Monetization on the Internet is basically the process of converting the existing normal visitor traffic being sent to a particular website into traffic that generates actual revenue. Although the most common and popular ways of monetizing a website today are usually through the standard methods of pay per click (PPC) and cost per impression (CPI/CPM) advertising, there are other methods in use too. However, most all of the various advertising monetization networks in current use involve some way of placing various forms of advertising onto the pages of a website to help it benefit monetarily from the organic traffic the site is already receiving through the major Internet search engines like Google and Yahoo.
The popular pay per click strategy is the one that has been put in place by the major search engines where an advertisement that has been targeted as relevant to a website as determined by keywords or a general topic, is placed somewhere prominent on a website where visitors are likely to see it quickly and easily. This involves an arrangement where the advertiser pays the website owner a pre-selected price every time any visitor clicks on the ad, whether they actually buy something or not. The price paid for each click is usually just a few cents, but over time and with use, the pay per click strategy can generate significant amounts of cash. Because this method of monetization is simple, direct and profitable, it is probably the most common form of cash generation web sites use today.
Cost per impression advertising is another very popular form of monetization that has been established by the major search engines and other types of advertising networks. Cost per impression, sometimes called “cost per thousand” is a marketing strategy where an advertisement is also placed on the pages of a relevant website, and then the owner of the website is paid a pre-agreed price when one thousand visitors view the ad, whether they click on it or not. This strategy is obviously attractive to owners of websites that get a lot of constant traffic, and along with pay per click, represents the most common forms of web site monetization in use today.
There are other forms of Internet monetization in use that also work well, with the most common being banner advertising and affiliate programs. Banner advertising is simply the act of a business paying to place a banner advertisement on a webpage. The banner ad is simply displayed to entice visitors to click on the advertisement, and it has proven successful enough that it is commonly used by both affiliate programs and advertising networks alike. Affiliate programs monetize existing website traffic by providing affiliate web sites with a commission on each sale that was originally referred through the website. Whether or not an affiliate program earns any real cash usually depends on the nature of the product or service being promoted, and the scope of the target audience. If you’ve got a web site that is already getting some natural traffic from the major search engines, there is no reason you can’t put the numbers to work for you by monetizing the traffic in the way that makes the most sense for your particular niche.