I have three quality content sites which I’m happy with, but they aren’t bringing in the cash at the moment. I’m trying to expand to other areas and was wondering which types of sites make the most money.
What venues do you think are best at generating revenue…CPM networks? CPC? Affiliate programs (which ones)? E-commerce?
I tall depends. If you have good content and lots of visitors, a CPM network may work very well. But if you are in a good niche market, you can also do very well with ecommerce
Blah…not what I wanted to hear. Obviously what you say is true, but certainly there are certain venues where it is easier to make money.
If you want a general answer, finance, gambling and adult-related topics are a huge market - but competition is severe.
Another general answer: Affiliate programs that cater to your audience. Selling NBA team shirts on a NBA Players site will outperform almost every other affiliate program.
Well, the point is that there is no easy money to be made. At least you won’t find that information on a public board such as sitepoint.com.
Amazon, Yahoo, Google, MSN
3 of hem are search engines. All of them are advertising sites. One of them is ecommerce site. Unfortunately all use .com, giving false impression that com is superior.
Was there a point buried in here that I somehow missed?
it all depends… dont focus in which makes the most… because the effor you put in a site is what turns your site in a money machine 
there is more to it than just the type of site… how about the promotion of the site and such.
If the reason for your question is that you want to go with the option that would generally make YOU the most money, you have not given us the right information.
In this case you need to find out what you are good at, or what you are very interested in. Everyone has something they like. Focus on that, because if it goes well for you you want to be sure you enjoy it. Whatever this is, you can do all on one website. If you go ecommerce, I would recommend having lots of content anyway. So I would suggest that you do some thinking about what it is you want to work with for a long time, then build your website around that theme.
If revenue is all you want then start advertising a site that sells a product on Adwords and Overture. Figure out how to convert the traffic as best as possible and then crank up the daily budget. Of course thats just revenue, and not profit.
E-commerce sites make tons of money. Just look at amazon or any of the other big ones. They are blowing away just about any other site out there in terms of revenue. Then again there are plenty of affiliate and content sites that are blowing away the smaller e-commerce sites in terms of revenue.
I think this question is a lot like asking “Which is the best Saturday night activity: clubbing, going to a bar, or going to the movies?”
It’s all completely subjective.
I designed an eCommerce site for a client that is making her thousands of dollars per month. I also know of affiliate marketers that are making thousands per month. What makes the difference is how good you are at what you do, not which money-making avenue you’ve chosen.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…
A website for horny impotent balding men in need of a second mortgage is sure to bring a pretty penny.
It’s funny how occasionally people come along asking for the ephemeral secret key to the golden fortune to be handed over to them upon request.
Truly. They’ll have to pay $47 for the ebook just like the rest of us did!
Every website can make lots of money like maartenvr said
Laugh, laugh, laugh…I’ve been around long enough to learn the most efficient way to make money online is not quality content sites. That’s the #1 myth on this forum. I wasn’t looking for the “magic secret,” but just for ideas to brainstorm off of.
I think content sites are a very nice way to generate income on the internet. AS far as efficient, the only thing I’ve seen more efficient are things like AWS sites, and everyone around has a few hundred of those already setup.
well my e commerce site makes money but the adult site rake it in
Why not do all three? The most important thing is to make your site about a topic you enjoy and know a lot about.
I’ve seen too many cases where people have chosen a topic to do a site about because they think it can make money, but they don’t succeed because they lack motivation to keep working hard at something they don’t truly enjoy. Money can be very motivating, but often times people don’t get past the initial work it takes to get to the point where money shows up.
So, I’d suggest:
Pick a topic you enjoy and have some knowledge about.
Build content in this area with a focus in something people will enjoy reading/viewing, and will also get you good search rankings.
Sign up for Ad networks such as Adsense, FastClick, Right Media, Valueclick, etc. I’d recommend using Right Media to make the networks compete for the same ad space to get the highest CPM you can from them.
Build in affiliate links to products and services that make sense. Also think out of the box here about closely-related things you could promote that are slightly outside your topic.
Create an ecommerce component of the site or a separate ecommerce site with tons of integrated links to your main site. Also look into dropshipping if you don’t want to deal with shipping/receiving.
Good luck.
Everyone talking about: What is
AWS, ppl, oscommerce
It is possible to make big money by working hard, but it is very difficult to make some money by working a little (unless you are lucky)…
Even if it is easy, since you don’t know how do it, research +planning will take a lot of time.
edit: forgot adsense 
“I’ve been around long enough to learn the most efficient way to make money online is not quality content sites. That’s the #1 myth on this forum.”
You ought to check out the thing called the Internet sometime. The money is made by Yahoo, Amazon, online gambling destination sites, porn destination sites, etc. The money is in content. The rest is just a blip on the screen.