Monetization: The Right and Wrong Way

Monetization: The Right and Wrong Way

Everyone on the web tries to monetize at some point: after all, web sites are a costly endeavor and everyone wants to at least break even.
However, with so many options for monetizing, many internet marketers hamstring themselves from the start by picking bad products and placing ads poorly.  These mistakes often cause potential customers to leave the site before any sales can be made.
Doing it right is easy, it just takes some experience.  Here’s how I monetize my sites without scaring away my customers.

1. Pick a Relevant Product

I have seen dozens of friends fail at internet marketing (primarily affiliate marketing) because they cannot find a product relevant to the information they provide.  I even had a friend who created an affiliate site to sell hundreds of products he selected at random from ClickBank’s marketplace!
This is foolish.  Don’t consider monetizing until you already have targeted content and traffic, and then find products that are closely related to the information you are providing.

2. Write Honest Reviews

Beginner affiliate marketers think that writing their own sales copy is a legitimate way to generate sales.  Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you have no experience writing sales copy, keep in mind that vendors of “high ticket” items pay top dollar for professional copywriters.  An easy way to generate affiliate sales for internet marketers with niche sites is review marketing.
All you need to do is pick 2-3 products, write a brief review outlining the pros and cons of each, and make a recommendation as to which the customer should buy.
Pros and cons? Yes, this means you should buy the products you are going to sell 99% of the time.  Remember that if you provide customers with false information, they will not come back.
Bonus Tip: Customers are more likely to buy the first and third products you list than the second.  List your “big ticket” item first, your worst item second, and your cheap-but-effective item third.  It works!

3. Don’t Over-Advertise

If you have more than 2 ads on a page, you’re probably guilty of this.  People who see too many ads will realize that you are just trying to milk them for money rather than provide them with quality information, and will run for the hills.  Put your information in the limelight.  Personally, I like to place one ad on the sidebar near the top of the page, and one near the bottom of the page.

4. Use an Opt-In List

Former customers are future customers.  Keep in touch with anyone who is a potential or former customer and send them site updates and new products you may be selling.  I like to send at least 3 e-mails per week, 85% of which are informational or site-related only.  Only 10-15% of your broadcasts should be related to sales pitches.  The higher percentage of sales pitches you use, the more likely your customers are to unsubscribe from your list.
More Info on Opt-In Lists:

5. Split Test!

For some reason, people have forgotten the value of the split test.  Always run two parallel campaigns to see which generates better results.  When one starts killing the other, drop the one that’s lagging and come up with a new one!  By constantly changing your copy and your ads you’ll constantly improve your conversion rates.

6. Keep it Clean

Keep your site looking clean.  If an ad doesn’t fit with your design or content, drop it immediately.  It won’t convert and it will cause customers to think twice about coming back.

7. Quality First!

The natural order of internet marketing is quality first, then money.  If you stop providing quality content when you monetize, you’ll destroy a valuable resource and lose most (if not all) of your followers.

Thanks guys, hope this helps! See you next time you can comment below and leave your views