Is Monetizing Your Site a Proven Cash Cow?

No doubt you've heard about how easy it is to monetize your business site.

If the Internet crowd is to be believed, you can make enough money to live on just by monetizing your site. And apparently, if moneyjunkie and livinthedreembuddy are correct, it doesn't matter if your site is a blog about ceramic elephant collecting or a review site about damask tablecloths.

Anyone can make thousands of dollars a month off their site, and by the way, why aren't you already doing it?

Don't feel too bad if you're not on your speedboat right now while your website rakes in millions.

If you have a distaste for stealing, lying or cheating, chances are you're a little more discriminating in your choice of online business practices than, say, buttercheeksmalarky.

Here are the pros and cons of monetizing your site:

Pros

PPC, or pay per click, is advertising that companies display on your site in exchange for compensation based on click throughs.

When you sign up for a service like this, your site displays ads in the sidebar or in the middle of text posts.

If one of your site visitors clicks on the ad, you'll be paid handsomely. As much as 10 cents will be credited to your account. Frankly, if you get 10 cents, you'll be lucky, because that's the high end of PPC rates.

Some people think sites that display advertising are more legitimate than those that don't. Yes, that's crazy, and yes, that's true.

Affiliate agreements are a way of monetizing your site whereby you get paid a percentage if one of your site visitors clicks on an ad on your site and actually buys an affiliate's service or product.

If your site is geared toward affiliate marketing you could make some decent money, but not enough to buy a boat. Maybe enough to buy a picture frame with a picture of a boat in it. Seriously, though, the most successful affiliate sites are ones that are review sites.

So if your site reviews blenders and you have affiliate agreements with all the blender companies you review, you might make a little money.

If you still think monetizing your site is a good idea, at least read, “4 Rules to Remember When You Monetize Your Site."

Cons

Does this page have infinite scroll? Because there are a lot of cons to monetizing your site.

Site visitors will be turned off because:

• Annoying flashing ads will distract them from reading your content
• Ads will offend their sensibilities
• Ads will prevent your site from downloading in a timely manner
• Ads that are customized to their browsing habits will creep them out
• Ads will take up valuable space on their mobile device
• Ads will get in the way of accessing information when they need it most
• And much, much more

Think about it.

When you personally browse the Internet, do you think to yourself, "Gee, I wish there were more ads," or do you say, "The Internet has become so commercialized!"

You represent the average person, so that's what the average person is going to think when they visit your site.

The reality is, professional people like you will stand a much better chance at creating a long lasting business model that provides stable income than well over half of the snake oil site owners that populate the Internet today.

Stand by your principles, track your expenses and sales and treat everyone with kindness and fairness.

You won't have to wait too long to reap your rewards.