Converting Your Website Into a Profitable Cash Machine

by Mal Keenan

The Internet is fast becoming the No. 1 way business gets done. With everything from book shopping to airline ticket booking and beyond now available online. This brave new world holds lots of possibilities for those who choose to get involved. There is one simple fact about the Internet that many fail to see. This fact is that anyone with a website can make a steady stream of income from it. While it might not necessarily be enough to buy a cup of coffee on a daily basis, the reality is it can be and much more.

Anyone with a website can follow a few simple steps to turn that site into a moneymaker. Thanks to affiliate marketing programs, website owners don't even have to change what they're doing, touch products or make sales directly to create an income for themselves.

Many people are discovering this and are taking steps to convert their existing websites into moneymaking machines. Here's how:

1. Examine your site and set its niche. If you have a website that's devoted solely to old family recipes, for example, you've already created a niche for yourself. Define the niche and keep supporting it by building on the content.

2. Find affiliate marketing programs that fit the niche. If your family recipe site is one you want to stick with, look for affiliate advertisers that sell products such as cookbooks, cooking gear and even gourmet ingredients. Tailor the affiliate programs you get involved with to the target audience of the site you already have created.

3. Pick a few programs and sign up for them. After you review the different online affiliate marketing options out there for the niche you fall into, sign up for those you like. Your website will have to be submitted for approval, but if you have had one up and running for a while, it should not take too terribly long.

4. Put the ads on your site. Affiliate marketing program ads generally are written in HTML format. The affiliate marketing advertisers generally encourage website owners into putting this code on their sites. It's not as difficult as it sounds!

5. Drive traffic to your site and your affiliate partners. This doesn't have to be very difficult either. Get involved in chat rooms that fit the niche, post on forums and even submit articles about the niche topic to article distribution services. Make sure your website address and affiliate information is included in everything you do. The more you work this end of it, the more likely it is you will get traffic on your site. This in turn makes you money when you have affiliate marketing campaigns going.

Learning to convert an existing website into a moneymaking venture isn't very tough. It will require some research and a little elbow grease, but why not get paid for what you're doing already?