Best way to make money off my website?

[zenox]

I have a website that im trying to think of the best way for making some money. The website is an Online Compiler that lets users build programs in C# or VB.Net. Currently I am just generating revenue from ads on the website. I COULD however inject ads into the users programs... however I am not really into the whole adware things.

What do you guys think? Should I take it to that level? Or should I try finding another way to try and generate revenue?

[wannabeMogul]

I wouldn't go the AdWare route.

Maybe you could ask for donations on each compile? or if you wanted to be more forceful, charge a fee when they compile or download their final program?

What if you charged them to debug their code if they had an error they just couldn't get? Maybe they could submit it to you, and you could charge an hourly/flat rate to get it working for them.

As a final solution, maybe you could just force any program they compile with your program to have a small bar of ads along the bottom so that you collect revenue every time their program is used. I am not sure of the logistics/tech behind that one though.

[wannabeMogul]

You have a lot of screen real estate there as well. You could add more ads than just that one column (but not in a junkie, spammy sort of way) around the input fields to collect more revenue based upon the impressions.

[fitzwar]

Google adsense and affiliate programs are the best, contact me if you want to buy an established website

[zenox]

Hey WannabeMogul,
Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of charging to debug code. I dont know if you have ever used a website like rentacoder or elance, but it lets people post projects that others can bid on. I could try to incorporate the two of those.....

One though I did have was to was charging for queue boosts.
I use a queue system for my website to determine the order that programs should be built. So for example at the moment the first person to click build, gets their results first. So if their is lots of site activity it could take awhile for your project to be built. I could possibly accept cash for increasing the position in the queue......

[jeremy]

Hi Zenox,

I usually get my projects done thru scriptlance. The quotes i get there are usually lower than at elance. One of of making money could be charging for premium support like what most open-source projects do. Just an idea.