There are various way to make money on the web these days. Perhaps the most obvious one is selling goods online - be it through an auction website such as eBay or through your own ecommerce website.
However, selling tangible products has it's own advantages and disadvantages. For starters, there is little chance of running a completely automated business - somebody has to pick, pack and post the orders, products have to be purchased to hold in stock and cash flow can sometimes be a problem.
A little more tempting is the sale of downloadable products. This opens up the opportunity to run a more automated web business. I stress the word MORE because it's still impossible to run a completely automated business - even customers buying downloadable products will demand a certain level of customer service. Who will answer pre-sale questions? What if there is a problem during the checkout process or with the automated delivery system? How about if somebody demands a refund?
Both of the above require a certain level of interaction and maintenance. Running an ecommerce store may feel like you're being your own boss, but ultimately you are anwerable to someone - your customer. Your site must be maintained, be in full working order and meet security guidelines, especially if you are taking payment directly through your site.
In recent years people have been earning money online without selling tangible or downloadable goods. Instead they simply rely on advertisers to pay for page impressions or clicks on their websites. This opens your site up to being fully automated so you can sit back and watch the money roll in and be safe in the knowledge that you really aren't answerable to anyone. Well, theoretically all this is possible. However, in order to be successful your site must attract visitors and this usually means providing useful information through your website. Depending on how the advertisers pay you they won't be too bothered about how popular your site is but if they pay monthly you will still find you're answerable to someone!
Whether you update this information daily, monthly or annually is up to you and it depends on your circumstances. How much money do you want to earn? How much time can you dedicate to creating new material? How much demand/competition is there on your topic? Do people want to read the information you're supplying? How quickly will the information become dated or obsolete?
I don't want to go into a discussion about site content in this post, instead I'm going to look at the options available to you if you wish to monetize your informational website.
1) Google Asense or Yahoo Publisher Network
Both are free to setup and automatically pair paying advertisers to your website based on the content. This saves you having to find advertisers to sponsor your website, however, you only receive a percentage of the ad revenue with Adsense/YPN taking the rest.
2) Seek own Advertisers
Particularly useful if you've created a local website. You could approach businesses to pay you for displaying their ad on your site. You can charge a monthly fee, per impression fee or per click fee. The first option is quote easy to set-up and maintain whereas the other two options would require some software to track impressions/clicks.
The advantage of sourcing your own advertisers is that you will receive 100% of the money generated, however, you may have difficulty finding advertisers and it may take a few months to fill all your ad space. Customers may also demand to see proof of past visitor numbers before advertising
3) Affiliate Schemes
Affiliate schemes were very popular a few years back, however, many people switched to using services such as Adsense etc. Now, however, affiliate schemes are growing in popularity once again as mpore website owners look for the most profitable option. Companies like Commission Junction allow you to group affiliate schemes together, allowing you to pool revenue and receive bigger & earlier payouts.
One of the main reasons people abandoned Affiliate Schemes in the past was because many never received a penny in commission due to certain 'minimum payout' thresholds etc.
With multiple options available to you including selling tangible goods directly to consumers, B2B services/products, dropshipping, downloadable products and advertising revenue you are sure to find some way of creating money from your existing website. Exactly how much you make is entirely down to you and the popularity of your site.
