The Internet is not only a source of entertainment and a way to relax after a hard day – it is also (and maybe above all) a place where we can earn a lot of money. Some people think social networking sites such as Instagram are the main source of income on the web. Meanwhile, such “traditional” and “outdated” methods of generating profits as running an internet portal should not be underestimated. A good example of the strength of this type of sites is the Ranking of Therapy Centers, which combines the mission of spreading knowledge about the treatment of addictions with achieving substantial revenues.
The times when the only ways to earn money were spending 8 hours in the company, producing or selling physical products have long since passed. We are an information society in which information has become the main commodity. Providing knowledge to other citizens can be (and often happens) more profitable than providing them with items or other types of services. It is not surprising that so many people decide to transfer their professional activities to the network and it is on the Internet that they see the greatest opportunities for development and gaining money. There are plenty of such possibilities. Among the most popular methods of earning money in the network, we mainly mention blogging, online sales, translations, filling out surveys, working as an expert (eg providing legal advice, health, etc.), running a YouTube channel, creating advertising campaigns, earning money through Instagram and other social media and remote tutoring. Many of these activities do not even require leaving your home – just a computer and constant access to the network. As you can easily guess, a lot of people were amazed by the vision of this type of work, which does not involve strictly defined hours of performing dutiesand enables greater freedom and the possibility of self-realization. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to use these facilities – we still lack the knowledge and ideas to effectively make money using modern technologies. It also happens that we believe in completely misreportable myths, for example in the fact that web portals are a thing of the past. Of course, in recent years they have lost some popularity in favor of blogs and YouTube channels, but you can still find a lot of websites that are thriving. What’s more, new, unusual places in the network are constantly being created and gather the engaged readership community around them.
Maintaining the content of the portal
Running your own portal is quite an ambitious and not impossible project. The first and at the same time the most important thing that will enable us to do this is simply a good idea for the site. The subject matter of the site is very important – it is what decides whether our business will turn out to be successful or completely won’t win interest of the audience. Ideally, it would be something a little fresh and original. In the end, it’s easier to break through, being the only one in your niche, than competing with many portals with exactly the same profile. However, there is no denying that number of pages of well-known and often used subjects springs up like mushrooms. And although one might think that they don’t look originally, many of them still achieve success. The Internet is very “roomy” and there will be room for everyone, and high quality will always be defended.
The costs of creating an internet portal
What are the costs of setting up this type of activity? It all depends on our own decisions. Some decides on their own work and together with a group of friends design and publish the site themselves, and others prefer to entrust this task to professionals. It should be remembered that both the appearance and the functionality of our site will translate into its popularity. The portal, which looks professional, certainly attracts more attention and arouses much greater trust of potential readers who are willing to assume that since someone has plugged away at the design of the site, he is equally careful to create and select materials published on it. A well-functioning version for mobile devices is also very important. To sum up, the initial costs should include primarily the fee for the domain, the hosting account (that is, the place on the server), the script allowing to manage the portal, its graphic design and the version for mobile phones.
Remember that the portal, unlike a personal blog, does not include only private opinions of one person on its pages. For this reason, the team of editors who will create content shared on it is also important. Here, too, everything depends on our invention. We can opt for stationary editing and hiring employees in the office, but by choosing this option, we must take into account that the form of our work will also be more “traditional” and we will have to control what is happening in our company. Another option is cooperation with freelancers based on contracts of commission or VAT invoices (which may be issued by editors and copywriters who have their own business). In this case, the cooperation is more task-oriented – we determine the subject matter and possible additional guidelines for the texts, and our contractors send them within the agreed term. If, however, we are specialists in some field, we can choose to run an expert portal (or designate one of the sections on the site for this type of content). We should remember that the most important is the high level of published content: without this factor, readers will not be interested in our website, and we will not have the opportunity to earn on it.
Okay, but how do you actually make money on this type of business? After all, the mere fact of the existence of a portal does not mean that it brings income. The first, easiest and probably most commonly used way is, of course, publishing ads. A useful tool can be AdSense, or an add-on offered by Google. All you have to do is register your account in the system and designate places on the portal in which advertising content should appear. Importantly, the ads will be tailored to the preferences of recipients. In addition, this type of promotion is not intrusive and naturally fits in without disturbing its reception. Unfortunately, this way of earning is not free from drawbacks. First of all: we have no influence on the content of advertisements that appear on our website, and thus it may happen that our site will promote products that we would never recommend. Secondly, we can not count on very large profits – they should be treated as an addition rather than the main source of income. And finally, remember that currently a lot of people use programs such as AdBlock, which make this type of external ads not displayed by the user.
Another way to get money from advertisers is to publish sponsored entries and various types of affiliate programs. The condition of such cooperation is, of course, high quality of texts and a large group of readers – the bigger it is, the more willingly brands will entrust their promotion to our hands and more will be willing to pay. It is important that the profile of the advertised company is consistent with what we usually publish on our website: if it is a thematic portal about cosmetics and taking care of your beauty, it does not make sense to post an entry on bicycle pumps on it, however advertising of cream, peeling or conditioner hair will work perfectly on it. A sponsored entry is a text that looks like a normal article, but its content includes information about a specific product or service. Sometimes such an entry is accompanied by photos depicting the subject of the promotion. It is important that the advertisement is not intrusive, and the readers of the portal could consider the text to be good and valuable. In the case of sponsored entries, we can take two routes. The first of them is an article prepared earlier by a company cooperating with us – we only need to publish it. This is certainly the easiest way to go, but there is no denying that it also has disadvantages. First of all, in this way we have no control over the quality of the published article, and its style may doesn’t suit what we have presented so far on our website. Secondly, the amount of money we can earn on such cooperation is less than in the case of the second method, which consists in the fact that we write the article based on the partner’s guidelines. In this way, we can ensure that the content of the text is consistent with the rest of the publication and valuable to our readers. Currently, most of the good brands are aware that a subtle incorporation of the product into a broader article works better than an intrusive advertisement that could negatively affect the level of the entire portal.
Another very interesting way to earn money on websites is to create websites with announcements or any kind of company bases. Such a business model presents mentioned at the beginning, successful Ranking of Therapy Centers. The principle is simple: just enter the fee you set for finding yourself in such a directory or publishing your announcement. A well-prepared site of this type allows us to earn, while providing valuable content to recipients. In such a database, not only will we find a company with an interesting profile working in our region, but also get detailed information about it, read the opinions of other clients, etc. On the Ranking of Therapy Centers portal we can find a lot of valuable news about addiction treatment, therapeutic methods used in specific facilities, their equipment and people who work at them. Of course, the opportunity to be on the site is payable, but it brings tangible benefits in the form of the opportunity to reach a wider audience and present our offer to it.