The internet has become very big business, globally. Lots of existing businesses have gained enormous leverage by taking their operation online. More interestingly, millions of successful virtual businesses have also stamped their presence on the internet, doing business only on this platform. Whether exclusively online or a combination of online and offline operations, the clear, unquestionable fact is that the internet has proved a powerful tool for wealth creation. More importantly, a lot of small businesses, home businesses and even strictly one-man operations have racked in huge earnings on the internet, just by getting their business formula right.
It is worrisome that a lot of our people, particularly the youth, who have discovered the power of the internet, approach it with a mission to defraud, deceive and exploit others. Unfortunately, by focusing on the criminal scams (at the risk of apprehension and prosecution), they fail to see or pursue the numerous opportunities for legitimate business and income generation on the internet. That's a pity because scams, besides being odious, are hardly guaranteed to yield sustainable benefit, The tragedy is double: (1) the nation earns a lot of bad image and reputation; (2) the economy misses out completely from the huge legitimate wealth building opportunities of the internet.
Well, if you're wondering what legitimate ways you can earn money on the internet, here are just ten options you can choose from or combine:
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1. Affiliate Programmes
Affiliate business is like the offline network marketing
businesses that are now gaining space in the Nigerian economy: you refer new businesses to the principal company and you get paid a commission. Affiliate business is primarily done online, which means you need a website. You also need to formally register with a particular company to promote its product(s) as an affiliate. Obviously, you can do this with several businesses at the same time. You promote the products on your website and interested visitors are referred, via links on your site, to the site(s) where such products are sold. Because your link identifies your site as the source of the prospect traffic (your Affiliate ID is included in the link), it is possible to associate their transactions with you.
Various programmes pay on different qualification parameters. Per-click programmes pay on successful click-throughs generated from your site. What this means is that the moment a visitor from your site has landed at the target site by clicking on the link on your site, you have earned the stipulated commission. This compensation is usually the lowest, given that it does guarantee a purchase by the visitor. Per-lead programmes pay on leads generated (the visitor signs up or somehow provides contact information). For per-sale programmes, payment is based on actual sales. Expectedly, this will yield a higher rate of commission than the earlier two, sometimes in the region of 40 - 60% of sales value, since actual transaction is consummated. Some programmes offer a one-off commission, some pay on two layers while there are some that provide residual payments (each time the same customer buys).
Success with affiliate programmes will depend on many factors. First you need a web site. You must also be able to attract visitors to your site, since this is practically the starting point of the referral process. You need to identify solid companies with attractive affiliate programmes, backed with powerful products. If the programme is on pay-per-sale basis, you will generate no income if the products will eventually not appeal to your visitors. You must present a link with a compelling pitch that will elicit a click to the principal site. It's important too that the principal site has an effective landing page (with compelling sales pitch) to convert visitors to buyers. Above all, you must deal with a credible company which has a credible compensation programme, to ensure that whatever legitimate income you earn is duly remitted to you. Often, such companies manage their affiliate programs through independent affiliate management companies like Click Bank and Commission Junction. There are many reputable companies out there running credible affiliate programmes. A sampler: eBay, Amazon, Google.
Can this arrangement earn you reasonable income? The answer is a straight 'yes', if you get it right. There are online businesses that have earned large incomes exclusively dealing on affiliate programmes. Such businesses will however research the market more deeply and define their strategies for success. What we've done here is to highlight the potentials. If you desire to pursue this business, you must pick the challenge and dig deeper. The interesting thing is that you can always get help if you seek it.
2. Google Adsense
With Google Adsense, you can generate Google-sponsored advertising revenue from any page of your website. Adsense works by delivering context-related Google adverts to your site. You don't deal directly with companies whose adverts are placed on your website under this Google package - Google does- and you get paid by Google for clicks on the ads. At no cost to you. Google has already built an extensive base of advertisers, with varied content and geographical interests. The likelihood is that your site's content will attract placements that can earn you significant ad revenue.
How it works: Google has the smart technology to interpret the content of your page and decipher the context-relevant ads that match what your visitor is reading. On that basis, ads from their database that fit the context are delivered virtually to ad spaces provided on your site. The necessary HTML codes to drive this process would have been provided to you and embedded in your website. If the visitor clicks the ad link (which means leaving your page to access the advertiser's pitch), you earn from Google. Signing up for Google Adsense is also easy - an online application and, once approved, you're a Google Adsense Publisher just by pasting the right HTML code on your site. Because Google is sensitive to you website's look and feel, they provide for easy customisation to make the ads blend with your site. Their smart technology is also designed to filter ads and ensure they are appropriate (in language, decency, etc), while permitting you to filter off ads that compete with what you sell on your site. So sensitive to your interests you'd say, and yet you get paid for just clicks!
You can still ride on Google to generate more revenue using the Google search box. Again for free, you can place the Google box on your site, meaning that web searches can be done right from the site. The result: visitors stay more since they can run searches from there and, in addition, you generate more clicks to earn more from your site.
On the internet today, you will find websites that run solely on this revenue generation model, though there in no harm in integrating it into a suite of diversified revenue sources.
3. Other Advert Placements
Google is a special case, but a range of advert revenue options are open to you from a good website. Direct advert placements may come from companies big or small and other institutions which may find your site contextually attractive for reaching your visitors. What's the big bait in all this? Build traffic. If you have a heavily visited site, which means there's is information or product content that appeals to an audience, advertisers interested in that group will like to work with you. After all, they too are looking for targeted traffic and highly qualified prospects. Much of your targeting here may be at the local market, which you may also market through familiar offline channels.
What options do you have? The ad banner is the top shot. Banners, usually rectangular, are advert boxes on you page with links to other sites or buffer pages where clicking visitors are pitched. Usually the advertiser provides the banner, though banner design could be a different income source for you, if you have the skill and time. Banner formats vary, but the major dimensions, in pixels, are:
| 728(width) x 90(height) | Leaderboard |
| 468 x 60 | Full Banner |
| 234 x 60 | Half Banner |
| 120 x 240 | Vertical Button |
| 120 x 90 | Button |
| 120 x 60 | Button |
| 125 x 125 | Square Banner or Button |
| 88 x 31 | Micro Button |
| 120 x 600 | Skyscraper |
| 160 x 600 | Wide Skyscraper |
| 250 x 250 | Square |
| 336 x 280 | Large Rectangle |
Banners can be still or animated, but one thing to be careful about is the file-size of any banner you place on your site. If you overload your page with large-sized banners that make it too heavy to open, you'll likely drive off your visitors and the business you expect. Animated flash banners could be a killer in this regard. Besides, too many or recklessly placed ad banners can make your site untidy and unappealing and kill traffic. So, balance the goals.
As to pricing, you need to be guided by the market. Compare charges on similar websites. How successful you can be on this depends on how compelling your website is, based on traffic volume and quality.
Other links, embedded in stories on your website, just as the stories themselves, may have commercial value and yield income, just like some stories you see in newspapers or watch on TV everyday. Sponsored stories hit us all the time, as companies engage above- and below-the-line measures to build their brands and sell products. Some of the sponsorships may appear also in ebooks, ezines and other publications that form part of your website project. With the right marketing instincts, you'll possibly know where and when you have an opportunity to get some reward for your work.
Finally on this, let's consider the option of pixel advertising, first launched by Alex Tew, 21-year-old student from Wiltshire, England, who, while trying to raise money for his university education, came up of with the brilliant idea. His site, The Million Dollar Homepage, launched 26th August 2005, grossed $1,037,100 (yes a million bucks, plus!) by the time it was fully auctioned on January 11, 2006. The idea is a web page split into pixels and sold to various interested parties. It's more like selling shop-space to various tenants. Each subscriber is able to launch a short text-ad on the acquired pixels (seen when moused-over) and also have a link to their own site. Because the pixel spaces are priced cheaply, it can attract subscribers. And given that a page can host a huge number of pixels, the promoter can earn a handsome revenue. If you offer a million pixels at N5 each, you not only stand to earn N5 million, but may indeed succeed in selling them, given that most businesses can easily pick a few pixels of space without feeling the pinch. The key however is in creating hype and attracting attention to the site. If nobody is likely to view the pixel to see my ad or click to come to my website, it won't make sense to pay even N1 for a pixel. If you don't convince prospective subscribers that they will get exposure through your pixel ads, they obviously won't subscribe. And the way to convince anybody is through the noise and buzz that the project can generate and the public awareness that follows that. While many copycats have jumped in on the concept, not all have been as successful as the initiator. With an additional imaginative twist, however, who knows, you could be the next Alex Tew.
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