Web Owner Tools

The first of the articles on making money with your website should probably begin with the #1 advertising network: Google AdSense - especially given their recent purchase of DoubleClick, one of the leading banner advertising networks.

I have used Google AdSense with great success for almost three years now. It has been one of our steadiest (and most lucrative) revenue streams since almost the day their ads went up on our network.

Google uses contextual ads - meaning that it looks at the page on which you place the code and places either text or image ads (your choice) on that page which conform to the content of that page. For example, if you have a page about puppies, you’re likely to see ads which advertise products like dog food or pet toys…

Although primarily a CPC - pay per click - network, they also have CPM - pay per ad view - ads, and their system will automatically display whichever type of ad that makes the most money.

A few notes:

1) There are tons of ebooks and posts on webmaster forums which will tell you a thousand different ways to game AdSense. My advice? Stay far, far away from any advice which professes to offer you extraordinary returns using AdSense. Those policies inevitably end up getting you banned from their system, and you will have forever cut yourself off from one of the best revenue sources available.

2) Because of Google’s international reach, it is one of the best ways to monetize your international (non-U.S.) traffic. Most advertising networks offer very limited revenues for international visitors, so if you’re receiving (or planning to receive) more than 20-25% of your traffic from overseas, then AdSense is pretty much a must.

3) Because Google places contextual ads based on your page content, make sure you’re constructing pages for which the main topic is plainly evident. By using appropriate titles, headers and keywords throughout the page you’ll be able to maximize your earning potential.

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Starting a website starts with an idea: what do I want to do? I know it seems simple, but you’d be surprised at just how many would-be webmasters jump feet first into the task without really having a concrete idea what their website is supposed to do.

Trying to be Yahoo, or Google or one of the other “big boys” just isn’t feasible - at least not at Step One. Because of their size and the number of employees they have, they can handle trying to cover a million different topics and be able to drive traffic to all of them. But we’re not there yet: we just want to focus on one thing…

What should that thing be? There is tons of advice on what makes the money or draws the most visitors, but the reality is that a really well-done site will draw its own crowd and the revenue will follow…If there were really a magic bullet to make an ultra-popular, super-lucrative site no one would share it: they’d be too busy spending the billions they made before retiring early.

It’s a completely personal decision: your website should be about whatever makes you passionate. Trust me, there are days that your passion will be the only thing that keeps you going, so if you’re trying to follow somebody else’s formula for success with no personal drive behind it you’ll just end up frustrated and probably wind up quitting before you ever see any real returns.

Maybe you’re enthralled by jigsaw puzzles or gardening or whatever. It doesn’t matter. Take a week or two and really think about it. Even if you think you know now, give it another week or two anyway. The internet will still be here, and you’ve waited this long. Wouldn’t you rather be 100% positive two weeks from now before you put in the hours building something you’re ultimately going to end up hating?

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Since this is my first post on WebOwnerTools.com, probably the best place to start is by telling you a little bit about who I am and why I started this website.

I’ve been a webmaster in one way or another since 1995 when I started a scuba diving mail order catalog for our retail business using the free webspace our ISP provided with our dial-up account. Since then I’ve gone to develop more than twenty websites of my own, and I make my living full-time working as a webmaster.

I won’t claim to be the “be-all, end-all” expert on websites, but over the last 12 years or so I’ve found some tools to be extremely useful, some advice invaluable, and learned more than a few things by trial-and-error. This website is my attempt to help aspiring webmasters (and maybe some experienced ones) avoid some of the pitfalls and learn from my experience.

As the website grows, I will be adding many tools and features that will make your life as a webmaster easier - and maybe a little less frustrating. I hope that you will bookmark WebOwnerTools.com, and make it a regular stop. I also encourage you to comment on what I’ve said - whether you agree or disagree. Either way, I hope to build a community of both new and experienced webmasters who can help each other work the web more smartly and efficiently than ever.

Thanks for joining me as I begin this journey, and I look forward to seeing you here again.

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