Running an online business is very much about making money. Money may not be your only goal, but if you want to earn a living, it’s probably a significant one. If you’re also trying to provide information, sometimes monetization is a challenge. Will you need to be more direct if you want to earn enough money for your efforts?

Why Are You Writing?

A large part of how you monetize will depend upon why you’re writing in the first place. Sometimes the reason you’re writing online in the first place doesn’t go well with being too direct about trying to make sales, at least not on every page of your site.

This is especially true if you’re writing something for another website or a print publication where it’s more about building your reputation and/or backlinks to your website. Odds are that you shouldn’t be putting in a lot of direct monetization, and it may not be allowed at all. You may simply be able to refer people back to your own website instead, and attract what income you may from there.

On the opposite extreme, you could be writing on your own website to inform people about a particular product or service you hope they’ll purchase. In that case, you want to be very direct indeed, with obvious links to click in order to make a purchase. You should still aim to be informative about what you’re offering, so that people can make a good decision and feel comfortable with what you’re offering.

There are many levels in between, and you have to decide how best to monetize them. Fortunately, you have a lot of options for monetizing an online business.

Monetizing With Banner Ads

A very simple way to monetize a website is with banner ads. You can go the low effort way and put up blocks of AdSense, pick banners to show on every page of your website, or pick each banner carefully by the topic of the page you’re placing it on. How you cope depends on your particular goals and the effort you’re willing to put into it all.

The problem is that banner ads are easily blocked. There’s plenty of software out there to handle it. Anyone who is blocking such ads won’t see the ones on your site, and so you won’t earn from them.

Monetizing With In-Text Links

Placing text link ads within your content is another good way to monetize your website. There are services which will do this for you; you just add a bit of Javascript to your site to make it work. This is easily blocked by those who don’t care to load Javascript when they visit websites, as many know that’s a common way to serve ads.

You can also place ads manually, selecting the text you’ll link yourself. This can look much better, and because it works the same as other links, is less easily blocked. You have to put in the effort to find the right products to link to, but done right, that’s the good part.

Linking within text is the obvious choice if you’re discussing a product or service, whether it’s your own or an affiliate product. Once again, it’s about making it easy for the visitor to decide to buy.

Making Appropriate Disclosures

When you monetize your content, you must be certain you’re making appropriate disclosures. If it’s your own product, it’s pretty obvious that you’re going to benefit from any purchases, so your main concerns will be with keeping your claims accurate, respecting people’s privacy, having a terms of service and so forth.

If you’re selling affiliate products, you should be clearly noting that you get paid to recommend products. Make this one really obvious. If you’re recommending products honestly, being clear about faults as well as benefits, saying you earn something when people buy from your link shouldn’t hurt your chances to earn. It’s when it seems as though all you care about is what you earn that it hurts.

Keep Testing

You may not hit upon the right kind of monetization right away. What other people are trumpeting as the greatest way ever to earn money online may not work so well for you. Keep trying out the different options and you may find one that works pretty nicely for you.

When you’re writing for your site, whether it’s an article, blog post or article to be distributed, the title matters. It’s what readers see first and what interests them enough to give the rest of the article a chance, even when they don’t know if your site is a great one or auto generated dreck.

But without great keywords, in the title and the article itself, who’s going to find any of your articles?

Which Way to Go?

Article titles can get a bit of debate going. Some like to write them first. Others write them last. Some focus more on keywords, others on making it interesting.

I like to have a title ready, but changing it isn’t unheard of. I don’t think I’m one of the great title writers around, although I come up with a few I enjoy. A good title helps to set the tone of an article for me. I may change midway because the dratted thing no longer fits, but I like having a working title.

The important thing is to craft your titles in the way that plays to your own strengths. If you write best with a general idea, and then pull a title from that, go for it. If you need that title to guide your article writing, work that way.

There’s nothing wrong with either way. The only wrong way is the one that inhibits your ability to write in the first place.

What About Search Engines?

It’s certainly true that search engines care more about keywords than about an interesting title. Keywords are a part of what will bring search engine rankings on the keywords you’re after.

Keywords shouldn’t be your entire title in all cases, however. You should do your best to use your keywords, not only in the title of your article, but in the title attribute in the meta tags, and used appropriately throughout the article.

Your title will often be used by people linking to the page on your site. This helps your article position when your article is linked to with your keywords. Not everyone will use your title or keywords, but you want it easy for them to use your keywords when linking by using a good title.

What About People?

When people click on links to visit your pages, a good title draws them in. Humans do like keywords, so long as they’re used naturally and are relevant. If the title is clever or funny or otherwise interesting to a human reader, that helps to draw their attention.

A plain title can work, especially when people are looking for something specific. There’s rarely a need to get silly about that Canon PowerShot SD780IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera review page title. Relevance matters quite a bit when people are searching for something specific.

In the above example, you can still make the title interesting. It could imply problems with the camera. It could rave about the camera. When you’re being that specific however, the keywords in the title need that relevance to buyers, not people casually looking for information.

People looking more for information, on the other hand, will probably enjoy a title that stands out and promises a good read. A dry, keyword filled title shows that the article is probably about what they’re looking for, but doesn’t promise to be written in an interesting manner. Keywords used in an interesting way can be a big help in getting readers to your informational articles.

There’s one big problem with knowing your topic well. Sometimes it’s really hard to teach others what you know, especially if they’re a little short on background information.

This is more true in some areas than others. If you use a lot of acronyms, you’re probably going to confuse people who don’t know what you’re talking about. Mentioning SEO or PPC may be obvious to an online marketer, but just try mentioning those to friends who don’t do so much online. Even the word “blog” is unfamiliar to many people.

While the people reading your website are at least tech savvy enough to find you, that doesn’t mean they’re advanced in any other ways.

I started a website design company as my first online effort as I was getting bored with medical transcription. My very first client taught me how difficult terminology can be. She was a dog breeder, and decidedly not into technology. But she knew she needed a website.

She was adamant. Her website must be compatible with “trains.” One of her friends had told her all about them, and it was vital that the site be compatible with “trains.”

She couldn’t believe I didn’t know what she was talking about. Didn’t I know my own business?

After a bit of back and forth, it hit me. She meant search engines.

Once I said that, she agreed that this was what she was after. She’d used the word “trains” to help her remember “search engine.” She just forgot the mnemonic.

You can see that in many people. They don’t go to a favorite search engine. They visit Google, Yahoo or Bing. They probably don’t even think of these sites as search engines. They’re more the brand name than the function.

It Happens in All Industries

It doesn’t matter which industry you’re talking about. There’s what outsiders know, what beginners know, what amateurs know and what professionals and experts know. These are all very different levels of knowledge.

Your site should be friendly to all the levels of knowledge you intend to serve. Have sections that are friendly to those who just don’t know so much about your topic.

Tutorials are one way to introduce information to various groups. Have the most basic information in tutorials that are clearly just the basics. Bring in more advanced information in more advanced tutorials.

You may want to have an email course set up to help beginners get comfortable. This encourages them to come back to your site to learn more information. You can offer more advanced courses as well, but be careful of having too many subscription links all over the place. You might confuse everyone that way.

Talk to Your Friends

If you aren’t sure if your site is friendly to people with different levels of knowledge on the topic, talk to your friends. Have them review it.

Try to have people with different levels of knowledge take a look. The one who says, “Oh, but I don’t know the first thing about (topic), I couldn’t possibly help,” is the exact person you want reviewing your site if you want to be useful to people without any basic knowledge.

Have them go over your site not only for content, but for ease of use. If you had much at all to do with the design of your site, you probably know too much about it to really be able to know where things don’t make sense. Watching other people use your site is very educational.

How well do you know your stuff? Pretty well, I hope. If nothing else, you should be able to research your topic well enough to write with authority about it.

Having confidence in what you write goes a long way toward making your site credible. If you don’t sound as though you know more than the person reading on your site, why should they buy from you?

I’ve struggled with this often myself. It’s not that I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s that I’m not used to being assertive about it. In person I’m very quiet and not remotely assertive. I was the quiet kid in high school who always knew the answer when called upon, but never volunteered to answer. It’s a hard habit to change in my writing.

You Do Know More Than Most

If you’ve done your research on your niche or really dealt with the topic in your own life, you probably do know more about it than many of your readers. There’s a reason people look for information online. They aren’t looking for things they already know. They’re looking for things they want to know.

If you have a large informational site, you’re probably getting visitors with all kinds of backgrounds. Some are completely new to the topic and want to learn everything. Others know quite a bit, but are looking to learn more.

Write for all levels. Some topics will be of more general interest to your readers, while the basics won’t interest the more experienced readers. But leaving the beginners out means they’ll leave your site and find someone who can help them figure things out.

By the same token, the more knowledgeable readers will need content that meets their needs.

Be Honest About What You Know

Some people say fake it until you make it. I don’t like that theory.

I’d rather keep learning about the things I don’t know yet, and then teach them to others. It’s challenging, but then I’m less likely to be called out for being completely wrong.

I don’t mean don’t take risks. Just do your research and have some facts on your side, especially if you’re getting into things where there may be disagreement. Not everything is black and white, and a little controversy isn’t a bad thing at all. Sometimes even a lot of controversy is a good thing… handled professionally, of course.

You can’t be expected to know everything. Sometimes a good strategy is to ask your readers what they think. Many people love to share their knowledge but have no intention of running their own sites. Or they do, and have the perfect link for you.

It’s rather like how the sensei for my kids’ karate class puts it. He says “can’t” is a four letter word. “I’ll try” is much better.

By the same token, you don’t have to say “I don’t know.” You can say “Let me find out” instead.

Enjoy Yourself

It’s fun being the person who knows stuff, whatever kind of stuff it is you know. Have fun with it. Show your personality.  Don’t be a know-it-all, be a solid resource.

Some days one of the hardest things to get is an idea. It doesn’t matter how much you love your site, your topic or anything, sometimes that first idea is just really hard to get.

A favorite way of mine to get ideas is to read what others have written. But there’s something you have to be careful of. You do not want to plagiarize anyone. But there are a few simple ways you can avoid this problem.

Discuss Their Article and Link to Them

If you really like what someone else has written, there’s nothing stopping you in most cases from linking to the article, crediting a few key points and adding in your own thoughts. It’s a great way to share quality information.

You may get some attention from the original author when they note the link to their site. This makes for not only great inspirations, but a pretty good networking tool. It can also be good for search engines to note that you link out, sharing good information, rather than hiding away on your own site. I read that some time ago on Daily Blog Tips, and I agree with how they explain it.

Disagree with Their Article

Disagreeing with what someone else wrote can be fun. If you’re going to link to their article and explain why you disagree, you might just get some conversation going. Or a bit of anger, whatever. It depends on how you write your own article and on the personality of the person you’re disagreeing with.

You’ll note however, that I said if. Linking isn’t something I always do.

There’s good reason for that. Sometimes what I’m disagreeing with is when I feel someone is promoting a scam or something mighty close to one. If I feel the article is promoting something I don’t care to link to, I won’t.

In that case, my own article is likely more general. It doesn’t need to go from point to point countering everything.

It may also not even appear to be disagreeing with anything in particular. When I’ve read something I’ve disagreed with, sometimes the resultant article is strictly about my point of view.

Sadly, some people will write anything for a chance to earn money. While you may not agree with what they’re saying, you can take it as inspiration to discuss your perspective.

An example of this would be the scads of  “Google Money” and similar splogs that were all over the place in 2009. I disagreed plenty with them, but I wasn’t about to link to any. Much better to link to the resources that explained why they should be avoided.

Read Only the Titles

You can get a lot of ideas just from the titles of other articles. Read the title and create one of your own.

When I do this, sometimes it won’t even be on the same topic as the title I read. The other title just gets me thinking on a topic of my own. It might be the type of the title, it might be just one word that makes me sit up and say “hey, that’s an idea!”

Read the Articles and Note Individual Ideas

This is one you have to be very careful with, as it can reach into plagiarism if you aren’t careful. It can pay to take just one or two concepts from an article and note them for a future article.

Generally speaking, if I get an idea from someone else’s article I’m either going to write it up immediately with crediting links, or I’m going to take just one concept and develop things in my own direction in a few days.

I don’t like to write the second kind of article there immediately. My mind is likely too full of ideas from the other author’s article, and I don’t want to accidentally imitate them. Giving it a couple days and reading other things gives me time to develop it into something unique.

If you really want to make the idea your own, take things a step farther and don’t use it directly. Instead, brainstorm on related ideas. You can write it out on paper, type them into your word processor, use Google’s Wonder Wheel or even use a keyword tool to see what comes out.

Read Forums

Reading on forums is a great way to find out what questions people are asking about your niche. If someone is asking the question on a forum, you have a good chance that someone else is asking it on the search engines.

You’ll notice that a lot of these ideas I use are for generating ideas to write about another day. Many times when I can’t think of a topic to write about, even with a topic I’ll struggle more than usual with the writing. Taking a day to generate ideas rather than articles means that the days I’m more into writing are more productive because the ideas are all there.

You can do many of these tips with articles you’ve previously written for your own site too. You can disagree with something you previously wrote because you’ve learned something new. You can go into more detail on topics you’ve written before. You can take a new angle on an old topic.

Just do your best to keep from rehashing the same information over and over again on your site.