57 Real Ways to Make Money From Your Website

How To Make Money With A Website: The 53 Best Ways

In the past, I primarily focused on Google Adsense for my own niche sites. However, since I first started building sites, I’ve found that there are tons of Adsense alternatives. 

In addition, there are lots of ways to make money from your website besides just advertisements.  I’m going to definitely show you how you can get advertisers to pay you money through display ad networks; however, I’ll also share lots of other unique ways to turn your website into a real business (i.e. money).

When I first start a niche website, I’m not usually going to pick a particular monetization strategy until I pick a niche and keyword.   Sometimes, I’ll think that I would like to build an email list and monetize that list with affiliate marketing offers or my own products.  

However, this is not set in stone, and could change as I pick my niche OR as I test different strategies on the same site.

As you contemplate how you should make money from your new niche site, I will show how many options are out there.  

First, I’m going to list the general ways to monetize (categories like CPA, contextual ads, etc) and then I’ll number off the specific networks or options within each of those general categories.

Below I will share the 53 different ways that you can make money from your website.

Pay Per Click Contextual Ad Networks

Pay per click ad networks literally pay you when someone clicks an ad on your website; whether or not they go and buy anything.  This a great way to start making money online, from your website.  Most of these are extremely easy to add to your website as well.

You just sign up and get approved, then copy and paste a short snippet of code onto your website.

These are networks like Google Adsense that have ads displayed based on the content of your site.  Typically you will get paid per click from these types of contextual networks.  Here are a few (there are likely many many more):

1. Google Adsense

Most good looking websites should have no problem getting an Adsense account. This is a personal favorite of mine for it’s ease of implementation and relatively passive income for someone just getting started. 

Here’s an example of a Google Adsense ad:

2. Media.net

Media.net handles all the ads for Bing, Yahoo, and many other advertisers.  I’ve had a few people claim that they are able to make more money online with Media.net than Google Adsense.  

Here’s an example of what Media.net looks like.

3. Infolinks

4. Vibrant Media

5. GumGum (In-image ads)

6. Chitika

7. Clicksor.com (both eCPM and pay per click).

8. Pulse360

In reality, there are many more pay per click networks that you can use.  However, these are some of the top options. 

CPM Advertising Networks

Rather than paying on a per click basis, these ad networks pay on a per view basis (usually a dollar amount based on 1000 pageviews).  Most of these networks require that you have a large visitor base to be approved to their network; therefore most of these won’t work for a smaller niche sites.

Your ability to get into these advertising opportunities typically depends on how many pageviews your website is generating.

So, if you have a website that is getting tons of traffic from Pinterest for example, you can monetize that traffic through some of the below CPM networks.

9. Ezoic Ads

Ezoic ads are display ads that also have an ad testing engine built in.  In other words, Ezoic actively tests the ad placement and size of your ads to ensure that you make the most money possible.  You can check out Ezoic ads right here.

10. Mediavine

Mediavine is also an excellent display ad network if you have at least 30,000 sessions a month.  These ads have great RPMs and have helped several webmasters I know increase the overall earnings of their sites.

11. Conversant Media

12. Tribal Fusion

(500,000 unique visitors per month required).

13. Criteo

14. Adthrive Media

If you have a website getting lots of visitors (over 100,000 pageviews a month), then AdThrive is an excellent option.   I know of several people that were able to dramatically increase the earnings of the website by switching from Google Adsense to AdThrive.

15. Monumetric

Another reputable display ad network for sites that have high traffic levels.

16. ePom.com

17. Adblade.com

18. Advertising.com (part of AOL)

19. Burst Media (25,000 monthly page views)

20. CPX Interactive

21. Technorati Media

22. Repixel

Repixel connects you with advertisers that are looking to serve Facebook Ads to people who have recently visited your website. For example, if you blog about golf, then golf shops, golf apps, golf clubs, etc., would probably pay you really good money for letting them tag your visitors to serve ads to.

The beauty of Repixel is it works in the background so it’s purely incremental revenue to any sort of site monetization tactic you’re already using. You can read more about Repixel here.

There are a TON more CPM ad networks out there, this is just a small sample.  You need to find one that fits your niche or works best for your site.

CPA (Cost Per Action) Networks

These types of ads pay a fixed dollar amount based on an action taken (like an email submit form filled out).  Many of these affiliate marketing networks listed below offer both affiliate commissions (% of the actual purchase price) AND CPA opportunities.  There are also a LOT more ad networks out there than I could possibly ever list in this category – this is just a few.

In general, these are great options if you are generating leads for businesses.  A classic example is if you have people interested in refinancing their home.  You might get paid $50 or more for each name and email address that you are able to refer to potential lenders through some of the below networks.

23. Neverblue Media

24. Clickbooth

25. MaxBounty.com

26. PeerFly.com

27. CPAway.com

28. Adscend Media

29. ShareaSale.com

30. CPAlead.com

About a thousand others…

Affiliate Networks

An affiliate network pays out a fixed amount or a percentage of the sale amount.  As an affiliate marketer, you refer someone through your link and get paid if someone actually buys something. As mentioned, some of these networks bleed together; meaning some of these affiliate networks pay out on CPA offers as well.  

Affiliate marketing is a huge business and it’s a great way to make money online.  

31. Amazon Associates

This can be a good option because you get paid no matter what the person buys on Amazon within 24 hours (not just what you referred them to).  If you happen to building a niche site, then I think this is an ideal option to get started with.

Amazon has millions of products that you could write reviews on.  In addition, so many people are comfortable buying products on Amazon (and may even have a Prime account), that it makes it really easy to refer buyers to Amazon.

32. Commission Junction (CJ.com)

33. Clickbank

34. SkimLinks

(This is actually an in-content ad network, but it pays out based on actual sales made.  So its not a per-click basis, but does display ads automatically based on the content of your site.  Its a pretty cool option actually that I’ve used and like).

35. LinkShare

36. ClixGalore

37. eBay Partner Network

(Actually pays on a per click basis – but the amount you earn goes up or down based on the history of actual sales you’ve generated.  So if lots of people buy through your links, you get more per click.)

38. AvantLink.com

39. Rakuten

40. PepperJamNetwork.com

41. JVzoo.com

42. WarriorPlus.com

Direct Affiliate Programs

Thousands (yes thousands) of companies offer their own affiliate programs that are NOT listed in any network.  These can be harder to find, but often pay very well. 

However, if you are in a certain niche, you will know the types of products that your visitors might be interested in.  As a result, just do a quick Google search to see if those companies offer an affiliate program.  Just type in “company name” + affiliate program, so something similar to find results.

Here are just 2 examples of companies that run their affiliate program in house:

43. HostGator

They have an affiliate  program here.

44. Link Whisper

This is my own software product that makes building internal links for your website much faster and easier.

Independent affiliate programs is probably the biggest category because you can also contact companies directly and ask to start an affiliate program with them or otherwise work out a deal with them directly.

Sell Ad Space Directly

This is a big market as well with lots of options.  You can contact people directly on your own or use an ad manager/network to help.  Here’s just one option:

45. BuySellAds.com

Create Your Own Product

The most profitable way to monetize your site is usually going to be with your own product.  Obviously the kinds of products you can create are only limited by your imagination. Here’s just a few common options:

46. Create a video training course

You can see an example of a video training course that is all about building a website from scratch and making money.  It’s called the Authority Hacker Site System.

47. Create an eBook

 I was able to self publish a book and get it to $100 a day in earnings in a relatively short period of time.

In addition, you can “publish” your book on your own website.  A digital book can really just be a PDF file that you deliver to people once they pay.  I know of several people doing really well publish small books and selling them for $47 or more on their own niche websites.

48. Create a membership area or paid forum

49. Create a piece of software

I have created a couple of different software programs, and I can tell you this can be an excellent way to make money from your website.   I owned and operated Long Tail Pro for 5 years before selling it.  I currently own and operate Link Whisper as well.

50. Create other tools, services, or information.

51. Launch and sell a product on Amazon.

Sponsored Posts

This is a very common way for bloggers to make money. 

In a nutshell, brands will ask bloggers to write an article that reviews their product or that highlights their product in some way.  The brands will pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars per post.

52. Sponsored Posts

This is a great way for brands to get in front of the audiences that are trying to target.  And this a great way to make money blogging. 

However, it’s important that you notify readers somewhere on the article page that it is a sponsored post and that you received compensation for writing it.  In addition, you need to make sure any links are “no followed”, and Google will then be okay with the sponsored post.

Sell Text Links

Obviously this won’t be right for everyone and many consider questionable.  I personally would never sell links on my website, and I strongly advise you against the practice.  Google can and will penalize your website so that it doesn’t appear in the search engines if you are caught participating in buying or selling links.

But there’s a huge marketplace.  Here’s just a few places you can sell links:

53. TextLinkBrokers.com

54. Digital Point Forum

55. Warrior Forum

Donations

When all else fails, you can ask for money :).  Many sites have done this in the past with varying degrees of success.  Wikipedia is probably the most well known site that operates 100% on the donations of users.

56. Ask for donations

Sell Your Site

Even if you never monetize your site, you might be able to sell out for a pretty penny!  If you build the traffic of your site or otherwise have an audience, there is value there.  If the traffic is high enough, you could sell for a lot (think Twitter kind of traffic…).  And of course, people buy brand new sites all the time that have no traffic or audience based on design and niche (but usually for very cheap).

57. Sell Your Site

If you are interested in either buying or selling a website, I recommend that you check out MotionInvest.com for smaller content websites.

Overview and Your Thoughts

To be honest, there are probably several other ways that you can make money with a website, but this is a good start!  And most certainly there are thousands of other ad networks or affiliate programs out there that you can use. 

But for the most part all your options for how to make money from a website are going to fit in these main categories covered: Pay Per Click Networks, CPM Ad Networks, CPA Networks, Affiliate Networks, Direct Affiliate Programs, Selling Ad Space, Creating a Product, Sponsored posts, Sell Text Links, Donations, or selling your site.

Overall, I hope that you’ve found this list helpful as you begin your journey of building, growing, and making income from your website. The amount of money you can make from blog posts or your website in general usually comes down to your own marketing efforts. 

If you can attract a big enough audience or traffic source, then the ability to start earning money is very real.  This truly can be a legitimate work-from-home opportunity.

I would love to hear your thoughts!  Did I miss any major money making networks or methods?  Let’s discuss below.

By Spencer Haws