The internet can be a highly lucrative platform for a webmaster, given the correct channels are followed. Probably one of the best methods of earning a passive income from all of your hard slog is to subscribe to paid advertising or marketing on your website or blog. This will require that you advertise the products or services of another company on your website, in exchange for a pre-agreed level of remuneration for the marketing you provide.



Many such schemes exist, and include some of the better known avenues of advertising such as Google Adsense, and Yahoo's pay per click advertising. The key to generating revenue from your website, as with any marketing campaign, is to take a targeted approach in selling a product to your audience. This is exactly what pay per click schemes such as Google Adsense attempt to employ. Google's program uses the content from your webpage and attempts to generate adverts which it thinks are relevant to the subject matter on your webpage. Although the basic premise of Google's marketing strategy is a sensible one, the implementation of the Adsense program does not always generate adverts completely optimised to your target audience and so your success with a Google adsense program may vary.

Far better in terms of targeted content are so called ‘Affiliate Programs', which offer similar kinds of benefits to pay per click advertising, but with the added bonus that you are better able to target your own particular niche by handpicking which adverts you choose to place on your website. Affiliate Programs are generally mediated by websites such as Tradedoubler or Affiliate Window, who host affiliate schemes on offer from companies, although you can also find affiliate programs on individual websites.

A distinct advantage of choosing to go through a site such as Tradedoubler, is the fact that they tend to host a wide variety of marketing materials such as banners, animations and text links which you can then use on your site to advertise their products. These marketing materials tend to be produced by professionals in the industry, such as professional web designers and copywriters, and as such are produced to a very high level of quality. This directly benefits those using these materials, 1) By enabling those using the materials to present, for example, high quality, professional looking graphics on their website, and 2) By increasing the likelihood someone will click on the graphic/banner due to its professional finish.

Affiliate schemes offer a number of methods of payment in return for marketing their products:

1) Pay Per Impression schemes, which offer the highest potential for earning some money, by paying a small sum for every occurrence of a banner/advert on web page.

2) Pay Per Click schemes. These follow the same premise as Google Adsense, and offer payment for every clickthrough a banner receives from a website. Thus a more eyecatching and ‘clickable' banner will reap higher rewards.

3) Pay per Lead/Sale. This method of payment offers the most potential for earnings if targeted properly. Advertisers will pay a commission – often as high as 5 or 6 percent of a sold item – for sales generated through your website. Considering many large companies are selling expensive items, it would only take one sale of an expensive item, such as a television, to generate a decent amount of money.

Many websites attempt to entice their visitors to sign up to their affiliate partners by offering a reward, such as a free gift, in return for clicking on affiliate adverts. Such schemes have proved highly popular and are now becoming an industry in their own right, further serving to re-affirm the earning power of the internet.

In sum, harnessing the marketing power of the internet can indeed be a lucrative enterprise for the budding web entrepreneur. Given enough traffic, and a focussed approach to targeting your audience, it is entirely possible to generate a regular income from your website or blog. By utilising the affiliate schemes offered by larger companies, you can earn a share of their profit – and in many cases earn a living – by targeting appropriate advertising to the correct audience.