Is Adsense Stifling Your Profits?

Adsense, or other contextual advertising programs, became very popular because they promised a way to make money online without having a lot of skills. Sure, you still needed to know how to put up a website, do some keyword research, and create the content for it. But even those tasks became quite easy with all the software, keyword tools, and article directories.

The most time consuming part of making money with an adsense site, is not putting the site up, or even creating the content. It's marketing it. Because adsense pays only a small percentage of money garnered from each click to the publisher, you need a lot of traffic to make any significant money from the program.

In fact, most webmasters who make significant money from contextual advertising, have a lot of websites. And they are usually in a position where they can outsource a lot of the things that are needed to maintain and promote those websites.

Think about it this way - you're working to send traffic to your site anyway. Whether you make a few pennies or $1 from 10% of the visitors that click through on the ads - or you make $27 from the sale of an ebook that you wrote, the time you spend generating traffic is going to be the same.

So, what are your options for breaking free from a reliance on adsense?

Write and sell ebooks

Whilst you may baulk at the idea of writing an ebook, it's not as difficult as it sounds. Firstly, you don't have to write well - you just have to write real!

What that means is you're not writing an essay like you did at school. In fact, if you write in a dry and informal way, people are likely to get very bored - quickly! Just write as you would speak. And write the first draft without editing it.

There are a lot of resources to help you get started writing ebooks.

Acquire Resell Rights to ebooks, software, or other digital products.

If you don't want to write your own ebooks, you could look at getting resell rights. This means that another author has given you permission to sell the product, and keep all the profits. The author gets a fee for the privilege, as well as brand recognition with a greater number of resellers selling his products.

There is a lot more resell rights in the internet marketing niche, but given that this is much more competitive, you want to steer clear of it. There are resell rights available in other niches, it's just a matter of finding them. You may want to join a resell rights membership.

One advantage of resell rights is that you get the sales material written for you. You just have to upload it to your website.

Create a video product

Video products tend to sell for a little higher than regular ebooks, and they have a higher perceived value. And given that so many people are time poor these days, if you have broadband access, videos are a quicker way to access information.

Instructional videos also help if you're not a naturally gifted writer.

How-to products work well for video. You can either make a traditional video, or a screen cast video using a product like camtasia.

Create an audio product

Audio products are much simpler to create than video, and they can add value to an ebook so you could sell the package for more. You can also create products from interviews this way.

Set up a membership site

Membership sites are an excellent way to earn more money per visitor to your site. Whereas with a stand-alone ebook, video, or audio, you are only paid once, with a membership, you can count on at least 3 months worth of membership fees if you have a good site.

And members-only sites can be created in any niche. In fact, there are very few in non internet marketing niches, which means this field is wide open.

The beauty of a membership site is that, if you have a forum, content will also be created by your members, meaning less work for you in terms of providing value.

You can include reports, coaching, audio, video and ebooks in your membership, as well as recommending related affiliate products.

There are a number of things that stop people from developing their own products, or even selling other people's through resell rights.

One is a lack of knowledge of things like writing sales letters, and follow up sales material. Or of how to set up the whole order process. Technical knowledge like that can be overcome fairly easily, however.

It is the other roadblocks, like a sense of perfectionism, and a lack of confidence, that are the biggest inhibitors. Fortunately, both of these can be overcome with practice - and realizing you don't have to get it right the first time. Like any skill, developing your own products is one that improves with practice. Unlike many skills, it's one that pays you well along the way.

Get your free report and e-course on how membership sites can help you create a lucrative online business - that allows you to spend less time in front of the computer, and more living your life. Download your report here: http://www.membership.pickthebusiness.com/free-report.html You can find more information on membership sites here.