How Do Free Websites Make Money?

How Can Free Be Profitable?

I have been an internet surfer for about a decade now, and I have to admit that my own bookmarks contain a lot of free websites. I have returned to websites which offer freeware and shareware software, trial offers of major name brands, and other no cost offers.

Since I am also an internet marketer, I understand the business model of these websites. And some of them have endured for years, making money for their owners, while still allowing their visitors to get something for nothing!

So how does that work. How can these websites profit their owners?

One of the first things that became popular on the internet was the offer of free software. This may have been timed versions, versions without all of the features, or even fully functioning, complex online tools.

Well, some of it was written by moonlighting owners, and it really started out free. Perhaps the owner just wanted to share a useful tool he or she had written.

But much of it promoted a paid option. That option may have been extra features, a version that did not expire, or even consulting services.

Large companies, like the developers of Wordpress, MySQL and PHP operate like this. Big business distributes for free, but gets paid to consult.

Other websites consisted of hundreds of links to free commercial products. You could find anything from magazines to baby products for free. These trials were posted in order to bring in potential customers. The manufacturers would actually pay website owners to give away their products.

Then the model changes a bit when website owners began posting free content, and that could have been articles, videos, or even games. The idea here is to keep internet visitors coming back for qualify content that did not have a charge.

In internet terms, traffic equals money. The website owners would be paid by having a sponsor. That sponsor would offer advertising in banners or links, and would pay the owner for clicks, sales, or leads. Some websites got paid by impressions as they had advertisers who just wanted to get their message displayed.

Think of traditional print magazines or newspapers. Now these are made of paper and must be printed and actually distributed physically. So they did cost money, but that charge covered distribution.

The real profit came from ads, and readers were attracted by the pictures and articles.

Think about tv. If you don't count your cable bill, most programs are free. They are paid by commercials.

This is how many free websites work too. They exchange content, which can be articles, videos, pictures, or even user discussions for returning visitors. Websites that are good at bringing back visitors are considered "sticky".

These websites can usually turn a good profit on their ads, if they can target them to the type of people who visit their website.

So return to considering a website that gives away freeware or shareware. That website may never profit at all from upselling this software, but can probably find ads that would also interest the type of people who are looking for computer programs.

If a free software website has sectons which would interest different types of people, it can be even easier to target. Consider that a woman who wants some content management software for her website may not be interested in the same software that a man who simply wants to find some software to help him run his offline business.

Success of a website may be tied to success at bringing in visitors, and then managing to target ads at those types of people. The free website model is one very effective way to win at this.