Making money from your website

We’ve already posted about affiliate networks and AdSense but we’re only scratching the surface – there are plenty more ways to make money online.   As you’d expect, some are more ethical than others.  Here’s an amusing list of them.  It’s funny but I think it’s also useful too.  Enjoy!
101 ways to make money online

Another good way to earn money from your blog is to sign up for Google AdSense. They’ll scan your site to analyse its content and then put relevant adverts. Sometimes it works better than other times but it’s most definitely worth a try.
Google AdSense

You can also make money by selling text link ads (TLA), but be very careful as Google can and does penalise for this. If you want to keep in Google’s good books, I recommend you don’t do this.

Once you’ve set up your Google account, which is free, they also give you access to Google Analytics and various other webmaster tools. Google pays regularly, and now they’re even paying in sterling rather than dollars. I know Google comes in for a lot of criticism over some of the things they do but it’s a very brave (or foolish) webmaster who ignores them.  Don’t forget to read all of Google’s terms and conditions – for example you must have an acceptable privacy policy.

Don’t forget to set up channels in your AdSense account so you know which pages or sites are bringing in the money.

It’s a nuisance to be a member of loads of different affiliate programmes where each merchant runs their own in-house. It’s much easier to join some of the big affiliate networks. That way anything you earn from the various merchants you promote is accumulated each month and you get a cheque or, more usually, a BACS transfer once a month. It’s all very easy and most of the big networks are free to join.

Here are the ones I use and recommend:

Affiliate Window is an excellent network. They have loads of great merchants and they pay regularly on time. We’ve had no problems with them over many years.
AffiliateWindow

These days they charge £5 to join but they refund it to you when you start earning commissions. Presumably it’s just a charge to stop time-wasters and keep their admin costs down. Highly recommended!

Affiliate Future is another great one! Again, highly recommended. Lots of excellent merchants and no problems with payments.
AffiliateFuture

Trade Doubler is good but I find their user interface a bit difficult to use and it seems to get more so as time goes on. I’d still recommend it, but it’s not my favourite these days.

Share a Sale is good if you want to target the North American market – the US and Canada. I’ve not earned enough yet to receive a payment, so I can’t personally recommend them. I’ve heard good things about them, though, and will certainly continue with them for the time being.
shareasale.com

I absolutely DO NOT recommend Commission Junction (CJ). They’re known to cheat both their publishers and advertisers. See CJ Sucks!

There are lots of other affiliate networks around, but I think this is enough to be going on with for now. Have fun making money while you sleep.