Put Your Business on the Web
the RIGHT Way!

Creating Additional Income Streams

Additional Income streams Congratulations! Your site is online, traffic is growing because you chose the right keywords, created lots of unique, good quality content and implemented some basic SEO and linking techniques.

Sidebar: The Google Sandbox Effect

If you're still waiting to see some traffic from Google, don't worry, it will come. Google tends to not rank new websites until they are well established. It's known as the Google "Sandbox" effect. New sites can sometimes takes weeks or months to get out of the sandbox. Keep adding new content and building links from trusted sources. Update frequently. Build your content and links in a natural, progressive manner. Make sure you haven't over-optimised on your targeted keywords.

By doing this you will train "Googlebot" (the software that collects the content of your site and reports back to Google) to come back more often. This will increase the likelihood of you getting out of the sandbox sooner.

It basically comes down to convincing Google that your site is trustworthy. The sooner you do that, the sooner Google will give your site the rankings it deserves. Build and promote your site the right way and that won't take long at all.

In fact, if you follow the advice in this guide you will probably be saying "what sandbox?"

Alternative Income Sources

Although you are making sales, selling your services, or achieving the objectives set down for your site, have you considered diversifying by generating income from different sources?

Your main product or service may not appeal to every visitor, but those visitors may be interested in alternative, related services which you don't provide.

You can make money by referring your visitors to merchants who do provide those products or services. In fact, you don't even have to have your own products. Many people are making a comfortable living by building content sites which refer visitors to other websites. A good example of this is Rosalind Gardner, who earns a very respectable income through her affiliate websites:

Affiliate Programs

An affiliate program is simply a system where you get paid a commission or fee (generally, anywhere from 5% to 70%) when you refer a visitor to a merchant and they make a sale. Some affiliate programs pay on a CPA (Cost Per Action) basis which means you get paid when your referral performs a desired action e.g. completes a survey, and others operate on a CPC basis which means you get paid for every click.

Here's an example: Let's say you've built a real estate site. A visitor arrives at your site but doesn't find the right property. However, as a potential home buyer, they are also on the lookout for a good home loan. By gaining that visitor's trust with your great content, you can make a recommendation for an affiliate partner's product or service.

On some programs you'll get paid when your referral completes a desired action, such as completes an application for a loan. On other programs, your referral must make a purchase for you to earn a commission.

Like to learn more about affiliate programs?

One of the best programs on the Web (and the first one I joined many years ago) is SiteSell's 5 Pillar Affiliate Program.

It's a great way to get your feet wet with affiliate marketing. And you'll be promoting a great product which you'll be proud to recommend. You’ll find a wealth of information on affiliate marketing plus a dedicated forum where you exchange ideas with other affiliates. The 5 Pillar Program is free to join.

If you really want to be successful as a SiteSell affiliate the best way to do that is to promote Site Build It with your own SBI site. All you need is a hobby or passion. Build an SBI site around that passion and then show your visitors how THEY can do the same.

Google AdSense

Here's another way to earn income from your site. Google's AdSense program allows you to place in-context ads on your site. These are usually text ads which are bought by Google AdWords customers, much the same as the "sponsored sites" you see down the right side of the page when you do a search on Google.

When a visitor clicks on one of those ads the advertiser pays, Google gets paid, and you get paid a percentage of Google's earnings. AdSense works by examining the content on your page and serving ads that are relevant to your content. What could be better than partnering with Google, one of the biggest players on the Net!

When I first started running AdSense the additional income was nice, but nothing spectacular. For a long while I was, in fact, leaving money on the table. The way you present your ads, their position, format, colours and many other factors all have a big effect on how much you earn. It wasn't until I read a book by Joel Comm that my AdSense earnings grew considerably. Joel makes between $600 and over $1,000 a day on AdSense! The AdSense program is free to join.

Next - the wrap.

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