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In this previous article, we've discuss the different
ways to making money online, now let's discuss one of these
ways which is the content website.
What is a content website? You might ask. Well... it's very simple
it's a website that offers content :). Content of value that is!
Content that keeps visitors coming back for more. Usually content
websites are targeted to a specific niche. It's this constant
flow of visitors that will be the gold for your website.
For the sake of this article, lets use "nascar fans"
as your content website's topic. So you've setup your website
will all sort of useful information to Nascar fans like statistics,
profiles of drivers, interviews and you've got a very popular
discussion forum that people love! They're amongst people that
they relate with! They keep coming back a few time a week or day!
You don't sell anything on your website but you make alot of money
nonetheless. How? By placing ads on your website. You see you've
build a gold mine for advertisers of Nascar products and other
companies that sell products that caters to your visitor's interest.
The more visitors you have, the more money you'll make because
are are usually sold per CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or
per click. Also, the more targetted your audience and the less
competition you have in your market the higher you'll be able
to place your CPM.
Advertising is the cornerstone of revenues for content website.
There are a few factors that make a content website successful
and which you should always try to provide to your visitors:
-Unique content and features.
-Frequently updated content.
-Industry news, frequently updated.
-Good and frequent communication, through a newsletter for example.
-A sense of community. This is the most important one... if you
can create a strong sense of community among your members with
a discussion forum for example and there is ample communication
going on between members, you'll get tons of traffic and cement
your place as a strong content website for your industry.
How to make money with content?
Well, we've already said that selling advertising
is a way but sometimes you might have trouble finding ways to
drum up interested advertisers... if you're site becomes big enough,
they should be coming up to you. In the meantime however, you
can join affiliate programs related to your industry and place
ads on your website in exchange for a commission if your
visitors buy something from these businesses.
Another option is to go for something like Google AdSense
which pay you everytime someone clicks on one of the ads.
I suggest trying both to see which method will make you the most
money and stick with the one that does.
Some content sites develop their own line of products to
try and maximize their profit instead of sending their
highly targeted visitors to businesses, they try to sell to them
themselves.
If you're looking for products for you nich without having to
invest in purchasing inventory in advance and warehousing/shipping
and handling returns, take
a look at our services, we can drop ship directly to your clients.
Each approach has it's advantages and inconvenience and you should
study both. One one hand, advertising someone else's company is
hardly any work while selling to them yourself, requires time,
money invested and dealing with the customer.
Your position might change a bit in the eyes of your visitors
also if you start selling them products and you might be a bit
biased in your discussion to them.
They might see you more as just another vendor instead of a usefull
source of free information like they used to appreciate your site.
2 other things to remember is that no one likes sites that are
filled to the cap with ads... don't over do it it might drives
some of your loyal visitors away and you don't want that! They're
you're whole business.
Second, no one likes to be pushed products down their throat so
if you start selling products on your website, don't push it down
your visitor's throat every chance you get and start moderating
your forum to remove any mention of competitors. No one likes
that and it will drive customers away... you can delete post that
are specially made to advertise a competitor for free but leave
the ones where you members discusses other companies they have
a right to recommend these other companies without you starting
to moderate their post to infringe on their free speach... this
is a sure way to drive visitors away... try to leave a feeling
of democracy in your site so that your visitors will feel comfortable.
Remember: THEY ARE YOU WHOLE REASON FOR MAKING MONEY. So do all
that you can to keep them happy and smiley :)
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