Learning how to monetize a website is actually one of the easier parts of building a successful website.  Once you have learned how to build and market your website the monetization part will come fairly easy.

The following are the main ways to monetize your website:

1. Pay Per Click Advertising – A vast majority of websites earn money through advertising.  This is most commonly done, by smaller new websites, through Google Adsense or Yahoo! Publisher Network.  You will simply insert a code into your website and Google or Yahoo will supply your website with relevant ads matching your websites content.   You then earn a small amount of money usually between .10 cents up to $2.00 dollars per click.  The amount varies greatly depending on your websites niche.
2. Affiliate Marketing – This is the second most common method of monetization for many websites.  It simply means you promote other products and services on your website.  Then if someone follows links from your website to the advertisers products or services and makes a purchase you are paid a commission.  Once again commissions vary greatly depending on what you are promoting.  The easiest way to find quality affiliate products to promote is through Commission Junction and the Pepperjam Network.
3. Selling Your Own Products or Services – This one is self-explanatory, but it is also the most difficult to accomplish.  Trying to start a website from scratch, and then sell your own products or services is extremely difficult.  Then main reason for this is simply the trust factor on the internet.  People are very reluctant to buy from lessor known websites for fear of being ripped-off or scammed.  So unless you have a very unique product or service people will probably just go and look for the item at a more reputable and well-known place.