10 Ways How to Earn Revenue Without Selling Links

November 13th, 2007 by Loren Baker, Editor | 33 Comments

Publishers who make their living from selling links on their sites had a warning shot delivered to them last month with the Google PageRank update and its anti-paid linking initiative. This targeting of high profile sites is meant to discourage sites with paid links and had led to some publishers scratching their heads as to how to continue earning revenue online.

Don’t fret just yet however, the paid link business is still rather lucrative and if you are selling relative link advertising which drives results and possibly conversions, your site should be fine. On the other hand, you do not want to have your business at the mercy of Google PageRank (although there are other search engines out there too), and publishers should look at the whole picture, especially providing products or services which generate sound revenue.

Here is a look at various ways to earn revenue on your site without selling links. It’s not an alternative to selling link advertising, but instead, should serve as a complimentary strategy.

Contextual Ads : Contextual advertising, one of the most effective ways to advertise, is geared for effective audience targeting. Advertisers are constantly seeking websites that share their targeted audience. In order to capitalize upon this market, you will need to join a contextual advertising provider like AdSense, Chitika or Yahoo Publisher Network. When you join, your website will automatically update with ads that are related to your content and target audience’s interests, and you get paid each time a user clicks through the ad.
Lead Generation : Lead generation is similar to affiliate marketing in the essence that you get paid per action, but by selling leads to different companies to then act upon, you can make much more revenue than just having someone click on an ad or get 5% of an affiliate sale. Start off with some lead networks like Hydra Media or Service Magic, then find what’s best for your niche. Furthermore, once you begin driving more leads to sales divisions of various companies that convert, you can then negotiate better pay per lead prices and recurring revenue from those leads.

WidgetBucks : WidgetBucks is new way that you can make money online. Every time a user clicks on a WidgetBucks ad widget that you have displayed, you earn money. You can also earn money from referring people to WidgetBucks. It is easy to sign up, configure widgets, and paste the code to your blog or Web page. How much you earn then depends on the amount of traffic your site receives.
Display Ads : Selling display ads is another way to generate revenue for your web site. You can choose to sell ad space on your website for ad networks (like FederatedMedia or even Advertising.com) to place campaigns, or sell the space out yourself by giving the potential advertiser the chance to pay with PayPal subscriptions. Displacy advertising can be sold per click, CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or for a flat fee.
Affiliates : Affiliate marketing is a powerful revenue generation tool, and your website can simply be used as a marketing platform for larger site. Simply choose a topic that you are interested in, and focus all of your content and advertisements on that particular subject. You can then get paid when readers follow links on your site to other larger sites and purchase products and services. The key here is to become an expert in your field, encouraging people to visit your site first to hear your reviews, thoughts, and analysis.
Domaining : Do keyword searches in a given topic, and then register domain names that go along with these keywords. You can then resell the name to the highest bidder, either by placing a “for sale” sign on your working website or hiring a website broker to find a buyer. You’d be surprised how investing $8 into a domain and then uploading Wordpress and some originial content can then turn into a $100 site, that’s a rather large return on investment.
Sell Hosting Space : Web host reselling is another way to generate income for the computer savvy. You buy the reselling account or VPS and then rent out extra space to website designers that need a host for their latest and greatest website ideas. If you know a lot of small bloggers, this can come in extra handy.
Paid VIP Subscriptions : Creating paid subscriptions to e-Books or email newsletters is an excellent money strategy for those who have a specialization in their knowledge field. For example, there are many investment newsletters that generate high incomes, but the income is only sustained if you are an expert in the field.
Again, you have to find a topic that is interesting and compelling to a broad audience, and then you must be the authority in the topic. Offering tools and other perks to your subscribers is a nice way to get them signed up and paying, especially if the savings offsets the subscription price for them.
Sponsored Reviews : Sponsored blog posts are somewhat controversial, but can be very lucrative. There are companies that will pay anywhere from ten dollars to thousands of dollars for blog writers to review their products publicly. If your blog generates a good amount of traffic, and loyal traffic at that, chances are there are companies that will pay you to review their products.
Sell a Product or Service : Selling tangible products is, of course, one of the best ways of making money online. If you can find a discounted supplier, or niche distributor, then you can find a target to which you may sell your products.
Taking search blogs as an example, some sites serve as promotional vehicles for services, like SEO or web development companies, or conferences, such as the ClickZ network or Third Door Media. When you have a loyal, trusting and responsive audience, the sky is really yhe limit.

As the Internet continues to evolve, the methods of generating profits online will change as well. There are a myriad of options for you to choose, and often it is a mixture of profit opportunities that will generate the highest revenue for your website.

Diversification is really the key in this respect, so if you get booted by AdSense or the value of the links you sell begin to fall, you always have enough in the reserve tank to keep running.

Comments

33 responses so far ↓

knupNET on Nov 13, 2007 at 1:20 pm

Thanks! Even though I continue to sell some links on some of my sites - i’ve began to think about how to diversify. This is a great post!
digitalnomad on Nov 13, 2007 at 3:49 pm

Sure would be nice if someone could come up with some new and viable monetizing models.

This stuff is getting whiskers on it.

No, I am not being snarky, or trying to be a troll. This is part of my present belief system.
Dave on Nov 13, 2007 at 7:38 pm

Nice list. It seems that transitioning from paid links to dispay ads would be pretty simple.
Mathew on Nov 13, 2007 at 8:47 pm

There are several sponsored blog post websites that base how much a blogger gets paid on a blog’s metrics (ie Alexa and Google PR). If Google continues to punish bloggers who choose to monetize their site in this manner, how will these companies continue? I think that, if these paid post brokers are to continue matching advertisers and bloggers, they need to come up with their own, in-house system to measure site metrics that is fair and immune from Google’s whims. Hmmmm . . . .Argus comes to mind . . .
marie on Nov 13, 2007 at 9:28 pm

great advice… It’s a jungle out there and it’s nice to have a few concrete pointers…
Kelly Martin on Nov 13, 2007 at 10:33 pm

wow I got to look into this widgeit thing
thank you
Hawaii SEO on Nov 13, 2007 at 10:54 pm

11. Grovel and ask for donations.
mlwhittle on Nov 13, 2007 at 11:04 pm

Great information I learned a lot in reading your blog. Will take some of the information to heart or pocket or wallet. You get you point.
msmyla on Nov 14, 2007 at 12:40 am

thanks for this great post. will now sign up for sites which offers sponsored reviews.
Google Blog on Nov 14, 2007 at 4:58 am

I think it is strange you said that we should do review. I do that alot on my blog and i got my PageRank down from PR3 to PR2 this week.

I think it is 100 % result of the PPP reviews i do.
Loren Baker, Editor on Nov 14, 2007 at 7:33 am

Well, you shouldn’t do PayPerPost reviews then, or link to your PPP profile from your blog.

Try something more under the radar.
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Directory Owners Blog on Nov 14, 2007 at 9:57 am

This is a really nice post that you have made. But even by displaying or selling banner ads there is an attempt to manipulate to pagerank.
Live7n on Nov 14, 2007 at 12:13 pm

Contextual advertising, Selling display ads , Blog post review are popular..

in
http://www.live7n.com/
OSoNY on Nov 14, 2007 at 1:45 pm

I wouldn’t recommend Widget Bucks at all. I
have tried them twice on 3 different blogs and two different blogging platforms. The ads load very slowly and hang up the loading of your site as well.
Karan Goyal on Nov 14, 2007 at 10:47 pm

Its always a good idea not to keep all eggs in one basket and that is exactly what I have done always.
SEO Reloaded on Nov 15, 2007 at 5:06 am

Traffic is one of the most important things which will eventually help you earn revenue from your site or blog from all the methods listed above.
tyler dewitt on Nov 15, 2007 at 9:31 am

Great post Loren it hit the popular sections on stumble upon :)
amit on Nov 20, 2007 at 6:41 am

on this page also there are more then 10 text links which are sold :-)
Sevonee on Dec 4, 2007 at 4:31 pm

I’ve used James D. Brausch’s Glyphius Software Program to help generate ad sales, and it has really increased both my traffic and sales.
Custom Home Business on Jan 7, 2008 at 11:40 am

Wow, this is the first time I have to rethink selling links. Great article, Thanks
Sammy on Jan 14, 2008 at 8:40 am

These are great! Tips such as these can really give me an idea if I am on the right track in doing my internet business. The softwares Artemis and Glyphius from James D. Brausch is something that made a big effect of my web page ranking and traffic.
MSN hacken on Jan 17, 2008 at 2:11 pm

I am selling links on my popular blog. But the way I do it is quite onrecognizeable. It is a blog roll which I named Friends. So they can not change it.
lady on Jan 18, 2008 at 10:38 am

i did not know of some of those sites you mentioned. but i don’t sell links anymore. google gave my blog a pr of zero. It used to be a PR4.

i focus on adsense now and other earning programs.
Custom Home Business on Jan 18, 2008 at 11:29 am

Just read this article a few days ago and look what happens. My PR has droped to Zero.
i wonder if this is the reason.
chris on Feb 11, 2008 at 4:10 pm

I have just started my own blog so this information is really interesting to me. My idea was to go on a major link campaign, achieve a PR5 and then do some PPP reviews. But much to my dismay I hear more and more often that google slaps you down for working with PPP. My question to you and the readers on this blog is: how can you do paid reviews but more under the radar ( as another reader put it). Does anyone have any success with slipping the google radar?
chris on Feb 11, 2008 at 4:13 pm

P.s.

Does anyone know if google only punishes bloggers who work with PPP ? Are there more places like PPP out there that google doesn’t slap around?
Thanks
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Website Deisgn on May 2, 2008 at 5:05 am

I don’t think selling links is too bad as long as you don’t go over the top. keep it reserved and subtle and you’ll be fine.
Shugle life on Jul 16, 2008 at 2:59 am

This is a nice informtive blog. I am using adsense on my site shugle.com I will try other methods too.
Thanks for the help
Shugle
Life is not a joke
Ray Wallace on Oct 24, 2008 at 10:22 pm

Great site with a lot of useful information.
lucky on Dec 18, 2008 at 5:04 pm

i love your spirit by disclosing some simple ways of making money online without much effort.Money making is the simplest thing anybody can make online but i would have love you if you can display step by step on how to implement various strategy that you explain
Hasan Khan on Dec 27, 2008 at 10:34 am

This is a nice informtive blog. I am using adsense on my site http://www.hasankhan.co.nr I will try other methods too.
Thanks for the help