A Website exists for a reason. That seems axiomatic, but the fact is that many Website owners lose site of that fundamental fact. Before taking on any Web project, I always ask future Web entrepreneurs, "What is the purpose of your Website, and how do you plan to make money off it?"

For many businesses, the answer is that the Website exists primarily to promote the core business. Whether you are a plumber, a builder, an insurance broker, or any other kind of business - the fact is that in the 21^st Century the Web is the new main street and Google is the new Yellow Pages. If you aren't on the Web, you start life with a severe disadvantage. Not only can people not find you, when they do find you they don't respect you. Having a Website means being a real business.

Many business owners spend a lot of time and money on their Websites, and they focus on doing everything the right way. They write articles to attract visitors to their site. The articles act as Google bait, helping them score search engine placement. The articles also help build and extend brand image, making the business seem more knowledgeable, and more trustworthy. They write blogs to make a more personal connection to their potential customers. They include helpful links that would be of interest to their potential customers, and include lots of FAQs to make users come back often for more information.

Real world businesses, however, often find themselves attracting attention from people who are too remote to ever actually become customers. For example, a Yoga instructor in Orlando finds herself getting tons of visits from folks all over the country. That is great - except how can she benefit from that fact? The attention her site generates helps get better search engine placement, and that is a good thing for getting in front of potential students. But, how can that traffic help her make money off people who are way too far away to take Yoga classes?

One answer is to expand the site into selling merchandise online. We aren't going to focus on that in this blog. Selling things online means transitioning into eCommerce, and that can be expensive and time consuming.

Rather, we are going to focus on making money off your site using what is called affiliate marketing. An affiliate marketing arrangement is where a publisher of content puts an ad on his or her site, and then gets paid either on a per click basis (Google ads work this way), on a conversion basis (if the user visits the advertised site and buys something, you get a commission), or on a per impression basis (a certain fee every so many hundreds or thousands of times the ad is displayed).

I use Google Ads on some sites, but to be honest, I'm not a big fan. They are not pretty, and are also not particularly popular. But, there are a lot of affiliate options that you can sign up for on your own.

The first step is to find vendors with affiliate programs that you can work with. Some of them will manage their own affiliate programs, others will work through exchanges like Linkshare which do the work for them. Visit some vendors you are interested in and look for links that say things like - "Affiliates" or "Become an Affiliate."

Figure out how the sign up processes work for the vendors of choice, and then register with them. They will need information like your Tax ID, address, contact name, payment preference, etc. Be very, very careful of sites that offer you a link to put on your site, but ask for no information from you. If they don't sign you up and know who you are, how are you going to get paid? Some vendors make it look like they have an affiliate program, but then you never see a check. Don't fall for that. If you expect to get paid, then expect to provide information on your business.

After you have signed up, and your site has been approved, you will (usually) be given a choice of banner ads to put on your site. In the case of a commission on sales, each ad will usually need to have a specific link that will track traffic from your site to theirs. Many affiliate programs today are commission-based, so you won't get paid unless the customer buys something.

An example of what I mean is putting a link attached to ads that looks like this: http://www.coolvendor.com/mybusinessname33123

The extension after the ‘/' would be (often) the name of your business and some kind of unique number. When visitors to your site click on a banner to visit the vendor, the vendor's site tracks the origin based on that link ID. That is the secret to getting paid in most cases - having the right link for the banners.

Since so many affiliate plans these days are commission-based, some effort on your part is normally required. If all you do is hang a few ads on your site, don't expect much in the way of results. To really make this work, you need to follow these steps:

1) Pick vendors with products you know well enough to blog/write about. People land on your site looking for information. To monetize those eyeballs, you usually need them to click on products and buy them. That means you need to actively recommend those products to your site visitors. Putting up a banner ad just isn't enough. They'll see it and then just keep on going. On the other hand, a blog all about how the latest product from Acme, Inc. is the best thing since sliced Wonder Bread will encourage the Website visitor to actually click the offered link and go see more about the product. If they buy it, then you get paid. You are, then, a sales rep for your chosen vendors. Pick products you believe in, and then sell those products on your Website. If you owned a physical store you would expect to sell the products on your shelves, that same idea holds true online.

2) Don't be a mindless shill. Okay, you need to sell products by providing meaningful information about them. That is not the same thing as being a shill. Visitors to your site need to think of you as an expert. They need to value your opinion, or else they won't follow your advice. If your blogs are nothing more than, "Blah, blah, blah, buy this so I get 50 bucks!" then who is going to listen to that? Worse, who is going to come back for that?

3) Solicit feedback. I have comments enabled on everything I write. If someone has something to say to me about a good or service I recommend, then I want to know about it. On online stores I build, I always include feedback on products. The Web should be a dialogue, not a monologue, so look for and get feedback on the goods and services you recommend.

4) If a vendor doesn't work out, then ditch it. If you get negative feedback on a vendor, or have negative experiences yourself, then get out of the relationship. Companies change over time. Today's hero is tomorrow's goat. Today's slick technology is tomorrow's also-ran. Keep tabs on your partners so as to not be caught flatfooted.

Listing goods and services for sale on your site can be a moneymaker. Especially if your site has a real reason to be in existence, such as building and extending your own brand. The additional revenue is just gravy to help offset the expenses of keeping your site up and running. Recommending products that you are familiar with, especially as they relate to your core business, can help you cash-in on the traffic to your site. However, don't expect this to happen without some work on your part.

One last thing. Technically, you need a banner management system to really make the most of this. Joomla and other content management systems come bundled with one as a standard feature. If you are using a static site, then look for a script that you can embed to provide some rotation of banner ads. If you are using Joomla or Drupal, then get to know your banner ad system and use it effectively. When writing about specific products, embed the purchase link directly in the article(s) you write, especially if you do random rotation on the banners!

Glen Chancy is CIO for corfun.com and publisher of Orthodox Biz. You can contact him here .

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 [Cashing in On Your Website]

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