How to generate website revenue

Ok, as a freelancer I'm baffled on how you can create sites to generate revenue, specifically for freelancers. I mean, when I think of revenue I think of a shopping cart in an e-commerce site, but I'm not a retailer--I'm a web designer.

How can a freelancer generate revenue? The closing thing to mind to me would be through click-by-click advertising, such as the banner advert ust on top of talkfreelance. How else do you guys bring in the money, as much as I like freelancing I think financial stability is also important, because if you want to be the best you have to feel free to be your best. I think hopping from client to client without anything in between is kinda scary.

So how do you bridge the gap? My portfolio is a portfolio not a shopping cart. How do you do it? Forums? How can a forum even make money without a membership fee?

Wow I'm amazed how many ?'s I used. ^.^

Advertising...simply.

Originally Posted by Indie Advertising...simply.

only advertising??? nothing else???

How else does a website make revenue? I only see two major ways, advertising space, or some form of e-commerce.

There might be more - but thats all I've ever seen.

Freelancers tend to be jack's of all Internet trades, so I'm assuming you have the ability to write stuff. All you need to do is design a website, give it a domain name, add some content, through a few Google ads on there, and you'll never need to view it again.

Although, without promotion, it'll be hard to get much revenue from the site.

I hear porn sites make mad monies.

Well, lets be clear.

A freelancer provides a service to a client, regardless of what that service is.

What you are describing is more of an entrepreneur I suppose.

ys i m agree with Mr Blue. he is like a entrepreneur. he can give IT consultancy.

Hmm.. yeah it seems like there doesn't to be much other forms of generating revenue other than what I suspected--ads or e-commerce. Plus you can't benefit from e-commerce sites unless you were the entrepreneur who was vending the products to begin with. Obviously we're not the entrepreneur because we are all in fact freelancers....

So is that it? Just adverts? Adsense just takes the brunt of all revenue, with the odd paypal membership fee if needs be?

There must be some other creative way of bringing in more revenue that we haven't discussed.