Make Money Online : 8 ways

You've got your website up. It was really hard work (or maybe not) and now you'd like to make money online. Here are 8 methods to make money online:

Advertising can be a great way to make money online and increase your cash flow. Static advertising online has been around a while while contextual advertising online is newer.

Contextual Advertising
These are ads you place on your site that are dynamically targeted to the content of your page. Since they're targeted to the content, your visitors will likely be interested in the advertisements. They will be more willing to click on them. Contextual ads provide value to your site by potentially providing visitors with solutions to what they are looking for. The most popular is Google's Adsense program. Some webmasters (those with a lot of traffic) make a lot of money online with Google Adsense.

Static Advertising
These are ads that don't change in relation to your page's content. They are usually found in the form of image ads, like those banners you see on a lot of pages. Or they can be found in the form of text links. Static ads can still change due to rotations though. And sometimes you can't control what static ads you receive.

Other than ads, there are a variety of methods you can use to make money online. I'll outline some of those ways you can use to enhance your cash flow.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money online. Basically you act as an online salesperson and refer visitors to merchants' stores. You get paid for actions like leads or sales. The amount you get paid is usually a percentage or some set amount. Make sure that the prices are competitive and that your commission is not super low.

Sell Services or Physical Goods
Find something to sell that's related to your site's topic. You could make money online by selling some services, especially if you become known as an expert in your area. Or by directly selling goods related to your topic. For example, if you have a site about scuba diving, you could sell scuba diving equipment. Whatever comes to your mind!

Sell Digital Goods
Digital goods don't have the overhead that physical goods do. They're also amazingly simple to reproduce and distribute. You could write an Ebook on your topic of expertise. You could develop useful software or hire others to develop software related to your site.

Sell Website Memberships
Are you an expert in your site's topic? Can you or a team provide regular, timely, useful content that your visitors would want? Can you provide services on your site that people would want? If so, consider selling site memberships to help you make money online.

Take Donations
Do people like your site, feel connected, and want to support you? Consider adding an online donation button, but only if you think you have a compelling reason for it.

Sell Your Website
Over time, your site will grow in value as your traffic grows and cash flow increases. Sometimes circumstances pop up and you won't be able to work on your site. Or you plainly lose interest. In that case, you may want to sell your site to someone capable. You lose out on future profits but you make more money at the time of sale.