Rob Toth Rant:

"Where's the Money? Monetization and Maximum Money Tactics for Web Properties."

First, A Bit About This Rant...

Recently I was contracted to handle the marketing and promotions for the sale of IMNewsWatch.com by owner (at the time of this article), Mike Mograbi.

UPDATE: IMNewsWatch has long since been sold to a new owner.

The conversations I've had over the past few weeks with interested parties seriously looking at acquiring IMNW reminded me of a challenge that many of my past clients in strategy/coaching related work also have: they aren't too familiar with many of the monetization (ie: making money) tactics for websites.

I initially sat down to create a monetization map specifically for the sale of IMNW, but I decided to keep it somewhat generic and expand on it to make this tutorial a useful resource for a lot of other online business owners.

When you read this "Rant", you'll see specific references again and again to IMNewsWatch. I recommend you think of YOUR OWN site for each section and think of how the same tips, methods and strategies can work for YOU.

Not every tactic is applicable across the board and many other monetization tactics aren't even mentioned here. If you'd like to look at your web business specifically, contact me to work with you directly.

Now... let's talk money!

Make Money (Monetization) With These Tactics

This is by no means a FULL list. These monetization methods are a partial list and, again, are selected as mostly relevant to IMNewsWatch (and similar models).

The goal of effective monetization is to increase the value of every visitor your site gets. Monetization doesn't start at the "buyers" level as that's usually just upselling. It starts right at the visitor level. In fact, monetization can occur before you even get a visitor (such as with licensing deals). For this tutorial, I'm focusing on the objective of adding in systems and tactics that continually increase the value of every visitor your site gets.

The more you can implement ways to make money into different parts of your business, the more you increase the visitor value.

Right NOW, your site has a visitor value of X. Of course, I don't know the X ... maybe that's 10 cents per visitor, maybe it's $5 dollars. Maybe 3 cents. I have no idea. But right now your visitor value IS sitting at some value X.

Think about this...

With minimal or ineffective monetization, maybe when you buy advertising for your site or run any measurable promotion, it's costing you 2X to get a visitor.

Hint: this means you're losing money fast because it's costing you double what you actually make from the visitor, on average.

This is the root cause of why many business owners are thinking small and never looking at advertising, full scale promotion, scaling up, expansion. They either are losing money when they buy advertising or their return-on-investment timeline is so long that they only recover their ad money months out from the promotion.

With proper monetization, if you increase the value of each visitor by let's say 8X, now you're turning a healthy profit for every bit of controlled promotion you run.

Does that make sense??

Think of it as owning a convenience store on a street corner.

Up to now, everyone coming into your store was buying a can of coke for $1 and never coming back (no future re-selling opportunities). Each visitor is worth $1.

With a smarter funnel and intelligent ways to capture more money, you now have store visitors buying that can of coke, but also a coffee, a sandwhich and a magazine on their first visit... AND you're giving them reasons to come back for future purchases.

But monetization isn't necessarily always about the visitor BUYING more. Meaning, you can increase the value of a webpage visitor without even upselling them (without them buying anything extra).

In fact, you have to get out of the headspace of always only thinking of "how can I get more from the customer". Selling them more and getting them to spend more isn't always the best answer. It's one of the pet-peeves many have with GoDaddy. GoDaddy is very aggressive with their upselling... you buy a single $9 domain from them, but by the time their upselling funnel is done with you... you've spent $50+. Sure, GoDaddy is very successful in spite of that but it's still an annoyance.

Meanwhile consider PlentyOfFish.com, the world's largest free dating site. Until a couple of years ago, they operated only on affiliate, CPA and other ad revenue. Their members were never charged anything. Yet they still managed to make over a million dollars PER MONTH with their ugly free website. Since then they've introduced other monetization such as membership upgrades and their self-serve ad platform ... so I wouldn't be surprised if they're pulling close to a million per week by now.

HOW important is all this "stuff" you're about to read me rant about?

Do you like money?

Do you like profits?

Then it's VERY important. It's often the one element (other than actual traffic generation/advertising) that's keeping 99% of online-preneurs making far too little for their efforts.

Many direct response marketers talk of "conversion" and "traffic" being the 2 main variables for how much you make. Generally speaking that's correct. But only in the direct response model. Once you create a content authority site, a community or many other models, then the sales conversion becomes just one small part of the overall "monetization".

I'd argue that there are TOO MANY individuals out there right now who are making X per month with their business. $1000 per month? $5000 per month? $10,000 per month? ... by fixing their monetization, they'd instantly jump their revenues to 2 or 3X as high or more without any increase in traffic.

But since many merchants aren't very well versed in the area of monetization (ie: increasing the value of every visitor with strategic make money steps implemented into various parts of their web business)... they don't know how to pull SERIOUS money from their assets.

So let's talk monetization!

Again, I`m going to reference IMNW (Internet Marketing News Watch) as the specific example for this. Insert your own webpage and your own figures as you wish because much of it will likely be relevant to you as well.

Monetizing Authority Sites and Content Networks

1) Special Offer After Lead Capture

Every business needs to pay attention to lead capture. IMNW is no different.

IMNW has an opt-in form but it's extremely ineffective the way it's setup. The colors for it blend in with the site, there's only one instance of it, it's small, and no real incentive is given for a visitor to opt-in other than to "join a newsletter".

While I don't have the stats seeing as IMNewsWatch wasn't tracking this, based on past experience with client work I'd guess this lead capture gets maybe 5% conversion. Maybe even a little less.

Which is purely terrible.

My own lead capture attempts have gotten as high as 74.4%... though that was with a different business model.

IMNW needs to implement some simple layout/site design changes to raise their lead capture to 20% - 25%+.

For better lead capture, the lead form should be visible (it should be easy to find even if you're just scrolling the page); you should have multiple instances of the lead capture form (in just about every case I've worked on, the addition of another instance for lead capture meant increased conversions); the opt-in should have a strong benefit or incentive to actually give the visitor a valid reason to register ...

There's a lot more we could cover re: lead capture but I want to instead focus on the monetization part.

Once a visitor registers for the IMNewsWatch newsletter, they are now the most receptive to a special offer.

You just got them to engage with your site and take an action (fill out a form) and they are actively reading the site to figure out "what's next".

Now is the perfect time to present a special offer.

"For new Internet Marketing News Watch subscribers only..."

What you create as a special offer is up to you. A bundle of short trainings related to internet marketing? Some sort of advertising package? You have 1001 choices.

All that matters is after they've filled out the form, they end up at a "thank you, before you go" type page which welcomes them, thanks them for registering but then suggest a "special offer for new subscribers only".

For math, let's assume you create a simple $49 offer.

Your conversions on it will be higher than the typical 2% because your special offer is very specific to "new IMNW subscribers only". Not just the general public. But for new IMNW subscribers. Which is what they are.

Expect at least a 2% conversion on any worthwhile offer but likely upwards of 4%.

For simple math, that means 100 opt-ins = 4 sales x $49 = $200 (it's $196 but let's keep math simple).

So 100 opt-ins generated $200.

If you tweak the opt-in form to get it to the minimum and respectable 20% (though you could continue tweaking it to get it upwards of 25%)...

Then THAT means your visitor value from just this monetization looks like this:

500 visitors = 100 optins (20% opt-in conversion of 500 visitors is 100 opt-ins). And then the 100 opt-ins generate 4 sales at $49 = $200.

So every 500 visitors is now worth $200.

Compare that to what the current opt-in is: maybe 5% at best. And there ISN'T a special offer. So currently 500 visitors might result in 25 opt-ins (at best) but produce no revenue at this stage.

Just by changing the design layout and adding a relevant though basic special offer, you took the same business, the same content, the same traffic which was producing maybe 25 opt-ins every 500 unique visitors with $0 revenue... to now producing 100 opt-ins and $200 revenue.

At 1000 unique visitors per day, that's $400 per day (approx $12,000 per month) with this monetization.

It DOES take a redesign in the layout to greatly improve the opt-in and it does require a basic $49 special offer, but given just 1000 uniques per day the "special offer after lead-capture" monetization creates $12,000 per month. Give or take a few thousand as the world isn't made up of perfect math.

2) Follow-Up Offers To Subscriber List

Since we just talked of lead generation and subscribers, let's keep going with the theme.

For IMNewsWatch.com model, I would NOT mail out random affiliate offers. You'd damage the value of the service.

Those who love IMNW do so because it delivers news and value.

If you become another amateur who is just out there emailing affiliate offer after affiliate offer just because their buddy launched a new course on Clickbank, you'll damage the reputation and the attention you have with your list.

BUT that doesn't mean you can't create special joint ventures and special offers of your own.

Such as "IMNewsWatch and ________ have teamed up to offer an exclusive pricing on _______".

You fill in the blanks.

Here is a subscriber list interested in "internet marketing", "information marketing" etc. Creating intelligent and high value joint ventures is very easy ... especially given the fact that IMNW is an authority site respected by top marketers, so contacting them for potential joint ventures is as quick as sending off an email.

So you SHOULD create a new special offer periodically.

Just like any other store or business, creating sales promotions is part of the business cycle.

Every month find ONE "sale", ONE offer you promote. And bring attention to this sale several times with emails you send to your list.

The conversion for your own in-house offers (or joint ventured offers) is much higher than a random affiliate endorsement.

I know marketers out there with 100,000+ leads databases and all they keep doing is mailing affiliate offer after affiliate offer ... which is dancing on the border of spam. Bulk, mass, unsoclicited, commercial mailings. Sure they can argue "but the leads opted in"... they didn't opt-in to for endless commercial mail.

This destroys their open rates and kills the value for what would be a VERY lucrative asset.

But, again, sending ONE focused offer that is your own "sale" (even if it's a product or special that you are partered up in) makes a lot of sense.

With a 20,000 subscriber list, an offer worth let's say $99 can see an open rate of 33% and an overall click-through rate of 15%. If the offer converts at 2% (an in-house offer to your own subscribers will convert at least twice as high as a generic 3rd party affiliate offer)...

(I'm pulling numbers as guesstimates but they are based on hundreds of promotions to internet marketing leads lists among a variety of niche topics and in different subscriber lists. The numbers unfold roughly the same in every case.)

Then the expected math looks like this:

20,000 subcribers x 15% click through (who actually see the offer) x 2% conversion x $99 = $5940.

Again, the world isn't "perfect math" so round that down to $4000.

Which works out to every 20k subscribers = $4000, or said another way 5000 subscribers = $1000 per month. And that number is right in-line with what internet and information marketers actually see these days.

If you hear the generic stats of "1 subscriber is worth $1 per month", it's garbage math. Completely inaccurate. Sure in special circumstances it will be. In special cases, it will be worth even more.

But the average lead in internet marketing land, as a subscriber, is worth closer to 20 cents. Which is what our math shows as well.

Get the subscriber base up to 50,000 and you have roughly $10,000 per month just from special offers you email out to them.

What does it take to reach 50,000 subscribers?

At let's say 20% opt-in conversion, it means 250,000 unique visitors.

For IMNewsWatch, that's less than 1 year of traffic in its current "on hold" state and it's less than 6 months in the active promotions state it was in for the first 3+ years.

3) Email Newsletter - Ad Space

Many in information marketing land (often incorrectly labeled "internet marketing") have gotten so focused on just sending affiliate offer after affiliate offer ... probably to become buddy-buddy with whoever they are mailing for, that they missed the more intelligent age-old model that has the side benefit of not damaging their reputation.

Selling ad space.

A magazine sells advertising for dozens of merchants. It doesn't mean they ENDORSE them. Yet they still made money from the merchant.

Take a look at the successful AssociateProgram.com newsletter.

They sell ad space.

Yes, from time to time, they also promote as an affiliate.

But they leverage their newsletter and sell "classified ad" spots. (Lots of other e-zines do this, they just came to mind first).

They don't say "here's yet another product we endorse".

They collect their money whether the merchant's ad or the merchant's product even converts or not. Yet they don't damage their reputation with their subscribers.

I have a friend who regularly sells $8000 for an email drop to his list. Not as an affiliate. If you want a promotion, it's $8000 flat. Other marketers charge $2500 etc for a mail-out. It means guaranteed income to them and they can mail it as a 3rd party advertisement instead of an endorsement.

With IMNewsWatch.com, currently a "daily digest" email is sent out. I'd recommend turning it into a bi-daily mailing. "The Last 48 Hours In Internet Marketing News".

That gives IMNW 15 emails they send per month.

In each one, sell a classified ad spot for just $50 per 10,000 subscribers.

If you want your classified ad to end up in the inbox of 10,000 internet marketers ... it's $50.

By segmenting per 10,000... as your list grows to 20k, 30k etc, you create multiple versions of the email to be sent that day (same content, different ad).

So with a 50,000 list, you send 5 versions or if the same advertiser bought all 5 spots, it's $250 for the email.

x 15 days of emails.

Per month.

Plug in whatever numbers YOU prefer. Charge more, charge less. Those are the figures I would use as they are more than fair given today's IM marketplace.

Using my math for this example...

For a list of 5000, IMNW makes $750 per month (15 bi-daily emails x $50 ad spots). For a list of 20,000, IMNW makes $3000 per month. Etc. Again, this revenue is simply for inserting a "classified ad" blurb in the summary emails. It's not an affiliate promotions, it's not a solo mail-out. And it's guaranteed revenue regardless of whether the merchant who bought the ad from you has an offer that will convert or not.

4) Setup Co-Reg (Selling Leads or Gaining Free Leads)

Co-registration is under-used by information marketers.

"Co-Reg" or "Co-Registration Email" is essentially the process where a lead subscribes to one email list and they are then promptly shown select other "co-reg partner" newsletters that are recommended for them with already pre-checked boxes.

So if you're Newsletter A and you have co-reg partners Newsletter B, C, and D... when the prospects opts in, they'll see pre-checked boxes for Newsletter B, C and D as well.

They won't need to visit those individual webpages and fill in their email again, they just select/unselect which ones they want to also be registered to.

There are 2 ways to work co-reg deals... either for (1) lead swap, meaning you get the same number of leads referred to you on your partners' co-reg pages as you refer to them... it's a faster way of building a list; or (2) for sale. You refer the leads but are paid per lead.

If you have an in-house subscriber list for just your name, it's less relevant to setup co-reg. Meaning if it's "Hey I'm John Newbie and I'll teach you some stufff. Subscribe to my list for this ebook on how to do stuff." ... then for your setup, tying in co-reg wouldn't work too well.

For IMNewsWatch though, it's an expansion of the service.

IMNewsWatch users monitor the site in order to learn of relevant internet marketing companies, products and services.

So it just makes sense to also give them recommendations to strategic internet marketing partner newsletters.

Either use this as a revenue generator (by selling the leads) or use it to grow the IMNW list a lot quicker by lead swaps.

NOTE: Regarding "selling leads"... this is a taboo issue because it's misunderstood.

In the above scenario, if a user opts in to the newsletter... their information does NOT automatically get "sold" to anyone.

The new lead would simply be presented with select other recommended newsletters. If they check them to select them and click Register, they get added to that other merchant's list as well. Which is no different than the lead having left your page, gone to the other merchant and opted in (except this is much quicker so it yields a lot more leads).

But only THEN would it result in a commission for that referred lead.

Does that make sense?

So it's not about selling someone's contact information without permission by any means. Instead of getting paid to refer a sale to an affiliate partner, you get paid to REFER a lead to a co-reg partner. In the end though, the user CHOOSES to register to that list as well and as a thank you for the referred lead, you earn a "commission".

If you have an authority site in any niche, you really should be exploring this. Either for the revenue (once the prospect CHOOSES to register for any list your system recommended to them) or for the lead-referral swaps.

The belated Jim Rohn, or I should say his website, uses co-registration...

Last I know Nightingale Conant uses it.

And so do thousands of others businesses.

The whole setup is just a script (software) on the back-end that handles it. A few hundred dollars invested and this can be setup for anyone. Again though, it doesn't make SENSE for just anyone to use it. But an authority site and service like IMNewsWatch.com definitely could and should.

So far I've looked at SOME of the email and newsletter related monetization.

Let's look at the actual "real estate", the webpages themselves.

5) Banner Ads - Daily/Weekly/Monthly Ad Spots

At the time of this tutorial, IMNewsWatch has over 65,000+ unique content pages. Not to mention a template that, currently is very bare.

The blog theme for IMNW desperately needs a facelift. It looked great in 2006 when it launched but it hasn't been touched since.

Besides just making the new theme more modern and overall "pretty", and besides incorporating better spots for lead capture, better spots for social media ... one thing to definitely keep in mind is having space for banner ads.

Warrior Forum sells a banner ad spot at the top section of their page for $100 per day. And they sell out nearly every month. That's $3000 per month for doing nothing.

It's piddly change compared to WF other revenues (ie: the WSO marketplace) but that's still $3000 per month just for one banner ad spot.

ShoeMoney.com currently sells banner ads spots for around the same prices (ie: $3000 per month for one spot). But his site currently has real-estate for 4 different ads.

Associate Programs, a major resource site for affiliate marketers has been running ad spots for years without it distracting from the content and value.

I used those 3 examples because they came to mind first. You can find thousands of your own examples.

For IMNewsWatch, I'd place one larger horizontal banner up top, one smaller horizontal banner at the bottom (last fold) and 2 square banners on the margin.

The top spot as $100 per day, bottom spot and 2 side spots for $30 each. $190 per day potential. That's just where I'd start the prices, test and upgrade from.

As traffic continues to grows for IMNW, raise the rates of course. Who do you sell ad spots to? Internet marketers. Where do you find them? They come to you. :-) ... They are the ones who come to the site to use the IMNW service, they are the ones who submit news (present them with an advertising opportunity after news and content submissions).

6) Affiliate Banners

Of course you can always supplement any available spots by plugging in banners to offers with affiliate links as well as CPA offers. This grows smaller affiliate revenue streams.

7) Featured - On Page Listing

Flippa, Ebay, PlentyOfFish and others do a great job upselling you on buying a "featured listing".

Supposing I just submitted a news item on IMNewsWatch for my upcoming product launch and I want to make sure I get maximum exposure for it.

At the top of the news listings, a list of featured stories could be posted. Whether that's 2, 3, 4, 5 stories depends on the new layout.

The features would be bold text, highlighted boxes and overall much more visible.

Sell each spot for $10 initially (Flippa charges $40 for a featured boost).

This is a smaller revenue stream but it does't distract much from the actual value of the service. What you're featuring is the same content and news that's already published somewhere on the page. So it's not a new 3rd party offer that's competing for the visitor's attention. It's actual content.

Growing this to $20, $30, $40+ for a "feature" bump can occur as more clients see the click throughs they get from the extra exposure. At 3 feature spots x $30 per day = $90 per day x 30 days = $2700. The small easy upgrade revenue streams add up to worthwhile cashflow in the long run.

8) Featured - Social Media

IMNewsWatch never made any effort to be available in social media like Twitter and Facebook.

In preparation for the sale, quick accounts were created more or less as a demonstration. But they are small, new and still very much worth-less. They "exist" but that's as far as the social media accounts for IMNW (currently) goes.

However, every business should cross promote their different mediums so that email subscribers become twitter followers and facebook fans etc.

With a bit of attention put towards a social media play, the IMNW "fans" (or, more accurately, "Likes") on Facebook and Followers on Twitter would quickly grow.

Once it's at a respectable level, they become additional venues where you can sell "featured listings" and announcements.

Again, this is also common (Flippa does this too... for $80 they'll tweet about your auction). Some users will certainly choose to pay extra to be announced on Twitter and Facebook. On day 1, for IMNW they simply couldn't sell this... but 90-days out after re-launch they'll have the audience in place on both FB and Twitter and could start charging $25+ per announcement.

9) Add Affiliate Links to All Listings

IMNW has many "built in" perks that other businesses have to create from scratch. Among them are "joint venture broker" perks, "product launch jacking" perks ... but also the affiliate review model.

Affiliate review blogs and similar sites are everywhere.

The news that comes in to IMNW isn't necessarily always tied to a product, but it's often at least tied to a merchant or a website which has an affiliate program.

Adding in the affiliate links into stories is a logical step seeing as much of the links out from the stories actually drive traffic to a page where an affiliate program exists.

To maintain the intergrity and value of the service, IMNW should NOT endorse or create news around a product FOR the affiliate commission... but if it has a news-worthy post already drivinng traffic to somewhere an affiliate program exists, it should be setup for commissions.

With 65,000+ content pages of which 40,000+ are Google indexed and with 620,000+ keyphrases having already pulled at least 1 visitor to IMNewsWatch.com... the long tail traffic and affiliate income potential is very serious.

The form on the news submit already asks whether an affiliate program for that news piece or product launch is available, but it was never actually used in the past.

The info was captured but affiliate links were never previously setup.

Forecasting revenue from affiliate links would be purely a guessing game at this stage. But understandbly, it is positioned to be at least a "worthwhile" revenue stream if not an impressive one.

10) Feature A Product Launch

In information marketing land, every month dozens upon dozens of new products get launched.

Most are "me too", nothing special, ho-hum or junk.

But some are impressive.

Selecting ONE quality, well converting product launch per month would be wise.

Interview the product creators, post a longer review article type post, give it a Featured ad spot, put their banner into rotation... to really maximize that one single launch in the month.

I'd only do this for products that are not only quality and likely to convert BUT must pay out at least mid-ticket or high-ticket commissions (meaning $300 - $2000 per sale) OR they must have a worthwhile recurring billing to them and mostly for this I'd pick only utility such as software-as-a-service offers.

This also becomes a "launch jacking" tactic.

Especially with the extra keyword rich content you give to that one launch, IMNewsWatch would pull in the organic traffic for it.

Kelly Felix (formerly "Rich Jerk") and other sharp marketers play the launch jacking game quite well. At the time of this article, he even has a product launch of his own coming out about precisely that: Launch Jacking.

IMNW already enjoys the built in benefit of pulling some traffic for various launches it announces. But by giving one product launch focused attention, you greatly increase exposure and therefore conversions ... and really get to enjoy this built in "launch jacking" benefit.

Some of the larger launches pay $1000 per sale. Marketers like Jason James have closed over 24 sales at $1000 commission each in a single launch. Other marketers have made a lot more than that in commissions from a given single product launch.

11) JV Brokering

IMNewsWatch.com, based on the business model, has a built in advantage that most info-marketers would love... a database and contact info for top merchants, marketers, businesses.

In fact, argueably, this is the most profitable aspect of IMNW.

I've sold over a half-mill that I didn't run any advertising for. Affiliates promoted the offers.

Many online businesses can state much much higher figures with millions in revenue per year being provided entirely by the efforts of affiliates and strategic super-affiliate or joint venture partners.

So don't take this lightly.

The "joint venture" game (which is really just recruiting super-affiliates to endorse and promote your offer) is a massive part of today's online information marketing and internet marketing economy. There are hoardes of multi-6-figure, 7-figure and 8-figure merchants who have most if not ALL of their revenue generated by affiliates and super-affiliates.

But being yet another Random Marketer with Yet Another Fancy Product doesn't give you a shot at getting the attention and support of top players. You won't even have their contact information. Even if you did, they are unlikely to listen to you. But in the off chance that some of them do, you need to keep pulling teeth to get them to promote for you.

With IMNW, you eliminate much of this. You DO have their contact information, they DO know and respect you (by nature of the fact that you own a web property in the industry that can actually help THEIR business with exposure too), you CAN put together intelligent JVs (maybe leverage some of the advertising and exposure space in trade for their support). And this is priceless.

If you've never experienced the power of having a worthwhile affiliate, let alone a "super affiliate" promote one of your products, then you've never seen how quick $20,000 or $40,000+ in sales can show up in your account.

That's why I say, argueably to the savvy "big picture" minded internet marketer, this benefit alone is worth owning, building and growing IMNewsWatch for.

Similarly, I run the annual Canada Marketing Summit. It is the smallest profit generator out of anything I do and costs me the most time to deal with. Naturally that should indicate that I should drop it. But the name exposure, rapport and joint ventures I get out of it greatly outweighs the actual "ticket sales" and "back of room sales" that the conference generates. I could have the Summit operate at a loss and, in the big picture, it would still be tremendously valuable to me.

The point is... IMNewsWatch's business model offers either an opportunity either for you to connect with top level JVs for your own offers or play JV Broker (for a fee + commission) for select top offers.

Since IMNW already has this data, tying into the product launch monetization above... recruiting affiliates using a 2nd tier (so you earn a commission for everything they sell) is well worth pursuing especially if that product launch merchant also pays you an up-front fee as well (which ensures you generate revenue even if they cancel, stall or otherwise flop with their launch).

IMNewsWatch comes with a few "unique" perks. 2 of the favorites though are that internet marketers actually make it their homepage (not something other websites and merchants can claim) AND it builds a database and contacts with top players for you. It's tough to really put a forecasted revenue on this but the best promotion I was part of generated $240,000 in a few months with a few months worth of work and affiliate recruiting. So let's say from start to finish, it took 6 months to generate $240,000 with ZERO advertising. All purely affiliate driven. And many merchants have much larger anecdotes. And that's just ONE launch promotion. So how much is this "JV" benefit worth? Really depends on how it's utilized but it's a unique benefit and potentially very attractive.

Your own business model may not allow for this so this monetization step may not be something YOU can implement. But see if there's a way you could setup at least something partially similar.

12) Introduce a Marketplace

The nice thing about a B2B environment (like IMNW to internet marketers) is business owners always have something they want to promote and sell.

Which lends itself neatly into hosting a marketplace for your B2B community.

Launching a marketplace is no easy task unless you already have a brand, regular users and traffic.

Which IMNewsWatch.com does.

Sites like the Warrior Forum charge $40 to list a single post in their marketplace. And the WSO Marketplace is thriving.

Last I checked, there were dozens of listings in any given day. Even at 10 x $40 listings = $400 per day or $12,000 per month revenue. I think they're well past 10 WSOs per day. :-)

With IMNewsWatch, I'd start off with $10 posts as the introductory rate and aim to work up to $25 after its first 90-days.

At $25 per post, just 4 listings per day = $100 per day in added revenue. As the marketplace grows though, the "4 listings per day" and the "$25 per post" each quickly get out-grown. Tie in other upgrades such as having their marketplace listing announced to Facebook and Twitter members (Flippa charges $80 for this alone) and your marketplace can feed a very healthy income.

Selling the Business

This is something to keep in mind as you apply monetization...

Depending on your end goals, chances are eventually you'll want to sell the business. OR you'll change directions or a need will present itself and you'll have to sell your business.

Take the case of Mike Mograbi and IMNW, he didn't set out to build-and-sell, but 2 years ago a new partnership and opportunity (and now new company) came his way and IMNW has now become a distraction and an asset that, if sold, the funds can be used to further fuel his new company.

If you properly monetize your site and then TRACK THE DATA, not only do you enjoy the increased profits and cashflow but your asking price for your web business will immediately be a lot higher. Furthermore, there are venture capital firms and other web business portfolio companies that actively look to buy websites that already have revenues.

So keep this in mind as a possible end game. Maybe in your case, you want to keep holding and building your business. But at least a very attractive buy-out or sale will be an option for you because you'll have revenue stats and data for prospective buyers. Which means you can ask for a very healthy premium for your site.

As an aside, I recommend you read "How To Get Rich" by Felix Dennis (the magazine publishing giant worth $400mill - $700mill and owner of Maxim Magazine among others). Read the section on why public companies aggressively look for revenue-positive companies to acquire and are eager to fork over outrageous sums.

A Lesson from IMNewsWatch's Founder Mike Mograbi

Let me leave you with a general business tip; A lesson to be taken from Mike Mograbi (of new projects like this one) and his approach to building IMNewsWatch

If you set out to build a content site, an authority page, a community ... you can't have monetization in mind first. That is the reason so many blogs, forums, other community concepts and would be authority sites die on day 1.

You can't shove commercialization down someone's throat before you've given them any legitimate reason to let you.

If you need to, go watch The Social Network and take a clue from the world's most successful business of all time: Facebook. Had they opened their doors with banners and ads everywhere, the site would not have spread virally.

But now that they've delivered so much value and become such a trusted brand, adding in more and more advertising simply becomes part of the environment. Users known of it, expect it and respect it (even if some will argue they don't like it).

The point here is, the above list of 12 monetization tactics is a short list. There are so many more ways to pull revenue from a web business.

But if your brand isn't associated with value, if you haven't yet built a foundation of loyal users, then implementing too much monetization and becoming "too commercial" early on will kill your business.

It's really not hard to figure out this balance either.

Just put yourself in your visitor's shoes. Have they received value from you? Have they seen you develop as a company and "voice" for them to listen to? Then phasing in advertising is expected as part of business.

But if you're opening on day 1 with banners and upsells and offers everywhere, you'll shoot yourself in the foot and scare off your would be community.

If you're in it for the short-game and just want a quick buck.. then the strategy works. Monetize it. Make your money. And as you've destroyed the community, go sell the business to someone who is only interessted in seeing a revenue history. (I promise you, there are many such buyers out there).

If you're in it for the long run though and want a true brand, over-deliver on value and then over-deliver some more. Let the "audience" build. Give them incentives for engaging with your site and becoming pro-active. Make it easy for them to become your cheerleader. And THEN start bringing in monetization.

Best of success with your business!

"Designing your product for monetization first, and people second will probably leave you with neither." - Tara Hunt

P.S. UPDATE: The IMNW web-property was quickly and successfully sold to a new owner. If YOU have an online business that you'd like to sell, contact me and also read through the New Profit Deals page. NOTE: I can only take on web property and internet businesses for sale that have at minimum a realistic $100,000 asking price (and upwards to $2,000,000+). Any smaller sites and start-ups, I simly can't work with at this time.