Monetize Your Website Traffic

Establishing your own E-commerce site is certainly not like what it used to be. The marketplace is saturated, competition is fierce. Trust me, your competition will gladly accept a bigger piece of the pie.

Every scheme and method you can find to augment your sales would be very beneficial. Or should I say, every tactful method would be beneficial.

First things first. Let's get in touch with reality. Most of us are in this for the money. We are much too busy to waste precious time and effort for the heck of it. I know that as it stands right this very second, I need about 5-10 more hours in a day to get everything done I have on my plate. Many sites would not wait until hell freezes over just to see their profits. While there are some who take things lightly, there are always those who would rather see profit any given day.

It is common knowledge that without traffic, we have no business. Like any business, without customers, you don't get sales. And if you don't get sales, you don't make any money. Web traffic is no different than any other type of traffic (think about the foot traffic a retail store receives). Traffic represents all the people who get a chance to see what you have to offer. The more people who see your products, the more people who will buy them.

Nobody puts up an E-commerce site expecting zero profit. We have startup capital that needs to be regained. After all, you probably forked out some money for your site, and have invested at the very minimum a few hours worth a time. With consistent traffic, we at least have a fighting chance to recover this capital. And if we take that one step further, monetizing traffic would optimize our chances of making the best out of it.

Making Money out of your Traffic

The best and most proven method of making a profit out of your traffic is using advertising. The internet generates a tremendous amount of website everyday. To understand what this means, think about this. Millions of people are on the internet every day. Why? Because most of them are searching for something. While some are just looking for information, a high percentage of people are looking for something that they need.... An answer to a problem.

The internet has proven to be a very reliable source in finding what was deemed to be a very unsearchable product. Case in point is E-bay. You can find just about anything on that site.

The internet has also made the world a smaller place; you can advertise a product from the depths of Istanbul and still find a buyer from center city Philadelphia (trust me, I would know).

The problem is that generating traffic is not an easy task. You compete with a great number of sites, which often times makes it difficult to sustain a steady flow of traffic. However, a marketing campaign, if done successfully, can open up a Pandora's Box of possibilities. And one of the benefits is monetizing your traffic flow.

So, what this really means is that when looking at ways to generate traffic, you want to make sure that the traffic flow coming to your site is desirable. Desirable, in a sense that this traffic is easily convertible to profit. Basically you need to think about it like this: traffic equals profit. Advertising is the name of the game; with a good advertising campaign, you can use your traffic flow to your advantage. This is something most internet marketers easily forget.

When you have a steady flow of traffic, you have a good number of potential customers. Customers that are willing to pour money into your bank account. In addition, this increase in traffic can be redirected to sponsored links that are willing to pay you for a sizeable portion of the traffic that you have generated. Certainly not a bad deal....

This scheme is called "pay-per-click". You get paid for every click a visitor of your site makes on an advertised link. The more traffic you generate, and the more clicks that occur on advertised links on your site, the more money you can make.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are another method of monetizing your website traffic. By integrating affiliate programs into your website, you can link with other tried and tested sites and online companies to monetize your traffic. How? By having a percentage of sales generated by traffic coming from your site.

The basic idea is this: traffic generated from your site will go to another site that can offer a product that you do not carry. Most programs keep track and make records of transactions that were made possible because of site linkage.

When purchases are made by customers that were led by your site to their site, you get a percentage of that sale. Affiliate programs therefore give you the benefit of monetizing your traffic without the actual need of carrying or promoting a certain product.

Wrap-Up

There are many methods you can use to monetize your website traffic. This article only scratches the surface. Thankfully, this at least serves as a foundation upon which you can build.

To make your website traffic profitable for you, all it takes is a bit of hard work and a strong desire to successfully launch a profit-earning site. The internet is a veritable source of information. There are many tips and guides available to you that explain how you can successfully generate traffic AND make your site a good profit earner. Both will no doubt be a crucial part of your future success.