Making money from a website.

[drivingmissdaisy]

I was wondering if anyone knows how you can make money from a website, especially if you don't sell any products or have any advertising on the site? I follow a blogger who turned her blog into a website, she writes about crafts, cooking, homes and lifestyle. She employs two members of staff and talks about the business a lot. I'm really mystified as to how she can afford to pay three salaries from this!

I'd guess that the website is an advert for something else she does which actually raises money - books, or appearances at events maybe? Most websites don't directly make money - as you say, they either have to sell things online or sell advertising space to make that happen.

Product placement? Maybe she's paid to talk about certain things and hype them up by the companies involved.

If people register for her web site she might also be selling that information on to companies.

Thanks but she hasn't written any books and there is no product placement. Though you may be right about selling the information from registering. It's a mystery!

I run a forum and I have affiliate links, mostly for Amazon (.com and .co.uk because I have all sorts of members). If someone clicks on the link and then buys from Amazon, I get anything from 4-15% back on what they buy, in the form of gift certificates (which I use to buy Kindle books to read on my iPhone!). It pays out about £12-15 a month, roughly what it costs me to run the site, so I'm not really in profit BUT I don't have advertising banners or anything. I just post links as reminders every now and then and most users like the chance to contribute without having to do anything more than click. I could be considerably more aggressive and make more money fairly easily, but that's not why I do it.