How Websites Make Money

Dear Boss,

I’ve noticed that you spend a lot of time outside of what you do best just trying to bring in new customers.  We’ve got a pretty good team here, but they could use some training and team building. 

They need to hear all of those ideas you come up with.  You know, the ones that would completely supercharge what we do if you only had time to act on them. 

That new equipment you’ve been wanting would make a big difference too.  I guess I’ve realized that what this company needs most is you.

So here’s what I would like to do.  In order for you to concentrate on what we need most, I’m going to step up my game and starting generating a new stream of revenue into our business.  I realize that my position has been entirely overhead until now and that needs to change. 

From now on, I will not only pay for myself, but I will work hard to create the additional income we need in order for you to function in your strengths.  You worry about the important things that will take this company forward and I’ll build our customer base and keep the cash coming in. 

I’m excited about this and I see some serious progress in our future.

Happy to Help,

The Website

The 3 Products of Hiring Your Website

Availability

Your website gives your company constant availability to customers.  Because the internet is always on all over the planet, your customers can access your company around the clock and around the globe.  In order to capitalize on all this attention, you must fill your site with high quality, consumable content – not just advertising.

Scaleability

Your website gives your company the ability to scale itself to any size.  The internet frees you from the limitation of location.  Through your website, you can do business with anyone anywhere.  In order to capitalize on your scaleability, you must offer products and services that are physically or electronically deliverable.

Saleability

Your website gives your company the ability to sell products and services anytime and anywhere someone wishes to buy them.  Whatever your business is, you can now augment it with an additional line of products.  In order to capitalize on your saleability, you must look for the confluence of motivation and opportunity.  Then offer a product that solves a problem for your customer.

Organize and Utilize

There are currently over 644 million active websites on the internet and most of them don’t make money for two reasons.

  • Most websites don’t make money because they are Under Utilized.  People used to procure a standard set of items when they started a business.  On opening day there were business cards, letterhead, envelopes, and brochures of some kind.  With the advent of the web we added a website and an email address.  However,  like the boxes of unused business cards and brochures that accumulate in our offices, our websites receive basic information and then go unused.
  • Most websites don’t make money because they are Under Organized.  Even when we manage to include a quantity of useful content, too often we make it overly difficult for our customers to consume it.  Just like with business cards and brochures, we give all of our attention to the aesthetics and neglect the functionality.  As long as it looks cool, we let it go and move on to the next pressing issue.

How Websites Make Money

So how do we turn this around?  How do we get our websites to actually contribute to the bottom line of our companies?  Well, there are 3 main ways that websites make money.  They are House Offers, Affiliate Deals, and Advertising.  Let’s take a closer look at how these work.

House Offers

A house offer is when your company sells a product under your brand.  This can be a physical product, an information product, or an experience.  It can be something that you created, produced, manufactured, or sourced (bought wholesale and resold).  This is the option we think of most when we think of selling something.  It’s also the option that offers you the most options and the strongest branding, because you control every aspect of the process from design and production to sale and delivery.

Affiliate Deals

An affiliate deal is when you recommend that people buy a product from another company and that company pays you a commission on each sale.  These day most large companies have affiliate programs.  You can generally find links to them in the footers of their sites.  Each company will have its own affiliate requirements like a minimum amount of monthly traffic to your site, exclusivity (meaning that your affiliate deal with them means that you won’t be an affiliate for any of their competitors), or a minimum yearly sales volume.

Advertising

Advertising is when other companies purchase space on your site to advertise their products and services.  In order for a company to consider advertising on your site, you’ll have to prove that you have a large amount of consistent traffic.  However, you can always begin by advertising your own company and other companies you may own.  You can also cut deals with companies whose products and services are good companions to yours.  Offer to run their ads on your site, if they run your ads on their sites.

OK, that’s the basic idea of how your website can make money.  Now, let me ask you some questions:

  • Are you taking advantage of the Availability, Scaleability, and Saleability of your website?
  • How are you currently Utilizing your website?
  • Is your website properly organized so that customers can find what they need quickly and efficiently?
  • What House Offers could you make?
  • Could you create an information product that your customers would find valuable?
  • Could you source or produce a line of products to sell alongside your current products or services?
  • Do you have any Affiliate Deals?
  • What products or services are compatible with yours?
  • Is there any Advertising space on your website?
  • Could you benefit from advertising something you do?
  • Is there another company who would benefit from advertising on your site and could you do a swap?

Wednesday I will discuss how to find and secure affiliate deals.  If you’ve never thought about being an affiliate, this could open up some new options for you.

Summary
How Websites Make Money
Article Name
How Websites Make Money
Description
Does your website create income for your business? If so, how? A lot of people ask me how to make websites make money, so I wrote this article to explain.
Author
Share This