is a school of thought that believes links from various areas of the world could effect your rank in country-specific indexes. There is little direct proof of this but it’s certainly something to keep in mind.

4) In Google Webmaster Tools, you can tell Google which area of the world your site is targeting. This means Google doesn’t have to work it out for itself!

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has been touted as a possible replacement for e-mail delivery, but new technologies always take numerous years to gain momentum and are still relatively unknown to your average Joe in the street.

But let’s not forget the sheer social advantage e-mail has over alternative technologies. The development of e-mail was a major milestone in communication, ranking alongside the pigeon messenger and the telephone. RSS barely scratches the surface! You may have a mobile phone and you may use it regularly, but do you still use a landline? My guess is “yes”.

RSS may be a tool that can be used alongside, and possibly in combination with e-mail. Furthermore, since anti-spam software is becoming increasingly sophisticated, we may find our inboxes becoming much cleaner as a result. Cleaner inboxes mean less deleting and more reading of e-mail messages.

So the question is: is e-mail marketing still effective? Yes and no! It depends on the nature of your e-mail campaigns, the subscribers you market your information to, and other numerous factors. Bad campaigns and leads equal poor performance. On the other hand, good e-mail marketing campaigns have potential to generate tons of repeat business, establish a solid reputation, and entice visitors to interact with new developments on your site.

However, which quality directories you select depends on your site’s topic. You aren’t going to want to submit an electrical site to a niche directory specialising in health and beauty. You see?

Truly worthwhile directories are few and far between, which is why I have provided a checklist of some of the hallmarks you would expect to find.

1) They will reject sites on the basis of pre-determined criteria. If a site fails to meet the minimum standard, they will not gain entry.

2) The directory will be human-edited.

3) If there is a fee, you pay for a review (you’re not paying for a link).

4) The design of the site will be of a high standard with sections of the site easy to navigate.

5) The site will have a logical URL structure with clear paths to the various categories.

6) They will perform regular directory ‘housekeeping’ to ensure their index of sites is up-to-date and relevant.

Good directories also have a few other traits not mentioned here. An excellent place to submit your site and kick start your quality link building is Yahoo! Directory. They charge a $299 (US) recurring annual fee but this could be very worthwhile. If you have the money, go for it!

Quality inbound links are a major factor in search engine optimisation, so you’ll obviously want to keea tabs on this. However, not all search engines will disclose the full extent of your link popularity.

It’s a good idea to obtain an account with Google, Live/MSN and Yahoo! Registering for the ‘Webmaster Tools’ areas of these three search engines will allow you to view how many links are pointing to your site from elsewhere, when the engine crawled your pages, if any errors were found, and so on.

Google Webmaster Tools, in particular, provides a plethora of information. Just typing in “link:www.yourdomain.com” to see who’s linking will not cut it anymore. Google is quite secretive with inbound links so you need to register and authenticate your site. Yahoo! on the other hand displays a lot more information on inbound links. Typing in “linkdomain:www.yoursite.com” into the search bar will display both internal and external site information. Google may say you have 15 links, but Yahoo! may say “500?! A big difference!

I am aware of numerous sites that have been penalised for practices such as buying links, duplicate content and link schemes. One site I am aware of, which is a perfectly respectable site in all intensive purposes, was punished after the webmaster used the same content on his other (more popular) site. It spent the best part of 3 years out of the Google index!

In mid 2008, many bloggers (mainly in the SEO and website marketing industry) were slapped down by Google after buying and selling links. Perhaps more interestingly, many of these sites were highly prominent blogs offering Web marketing advice. Just goes to show who you should be listening to!

But what did Google do for many of these sites? They hit ‘em where it hurts: ‘Toolbar PageRank’ (TBPR). Now TBPR is not something you should normally be getting excited about, but for individuals who buy and sell links to try and aid their ranking, it’s the Holy Grail. This is because the higher the TBPR, the higher a link seller can charge. Many of the accused had their PR reduced to PR0! Of course, all hell broke loose, but they shouldn’t have been surprised! Google’s guidelines clearly state buying and selling links to manipulate search results is forbidden. Are you going to argue with the search engine that sends over 60% of traffic to most sites? I’m certainly not.

Read Google’s stance on buying links to boost search ranking

People who buy and sell links to try and rank higher should be running scared. We want to see a level playing field, not “Mr. Money Bags” hogging the top spot because he can afford to buy the most links. This is why Google rewards quality content and will penalise sites that violate its rules. If you create great content, people will link to your site. There is no need to go buying links!