However, if your goals are a bit more modest, it is not unreasonable to expect your Web site to bring you some extra cash. Perhaps pay for the Web service it's running on and take your family out to eat once or twice a month. Perhaps more.
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are a simple way for you to get some extra cash coming from your Web site. An affiliate program is where you partner with another company, usually an ecommerce company, to sell their product from your Web site. For every product you sell, you get a portion of the proceeds. The best known affiliate program sells books for Amazon.com, but you can sell anything from car ads to fishing flies.
Advertisements
Many sites have advertising on them, and they are another way to add a revenue stream from your Web site. The money from advertising comes in two ways: first from the number of people who view the ad and second from the number of "click-throughs" on the ad. Basically, if your site gets a lot of hits (and so a lot of people will see the ad) it will get a better rate for advertisements. But even sites that have lower hit rates might have high numbers of clicks on the ad, and this will get you a better rate as well.
Advertising can take the form of banner ads, which usually cost a lot, or just sponsored links. You can see examples of each of those on About.com as well. The banner ads on the top, bottom and sides cost more than the sponsored links on the bottom, and they each bring in different amounts of revenue.
Other Resources
There are lots of articles and information on how to raise money from your Web site. If you're interested in advertising, look at my Advertising resources. Affiliate programs (also called Associate programs) are listed on my Making Money resources page, as well as information on how to get started with associate programs and advertising on your site. If you are ready to move on to more advanced money making, then you should read my ECommerce resource page.
10 Ways to Run Your Own Advertising Campaign
Taking on your own advertising campaign is no easy task. You can do it on your own but get ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Your Marketing Plan
Nothing can help you identify your goals more than your marketing plan. You learn a lot about your company, your competitors and your long-term goals by creating and following your marketing plan. This is crucial to knowing what type of advertising is best for you.
Create a Plan of Action
Once you have your marketing plan, you must create a plan of action. This model shows you how freelancers and agencies put their own plan of action in place. Your plan of action also gives you crucial info you can use in executing your ad strategy.
Define Your Advertising Budget
How you advertise depends on your ad budget. You need to strategically use your advertising money. If you're only allowing a small portion of money to advertising, you wouldn't want to throw it all into the production of one commercial that runs at 2 a.m. Know exactly how much you will spend on your advertising first so you can make wise decisions in the creation and placement of all ad mediums.
Hunt for Affordable Opportunities
Running your own ad campaign means you have to be your own media director. You've got to find the best ad placement and the most affordable opportunities to fit into your budget. If you're limited to a very small budget, you can find many ways to bypass high advertising costs.
Know Your Target Audience
You can't advertise effectively if you don't hit your target audience. Know who they are before you start creating your ads. If your company sells scooters to seniors, you don't want to invest in cable ads to run on MTV.
10 Tips to Promoting Your Web Design Business
Know what makes your Web design business unique - and promote it.
The first thing you should think about when promoting your Web design business is what makes your business unique. Ask yourself the following questions, and be honest in your answers - after all, you only hurt yourself and your business if you lie:
* What does my company offer that no other company can offer?
* What makes my services unique or special?
* Why should someone choose my company over any other Web design company?
Create a portfolio of your best sites.
A portfolio is the best way to show off your abilities and that of your business. So you should always have a list of the sites you worked on, what made them unique or interesting, and screen shots of the site as well as a link to the live site (if it's still available). Remember that when you're creating a portfolio, you should keep screen shots or if your contract allows, copies of the site you developed on your own server. Web sites change all the time, and if you're not the design firm that the site owner chooses for the next redesign, your portfolio will quickly get out of date.
I recommend having at least 5 portfolio sites that showcase your strengths. Having a (color) print version of your portfolio is great for client meetings, but an online portfolio can demonstrate dynamic aspects of the pages like DHTML, Ajax, and Flash.
Be willing to design sites for low cost or free to get started.
Many designers recommend never doing work for free, because it sends the wrong message. But if you have no portfolio items, it can be hard to get any without doing some free jobs. Contact organizations you know, like your church, local clubs, or up-and-coming politicians, and offer to build their sites for free or reduced cost. This gets them additional exposure, and gets you portfolio pieces. And just because a group you know has a Web site doesn't mean they won't accept help. Many non-profits have a difficult time keeping Web designers around once the initial site is built. If you can provide suggestions for how they can improve their site, they will often be willing to let you do a redesign.
Include your business information on every site you build.
It helps to have a small (around 100 x 50, no larger) logo that you can use to promote your business unobtrusively. And then make sure to get that you want some acknowledgement of your work on their site in the contract. Many businesses don't want a Web designer logo on every page of their site, but if you can at least get something on their "About Us" page, along with a logo and link to your business site, that would help. If they are pleased with your work, chances are they will be more willing to link to you.
Don't be afraid to provide contact information.
Your customers will appreciate having multiple ways to contact you including postal mail, telephone, email, and Web form. Yes, there is the concern of spam, but if you're trying to get customers, hiding from spammers means you're hiding from customers too. Invest in a quality spam blocking program and make your email address available.
Free things are always appreciated.
There is a reason why freebies are so popular - they work for both the customers and the companies. If you specialize in Flash menu design, offer a free, simple Flash menu for anyone to download and use on their site. Once you've hooked them with the quality of your free product, they'll be more interested in hiring you to build a full-blown Flash site. Other free things you could offer are:
* Free simple Web templates
* Free hosting with purchase of a design package
* Free site evaluation
* Free domain maintenance with mention of some ad
* Free estimate - you should always provide this
If you have articles, information, or links on your Web site that go beyond just what you're selling, you'll attract more customers. Be careful if you decide to put up articles that they don't turn into "infomercials". Most Web surfers these days are very savvy and get bored quickly with strong armed sales pitches when all they wanted was to learn how to do something.
Promote your business wherever you can.
If there is a Web designer listing you should get your site on it. But read any submission requirements before you start spamming the world. You won't get additional customers because you submitted to more places, but you might get banned or blacklisted if you're particularly annoying.
Keep your business site up-to-date and of high quality.
It's often amazing to me how poorly written many Web designer sites are. Remember, unless you're independently wealthy or have a day job, your Web design business should always be looking for clients. And to look for clients, you need to put your best foot forward. No customer is going to come to a poorly designed Web site and think "well, their portfolio sites were nice, I guess they just don't have time for their corporate site." If they think anything it will be more like "Oh wow! That is completely not what I expected from a site who designed ____. Maybe they didn't really design ____," and hit the back button.
Remember SEO for your Web design site.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is just as important for your business site as it is for your clients' sites. Use the unique facets of your business to optimize on - so that you can get better ranking for the niche designs you want to build. Remember that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other Web designers out there. And they all want the same business you want. The better you optimize for a specific niche, the more likely you'll get the client that another, more generalized Web designer would have missed.
Be very careful with your spelling and grammar in all your promotional materials.
Whenever you are promoting your business, whether on your company's Web site or in a Web designer listing, remember that spelling and grammar are very important. If you make a simple typo in your promotional material, someone will see it and decide not to use you because of it. Don't give people a reason to turn away from you.
This also applies to "unique" spellings or grammatical choices. For example, a very popular chocie by many Web designers is to write everything in lower case. In English grammar, this is incorrect. And while it may have worked for e.e. cummings, in most Web design promotional material it looks silly at best, and juvenile or lazy at worst. If you're doing something with your writing to look "cool", chances are it will just look wrong to many of your potential customers.
If you hadn't already guessed, the Web is not going to be the wellspring of wealth that a lot of people assumed it would. Some people will get very wealthy, but other people will earn nothing, and, in the nature of business fail and go out of business.
However, if your goals are a bit more modest, it is not unreasonable to expect your Web site to bring you some extra cash. Perhaps pay for the Web service it's running on and take your family out to eat once or twice a month. Perhaps more.
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are a simple way for you to get some extra cash coming from your Web site. An affiliate program is where you partner with another company, usually an ecommerce company, to sell their product from your Web site. For every product you sell, you get a portion of the proceeds. The best known affiliate program sells books for Amazon.com, but you can sell anything from car ads to fishing flies.
Advertisements
Many sites have advertising on them, and they are another way to add a revenue stream from your Web site. The money from advertising comes in two ways: first from the number of people who view the ad and second from the number of "click-throughs" on the ad. Basically, if your site gets a lot of hits (and so a lot of people will see the ad) it will get a better rate for advertisements. But even sites that have lower hit rates might have high numbers of clicks on the ad, and this will get you a better rate as well.
Advertising can take the form of banner ads, which usually cost a lot, or just sponsored links. You can see examples of each of those on About.com as well. The banner ads on the top, bottom and sides cost more than the sponsored links on the bottom, and they each bring in different amounts of revenue.
Other Resources
There are lots of articles and information on how to raise money from your Web site. If you're interested in advertising, look at my Advertising resources. Affiliate programs (also called Associate programs) are listed on my Making Money resources page, as well as information on how to get started with associate programs and advertising on your site. If you are ready to move on to more advanced money making, then you should read my ECommerce resource page.
10 Ways to Run Your Own Advertising Campaign
Taking on your own advertising campaign is no easy task. You can do it on your own but get ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Your Marketing Plan
Nothing can help you identify your goals more than your marketing plan. You learn a lot about your company, your competitors and your long-term goals by creating and following your marketing plan. This is crucial to knowing what type of advertising is best for you.
Create a Plan of Action
Once you have your marketing plan, you must create a plan of action. This model shows you how freelancers and agencies put their own plan of action in place. Your plan of action also gives you crucial info you can use in executing your ad strategy.
Define Your Advertising Budget
How you advertise depends on your ad budget. You need to strategically use your advertising money. If you're only allowing a small portion of money to advertising, you wouldn't want to throw it all into the production of one commercial that runs at 2 a.m. Know exactly how much you will spend on your advertising first so you can make wise decisions in the creation and placement of all ad mediums.
Hunt for Affordable Opportunities
Running your own ad campaign means you have to be your own media director. You've got to find the best ad placement and the most affordable opportunities to fit into your budget. If you're limited to a very small budget, you can find many ways to bypass high advertising costs.
Know Your Target Audience
You can't advertise effectively if you don't hit your target audience. Know who they are before you start creating your ads. If your company sells scooters to seniors, you don't want to invest in cable ads to run on MTV.
10 Tips to Promoting Your Web Design Business
Know what makes your Web design business unique - and promote it.
The first thing you should think about when promoting your Web design business is what makes your business unique. Ask yourself the following questions, and be honest in your answers - after all, you only hurt yourself and your business if you lie:
* What does my company offer that no other company can offer?
* What makes my services unique or special?
* Why should someone choose my company over any other Web design company?
Create a portfolio of your best sites.
A portfolio is the best way to show off your abilities and that of your business. So you should always have a list of the sites you worked on, what made them unique or interesting, and screen shots of the site as well as a link to the live site (if it's still available). Remember that when you're creating a portfolio, you should keep screen shots or if your contract allows, copies of the site you developed on your own server. Web sites change all the time, and if you're not the design firm that the site owner chooses for the next redesign, your portfolio will quickly get out of date.
I recommend having at least 5 portfolio sites that showcase your strengths. Having a (color) print version of your portfolio is great for client meetings, but an online portfolio can demonstrate dynamic aspects of the pages like DHTML, Ajax, and Flash.
Be willing to design sites for low cost or free to get started.
Many designers recommend never doing work for free, because it sends the wrong message. But if you have no portfolio items, it can be hard to get any without doing some free jobs. Contact organizations you know, like your church, local clubs, or up-and-coming politicians, and offer to build their sites for free or reduced cost. This gets them additional exposure, and gets you portfolio pieces. And just because a group you know has a Web site doesn't mean they won't accept help. Many non-profits have a difficult time keeping Web designers around once the initial site is built. If you can provide suggestions for how they can improve their site, they will often be willing to let you do a redesign.
Include your business information on every site you build.
It helps to have a small (around 100 x 50, no larger) logo that you can use to promote your business unobtrusively. And then make sure to get that you want some acknowledgement of your work on their site in the contract. Many businesses don't want a Web designer logo on every page of their site, but if you can at least get something on their "About Us" page, along with a logo and link to your business site, that would help. If they are pleased with your work, chances are they will be more willing to link to you.
Don't be afraid to provide contact information.
Your customers will appreciate having multiple ways to contact you including postal mail, telephone, email, and Web form. Yes, there is the concern of spam, but if you're trying to get customers, hiding from spammers means you're hiding from customers too. Invest in a quality spam blocking program and make your email address available.
Free things are always appreciated.
There is a reason why freebies are so popular - they work for both the customers and the companies. If you specialize in Flash menu design, offer a free, simple Flash menu for anyone to download and use on their site. Once you've hooked them with the quality of your free product, they'll be more interested in hiring you to build a full-blown Flash site. Other free things you could offer are:
* Free simple Web templates
* Free hosting with purchase of a design package
* Free site evaluation
* Free domain maintenance with mention of some ad
* Free estimate - you should always provide this
If you have articles, information, or links on your Web site that go beyond just what you're selling, you'll attract more customers. Be careful if you decide to put up articles that they don't turn into "infomercials". Most Web surfers these days are very savvy and get bored quickly with strong armed sales pitches when all they wanted was to learn how to do something.
Promote your business wherever you can.
If there is a Web designer listing you should get your site on it. But read any submission requirements before you start spamming the world. You won't get additional customers because you submitted to more places, but you might get banned or blacklisted if you're particularly annoying.
Keep your business site up-to-date and of high quality.
It's often amazing to me how poorly written many Web designer sites are. Remember, unless you're independently wealthy or have a day job, your Web design business should always be looking for clients. And to look for clients, you need to put your best foot forward. No customer is going to come to a poorly designed Web site and think "well, their portfolio sites were nice, I guess they just don't have time for their corporate site." If they think anything it will be more like "Oh wow! That is completely not what I expected from a site who designed ____. Maybe they didn't really design ____," and hit the back button.
Remember SEO for your Web design site.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is just as important for your business site as it is for your clients' sites. Use the unique facets of your business to optimize on - so that you can get better ranking for the niche designs you want to build. Remember that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other Web designers out there. And they all want the same business you want. The better you optimize for a specific niche, the more likely you'll get the client that another, more generalized Web designer would have missed.
Be very careful with your spelling and grammar in all your promotional materials.
Whenever you are promoting your business, whether on your company's Web site or in a Web designer listing, remember that spelling and grammar are very important. If you make a simple typo in your promotional material, someone will see it and decide not to use you because of it. Don't give people a reason to turn away from you.
This also applies to "unique" spellings or grammatical choices. For example, a very popular chocie by many Web designers is to write everything in lower case. In English grammar, this is incorrect. And while it may have worked for e.e. cummings, in most Web design promotional material it looks silly at best, and juvenile or lazy at worst. If you're doing something with your writing to look "cool", chances are it will just look wrong to many of your potential customers.
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