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Introduction

So you have your own website up and running and you are getting plenty of visitors a day. You are spending money on your domain name and your hosting and you want to make up the costs? How can you do this? In this tutorial we will guide you through successfully generating a residual income from your website.

Getting Started

Remember, not everyone will be able to make money from their website. It must meet most of the following requirements or you will not be accepted into most advertising networks:

* It needs to look reasonably professional or at least not tacky.
* It needs to have some original content, not just spammy keyword pages.
* It needs to attract a good handful of visitors each day.
* It is preferable not to be hosted on a free host (but not required).
* It should have its own proper domain name.
* The pages should load quickly.
* Navigation should be easy and painless.
* Clear contact links should be available on each page.

You meet the requirements? Good, now its time to get stuck in!

The Different Types of Ads

There are 3 different types of ads:

1. CPM - Cost per thousand impressions (from the Latin, M = 1000)
2. CPC - Cost per click on an ad
3. CPA - Cost per action - every signup or purchase

CPM (Cost per thousand)

CPM offers tend not to pay very well because they may not be successful for the advertiser, however, they do guarantee the publisher (you!) income if you know the amount of traffic you receive.

CPC (Cost per click)

CPC advertising has worked well for our site, the google ads at the top of most page pay us well for each and every unique click. They generally pay between $0 and $1.50 which can work out very beneficially. Cost per click is liked by advertisers because it does not cost them too much and they get traffic, and publishers because a signup is not necessary for income to be generated.

CPA (Cost per action)

This tends to be the favourite of advertisers, they only pay when a signup or purchase is made, good if used for a targeted audience.

Companies we recommend:

Allposters.com - A fantastic opportunity to earn loads of money with a 25-30% commission.
Google Adsense - Almost all sites are accepted and the payout is pretty good.
Revenue Pilot - Another good advertising company with loads of customizable add formats.
Maxbounty - Another good CPA company - plenty of ads to choose from and good payouts.

It is important to display ads which are relevant to your website because otherwise your visitors will not be interested in the ads. For example, if you run a games website, displaying ads to dancing sites will probably not work very well for you.

Do not overload your visitors with ads. You should try and avoid popups as visitors tend not to be impressed by them. With all the toolbars and visitors closing popups as soon as they open, they are largely ineffective.

Try a range of different solutions, see what works for you and your site, and watch the checks roll in!

We hope this tutorial has helped you!

Good luck!