Can A Small Web Site Make Any Money?

Every web site, no matter how small, can make some money with affiliate programs. Slap on any affiliate banner or text link and you're bound to get some clicks eventually. But to really make money you have to have the right combination of key elements.

CONTENT + TRAFFIC + THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAM = $
Without these three key elements you probably won't see much in the way of income: (1) A website must be built and updated in such a way that the content brings people back to the site over and over again. (2) The affiliate programs must be related to the site content, so that the site offers are of significant interest to the visitors. (3) The referral fee must be substantial enough to make you want to promote the offer. When all three elements are in place, you are on your way.

WHAT CAN I EXPECT TO MAKE?
Click-through rates are considered good if .5% to 5% of your referrals actually buy something. You do the math for your website. If you're only getting 50 visitors a day, it probably won't ever amount to much. But if you build up your traffic so you're getting 100 to 1000 visitors a day, then you are in a position to make a substantial monthly income.

CASE STUDY
Bob's site, RCguy.com is geared to radio-controlled airplane enthusiasts. He publishes a guide to all the RC events and competitions, provides a series of how-to articles, reviews new RC products, and offers free e-mail problem-solving advice. In time he becomes the Internet "guru" for RC enthusiasts. His content-rich site is now getting 500 hits a day (15,000 a month) from all over the world. He joins an affiliate program and places a banner link to RCstuffonline.com which offers discount deals. He gets $.10 per click-through and 10% of any purchases made.

In June Bob reviews a new airplane kit and tells his readers they can get it at a great price from RCstuffonline. During that month 150 of his readers take his advice and visit RCstuffonline (150 click-throughs), of which 15 people decide to purchase the airplane kit for $200 (15 sales leads). His affiliate check for June would include $15 for his click-throughs and $300 for his sales commissions.

INCREASE YOUR OFFERS
While Bob isn't going to get rich from his single affiliate, it does make his computer payment, his dial-up account fee, and some bonus money that month. But he can do better when he adds five more affiliate links to other related products such as books, magazines, newsletters, etc. Why not? It costs nothing, and his efforts are now multiplied times five. He now has five salespeople working for him instead of just one.

It's easy to increase your offers, but how do you go about increasing your web traffic? Well, that's the next step and it takes more work and a little ingenuity.

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