Online affiliations are a growing trend. Many affiliates have reported to be making decent earnings, dismissing claims that it’s just another online getrich-quick scheme.

Lee treats blogging as a part-time job to earn extra income.

Roseli claims to earn a stable income from his online activities.

Lucrative if done right

The Internet is a money-generating mechanism for many people, namely bloggers and Web site owners. The unique traffic they attract to their blogs and Web sites is attractive enough for advertisers to place their ads there.

Can one earn good money online? Blogger Roseli Abu Bakar seems to think so. He ventured into the business of making money online in 2007 and has not looked back since.

“It was purely by chance. I received an e-mail from a market research site that I signed up earlier to complete an online survey about a consumer product. I did the online survey and a few weeks later the company sent me an e-mail with a US$10 (RM34) Amazon gift voucher. From that time, I knew there’s money to be made on the Internet,” he says.

Roseli began looking for information on how to make money online and found a Web site run by Jeremy Schoemaker aka Shoemoney, who made over US$132,000 in August 2005 from Google AdSense.

“I was so motivated that I promised myself to learn everything about making money online. The first cheque I got was my stepping stone,” he says.

Roseli now blogs through his EzyBlogger Web site, www.ezyblogger.com, which teaches people ways to make money online. He claims to earn a stable income from his online activities.

“I now earn more money than what I use to make as a project manager with an IT company,” he says, adding that the best thing about making money online is that the income is residual.

“I can stop blogging for six months and the cheques will still come in every month.”

Advertisers pay through PayPal, foreign and local drawn cheques, Western Union or direct deposits into Roseli’s bank account.

Roseli is one of a growing number of success stories of people who have ventured into online affiliated jobs. The Internet has evolved into a money-generating mechanism for many people, namely bloggers and Web site owners. The unique traffic or viewers they attract to their blogs and Web sites is attractive enough for advertisers to place their ads there.

Quantity surveyor Lee Ka Hoong also started his online money-making journey about two years ago. But it was not an overnight success.

“I started with a static Web site (an anime video-clip site) and thought that I could make money easily, but I was wrong. I didn’t understand anything about Internet marketing, search engine optimisation and traffic building. And these are the things you need to know if you’re serious about making money online,” he says.

Lee then dropped his Web site project and did some research on the Web and found that people do make money online through their blogs.

“So I went ahead and created my first blog, MyBlog2Day.com. It was a personal ramble about things happening around me,” he says.

After a few months of maintaining the blog, he turned it to the Make Money Online blog dedicated to how one can make money online.

“I used to sell ad space in my blog. As you can see, there are several 125-by-125 banner ads at the sidebar, a 468-by-60 banner ad at the top, and a 336-by-280 banner ad at the end of the post. They generate few hundred ringgit a month,” Lee points out.

He says advertisers called him to place the banner ads on his blog to promote their products or Web sites.

“Besides this, I make a couple of hundred bucks more from writing sponsored reviews where advertisers pay me to write about their products or Web sites.

“Google AdSense, affiliate programmes and my personal services such as setting up a blog and the like could generate an income in the thousands every month. The money I earn is more than enough for my daily expenses. Usually advertisers and companies pay me through PayPal, cheques and Maybank2u,” he says.

Despite the good money, Lee treats blogging as a part-time job to earn extra income.

“Making money online is not as simple as you think, but if you follow the right steps, you can succeed. It can be your steady part-time income, just like what I’m doing right now,” he says.

Making sense of AdSense

Google AdSense is one of the largest ad networks in the world, with hundreds of thousands of sites visited daily by millions of Internet users.

Web site owners who join the programme by applying at www.google.com/adsense/ show AdWords ads on their sites. The AdSense network contains sites of all sizes in different languages.

Publishers can choose from multiple ad formats designed to suit a variety of page designs. The ad formats can contain a combination of text ads, image ads or video ads.

The formats found to be most effective are the 300 by 250 Medium Rectangle, 728 by 90 Leaderboard and

160 by 600 Wide Skyscraper. While these formats typically perform well, publishers should use the format that best suit their pages.

Google’s AdSense specialists also carefully monitor clicks and impressions on Google ads to protect the interests of AdSense publishers and AdWords advertisers.

For details, go to http://www.google.com/adsense/policies/.

Targeted audience, targeted advertising

THE most common way for bloggers to make money from their blogging is through the ad placement format. This is usually done through third-party service providers such as Google AdSense, which link advertisers to the blogs or Web sites.

According to Google Southeast Asia’s AdSense head Ruth Beattie, ads that appear on AdSense publisher Web sites are targeted to reflect the content of the page.

“This way, the ads are relevant, delivering value to Internet users who view and interact with ads that are related to the topic they are reading or researching,” she says.

AdWords advertisers find value in using this network to extend their reach to their target audience and brand their products online while AdSense partners who have joined AdSense get the opportunity to monetise their content.

Earning ad revenue
Beattie says AdSense publishers (bloggers) earn revenue based on the performance of the ads displayed on their pages. “They have the freedom to choose where they want to display ads on their pages and we provide advice online in the AdSense Help Center on optimising AdSense performance.”

Is it effective?
Recognising that people are spending more and more time online, Google is seeing local and international advertisers, large and small, allocate marketing budget towards online marketing and to AdWords.

“It’s an effective way of reaching new customers. Our network of sites offered via the AdSense programme gives advertisers the chance to extend their reach, targeting new customers nationally and internationally and meeting their advertising goals (be it branding or direct response).

“Our technology ensures that the ads are targeted very effectively to deliver

good returns on investment for advertisers,” Beattie says.

How much can one make?
Google says it’s not possible to determine how much people can earn because their earnings depend on a number of factors.

“The price advertisers pay for the ads appearing on your site and how frequently users click on them are two key factors. We can’t predict how much you’ll earn, but know that we’ll always show the ads that will generate the maximum revenue for you. Our goal is to enable you to make as much as, or more than, you could with other advertising networks,” Beattie says.

Regarding payment, AdSense publishers in Malaysia are paid through cheques in US dollar or Western Union quick cash. Payments are made each time the AdSense earnings reach US$100 (RM340).

Beattie says AdSense is a good fit for Web site owners who have good quality content and are willing to allocate portions of

their sites to display targeted AdWords advertising.

“Our network is a family-safe network, so we don’t accept Web sites that contain non-family-safe content. Because of the wide pool of advertising we have, even very niche sites would be eligible to participate and see returns,” she adds.

AdSense specialists will review Web sites according to a variety of criteria, including site content, navigation and functionality.

Good prospects
Moving forward, Google sees strong potential for AdSense within Southeast Asia, as more people come online in the region, new Web sites are launched and broadband penetration increases.

“This will be important in helping these site owners monetise their content and deliver value. The long-term effect of AdSense is to help enhance the quality of local Web content, and Web sites with high-quality content will be ‘rewarded’ by making more money,” Beattie says.