Many people think of web business in a single dimension. They only see their business as selling an eBook. Or drop shipping. Or selling software.

The reality is there are many ways to make money from (monetize) a website. Here are my top 12:

1. You can create an eBook product.

This can be easily automated, meaning that once this site is up your daily routine would be marketing and answering minimal customer service emails. The entire order process can be completely automated.

2. You can create a digital tutorial product.

Again, this can be easily automated, meaning that once this site is up your daily routine would be marketing and answering minimal customer service emails. The entire order process can be completely automated.

3. You can create a software product.

Easily automated as well, meaning that once this site is up your daily routine would be marketing and answering minimal customer service emails. The entire order process can be completely automated.

4. You can sell a hard good you purchase wholesale (or manufacture) then sell at retail.

This requires you to purchase the product before-hand and fulfill orders yourself. You would spend days filling orders, managing shipping and returns, marketing.

5. You can sell a hard good as a drop-shipped product.

A drop shipped product is a hard good that a manufacturer ships directly for you to the customer. You collect the retail price on your website, forward the order to your manufacturer along with the shipping and wholesale price and keep the difference.

Similar to #4, you will have to spend some time fulfilling orders, but the time consuming task of shipping is done by your manufacturer.

6. You can sell advertising.

For a high demand market niche this can produce solid revenue. Ad sales can be done by an outside agency, you can sell them yourself and/or you can use services like Google Adsense or Traffic Showcase to provide ads for you.

Here you can generate a nice income with a hands-off site provided you can position yourself well in a market place. Solid demand coupled with good search engine position can give you a good deal of time freedom.

7. You can sell affiliate products.

If you have a solid search-engine position, this one can be run much like an advertising site. If you dont have solid SE position, then you would spend your time creating and sending a newsletter, writing articles and generating traffic to your site.

8. You can promote an opportunity (like Multi-Level Marketing, etc.)

The key ingredient here is building a huge opportunity seeker list. Your best time is spent generating new leads and cultivating them into a paid down line. There are many online training programs that can automate training, but marketing to get the new leads is how your time would be used.

9. You can generate leads (to sell wholesale or to plug into an opportunity site)

If you are wanting to promote an opportunity site, then this goes hand-in-hand. The time here is spent getting people to the lead generation site and getting them into your system.

10. You can sell a service.

If the service you provide can be completely or almost completely automated, then you would spend your time marketing your site. Keep in mind, however, that if you are offering a physical servicelike proofreading or carpet cleaningyou will need to spend a significant amount of time actually providing the service.

11. You can run a subscription site.

Subscription sites are a great way to go for a solid, recurring income. Keep in mind you will have to be constantly updating the content in order to retain members. Your time beyond that will be spent marketing your site.

12. You can use a combination of the above.

Obviously there are many online businesses using a combination of two or more of the above.

The big question you need to answer when it comes to choosing a monetization model for your own business is lifestylehow much you want to work (if at all), how much money you want to make, what things you enjoy doing.

Choose the monetization model that best fits your end goal.