The Web Revenue Maximizer
(Chapters 1, 2, and 7)
Thank you for downloading the sample chapters of The Web Site Revenue
Maximizer published by SitePoint.
This excerpt includes the Summary of Contents, information about the Author,
Editors and SitePoint, Table of Contents, Preface, three sample chapters from the
kit, and the Index.
We hope you find this information useful in evaluating this kit.
For more information or to order, visit sitepoint.com
Summary of Contents of this Excerpt
Preface……………………………………………………………….xiii
1. Overview…………………………………………………………….1
2. Planning……………………………………………………………..8
7. Affiliate Marketing………………………………….…………..143
Index………………………………………………………………....287
Summary of Additional Book Contents
3. Legal Issues………………………………………………………..37
4. Construction……………………………………………………....53
5. Building Traffic……………………………………….……….….81
6. Monetizing Your Content…………………………….………...121
8. Selling Products Online…………………………….…...….….175
9. Web Measurement and Analysis……………………..……….203
10. Flipping Web Sites for Profit……………………….………..219
A. Reviews………………………………………………….……….243
B. Site Flipping Resources………………………………….…….283
Glossary……………………………………………………….…….285
THE WEB SITE
REVENUE
MAXIMIZER
BY PETER T. DAVIS
& GEORGINA LAIDLAW
iii
The Web Site Revenue Maximizer
by Peter T. Davis and Georgina Laidlaw
Copyright © 2008 SitePoint Pty. Ltd.
Contributing Author: Tim Dickinson Editor: Hilary Reynolds
Expert Reviewer: Dan Grossman Cover Design: Alex Walker
Managing Editor: Simon Mackie
Technical Director: Kevin Yank
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Notice of Liability
The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information contained
in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors and SitePoint Pty. Ltd., nor its dealers or distributors
will be held liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book, or by
the software or hardware products described herein.
Trademark Notice
Rather than indicating every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the names only in an editorial fashion and to
the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Published by SitePoint Pty. Ltd.
48 Cambridge Street Collingwood
VIC Australia 3066
Web:
Email:
ISBN 978-0-9804552-6-7
Printed and bound in the United States of America
iv
About the Authors
Peter T. Davis is an Advisor in the SitePoint Forums. He has been working online for more than eight years as a webmaster,
community builder, domainer, and Search Engine Optimizer. His first successful web site came from his passion
for hobbies—it was a community for coin collectors, called CoinTalk.1 Currently, his main focus is on search engine
marketing with InsuranceDesk.com,2 a startup in the insurance industry.
Peter specializes in link building and keyword analysis, which he believes are the two keys to a successful search
marketing strategy. You can find more about him at his blog.3
Georgina Laidlaw has viewed the Web from just about every conceivable angle since she entered the industry in 1998.
Since completing her Bachelor of Business—Marketing, with Distinction, she worked in several creative roles for web
agencies before finally settling with SitePoint.
Georgina was instrumental in the development of Brendon Sinclair’s critically acclaimed, best-selling product, The
Web Design Business Kit, and plays a crucial editorial role in virtually every SitePoint publication, including SitePoint’s
extremely popular newsletters, articles, books and kits and, of course, its online Marketplace.
About the Expert Reviewer
Dan Grossman has been developing for the Web since 1996, runs Awio Web Services LLC, and occasionally blogs about
it.4
About the Technical Director
As Technical Director for SitePoint, Kevin Yank oversees all of its technical publications—books, articles, newsletters,
and blogs. He has written over 50 articles for SitePoint, but is best known for his book, Build Your Own Database
Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL. Kevin lives in Melbourne, Australia, and enjoys performing improvised comedy
theater and flying light aircraft.
About SitePoint
SitePoint specializes in publishing fun, practical, and easy-to-understand content for web professionals. Visit
to access our books, newsletters, articles, and community forums.
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2
3
4
Table of Contents
Preface ...... xiii
Who Should Read This Kit? ...... xiii
What’s In This Kit? ...... xiii
This Book’s Web Site ...... xv
The SitePoint Forums ...... xv
The SitePoint Newsletters ...... xv
Your Feedback ...... xvi
Acknowledgments ...... xvi
Chapter 1 Overview ...... 1
The Types of Web Sites ...... 1
Content Web Sites ...... 1
Community Web Sites ...... 3
Ecommerce Web Sites ...... 4
Generating Revenues ...... 6
Selling Products and Services ...... 6
Selling Ad Space ...... 6
Promoting Affiliate Businesses ...... 7
Summary ...... 7
Chapter 2 Planning ...... 8
Taking a Niche Approach ...... 8
Finding Your Niche ...... 9
Identifying Niche Potential ...... 10
Conducting Competitive Research ...... 11
Creating a Competitive Framework ...... 11
Researching Competition on Your Keywords ...... 12
Plotting the Competition on a Positioning Matrix ...... 14
Conducting Keyword Research ...... 19
Generating a Keyword List ...... 19
Refining Your Keyword List ...... 20
Profiling Your Audience ...... 27
Business Planning ...... 28
Common Revenue Models ...... 28
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vi
Selecting a Revenue Model ...... 30
Predicting Your Site’s Revenue Potential ...... 31
Predicting Your Site’s Costs ...... 32
Summary ...... 33
Chapter 3 Legal Issues ...... 34
Introducing Copyright ...... 34
What Is Copyright? ...... 35
What Is Fair Use? ...... 36
What Is the Public Domain? ...... 37
Your Site: Your Copyrights ...... 37
Registering Your Copyright ...... 38
Infringements of Your Copyrights ...... 39
Enforcing Your Copyright ...... 40
Your Site: Others’ Rights ...... 42
Preparing to Stay Legal ...... 42
Keeping it Legal ...... 43
Creating a Site Use Agreement ...... 44
The DCMA, OCILLA, and User-contributed Content ...... 45
Contracts in Brief ...... 46
Summary ...... 48
Chapter 4 Construction ...... 49
Finding a Domain Name ...... 49
Demystifying Domains ...... 50
Choosing a Domain ...... 51
Registering Your Domain ...... 55
Planning and Procuring Content ...... 56
Defining “Good” Content ...... 57
Content Planning ...... 57
Procuring Content ...... 60
Building Your Site ...... 66
Building Your Own Site ...... 66
Paying Someone to Build Your Site ...... 67
Finding a Web Host ...... 72
Hosting Basics ...... 72
Finding a Good Host ...... 74
Summary ...... 76
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vii
Chapter 5 Building Traffic ...... 77
Optimizing for Search Engines ...... 78
How Search Engines Work ...... 78
Search Engine Optimization ...... 81
Building Links to Your Site ...... 88
Defining “Quality Links” ...... 89
Obtaining Incoming Links ...... 89
Enabling Direct Navigation ...... 94
Creating a Memorable Domain ...... 94
Registering Typo Domains ...... 95
Using Expired Domains ...... 96
Creating a Pay-per-click Campaign ...... 96
Calculating ROI ...... 97
Organizing PPC Advertising ...... 97
Writing PPC Ad Copy ...... 99
Creating Landing Pages ...... 100
PPC and Placement Targeting ...... 103
Advertising with Affiliates ...... 103
Organizing an Affiliate Marketing System ...... 105
Creating Affiliate Promotions ...... 108
Attracting Affiliates ...... 108
Promoting Your Web Site Offline ...... 110
Generating Word of Mouth ...... 110
Promoting in Print ...... 111
Networking and Event Sponsorship ...... 112
Advertising Through Local Media ...... 112
Strategizing for Repeat Traffic ...... 113
Sending Newsletters ...... 113
Adding Forums ...... 114
Syndicating Content ...... 114
Considering Other Strategies ...... 115
Summary ...... 115
Chapter 6 Monetizing Your Content ...... 117
Advertising Networks 101 ...... 117
Types of Advertising Networks ...... 119
Advertisement Formats ...... 121
Creating and Planning Ad Inventory ...... 122
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viii
Ad Planning Preliminaries ...... 122
Planning Ad Inventory ...... 124
Selling Ad Inventory ...... 127
Choosing Ad Networks ...... 128
Selling Your Inventory Through Networks ...... 129
Selling Your Own Ad Inventory ...... 131
Optimizing Your Site for Ad Revenue ...... 133
Ad Placement ...... 133
Ad Design and Integration ...... 133
Section Targeting ...... 134
Other Offerings ...... 134
Using Channels ...... 135
Publisher Pitfalls ...... 137
The Network Declines Your Application to Join ...... 138
You Expect Successfully Monetizing Your Content to Be Easy ...... 138
Some Inventory Remains Unsold ...... 138
The Network Bans You From its Service ...... 138
You Don’t Receive Your Earnings ...... 139
Other Monetizing Practices ...... 139
PPC Arbitrage ...... 139
Hard Text Link Sales ...... 140
Pay Per Post Blogging ...... 141
Summary ...... 142
Chapter 7 Affiliate Marketing ...... 143
Affiliate Marketing 101 ...... 143
How Affiliate Networks Operate ...... 144
Beyond Affiliate Networks ...... 144
Monetizing a Site with Affiliate Marketing ...... 145
Monetizing an Existing Site ...... 146
Creating a Monetized Site: An Alternative Approach ...... 156
Optimizing Your Site for Affiliate Sales ...... 160
Preselling Affiliate Products ...... 160
Using PPC to Drive Affiliate Sales ...... 163
Organic Search Optimization … and More ...... 166
Affiliate Issues ...... 167
You’re Accused of Affiliate Spamming ...... 167
The Program Isn’t Tracking Your Generated Sales Properly ...... 167
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ix
Summary ...... 169
Chapter 8 Selling Products Online ...... 170
Ecommerce Basics ...... 170
Choosing a Product or Service ...... 171
The Ecommerce Process ...... 171
Payment Processing: Your Options ...... 173
Your Online Store and Shopping Cart ...... 174
Your Merchant Account ...... 176
Your Payment Gateway and Processor ...... 179
Avoiding Fraud and Reducing Chargebacks ...... 182
Customer Information Requirements ...... 183
Minimizing Chargeback Risk ...... 183
Detecting Fraudulent Transaction Attempts ...... 184
Fulfilling Online Orders ...... 185
Downloading Products ...... 186
Shipping Products ...... 187
Drop-shipping Products ...... 188
Building Credibility ...... 189
Publishing Physical Address and Phone Details ...... 190
Including Product Shots and Descriptions ...... 190
Presenting Customer Testimonials ...... 191
Providing Product Trials and Samples ...... 192
Offering Guarantees ...... 193
Publishing Terms of Use, Privacy, and Conditions of Sale ...... 193
Considering Design Quality ...... 194
Prioritizing Usability and Add-on Technology ...... 194
Customer Service and Support ...... 195
Summary ...... 195
Chapter 9 Web Site Measurement and Analysis ...... 197
Common Metrics Explained ...... 197
Choosing a Metrics Package for Your Site ...... 200
Understanding Your Site Statistics ...... 202
Trends: the Big Picture ...... 202
Drilling Down to the Detail ...... 203
Using Your Statistics to Improve Your Site ...... 207
Summary ...... 212
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x
Chapter 10 Flipping Web Sites for Profit ...... 213
Site Flipping Demystified ...... 213
Buying a Site ...... 214
Finding Sites to Purchase ...... 215
Assessing Sites for Investment ...... 217
Negotiating the Sale ...... 226
Transacting the Sale ...... 227
Adding Value ...... 228
Rejigging Ad Space and Sizes ...... 229
Implementing Advertising and Affiliate Programs ...... 230
Updating the Design ...... 230
Optimizing the Site for Search Engines ...... 230
Improving Member Communications ...... 230
Other Options ...... 230
Selling a Site ...... 230
Preparing to Sell ...... 231
Listing Your Site ...... 231
Getting the Best Price ...... 233
Summary ...... 235
Appendix A Reviews ...... 236
Advertising Networks ...... 236
Burst Media ...... 236
Casale Media ...... 237
CPX Interactive ...... 238
Google AdSense ...... 239
Tribal Fusion ...... 240
ValueClick Media ...... 241
Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ...... 242
Advertising Solutions ...... 243
AdvertPro ...... 243
BanManPro ...... 244
OpenAds ...... 245
MOJO Publisher ...... 246
RMX Direct ...... 246
Affiliate Networks ...... 247
Advertising.com ...... 247
AzoogleAds ...... 248
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xi
Commission Junction (CJ) ...... 249
TradeDoubler ...... 250
Amazon ...... 250
Blog Solutions and Content Management Tools ...... 251
Movable Type ...... 252
Textpattern ...... 253
Wordpress ...... 254
Blogger ...... 254
LiveJournal ...... 255
TypePad ...... 255
Wordpress.com ...... 256
Content Management Systems ...... 257
Drupal ...... 257
Etomite ...... 258
eZ publish ...... 259
Joomla ...... 260
Typo3 ...... 261
Domain Registrars ...... 261
Forum Software ...... 263
Invision Power Board (IPB) ...... 263
phpBB ...... 264
PunBB ...... 264
Simple Machines Forum (SMF) ...... 265
Vanilla ...... 265
vBulletin ...... 266
Pay-per-click Search Engine Tools ...... 267
Ask ...... 267
Google ...... 267
Miva ...... 268
Yahoo ...... 268
MSN ...... 269
Traffic Analysis Tools ...... 270
Analog ...... 270
AWStats ...... 270
eWebCounter ...... 271
Google Analytics ...... 272
Mint ...... 272
Webalizer ...... 273
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xii
W3Counter ...... 273
Appendix B Site Flipping Resources ...... 275
Glossary ...... 277
Index ...... 287
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Preface
We’ve all heard how lucrative online businesses can be. Countless ordinary people the world over have
turned small sites into booming businesses that have allowed them to quit their day jobs and enjoy lives
of online entrepreneurship. But even if you’re a beginner who’s not expecting to create the next Amazon
or eBay, you can still use a web site to generate a growing income. This kit will show you how.
The Web offers some big benefits to those of us who are just starting out. Low startup costs, minimal barriers
to entry, affordable marketing techniques, and access to a worldwide audience regardless of timezones are
among the advantages that lure more people every year to participate in the online economy. Will you be
among them? We hope so.
The thing it’s important to realize about running a profitable web site is that this is not a way to get rich
quick. Your success online will take passion, dedication, and a strong interest in what you do. You’ll also
need to enjoy it. If you’re not having fun, your passion will fizzle, leaving you overwhelmed by the day-today
burden of your site’s operations. But if you get a kick out of what you do, that spark will ignite the
flame of inspiration—the flame that will see you excel as you strive tirelessly to improve your site to meet
visitors’ needs, and make money in the process.
Although this kit can’t give you that passion, it does explore and explain the practicalities you’ll need to
know to make your site a profitable success. It also aims to inspire you to try new tools, ideas, tricks, and
tactics that can make your life easier, and the process of establishing and promoting your site more
straightforward and enjoyable.
Our goal in writing this kit is to give you the knowledge you need to put yourself out there, find something
new, and give it a go. There’s nothing wrong with taking a well-informed, considered risk. Let this kit give
you the foundation you’ll need to rigorously assess the risks and opportunities in the world of online revenue
generation—and to make the best of both.
Who Should Read This Kit?
This kit is intended for those who have little or no previous experience with building profit-making web
sites. If you’ve already established a few sites that are doing nicely, you’ll probably get the most out of the
kit’s later chapters, and those that specialize on particular topics, such as affiliate marketing and site flipping.
Absolute beginners, on the other hand, will want to start at paragraph one, chapter one, and read from there.
What’s In This Kit?
This kit is broken into ten chapters and three appendices:
Chapter 1: Overview
The opening chapter is designed to help you focus on the two central questions you’ll face as you
consider creating a revenue-generating site: what type of site will you run, and how will it make money?
Here, we introduce the site types, and provide a broad overview of the most common online revenue
models as a means to get you thinking about your future as an online entrepreneur.
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xiv
Chapter 2: Planning
For your site to be a success, you’ll need to choose a niche to target. We start out by helping you to
identify a niche that has sufficient potential to fulfil your business expectations. Then, we move on to
look at keyword research as a tool to ascertain the size of the market space, and the competitors who
already operate within it. Competitive research is dealt with in detail, as is the crucial task of profiling
your audience. Finally, we touch on the questions that will help you plan your online business.
Chapter 3: Legal Issues
Before you embark on an online business, you’ll need to be aware of the legal issues you’ll face. While
this chapter doesn’t constitute legal advice—you’ll need to see a lawyer or solicitor for that!—it does
aim to appraise you of the basics of copyright and contract law that apply in most countries. It then
considers these issues as they relate to you as a site owner, copyright holder, and individual who might,
albeit unwittingly, infringe another’s rights.
Chapter 4: Construction
Here’s where we put our plans into action! While this chapter won’t tell you how to build a web site,
it will demystify the topics of domain names, web hosting, and content planning and procurement. A
large portion of the chapter focuses on answering the question, “Should I pay someone else to build
my site, or do it myself?” We’ll look at the implications of both approaches before stepping through the
process by which you can source and secure a quality web developer, or development agency, for your
site building project.
Chapter 5: Building Traffic
Once you have a web site, you’ll want to attract people to it. Not just anyone, of course; you want people
from the target market you identified in the site’s planning phase. In this action-packed chapter, we’ll
look at the ways in which you can promote your site to your chosen userbase, investigating the specifics
of promotion via search engines, link building, pay-per-click and affiliate advertising, and offline promotions.
We’ll also review key techniques to boost direct navigation to your site. Finally, we’ll discuss
some strategies you can deploy to nurture and optimize your site’s repeat traffic levels.
Chapter 6: Monetize Your Content
This chapter focuses on generating revenue from web content. First up, we’ll introduce the basics of
advertising networks. Then we’ll explore the process by which you can monetize your content, from
creating and planning ad inventory, to choosing an advertising network, and selling your inventory.
Finally, we look at the ways in which you can optimize your site to generate ad revenue, and pull back
the curtain on some of the darker arts of content monetization.
Chapter 7: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has the potential to generate significant revenues, but it’s not always an easy task!
This chapter aims to simplify the process. First, we get our feet wet by taking a look at a range of affiliate
program networks. Then, we’ll show you how to monetize your site—be it a completely new site, or
one you’ve been running for some time—using affiliate programs. We’ll explore the techniques by which
you can optimize your site for affiliate sales, and give you tips to help you avoid the most common affiliate