Even if you are new to the world of domains, chances are you have heard this sentence often:

Domain names are online real estate.
Truer words were never spoken.

To continue the parallel, real estate only appreciates over time, and so in the meanwhile an investor might put it on rent to help offset the costs.
So it is with domain names: you can monetize your domains to not only offset the renewal and other costs, but also be compensate for your time and pains.

Here are a few ways to earn revenue from your domain while you await that domain sale of a lifetime to fall into your lap:

1. The basic requirement for you to monetize a site is to increase the amount of traffic it receives.
This can be done by using as many of the following ways as possible for you:

Start your own affiliate program, or sign up for one that matches the contents and links already on your site. This drives up traffic to your site.

Another way to push up traffic to your domain is to start a website with content that would make it search-engine friendly, using targeted key words and meta tags.

Submitting articles to directories is a great method of getting links back to your website, because all directories accept free submissions in exchange for links to your website, which could potentially be published in e-zines and newsletters.

Using the web address link in your e-mail signatures, as well as signatures in forums is also a good way to promote your site and gain traffic.

Networking and developing reciprocal links with similar websites is a proven formula to get traffic into your website.

Hold a contest, or provide a free service in order to attract traffic.

2. Once you have a goodly amount of traffic coming in, the domain name of your site is not only more valuable than in its original state, it can earn you ad revenue.

Targeted ads from established entities like Google Adsense can earn you checks from Google, and there are other companies who might be ready to pay for ads on the site. The higher the traffic the higher the pay.

Payments in ad revenue can take the form of Pay Per Click (PPC), Pay Per Impression (CPM), or Pay Per Sale or Lead. While the first is good if you have high volume of general traffic, you would require highly targeted traffic for the other two types of payments. All three are excellent arrangements for earning ad revenue.

Developing your domain is recommended for two reasons:

A domainer with a portfolio of hundreds of sites needs to have at least a degree of monetization to offset domain renewal costs.

A developed domain that already receives targeted traffic stands a bigger chance of selling at a higher price to an interested enterprise.

Developing your domain takes time, hard work and patience, but the dividends are high enough to justify monetizing efforts by every self-respecting domain owner.

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