How Much Does the Average Website Owner Make?

There’s no such thing as the average website owner anymore. There are e-commerce websites that earn millions, book review sites that earn revenue with Amazon links, blogs that make money off advertising, and websites that promote authors’ or artists’ work. Website income depends on your site’s purpose and your success at achieving it.

Tip

Websites that join an advertising network earn an average of ​$1,000​ a month. Crowdfunding websites average ​$824​ in donations. Specific websites’ income depends on many factors, such as how many people visit.

Website Ad Revenue

Next to e-commerce, advertising on your website or blog is one of the most familiar ways to earn a website income. SmartyAds points out that there are multiple ways to generate website ad revenue, with one of the common ones being cost per click (CPC). For every person who clicks on an ad, you receive a small fee. Alternatives include website ad revenue for every thousand visitors who see an ad.

Whichever method you use, websites that pay you a lot of money for advertising have to draw plenty of visitors. The best advertising networks pay more for sites that can put the ads before a particular demographic. If you cover a niche topic that draws a particular category of visitors – cool news in the art museum world, for example – it is more usable for targeting advertising than a random news blog.

Website owners can work through Google AdSense or another ad network and have it provide the ads. The alternative, WebsiteSetup advises, is to cut out the middleman and sell directly. You can use the same metrics or charge a flat rate to earn website ad revenue.

Affiliate marketing, WebsiteBuilderExpert explains, generates website income on similar principles but without ads. If you run a book or movie review site, for example, as an Amazon affiliate, you link the items you review to their Amazon page. If someone clicks and buys, you get a percentage. With other programs, someone clicking and looking without buying may be enough.

Colibri reports that joining the best advertising networks brings in an average of ​$1,000​ per month, while affiliate marketing averages ​$2,000​ a month. Big, successful sites bring in far more, while some small, lonely websites generate nothing. You won’t know what yours can bring in until you try.

Other Website Income Streams

Affiliate links and website ad revenue aren’t the only way for online platforms to make money. If you’re selling anything – books, classic vinyl, hard-to-find car parts – a website is usually an important part of that. Whether you’re selling online or encouraging viewers to email you for a quote, your website can generate money this way.

If you’re in a creative field, your website becomes your portfolio. Whether you’re into graphic design, music or custom-made jewelry, your website earns money by showing what you can do for a client. There’s no average revenue for sites like this – it depends on how much you charge and how many people want to buy.

Another approach that’s become increasingly common is crowdfunding online, asking for donations from potentially hundreds or thousands of people. This can work for a charitable endeavor or to launch an artistic or commercial project. Fundera says that the average successful campaign raises more than ​$28,000​. The average raised by all crowdfunding, including unsuccessful campaigns, is ​$824​.