This is the first installment of the sterkly website monetization guide where you can find monetization options or alternatives to your current revenue generating efforts. Below you will find a short summary of the suggestions previously made by Michelle in the website monetization quick start guide and a few others to consider as you begin monetization of your website or reassess the effectiveness of your current monetization methods.

Quick Start Guide Recap:

Banner Ads / Advertising:
Advertisements are still one of the most common revenue models that websites use to monetize. They can be a great method to get your name out there, drive and increase traffic, and ultimately result in conversions. Consumers see hundreds to thousands of banner ads a day so it is important that yours stand out. The placement of the ads is just as significant. The ads should be relevant to the sites they are on and should appeal to the demographics or niche you are trying to reach. Lastly, be sure to consider where these ads will take the consumer after they click on it. You can have a great banner but if your landing page isn’t optimized for conversion, you’ll lose out on a visitor/customer.

Data Monetization:
If you have insight into markets, products, or other valuable data, this may be a great opportunity for you.

Selling Ad Space:
This is a great option if you have a popular website with hundreds of thousands of visitors. You can sell your ad space to others who have users or consumers with demographics similar to your visitors.

Paid Memberships:
Offer basic and premium plans to not only offer different versions of your product but monetize in the process as well.

Donations:
Providing value to your users for a suggested donation is another way to go. This model may only work for particular websites. If you have loyal followers or simply offer an amazing service that people would gladly pay a small donation for, then this might be a great solution.

Paid Reviews:
Whether it be a product or software you are promoting, paid reviews can be a great source of revenue. Many countries including the United States have disclosure laws regarding payment for endorsements or reviews so be sure to check them and follow them.

New monetization models:

Captcha ads:
Captcha ads are becoming the new trend. It is a method that people are just beginning to tap into and I’m willing to bet that soon it will be all over the internet. If you are not yet familiar with captcha ads, what they are is essentially a display ad with the captcha component. Similar to the traditional captcha, you will see an image and have to identify what it is in order to proceed. You may have to answer a question about the image or complete a task to prove you are human. In the original captcha, you tend to see letters or numbers which you then have to enter before proceeding. See the example below.

In addition to increasing your revenue, ad captchas can also have other benefits like keeping your website clean and free of spammers and bots, save you time from irrelevant and fake inquiries, protect your brand, and secure your website from hackers and other trespassers.

Picatcha ad

Pay-per-Install:
Pay per install is a way to monetize existing website traffic. Advertisers pay publishers when an install happens. It is a top model for software distributors and developers and one of sterkly’s specialties. Depending on your product, this may yield better results than banner ads, which are based on PPC or CPM models and don’t guarantee an actual conversion. See how pay-per-install works.

Inline Text Ads:
You may already be familiar with inline text ads as I’m sure you’ve come across them during your own browsing. Inline text ads are hyperlinked words on websites, blogs, and other written content online. The words are often underlined to denote they are links. This model is based on pay-per-click. Your website’s keywords become text ads and when your visitors click on them you get paid. Partnering up with an inline text ads company like InfoLinks or Kontera may even add to the value you provide your visitors if the text ads are relevant. Monetizing and enhancing your users’ web experience at the same time, not bad right?

InfoLinks inline text ad