For the small business owner, sometimes it can be hard to justify spending money on a website, especially when budgets are tight and you don’t think you are getting true value for money. However, if you have a website that’s full with high-quality regular content, you could be missing out on generating money from your website that will at the very least make enough to cover basic expenses for your domain and hosting every year…
In this article, our Cheshire web design agency will touch on website generating strategies that will range from completely easy and free to implement to some that will require slightly more technical ability that may require work from your local web developer.
Implement AdSense Into Your Website
AdSense has proven to be a very successful way of generating small, yet consistent streams of venue for any website. According to Google themselves, in 2014 over 2 million websites have integrated AdSense which totalled to Google paying out almost $10 Billion to customers.
Anybody with an email address is eligible to apply for AdSense using the easy-to-use application form but the experts from Google thoroughly check through your website so actually getting the approval to add AdSense can be a little tricky. As a Cheshire web design agency, we do have experience in successfully applying and installing AdSense on your website.
Once you have sailed through the application process, you then have total control on what ad’s appear on your website. You can block ads you don’t want to appear by using the category filters along with choosing where the ads will appear giving you full control. If you are looking for certain ads, you can choose from many of the different Ad types such as text, display, rich, media to name just a few. Every Ad is reviewed to ensure the content is 100% family safe and appropriate for an audience like yours.
(Popular websites such as Mashable & Digg are some of the top websites who generate revenue from implementing Google Adsense)
So you are probably wondering how you generate money right!? Well, over a million advertisers registered with AdSense compete with bidding for ad space so then generate venue on either pay-per-click or per-impressions depending on how the advertisers have bided.
YouTube Advertising
I don’t know about you but I can easily get lost for hours watching anything on YouTube. Do you have a YouTube channel that you use to upload showcase your latest recipes or your latest products? Well chances are you are missing out on some easy revenue.
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google so the more views you generates the more chances you have to generate some real venue. When you are uploading a video, simply select the ‘Monetisation’ tab and choose ‘Monetise my video’. Then you will select which type of ad formats you don’t mind displaying then simply hit ‘Save Changes’. Don’t worry; you can easily edit video’s that are currently on YouTube by clicking ‘Edit’ on your video.
Much like AdSense, users will bid to display their ads on categories that are relevant to their advertisement. In turn, ads will only generate both the advertiser and your business any money when a user watches the full add or engages with the ad by clicking on the link. Within the last three years, YouTube advertising has increased by over 50%.
Again, if you are looking to set up a YouTube channel and want to integrate it onto your website, why not get in touch with your local Cheshire web design agency.
Create Advertising Space
If you are looking to create then sell banner space on your website, look to make the most of the unused areas of your website on the homepage. Typically, any website looking to sell advertising space will designate a small column down one side of the website or look to break up sections of content.
To find advertisers, you could join different networks such as BuySellAds, which could attract ads that may not be relevant or suitable for your website or you could look to do some self-promotion on your own website and expect to be contacted by visitors who want to buy ad space, and then look to negotiate a fixed fee over a contract. Abersoch Life, a website we recently designed and built have been really success selling advertising space to local businesses in the area.
This can be a successful strategy can bring a steady stream of revenue but it can become tedious if advertisers don’t renew their contracts and you are left with empty space trying to attract new clients. It website really comes down to the type of industry and the amount of traffic your website generates to bring some success.
Create An Online Store
Although the purpose of this article was introduce ways of generating money without the need to spend it, there are ways of getting round implementing an online store on your website without having to pay a fortune.
I totally understand that for most businesses, you won’t have the budget or even a purpose to build an E-Commerce store but if you are a local sandwich store or a local artist, it can become relatively straight forward to promote your products on your website with easy ways to sell them and generate more income from your website.
With PayPal, WorldPay and Sage Payments or the popular shopify to name just a selected few; for the adventurous web developers out there you can easily install the correct functionality to so visitors can easily shop and buy products using your store.
The conclusion
I’m sure somebody could expand my list even further but I only really wanted to touch on the basic, yet most cost-effective approaches. If you would like help implementing any of these techniques onto your website, or if you are looking for a new fully responsive website, why not get in touch with your local Cheshire web design agency? Why not give us a call on 01565 653616 or fire a quick email tom@untitledtm.com and pop in for a natter over a coffee.