Marketing For Dummies
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If you can successfully execute effective marketing strategies to drive traffic, and lots of it, you can start to monetize your website through paid advertising. The best way to get advertisers for your site is, of course, to build a site worth advertising on because of the interesting content, experience, or community that you’ve built. The next best way is to align with an affiliate network, which is an intermediary for ads just like you may have intermediaries for your product distribution.

The trick to getting any of the following monetization methods to pay off is simple: Have good content that’s worth visiting your site to get. The best content is not only emotionally relevant, but it’s also actionable. Most people don’t have time to read websites just because they’re there; people read articles and content when it provides a direct value that they need at the time. Quite often, that great content answers a how‐to question for personal or professional goals.

You can expect some various payment plans from affiliate networks. The most common include pay per impression and pay per click.

Pay per impression

This payment method accrues income by the number of times the ad is displayed on your site. Every time a unique visitor views your ad, that is considered an impression. According to Monetize Pros, the average payments are about $2.80 per 1,000 displays for display ads on your site, $5.00 per 1,000 displays for ads within emails, and about $3.00 per 1,000 displays for ads aligned with videos.

You can place your own ads on sites you think are relevant to your business or see what ads are going for on popular sites at BuySellAds. Currently, the cost per thousand impressions ranged from $0.25 to $8.00.

Pay per click

With this method, you get paid every time someone clicks on the ad on your site. Amounts actually paid out can be higher than paying for each 1,000 displays. The range varies greatly, so do some homework before deciding which method works best for you.

As companies in the web marketing space come and go quickly due to the increasing presence of groups like Google, it’s best to do you own search and explore worthy options that come up.

The best affiliate network is one that focuses on the same genre of business, ­product, category, or customer needs that you do. If you’re offering a nutritional product and want to attract ads about nutritional products that supplement yours, look for affiliates that have a presence in this same space.

Google AdSense is another option worth looking into for getting ads on your website. Essentially, Google AdSense places sponsored ads on websites it determines to be relevant to the advertiser through a series of algorithms. You apply for inclusion in the AdSense program and get a code you can very easily add to the HTML code of your site.

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Jeanette McMurtry, MBA, is a global authority, columnist, and keynote speaker on consumer behavior and psychology-based marketing strategies. Her clients have included consumer and B2B enterprises ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 100 brands. A marketing thought leader, she has contributed to Forbes, CNBC, Data & Marketing Association, DM News, and Target Marketing magazine.

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