Make Money

The purpose of this one-page guide is to put all of the resources and information I have found over the years in one central place. I have reviewed and used tons of resources for monetization and I wanted to make it simple for new movie bloggers and movie website owners to find everything they need to make money online. The following is a list of all the ad networks and affiliate programs I use to make money online, have used, or considered using. I will be updating this frequently so check back soon for more information.

Amazon Associate: a trusted name whose Affiliate Program pays low commissions, 4%-6%, but since everyone knows their name, advertising something available through them could make you some profit. Keep in mind also that even if a person does not buy the product that got them to Amazon, you will still reap the rewards if they buy something else there, anything, because they came to the site from your link.

Sideshow Collectibles Affiliate Program: The collectibles they sell cost a pretty penny so your commissions per sell are high as well. Next to Google AdSense, this has brought in the most revenue for me. There are a lot of collectible collectors out there, more than you are probably aware of. When they see a new collectible on the market, you both may get what you want if you are the one advertising it and advertising it properly.

AllPosters: who does not like cool movie posters, from students to movie aficionados. By joining AllPosters Affiliate program, you can advertise groups of posters. e,g. movie posters on your website. Since you are running a movie website, this is a no brainer.

Mr. Skin Affiliate Program: a affiliate movie program best geared toward movie websites that are almost entirely about celebrities pictures, celebrity hijinks or about posting the most salacious pictures of them. Mr. Skin is all about the nude scenes movie stars undertake in film (do not worry, the site is tasteful).

HKFlix “No Limits” Affiliate Program: if your movie site is patronized by film lovers that like films from all over the world, martial arts films, have or want region free DVD or Blu-ray play back equipment, this movie affiliate program is for you. They also offer free screeners but you have to review the film within two weeks and give them a visual plug within your review.

Google Adsense: The name that changed the game of internet advertising. Sites that receive both millions of pageviews and others that just get a few users per month all use Google Adsense. It is one of the easiest and definitely the most well-known monetization methods out there. After you sign up and place the ad units on your site, Adsense reads the content of your site and generates relevant ads for it. There are a plethora of ad sizes and options to choose from including having their ads show on your RSS Feed.

Bidvertiser: a cost-per-click (CPC) ad network that competes with Google AdSense. It’s main advantage over AdSense is its low $10 payout. You only need to make $10 in order to be paid. Big publishers will not care about this but for many small movie blogs that are still waiting to hit that magic $100 Google payout level, getting paid at a lower level is still getting paid.

Text Link Ads: Used by bloggers endeavoring to make money by selling in-content links within their content. Users drop the Text-Link code into the back end of their website and text in their content is highlighted. The highlighted text leads back to relevant text-link advertisers. They also offer publishers the ability to use text-link ads on their website.

VibrantMedia In-text Ads: By installing their code into your website, keywords in your post are underlined. When the cursor is over those keywords, an ad pops up that a site visitor can click. When they do, you get paid. I would be using Vibrant on my movie website because I believe and have seen that they generate more relevant links than Kontera (e.g. search engine results, Wikipedia links, etc.). Vibrant requires that your site have at least 500,000 unique visitors per month before they will even consider your application so the little guys are out of luck. If you have a big site with the required visitors per month ratio, Vibrant is the way to go.

Kontera In-Text: The closet thing Vibrant Media has to a competitor, Kontera has been around for almost as long. I currently use Kontera. By installing their code into your website, keywords in your post are underlined. When the cursor is over those keywords, an ad pops up that a site visitor can click. When they do, you get paid.

CMF Ads: sign up, place the CMF widget on your site, choose its size, and how much you are charging to let other weblogs, website, and organizations advertise on your website and you are off to the races. Tip: Comment in the CMF Forums to attract attention from other website and weblog owners that utilize CMF Ads. Be aware though that CMF takes 50% of everything you earn.

Blogads: By signing up, putting their tracking code into your website, and selecting what size ads and where you want the ads appearing, organizations can find you that otherwise would not and may choose to advertise on your website. I suggest joining a hive, which is easier said than done. Wait until your site is getting decent page views per month before making a request with a hive administrator. At the minimum, choose size the 150×200 ad unit, as it is the most commonly sold ad size. Also consider 150×600 as well.

LinkShare: The affiliate program houses companies such as iTunes (which offer movie downloads now). You sign up for their program then click the apply button for affiliate programs you want to join and wait for approval. After you have been approved, you are given access to banners and other affiliate options.

Commission Junction: The affiliate program houses companies such as Blockbuster and Fandango. You sign up for their program then click the apply button for affiliate programs you want to join and wait for approval. After you have been approved, you are given access to banners and other affiliate options.

LinkXL: I was making some very decent money with this until The Rise and Fall of a Weblog. Advertisers buy text links in posts that you have already written. You do not have to do anything except install a line of code in your site or download and activate a WordPress plugin. You set the rates by Page Rank and you are off to the races. Here is a tip: Advertise the pages that get sales through LinkXL so that the advertiser gets clicks on his purchased link and they will more than likely re-up their purchase the next month.

Adgitize: sign up, choose from a variety of sizes, place the widget on your site, and you are off to the races. The more ad units you place on your site, the more per day you earn. You can also pay to advertise across the entire Adgitize network as well.

Sponsored Tweets: If you use Twitter, and you should, and would like to monetize you Twitter account, Sponsored Tweets allows you to do so. Sign up for an account, set the price for the commissioned tweets (initially based on the number of your followers, how often you tweet, etc.) and your Twitter account will become a money maker. Note: You need 200 Twitter Followers to be allowed to participate in the program.