Whatever your biggest motivation for starting your business, you want to make your life easier. You want to make it wealthier, happier, freer, more comfortable... but also easier to manage.
That doesn't go too well with running a website, even a small one.
Being an entrepreneur is difficult, especially at the beginning when you'll be doing almost everything yourself. Even if you hire freelancersfor coding or design, you'll still have to manage their work, set deadlines and implement what they give you.
Your website isn't a second job; it's a second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth job.
Just as you'll be doing multiple jobs though, so you should also have multiple revenues.
Your website should be earning money with pay-per-click ads, with CPM ads and with affiliate ads too. Combining those different methods is the best way to ensure that you make the most money possible from all of your users.
The readers who don't buy your affiliate products might click an AdSense unit. Those who don't click an AdSense unit will bring in a little cash from your CPM units. One way or another, everyone pays.
Or everyone makes an advertiser pay, and that still leaves your business vulnerable. If advertising rates crash - and we've seen that happen before online - your income will suffer.
That's why it's a good idea to look for ways to make money from your website that go beyond advertising.
eBooks are always one option. Your website supplies information for free. Gather some of your most valuable information in one place and some people will pay to avoid searching your site for it. Your website will then act as a free sample that encourages people to buy.
Merchandise is another option. Once you've created a loyal community around your Web presence, you could offer your readers t-shirts, coffee mugs and sweaters decorated with your logo. Not everyone will buy, but some will, giving you an additional revenue stream with little extra effort.
And of course, you can also create unique products of your own related to the content of your site.
Once your Internet business is up and running, you should be looking for as many different ways as possible to earn money from it. That won't make your life easier, but it will make it wealthier.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
August 12, 2009 09:35 AM
it's true. the more you diversify the better off you get. I use a combination of adsense, affiliate programs, and clickbank ads on my site http://freeonlineshoppinginformation.com thanks Joel
August 12, 2009 10:45 AM
Joel -
This is great advice. I coach a business funnel that calls for congruent, automated multiple income streams and breaking this concept down to it smallest parts is in perfect alignment with the advice you offer here.
Great stuff!
James
August 12, 2009 01:00 PM
Great article.
As one how is just learning the ropes in generating income from websites and/or blogs I've been seeing that all those "make money easy" programs are mostly just hogwash.
In regards to ads I'm quite familiar with AdSense but I'm not clear in what the difference is between AdSense and CPM units...
;-)
Love the blog.
August 12, 2009 01:27 PM
Hi Joel, I just subscribed to your blog and I think this is a great article. It may be geared more towards the beginner crowd though, I would think most people who have read your book are much more advanced.
August 12, 2009 09:34 PM
Hi Joel,
Easy-calc.com is relatively new with an opt-in subscriber base. We have a few Excel products for sale and we send out free Excel tips to sunscribers. We haven't thought of bundling the tips into an e-book before but we are certainly thinking of it now. We also use AdSense for some income. Thanks for the ideas and we enjoyed the DVDs we purchased from you to get our website started. Multiple income streams is the way to go.
August 12, 2009 11:15 PM
Joel, you are absolutely brilliant! Make sure you tell your teenagers I said that!
August 13, 2009 04:53 AM
Hi
Agnes Ambrus here...
If you are familiar with Clickbank, or even if you are not but you want to make profits online, then you will want to check this out ASAP ...
While I like Clickbank, and they are a great marketplace... they are limited to many restrictions to sell products or earn affiliate commissions...
Well, there is a GREAT NEW SERVICE now...
It is a new FREE marketplace where you can sell any product you want.
Yours OWN product...
- OR - (the best part)
You can become an INSTANT Affiliate for ANY item in their HUGE marketplace.
It is called PayDotCom.com!
Did I mention it is 100% FREE to Join!
This site is going to KILL all other marketplaces and I by now, almost EVERY SINGLE SERIOUS online marketer has an account with PayDotCom.com
So get yours now and see how much they offer...
OH! - Also, they have their won affiliate program now that pays you COLD HARD cash just for sharing the site with people like I am doing with you...
They give you cool tools like BLOG WIDGETS, and they even have an advertising program to help you get traffic to your site.
If you want an ARMY of affiliates to sell your products for you, they also allow you to have Free placement in their marketplace!
Even better... If your product becomes one of the Top 25 products in its category in the marketplace (not that hard to do)...
...then you will get Free advertising on the Blog Widget which is syndicated on THOUSANDS of sites World Wide and get Millions of impressions per month.
So, what are you waiting for...
PayDotCom ROCKS!
Get your FREE account now...
Thanks,
Agnes Ambrus
P.S. - Make sure to get your Account NOW while it is Free to join.
August 13, 2009 08:49 PM
Wow it's no wonder maintaining a website is more than the first and second job. With so many revenues to maintain, it takes quite a bit to keep track of it all. But I'm wondering if it puts users off the website when they see so many ads?
August 15, 2009 10:46 AM
Hi
As a newbie Internet Marketer - this info is so useful. Thanks for the great content.
Barbara Harvey
August 15, 2009 05:14 PM
Great post Joel, creating multiple income streams is what internet marketing success is about. I like the fact that you can take one product or article and turn it into 4 - 5 different methods to profit from such as webinars, audios, videos, resell rights, your own product, podcast, affiliate program, forum topic etc, the possibilities are endless.
August 16, 2009 12:47 AM
Check out my website guys if you want tips and resources to MAKE your blog/website grow in popularity fast. Best tips and resources are all summed up for you there. :) Just cluck my name for the link to it. Good luck!
September 2, 2009 11:06 AM
Good post Joel, People that just start Affiliate Marketing usually don't know the time and effort it takes to make a substantial income
September 8, 2009 08:15 PM
It's encouraging to read about ways that a blogger can diversify income. Having worked on my blog for a while, I understand the idea that it is a job, but that some of the additional income streams can make the job easier.
September 17, 2009 05:00 AM
Hi Joel,
I agree to you completely about diversification of your income. It's the most important key in the business. I believe that it would improve the returns if you have the traffic. Where does that come from????
LOL!
September 20, 2009 06:31 PM
It's very hard to creating more and more revenue because of the competition, every day a thousand of blogs and websites are borned !!
September 29, 2009 02:06 PM
Hi everyone,
I started a couple of years ago in this line of work, well I say work, not really more as a hobbie. I have designed several websites and started of thinking that Google adsense is the only revenue stream. Wrong! I only discoved this, really discovered this a couple of months ago.
I use google adsense, kontera, clickbank products and now I am very interested in getting paydotcom's widget. I made a new website selling domains and hosting plans hoping to make it big in a few years time with subscriptions? What do you all think?
I am not yet making enough to quite my 9-5 job, but hope to do so not to long into the future.
My question is were to go from here? Anyone have good links or blogs where I can read a bit more? I found this and thought it was very helpful, but want more.
Let me know if you have any advise.
Thanks
October 1, 2009 08:45 PM
I think whether you're trying to make money online or offline diversification of your revenue is extremely important. You never know when something might pop up or change and wipe out one of your income streams. It's no different than investing - spread your money around so you're not hit if one investment tanks.
October 9, 2009 03:24 PM
Affiliate links - done
Adsense - done
CPM - done
eBook - will look into it
Merchandise?.. Absolutely BRILLIANT!
Thanks Joel! Every post of yours is a goldmine of new ideas :D