Having a popular website is one thing. Making money from it is another. Generating traffic is all well and good, but if it’s not making you any money you’re missing out on a crucial revenue stream. One of the most popular ways of making money from your website is to use banner ad networks. They won’t send your users running for the hills and can produce a constant and reliable stream of income. Banner ad networks work by acting as the agent between advertisers who supply the advertising content and publishers, like yourself, who supply people who are attracted to the quality content you produce. The advertisers pay them for this service, and they, in turn, pay you for your service.

This is a great way to unlock the money-making potential of your website. If you don’t have the time to approach individual websites, or aren’t quite large enough to leverage the uses of an advertising agency, then using banner ad networks is probably the best and most profitable option for you. Most companies work on a pay-per-click basis, meaning that each time that somebody clicks on an advert that they have put on your website, you get money. It’s a good way of ensuring that both you and the network get paid according to results. Typically the split is in your favor as well- from 70% to 85% of the advertising revenue, meaning that you keep the lions share of the profits.

Just who are the big names in the game? Well, there a huge range of companies out there, meaning that the market is competitive, and in your favor. It’s easier to supply ads than it is to supply quality traffic, so if you have quality traffic you’re in a good position. Some good banner ad networks that you might want to consider are:

1. Advertise.com
Owned by AOL, Advertise supplies quality adverts that increase the likelihood that a visitor to your website will click on them, thus increasing the amount of money you may make.

2. Buysellads.com
A big name, they allow you to approve or reject advertisers if you don’t feel they’re a fit. Offer a 75% share of profits to you, but require 100,000 visitors a month to your website before they will consider you.

3. Puxee.com
Also gives you 75% of the profits, but also accepts almost all sites, meaning that if you’re not huge you’ll still be able to monetize your traffic.

Now that you have an idea of how banner ads work, it’s time to put that knowledge to use and start making money from your website.