Hey, guys...kinda new to this. I'm starting a website, and I'm looking for alternate ways to generate revenue. I have been looking at affiliate programs, etc. and was wondering if any of you had experience with putting these banners on your page. I came from the phone industry to real estate, and a company I used to work for is offering me money to put a banner on my site (which can net me 500 + a month). I don't know how much that should be worth to me (i.e. how much I should be asking for), but I just want to know if it takes away too much from what I am really trying to accomplish. Any input would be greatly appreciated....THANKS!!

I have had zero success with affiliate programs. By letting them put a banner on your site you are basically giving them free advertising.

Also, it is probably not a good idea to have non-real-estate-industry ads on a real estate website.

That's what I hear, but I feel that my grass roots efforts are going to garner the most business for me. The website seems essential but not what I need to truly drive my business...I'm trying to offset the costs of having a superior site, though. The company that offers the banner works with realtors, though... They give discounts to agents... I got them a ton of business before, and they basically gave me 800 bucks (which is chump change for the type of site I want to build)

An affiliate ad only pays when it is clicked. A brand new site won't generate much traffic, thus very few clicks, so don't expect to see $500 a month for a while. It won't be worth it.

Start with an inexpensive site and build on it.

If you are getting 500plus a month for a banner placement, thats something to consider if your site is new. But if you are talking about substantial traffic than its a different story altogether. You can't even get that amount from pay per clicks unless you are good at it.

the company is basically giving me a referral credit...one customer converted through my banner gets me 20 dollars a pop

what company is offering $20 a pop?

There really are a ton of companies that are willing to offer $20 for conversions. Heck, I have seen numerous companies willing to give $200+ for each conversion, but just because they offer a lot of money for each conversion doesn't mean it's worth promoting.

Usually, the more money a company is willing to pay you per conversion, the more information and pages a user has to fill out. And the more information and pages a user has to fill out, the less likely they are going to do it.

Stuff like this is called CPA, or "Cost per Acquisition". In other words, if the end-user performs a specific kind of action (fills out a form, calls a number, etc.), you get paid.

If you really want to be successful at it, you really need to analyze the company's credibility and conversion rates, which is not something they will always give you. You'll need to check the conversion rates on both the banners and the landing pages that the users are taken to. The best way to learn about these things is to join a CPA network, as many of them will at least provide a clickthrough rate for banners. The rest you will probably have to test and track on your own.

You work your behind off to get the traffic to your website.

You want the traffic to stick around, and convert to a customer for you. Giving that traffic an easy way to leave your website for a few dollars is a mistake IMO.