2 Create a Website Blog

My Top Money Making Programs

Filed Under: Make Money 275 Comments

I’ve noticed from reading other blogs, readers seem to enjoy learning how other sites make money.

So I’ve developed a top list of my top income generators based on nothing more than monthly income earned.

Note: This list is from all my sites combined.

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1. Domain and Web Hosting Reselling

This program is a great example of why you should look for affiliate or reseller programs in your niche that pay residual commissions.

If my site got wiped out today, I would still be able to live off the residual income I’ve generated since joining this program in 2002.

If you have a site that targets future Webmasters/Bloggers, reselling domains and web hosting is a great way to build a long-term income that continues to grow and grow.

This is also a great idea if you know people in your personal life who need websites.  You can just send them to your reseller store and earn commissions on their hosting and domain fees.

As a reseller, you receive your own customizable website that allows you to set your prices and determine your profit.  The parent company handles all the customer and technical support, so all you do is promote your own reseller store.

It would be hard for any other affiliate program to bump this from the #1 spot because of the residual income.

Learn more about how you can earn from reselling domains and hosting.

2. Affiliate Networks (CJ.com, ShareASale.com, etc.)

I promote a variety of products that I find on some of the larger affiliate networks. From web software, web hosting, HTML editors, to anything I can find that’s useful and related to my audience.

Belonging to an affiliate network has its advantages…

1) If you’re looking for a specific product to promote, you can do a search to see if there are any relevant affiliate programs that offer the product.

2) You can join multiple programs with a few mouse clicks.

3) All of your earnings are tracked in one place, so you have one-stop reporting instead of multiple affiliate account logins.

The downside is that many companies who run their affiliate programs through large networks tend to have sub-par customer support.

There have been many occasions where I’ve sent an email to a company I’m affiliated with through CJ and never received a response. Companies that run their own in-house affiliate programs seem to have better customer support over all.

Nevertheless, large affiliate networks are definitely worth exploring, particularly if you’re looking for a specific product to promote on your site or blog.

3. Sales of My Own Products

When setting out to make money online, your ultimate goal should be to sell your own product.  Today I have three digital products I sell:

1) Courses on Udemy

2) WP Starter Guide – WordPress tutorial for beginners

3) Niche Website Success – a very detailed, practical guide to making money with a content niche website

4. AdSense (Includes YouTube Earnings)

I hate using the term “easy money”, but if you have enough traffic, AdSense has got to be one of the easiest ways to generate an income from your site or blog.

AdSense performs much better on my sites not targeted to Webmasters and Bloggers – which is a big reason why you don’t see many AdSense units on this blog.

Bloggers and Webmasters tend to be immune to Google ads so they ignore them. However on my fitness site, my click-thru ratio is a bit higher.

Even though my main site, 2CreateAWebSite.com targets Webmasters/Bloggers, it does OK with AdSense because it gets enough traffic to make displaying the ads worthwhile.

Watch a video about my record Google AdSense Earnings…

 

5. ClickBank

With ClickBank, you really have to feel it out and see what works for you. Even though it’s on my Top 7 list, I must admit there is a lot of garbage on ClickBank.

Many of the eBooks you can sell are a bunch of recycled facts you can find anywhere on the Web.

They are usually promoted by an over-hyped landing page with a loud sales pitch that promises you to either get rich quick, lose weight tomorrow, or get out of debt in seconds.

However, if you really comb through the ClickBank marketplace, you can find some winners. I was able to find a few good e-books to promote that convert very well on my sites.

The great thing about ClickBank is that the commissions are extremely high since product development and delivery costs are low. You could earn up to $75 on certain products in their marketplace.

Here’s a video where I show my Clickbank earnings and how I promote it.

6. Amazon

Amazon has very low commissions per sale, but the conversions are super because they are a recognized brand.

Learn more about their program here.

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These aren’t the only programs I earn money from, but these are the highest paying by far.  The rest of my income comes from a collection of other affiliate programs.

This post was not created to encourage you to join all these programs.  Quite frankly, if your site does not target the same people and does not have the same kind of traffic, your income will be drastically less than mine.

But hopefully this shows you what is possible if you build a website that allows you to become the “expert” in your niche, and you recommend quality products that you use and are relevant to your audience. You can apply this strategy to any niche.

If you’d like to learn more about how to make money with affiliate programs, AdSense and more, check out my book Niche Website Success.

Comments

  1. Thank you for all your helpful advice. I just installed a search page on my website last week. But I was having the search results open up in a new window. Now they are on my site, thank you for sharing your tips and strategies.

    Forever grateful.
    .-= Tracey´s last blog … About Site Sell =-.

    Reply

  2. Thanks a ton for posting this. I’m going to try a few of those advertising methods for my blog which is all about making money online. Unfortunately, I really don’t know much about domain buying and reselling so I can’t really do that. But take a look at my blog: http://www.sbforeveryone.com and you can add some more money to your paypal and amazon accounts.
    .-= Nick´s last blog … No Today in Swagbucks Tonight? =-.

    Reply

  4. Enjoyed seeing you site, we need more common sence talk like this. i get a bit overloaded with all the hype for every new product that comes along. Always claiming to the best, with that extra X factor………

    Reply

  8. hello, my name is cristina, i just wanted to ask something, i heard that you are an affiliate with clikbank, so i was wondering if you could help me, because i am stuck i just pay and create my account but i dont know what i have to do next.

    thanks
    cristina

    Reply

  11. Hi Lisa, I’ve been watching your youtube videos. Very useful and straight forward no nonsense advice. Thanks a lot. Very refreshing to find a genuine person in the money making online business 🙂
    Tim

    Reply

  13. Lisa
    please I have a couple of times made request on help, please

    From previous post buit no response from you????

    You have a wonderful write up on opportunities to make some earnings online.
    Please I would like you to elaborate on two things:
    1)How to make the best out of Clickbank as an affiliate?
    2)How can I monetize and optimise my blog?

    Thanks for your support.

    Reply

    • The best way to make money with Clickbank is to find products that match your site and review them. That’s the ONLY way I’ve done it and it’s the only that’s worked for me.

      There are many ways to optimize your blog. I use affiliate programs mostly but you can use AdSense, sell ad space on your blog, sell your own product, and more.

      Reply

  14. Just when I was going to start hating, I have to give you your props. You are the first person who I think is more open than I when it comes to helping others and teaching others how to make money. As a matter of fact you give far more tips and information. I have to admit, you are ‘transparent’ and your site is top notch. Keep up the good work!

    Reply

  15. Lisa,

    Which of your 7 are attributable to your free eBooks as the means to the sale? Also, I offer an affiliate program at 55% revenue and am trying to find some people such as yourself to partner with – interested?

    I have quite a series that I spent a lot of time on, (several years of experience, trial and error) to create some what I consider high quality products from the knowledge I’ve gained.

    My biggest obstacle right now is a total lack of massive marketing. And I am no videoblogger by any means, like you!
    .-= Michael Erik´s last blog … Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-21 =-.

    Reply

  16. Hello Lisa, I have been trying to build my web site and have started a few other blogs, my blogs are on the subject of health because I have an interest and becoming passionate about good health. I have twitter, facebook, blogger ect, but can’t seem to get anywhere.
    I have no traffic and i have Google Adsense, I have clickbank, but not invested money in Adsense, yet. How can i get more traffic to my sites? I have a few domain names. I am reading a viewing all your help videos, great job with them by the way. I still need some HELP!!!! Any advise on what to do with my blogs?

    Reply

  17. Hi Lisa,
    What are some of the large affilliate programs you should get into? Thank you for your time. I am a newbie!!!!!

    Reply

  18. hey lisa, just wanted to say thanks for all the info you give, I have just started up a new website and i have 3 of your videos posted on there

    Reply

  23. hy I gest wanna tell you that I`m glad that is anyone in the hall internet to be straight with us and thanks I recently sign up for a clickbank account and I`m veriefied the chances to realy make a money from this and you help my a lot with these informations
    have a good day

    Reply

  28. Hello Lisa, I ‘m have been building blog sites that have no traffic and i have Google Adsense on all my blogs, how can i get more traffic to my sites? I have many domain names and i have my dot com parked. How can i make money with my parked domain names? HELP!!!!

    Reply

  29. Hey Lisa, I’m going to need. Some tricks because I have all kinds of blogs but not making money out of them. I work from home doing medical billing and I’m online all day.

    Reply

  31. As always, great information, Lisa! You’ve built an empire here with your knowledge…it’s great to see a person who puts out FACTS and not hype. Thanks again for sharing what you know with us “startups”!

    Reply

  33. Hey Lisa!

    You have a great blog and I found you through your YouTube video, which when I typed Clickbank in Google, you were on the first page with your video! Outstanding search engine optimization there! I just built a brand new blog called http://cash-for-structured-settlements.info

    I really believe blogging is the best way to go and especially with WordPress. They have a ton of free themes and you just need a good niche! Have a good one!
    .-= Duane´s last blog … Sell Structured Settlements For Instant Cash! =-.

    Reply

  34. This is a good information especially for full time bloggers who try to make some money from their posts. I have monetized my blogs and websites with Adsense, Kontera and Amazon Associates. So far, only Adsense is my only money making program.
    .-= charles´s last blog … Digital Inspirations =-.

    Reply

  35. Lisa
    You have a wonderful write up on opportunities to make some earnings online.
    Please I would like you to elaborate on two things:
    1)How to make the best out of Clickbank as an affiliate?
    2)How can I monetize and optimise my blog?

    Thanks for your support.
    .-= Sammy´s last blog … MAKING MONEY ONLINE =-.

    Reply

  36. “It’s so important to build credibility and trust as an affiliate, and one way to start is to buy and use what you recommend.”
    So true. I only promote what I use. That way I actually know how it works – and whether it even works. The website I’ve put here is based around a product I use all the time. I’m only interested in promoting things that I like. I don’t know what my next project will be, but I have a few ideas – and a few more now I’ve read your page.

    Reply

  37. Dear Lisa,

    I honestly appreciated your video and check all of them I really liked it , I also want to make a website like you and start earning please suggest, Do you Google AdSence really pay.

    Thanks Lisa

    Nishan

    Reply

  41. As always, I appreciate the honest information Lisa tirelessly provides. Doug, you’re absolutely right, about how hard it is to find something that sells and that worth promoting. Because there are so many possibilities on the internet (it’s a good and a bad thing) it’s easy to get bombarded with everything screaming for your attention all at once.
    I’ve learned to slow down a bit and do a bit of research first. (I get excited about learning something new – it really gets the creative juices flowing.) Then I decide how I’ll plan my promotional strategies.
    .-= The Affiliate Marketer’s Help Desk´s last blog … Get Real Help With Starting Your Affiliate Marketing Business =-.

    Reply

  42. Yeah good information thank you It’s hard to find something that sells and even harder to know what to sell I would like to hear your comment on that aspect.

    Reply

  43. Hey Lisa you are WONDERFUL. All your advice, tips, and suggestions are so informative and clear. I am a SAHM mommy blogger, looking for a way to earn some extra income from home, and just enough to help contribute to our monthly bills. The whole affiliate aspect still not completely sure on. I do have adsense on my blog and slowly earning from that. I have great ideas of what I want to do with my blog and eventually make a site where moms/parents can come and get great, fashion, beauty, parenting advice an etc. but not sure where to even begin, like finding experts to contribute to the site when people write in with questions etc. I guess basically I am asking you what are your tips on getting a site built and popular. Also, what are your opinions on the best way to make taht extra income each month. Right now My blog is basically just about my everyday life. Sorry if this sounds so jumbled…lol!
    .-= April´s last blog … Quotable Sunday =-.

    Reply

  44. Hi,
    An excellent article. I’ve been working with Adsense quite successfully but the time it has taken to reach a ‘decent’ level of earning is large.
    Personally I wouldn’t advise people to make money through the programs you’ve mentioned unless they have absolutely nothing in hand. I would advise people to either run an offline small business or take up a job because you can definitely make better money by working much less.
    All the best!

    Reply

  49. Good Morning

    I just looked at your youtube video on click bank. I just started using clickbank on one of my sites as a affilate page. I have gotten quite a few views so far but reading this blog and viewing your clip made me think a little harder on what is good and bad. I thank you for taking your time to do that for many of us publisher’s. I am also using adsense and adbrite for over six months now and each month I am making double the amount than the month before. Again thank you
    .-= joe kadin´s last blog … Meta Tag Analyzer =-.

    Reply

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