Affiliate Marketing or Internet Advertising: Generate Income on Your Website

There are many ways an informational website can earn online. One is through affiliate marketing while the other is Internet advertising. Which one is for you will depend on your website’s reach.

Internet Advertising

Internet advertising is where a company pays you a fixed fee to have their banner ad or text plug posted on your website. This can be either a:

• Fixed or permanent banner ad or text plug exposure;
• Ad to appear in a banner rotation system. The lesser ads in the system, frequency shall be higher.

Charging a fee in this model would require you to justify that value of your website’s traffic. It doesn’t have to be high but the quality of the audience that you attract should fit your advertisers target market. Knowing this information is important in packaging an Internet advertising offer to your clients.

Cost of advertising in Philippine web sites and blogs varies from P500 to 200,000 pesos per month.

But the number of traffic, hits, and visitors will not always be the barometer as to where one should place their advertisements. What matters more is the quality of visitors that one drives to their site.

Internet Advertising Networks

In addition to offering Internet advertising, you can also join existing affiliate programs that can pay you for every successful click or sale that you generate to their websites.

In this case, I consider Google AdSense as the best thing that happened online after Yahoo Groups, WebsiteWizard, and GMail.

Google AdSense allows you to generate income on your website or blog. Users of Google-owned Blogger.com can easily allow any blogger to integrate Google AdSense and start earning revenue online.

Every time a site visitor clicks on a Google Ad link in your site, you earn. Google pays you once your monthly or accumulated revenue reaches one hundred dollars (US$100). Google has dramatically changed the Internet advertising scene as it allows any web publisher or blogger to earn online.

On the other hand it also offers the same to advertisers through Google AdWords to have their ads appear in Google search engine results and Google AdSense member sites according to their budget. For as little as fifty pesos a day (P50), an entrepreneur can advertise in numerous sites, tailor ads and keywords on a daily basis, and adjust regularly to maximize ad performance.

Affiliate Marketing

You can also join traditional affiliate marketing programs to generate revenue on your website.

Glad to see a growing number of Philippine websites who realized the importance of affiliate marketing. Publishers involved paid get paid according to results delivered. They can also choose whom to partner with that is likely to attract their current site visitors.

Some of your choices include:

• Alfox Printing Services (create and sell your own swags; sell printing services)
• Lazada
• Zalora
• Amazon
• Ensogo
• Booking
• Payoneer
• One Network E-Commerce
• eBay

Affiliate partners offers commissions in terms of flat rate or percentage fee. It is wise to partner with the right affiliate program to avoid scams, among others. When choosing for the right affiliate partner, don’t just insert any advertisement on your site. Choose the one that will appeal to your readers. Perhaps what can strike your interest and encourage you to click might encourage your readers as well.

Webmasters and content managers will have to be creative in conceptualizing earning opportunities to make their site pay off, cover operating cost, and generate substantial operational revenue.

In fact, this is the perfect time to set-up an informational and highly content-driven website as opportunities to earn have become friendlier than before.

DigitalFilipino.com experience and lessons learned

1. When I started tinkering with Internet advertising and affiliate marketing, we had banner ads from both local and foreign websites. But I realized banner ads and articles are not sufficient to generate conversion clicks. Social media promotion, one-on-one marketing to close contacts, community marketing need to be integrated as well.
2. I stopped publishing 3rd party ads on our website, around 2005, and focused on giving this privilege to DigitalFilipino Club members. Instead of charging a fix monthly fee, all corporate members of the DigitalFilipino Club can have their banner ad be part of our system.
3. Later on, we used our banner ad spaces to promote our training instead while all others are exposed through our blogs. Got the chance to roll out online lead generation projects and affiliate marketing campaigns for clients too.

Creating your own Affiliate Program

The moment you start having your own products or services being marketed online, creating an affiliate program can be a strategic way for you to generate awareness about your program. Apart from exposure you get from participating publishers, you can give commission to a fellow site owner who was able to generate sales for you.

However, you will need to have a tracking system in place, or subscribed to one, that will allow you to do this. Coupons are also used for tracking sources.

But don’t be fooled when some tell you that affiliate marketing is passive income or an alternative to Internet advertising. It is supplementary. Sustained positive results require consistent monitoring, maintenance, and patience. It is like being enrolled in an e-commerce marketing course where your results speaks on how much you know.

With that, let us all grow in this booming Internet economy. For the growth of e-commerce in the Philippines!

(Should you like to learn more about affiliate marketing or Internet advertising, check out our free elearning module on E-Commerce Affiliate Marketing & Lead Generation. You can also send Janette Toral a private message on Facebook.)