This is part 4 of my series on How To Automate Your Income Online. Be sure to read part 1, part 2, and part 3 before continuing below.

At this point I’m going to make a few assumptions about your progress. If you’ve read every article in the series, I imagine you have already:

1. Given some thought about your life’s calling, and intend to pursue it.
2. Considered how your calling will provide value to others.
3. Taken interest in creating a website to share this value with an audience of millions.

If you already own a website, then the information in this article can teach you what services are available to help you capitalize on your site’s content.

If you do not own a website yet, that is perfectly understandable — remember that it’s practical to learn how the money generating systems will work before you begin the method of automating your income online.

Use Multiple Income Streams

Remember that when you’re mass communicating using the world wide web, the types of people visiting your site will vary greatly — so they will behave differently when it comes to giving something back to you as the site owner. Your objective is therefore to combine several money generating systems to maximize your site revenue.

You can add any combination of the following to your site as a means of generating revenue:

1. PayPal Donations
   The simplest of all methods. Some visitors acknowledge that your good work deserves reward, and will want to donate money to support your site. Providing a “Make A Donation” link makes this easy for your visitors. Verified PayPal account required.
2. AdSense for Content
   Perhaps the easiest way to add relevant advertisements to your website, Google AdSense for Content allows you to pick from a large array of ad formats and then customize the look of the ads to match your site’s design. You earn money each time a visitor clicks on an ad. Participating in AdSense requires an initial site approval, followed by adherence to program policies.
3. AdSense for Search
   Once your site is approved for Google Adsense for Content, you also have the option to place a Google search box on your site. Visitors who use this box to search your site or search the web will be shown relevant ads relating to their search. You earn money each time a visitor clicks one of these ads, similar to AdSense for Content. The same program policies apply.
4. Google AdSense Referrals
   Promote certain products and services that you recommend to your site visitors, and earn money each time you successfully connect a visitor with one of them. Program policies apply.
5. Text Link Ads
   My understanding is that Text Link Ads are sponsored links that do not work on a per-click basis like Google AdSense. Instead, the advertisers pay a flat monthly rate for the text advertisements placed on your site.
6. Kontera “ContentLink” In-Text Advertising
   When you use ContentLink on your site, certain text phrases in your content are automatically converted into double-underlined links. When one of your visitors “mouses over” one of the double-underlined links, a pop-up dialog box with a related ad is displayed. You earn money each time a visitor clicks one of the pop-up ads.

At the time of this writing, the only revenue generating systems I have put in place on my own site are the PayPal “Make A Donation” link and Google AdSense for Content. This is because I believe methods 3 and 5 are more suited for sites that receive a large amount of traffic, and method 6 is a type of pop-up advertising that I believe would annoy or distract my site visitors.

If I were to follow my own advice, in order to maximize my site’s potential revenue my next step should be to set up Google AdSense Referrals.

Understand that the key to automating your income online is constant experimentation — never assume that you’re already earning the maximum revenue from your website. You should regularly explore different ad formats, placements, and be testing different income streams to see what works best for you.

[Next article in this series: How To Automate Your Income Online 5 – Be Consistent]

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