Making Money with Virtual Real Estate (VRE)

There are multiple ways of making money with your websites besides just selling merchandise. You can use them to capture names and email addresses for your mailing list, you can sell advertising space, and you can use Adsense or Kontera ads that you will get paid for whenever someone clicks on those ads. Advertising space, whether it is Pay-Per-Click ads like Adsense or banner ads that you sell to other marketers for a fee, is called virtual real estate, or VRE.

When using VRE in your website, blog, Squidoo lens, or whatever static page you use, there are a few tips that will come in handy for maximizing your ad click potential. Obviously, you want clicks on your ads, as only clicks will get you paid by Google or Kontera, and only clicks will get you repeat business from the advertisers to whom you sold banner or link VRE space. If you like using Squidoo, you know that you don't really have much flexibility in how you set up your lens, but blogs and websites are a bit more easily managed as far as VRE placement goes (though you should never underestimate the power of Squidoo).

First of all, if you are using PPC ads on your site like Kontera or Adsense, there are a couple of places that are best suited for your VRE. The best spot is the upper left hand corner of your page. They would be the first thing your readers will see, and if there is something there that they think might be of value, they will click (cha-ching!). Obviously, there are other great places to put your VRE if that spot is not an option. Anywhere on the left sidebar is great. The very top is pretty hot, and inside your content is also really effective, as long as it is separated out, and it doesn't interfere with the content itself.