Web Marketing All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition
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If you can attract website visitors for your business, you can turn that traffic into money — monetize — without marketing affiliate products or attempting to sell your own. Here are a few examples of monetizing traffic:

  • Google AdSense ads: AdSense is still one of the most popular methods of advertising on the Internet today. Within a few minutes, Google supplies a bit of code that you add to your site, and you begin making money immediately when someone clicks the provided links.

    Google makes it especially easy for you by instantaneously figuring out what ads to display on your page that have the most potential of being clicked. Get started by adding a Google AdSense account.

    AdSense ads don’t typically produce large revenue for small websites with low visitation. So, to make any real money with AdSense, be prepared to build a site with lots of pages like the example at Leadership Articles, where literally hundreds of pages have been optimized for high search engine–results positioning. Notice the Google ads at the top.

    The whole intention with AdSense ads is to drive your traffic to other people’s websites. So, it’s usually not a good idea to display AdSense ads on pages where you’re attempting to sell your own product!

  • Traditional banner advertising: When you work directly with an advertising client to display her ads on your website, you’re using traditional banner advertising. Traditional banner ads on your site include

    • Cost per click (CPC): When you use this method, it’s up to you to track how many times visitors to your website click an ad’s link.

      Google Analytics is free statistics-tracking software that allows you to track what are called banner ad exits, appropriately named because visitors will be exiting your website through the banner ad. To get an in-depth explanation of how to use Google Analytics to track banner ad usage, go to Google Analytics.

      Then, you report that number of clicks to your advertising client. You decide the amount you charge per click. You can have this type of advertising prepaid; for example, 3 cents per click for an inventory of 10,000 clicks, for a total of $300.

      If your advertising client wants to produce her own ad (which is usually the case), you’d better hope that she creates an ad that attracts clicks, or her ad will just be taking up space on your website. Be a coach to your advertising client by offering ideas for how to best promote to your website traffic.

    • Cost per 1,000 page views (CPM): With this method, you don’t rely on the quality of ads for you to get paid. An advertiser simply pays you in advance to showcase his ad on a page of your website for a certain number of times that the webpage is accessed by visitors.

      Typically, CPM rates range between $4 and $10 per 1,000 page views, but prices can easily be higher for niche audiences.

      The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) website provides a display of the most common banner ad sizes. With IAB media company members being responsible for almost 90 percent of all online advertising in the United States, this resource is certainly the industry standard for banner ad best practices.

    • Pay per call and pay per lead: These methods of advertising have been gaining popularity over the past couple of years and are usually managed by third-party companies, such as Ingenio Pay Per Call, and might include using banner or text ads to get your visitors to take action with their promotions.

      The great appeal with a company such as Ingenio is that you don’t pay a dime until you get a phone call from a lead.

    • Call per action (CPA): With this method, the advertiser has to pay only when a sale is made. This is the ultimate form of paid advertising because the pressure is really on the promotional agency to close the deal so that its efforts get rewarded. CPA advertising is a lot like having your own affiliate program because the third party is paid only when you get a sale.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

John Arnold is the author of E-Mail Marketing For Dummies and coauthor of Mobile Marketing For Dummies.

Ian Lurie is President of Portent, Inc.

Marty Dickinson is President of HereNextYear.

Elizabeth Marsten is Director of Search Marketing at Portent, Inc.

Michael Becker is the Managing Director of North America at the Mobile Marketing Association.

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