10 Ways to Earn Money from Your Site

When you are running your own site and finally start to see some serious traffic, you’ll probably want to earn some money from it.

In this article we’ll look at 10 of the most popular ways to make money from your site. In each section I’ll list the big players in that specific field, but there are many more opportunities available–Google is your friend.

You’ll find that you can mix and match many of these methods. Just be careful that you don’t overcrowd your site with ads. And of course you’ll need to test to find out what works best for your site.

Let’s get started.

1. Cost-per-Click Ads

Displaying banners based on a cost-per-click basis is the easiest way to make money with a site.

Usually it’s just a matter of creating the ad banners and placing them in visible places and within the guidelines. You then get paid for each click on the ads. CPC ads come in many forms, from the traditional 468×60 banners to in-text advertising.

Google’s AdSense program made this model very popular, and it still offers the highest payouts by far. Google’s guidelines are strict though. It’s tempting to put ads right next to navigation items and gain on accidental clicks, but this can get your account banned.

You are given a percentage of the revenue made on each click, so more popular terms bring in more revenue. Earnings from CPC ads vary from a few cents to several dollars per click.

Popular CPC companies

Google AdSense

Media.net (Yahoo! and Bing ads)

InfoLinks

2. Cost-per-Mille Ads

The counterpart of CPC advertising is cost per mille. Here you are paid for each and every ad displayed, even when no one clicks.

Because advertisers don’t want to pay for ads that are hardly seen, CPM advertising has even stricter requirements than CPC when it comes to placement and site quality.

Most of the time you will also find that you have to meet minimum traffic requirements. Most companies working with publishers require 100,000 impressions a month or even more.

Once you’re accepted into an ad program, you will be getting ads from all of the major advertisers, which has the side effect of enhancing the professionalism of your site.

It’s hard to determine what you potential earnings will be. Expect to earn anywhere from $1 to $4 CPM for general topic sites, and up to $10 CPM for niche-focused sites. (Hint: Sites that are web-related always do well).

Popular CPM companies

Google AdExchange (Works mostly with partners. I recommend MonetizeMore)

BuySellAds

Exponential

3. Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs (or referral programs) are considered to be the most lucrative form of advertising for publishers. If you can match an affiliate deal with your audience, you can easily earn more than any of the other methods.

The concept behind affiliate programs is simple: You get paid for each lead or sale you refer. Some companies offer a fixed fee, while others work with a revenue share.

Affiliate programs are usually offered though huge affiliate networks, which combine offers of thousands of different advertisers. Some companies, though, have their own in-house affiliate program.

How easy it is to get approved depends on the advertisers. Some companies or networks don’t have any requirements, while others want to talk with you in person and want to see a highly professional site. It mostly depends on the commission you get for each sale–higher commissions come with more requirements.

Earnings for affiliate programs are calculated as EPC, which can either be earnings per click or earnings per 100 clicks (you’ll definitely want to find out which a particular company uses when exploring your options). Targeted and well-promoted offers can bring you up to $1 for each visitor you send.

Popular affiliate networks

CJ Affiliate (Formerly known as Commission Junction)

OneNetworkDirect (Digital River)

ClickBank

4. Amazon

While it’s technically an affiliate program, the Amazon Associates program deserves special attention.

It is quite easy to get into Amazon’s program, but setting it up properly requires some time and dedication. Amazon offers many ways of promoting their products, from simple links to fullblown stores that integration via their API, like this).

The commissions Amazon pays are fairly low–they range from 4% to 10%–but the great thing is that they pay you on anything a customer orders after using your affiliate link. This means that you can send a visitor to Amazon for a simple war movie (like I do) and end up earning a commission for a purchased TV as well.

Amazon is also available in multiple countries, but you’ll need to sign up for each country independently.

Amazon Associates (US)

Amazon Associates (UK)

5. Fixed price

If you don’t want to worry too much about how your ads are performing you might want to consider selling them at a fixed price.

With this method you don’t sell clicks or impressions. Instead, you’re basically just renting out ad space on your site for a weekly or monthly fee. The price is determined based on the quality of your site and its traffic, but it doesn’t fluctuate as much as the other methods.

You can sell fixed price advertising directly or use an advertising network to do it. The downside of the latter is that you will be paying a hefty fee on each ad sale.

Revenue with fixed price advertising is generally lower than with the CPM model, since there is less competition. Another downside: If your traffic explodes while a deal is in place, you won’t get paid for the additional impressions.

Fixed price ads are good way of earning a steady recurring income without too much hassle though.

Popular fixed price advertising companies

BuySellAds

iSocket (formerly BuyAds)

AdEngage

6. Pop-ups and pop-unders

Yes, these still work! While most people find popups annoying, they’re still a lucrative way for advertisers to make money. And that means you can use them to make money as a publisher, too.

Pop-ups and pop-unders are perfect for sites with high visitor numbers but low engagement. If your visitors aren’t clicking any of your ads while on your site, you might as well earn on them when they enter or leave.

Revenue from this type of ads is quite low–earnings are often just pennies per thousands impressions. Still, if you got hundreds of thousands visitor per month if could add up to some nice numbers.

Popular pop-up advertising companies

Advertise.com

PopAds

MediaTraffic

7. Sponsored content

Also called advertorials, sponsored content is a great way of adding valuable content to your site while earning some money in the process.

With sponsored content, advertisers write posts on the topic your site covers to show their expertise and build their brand.

It’s also a great way of doing a sponsored giveaway together with an advertiser (so you can feel a bit like Oprah).

Sponsored content is often confused with paid links, where an advertiser is pays solely for link placement. Paid links can get you in trouble with Google, and there’s a fine line between sponsored content and paid links. A good rule of thumb here is that your audience should value the content and learn something from it. It’s the content that matters, not so much the actual link to the paying advertiser.

Selling sponsored content can best be done by yourself, since most networks are easily abused for link building. Depending on your traffic you can charge anywhere from $50 to thousands of dollars per post.

8. Related posts

Selling related posts is a relatively new way of earning money. Instead of linking to related posts within your own site, you can link to paid posts, usually on a CPC basis. In most cases you use a plugin which combines your own related posts with paid ones.

Related posts are usually placed underneath each article, and when a reader gets that far they are usually very much engaged and interested in what you have to offer. Because of this high engagement level, selling related posts can turn into a nice income.

To qualify for related post advertising, you’ll need to have a high quality site and high levels of traffic.

You may still be better off using that space for a higher paying affiliate ad, since the reader’s engagement at this point is worth serious money. Testing is key.

Popular related post advertising companies

Disqus

Outbrain

Taboola

9. Email advertising

When you run a popular newsletter you can sell space in your emails as well as on your website.

You can charge a one-time fee or promote affiliate deals. If you go the affiliate route, make sure the program allows for email advertising, especially when working with networks.

When you have a few thousands targeted subscribers, it is possible to earn a few hundred dollars on each mailing. Professional newsletter tools allow for excellent split-testing so you can easily try out what works best.

Ads in newsletters are mostly sold directly to advertisers, while for affiliate deals you can use the companies listed above.

10. Selling your site

The ultimate form of monetizing of your site is selling it. If you managed to successfully implement one or more of the strategies above, your site might be worth quite a lot of money.

While selling your site puts money in the bank, there are other benefits as well. You can stop worrying about your traffic and ad performance. It also frees up your time which you can use for other projects.

The main problem with selling your site is deciding when to do it. Sell too soon and you might be leaving money on the table, sell too late and you will receive less money than you like. Especially with websites revenue can be very volatile, so it will always be a gamble. General rule is to sell when your website’s income stabilizes for a few months.

You can sell your site directly to a buyer or use a marketplace or agency for it. The latter will charge you a commission but will mostly do all the work for you.

Sale prices vary widely, from a few thousand dollars to well into the six figures and beyond.

Popular places to sell your site

Flippa

EmpireFlippers

DigitalPoint forums

Try everything, but track your results

The best way to earn money from your site depends on your content and design as well as traffic.

I can’t stress enough that you should always test what works best. I personally turned one specific low earning page into a high earner by displaying a very relevant affiliate product instead of regular ads.

Try different ads and ad placements on your site–just be sure to track the results.

In 1925 a remote town was saved from lethal disease by dogs

The town of Nome was faced with a diphtheria outbreak and no treatment, and it was cut off in the depths of a brutal Alaskan winter

They say dogs are our best friends. Sometimes, they are our saviours.

In 1925, the small Alaskan town of Nome was in the throes of a deadly diphtheria epidemic. To save the town's inhabitants, 20 teams of sled dogs transported a vital anti-toxin over 674 miles (1,085km) of ice and snow, in just six days, through the most brutal winter conditions for decades.

Of the dogs that took part in the Nome Serum Run, the most celebrated were two Siberian huskies named Balto and Togo. Today dogs like these compete in epic sled races, outperforming many of the greatest human athletes. They are the fastest land mammal for distances over 10 miles (16km).

How do they do it?

Huskies were introduced from Siberia by a fur trader named William Goosak during the early 20th Century Yukon Gold Rush. Goosak had spotted the potential of sled dogs used by the Chukchi maritime people.

They outran many of the native dog teams

For thousands of years, Chukchi culture had used dogs for transportation across the Arctic tundra. Selective breeding had created the ideal sledding dog, perfectly suited to the freezing conditions and a life of hard work.

In 1909, Goosak raced his dogs in the 408-mile (657km) All Alaska Sweepstakes, a round trek between Nome and Candle that had long been dominated by teams of Alaskan Malamutes.

Goosak's "Siberian rats" were half the size of the Malamutes, but they outran many of the native dog teams, finishing a respectable third. Malamutes, bred for hauling freight, were stockier, but pound-for-pound the Siberians pulled faster.

Their abilities have their roots in their size and shape.

Siberian huskies were bred to handle the cold (Credit: Arctic Images/Alamy)

"Big dogs have longer gaits, covering more ground with each stride, but their mass makes them overheat," says Raymond Coppinger of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, who is co-author of How Dogs Work. "The smaller Siberian Husky generates less heat, and with the same skin area for dissipation, they maintain temperature."

This might seem to suggest that sledders should use teams of Chihuahuas, but of course such dogs are so small that they would barely move the sled. Goosak's Siberian Huskies were the Goldilocks of racing sled dogs: not too small and not too big, and with just the right angle of pelvis, back length and shoulder width to allow for the longest possible stride.

Nome was cut off by the worst winter in 20 years and there were no local stocks of the anti-toxin serum treatment

They also loped, always keeping at least one paw in contact with the snow to haul the sled along. This was crucial.

Greyhounds are faster than Huskies, but they "bound" through the air. This is a great technique for sprinting, but disastrous for pulling a sled: the sled would pull them back every time they took flight. "Dogs that have flights are known as floaters and are ineffective sled-pullers," says Coppinger.

At the 1910 All Alaska Sweepstakes, a team of Siberian Huskies took first place. They were brought home by a Nome-based dog-sled driver, or "musher", called Leonhard Seppala.

His victory would be remembered 15 years later in January 1925, when Nome's Board of Health was confronted with a crisis: an epidemic of diphtheria.

A poster promoting diphtheria vaccinations (Credit: 914 Collection/Alamy)

Diphtheria is a bacterial infection that mainly affects the nose and throat. Left untreated, it can prove fatal. Nowadays it is rare because most people are vaccinated, but that was not the case in 1925.

The outbreak had come at the worst possible time. Nome was cut off by the worst winter in 20 years and there were no local stocks of the anti-toxin serum treatment. Without it, the town doctor predicted a mortality rate of 100%. The closest the serum could get by rail was Nenana, 674 miles (1,085km) away.

Huskies can also use their large fuzzy tails to ensure that they breathe warm air at night

On 24 January 1925, Nome's Board of Health voted unanimously to use a dog-sled relay to transport the serum from Nenana to Nome.

With the help of the US Postal Service, who regularly used dogs to transport mail across Alaska, 20 dog-sled teams positioned themselves along the route. Seppala was set to make the penultimate leg from Shatoolik to Golovin.

The entire route would ordinarily take the postal service 25 days, but that was far too long. In the brutal weather conditions, the serum would only last six. The dogs would have to complete the journey in less than a quarter of the normal time.

Their first challenge was simple: avoid freezing to death.

Corynebacterium diphtheria, which causes diphtheria (Credit: CNRI/Science Photo Library)

Siberian Huskies have lots of very fine, highly twisted secondary hairs, compared to other breeds, says veterinary pathologist Kelly Credille. These hairs form a special layer of their coat that traps warm air against the body, like a down jacket.

Many of the mushers who took part in the Nome Serum Run suffered frostbite in their hands and faces

Huskies can also use their large fuzzy tails to ensure that they breathe warm air at night. Each dog curls up into a wall and covers its nose with the fur of its tail, which acts as a warm air filter.

"We also found that Huskies are able to create a thick, protective coat that 'hibernates', rather than grows and sheds," says Credille.

Other dog breeds need regular haircuts because most of the hair follicles are actively growing – think of the need to shave poodles – whereas Huskies keep their hair in a resting state. This saves energy, says Credille. "Hair is made of precious protein and fats, and Huskies can avoid having to replace it until a time when the weather moderates and food becomes more plentiful."

Many of the mushers who took part in the Nome Serum Run suffered frostbite in their hands and faces. This is a consequence of how humans deal with extreme cold. To protect our vital organs, we direct blood into our core body. This leaves our extremities vulnerable.

Seppala found himself in a whiteout. He might as well have been blind

However, dogs' extremities do not lose as much as radiator-like human hands. Fused blood vessels in the footpad shift warm blood to the skin surface and hold it there, says Dennis Grahn of Stanford University in California. This helps maintain an even temperature just above freezing point.

Dogs' paws are also thickly furred, which may help prevent heat loss. In modern sled dogs, the areas most prone to frostbite in modern sled dogs are hairless regions like the nipples.

Leonhard Seppala's Siberian Huskies would have benefited from all these adaptations during the Nome Serum Run. By 31 January 1925, they had travelled 170 miles (274km) from Nome to meet the oncoming serum delivery.

With just two days before the serum expired, time was melting away, so Seppala made the decision to cross the unstable Norton Sound ice sheet. Then a blizzard closed in, and Seppala found himself in a whiteout. He might as well have been blind.

Leonhard Seppala with his team of sled dogs (Credit: Design Pics Inc/Alamy)

To survive, Seppala relied on his lead dog Togo to navigate around deadly open stretches of water.

Pulling behaviour is technically play, since there is no immediate reward

Togo was ideally suited to this, because dog whiskers – technically called vibrissae – can sense changes in airflow. The key to this is the sensors at the bases of the whiskers, known as tylotrich pads. Huskies have more tylotrich padsthan other breeds.

Huskies are also rather intelligent, thanks to centuries of selective breeding. The Chukchi people needed dogs that could make split-second navigational decisions to safely transport them across the snow and ice.

The other thing the Chukchi needed from their dogs, and that Seppala and the other mushers relied on, was teamwork.

Nome was nearly wiped out by diphtheria in 1925 (Credit: Paul Andrew Lawrence/Alamy)

The key to creating effective sledding teams was to breed playful dogs.

"Pulling behaviour is technically play, since there is no immediate reward," says Coppinger. "Playfulness also provides the social facility to perform as a team, strengthens the bond between people and dog, and reduces inter-group aggression."

Balto is immortalised in a bronze statue in New York's Central Park

The Chukchi would have systematically chosen intelligent, playful dogs to sire the next generation of puppies. Aggression was largely bred out of the Siberian Husky.

The Chukchi's dogs were also encouraged them to roam and hunt, and were taken into people's homes to serve as companions – and dog-shaped blankets – for their children. This is reflected in their personalities. Today's Huskies exhibit low levels of social and non-social fear, and score highly for chasing, escaping and roaming behaviours.

It appears this selection has shaped the brain chemistry of today's sled dogs. Compared to more lethargic breeds developed for guarding livestock, such as the Šarplaninac, Huskies have higher levels of a neurotransmitter called noradrenaline that is associated with general activity and exploratory behaviour.

Working as a team, Seppala's dogs found their way through the treacherous Sound. That brought the serum 91 miles (146km) closer to Nome.

Nome is a remote town in Alaska (Credit: Design Pics Inc/Alamy)

Another driver named Gunnar Kaasen then stepped in, with a team of dogs led by a Siberian Husky called Balto. They delivered the serum to Nome with half a day to spare, saving 10,000 lives.

Siberian Huskies are no longer the champion racers of old

The story made Siberian Huskies famous. Balto is immortalised in a bronze statue in New York's Central Park; arguably rather unfairly, as he was only one of many dogs involved in the Run.

In 1930 the Siberian Husky was recognised as a breed by the American Kennel Club, which set out highly specific breed criteria to define them. Nowadays most "pedigree" Siberians are bred for the show ring, competing to be the best match for these criteria

"Breeds start from a very small population, and are terribly inbred," says Coppinger. "All Siberians trace back to just a few individuals at kennels in New Hampshire and Quebec. These were the dogs that Seppala called Siberians."

The shift to a pedigree breeding system has meant Siberian Huskies are no longer the champion racers of old.

The statue of Balto in Central Park, New York (Credit: DPA Picture Alliance/Alamy)

"The type of dogs winning races today is not the purebred Siberian Husky, but the Alaskan Husky, [which is] the result of interbreeding between the best Siberians, Hounds, Malamutes, Border Collies and more," says geneticist (and champion musher) Heather Huson of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Each dog burns through 10,000-12,000kCal of energy a day

Still, the Siberian Huskies have left a valuable genetic legacy. Huson has found that distance-running dogs carry a much higher proportion of Siberian Husky genes than sprint dogs.

The elite dogs that Huson studies compete in the Iditarod Great Sled Race, otherwise known as "The Last Great Race". Teams of 16 dogs race to complete a 1,000-mile (1600km) journey across Alaska between the towns of Willow and Nome, which takes 8-9 days. Temperatures range from -40C to highs around 0C.

During the race, each dog burns through 10,000-12,000kCal of energy a day. That far exceeds the highest values recorded for humans on endurance races like the Tour de France.

Sled dogs competing in the Iditarod race (Credit: Design Pics Inc/Alamy)

For a human to meet this energy demand, they would need to recruit every millilitre of blood in their body to get enough oxygen to their muscles. That would include blood that normally supplies the vital organs, causing those organs to virtually shut down.

Sled dogs have a set of adaptations to exercise that are not seen in humans

Athletes measure this using the "VO2 max", which is a person's capacity to get oxygen from the lungs to the working muscles at maximum effort. Chris Froome, the winner of the 2016 Tour de France, has had his VO2 max measured at 88.2. Sled dogs have been measured at 200.

This is partly because dogs have natural advantages over humans. Per cell, they have 70% more mitochondria, the body's power factories. What's more, they do not need to route blood from their vital organs, partly because all their training causes their hearts to grow by up to 50%.

But the question remains, how do they sustain these levels of exercise for so many days on end?

A Siberian husky (Credit: Westend61 GmbH/Alamy)

Michael Davis of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater has been researching this question for years. He says sled dogs have a set of adaptations to exercise that are not seen in humans.

Part of the dogs' secret is that they can eat a truly extreme diet

"The ability to continue day after day is all about getting energy from food, through the gastrointestinal tract and into the bloodstream and the cells," says Davis.

Glucose from food is stored in muscles in the form of glycogen, and released during exercise. "Exercise will normally deplete glycogen stores," says Davis, leading to an increase in stress hormones and cellular damage.

This means human endurance athletes – whether they are ultra-runners racing for hundreds of miles, or cyclists on the Tour de France – cannot keep going at the same rate as dogs. "They need rest to replace used glycogen… and to repair cellular damage," says Davis. "Amazingly, Iditarod dogs seem able to repair this damage, which we see on the first day of racing, on subsequent days of the run."

Part of the dogs' secret is that they can eat a truly extreme diet.

The Iditarod is an extremely challenging race (Credit: Design Pics Inc/Alamy)

Since the dogs are burning 10,000kCal a day, they need to eat about that much to sustain themselves. That is the equivalent of 24 Big Macs a day: a lot of food to fit into a small dog.

It seems that, in racing dogs, the more fat the better

The solution is to cut down on the carbs and instead eat a lot of fat: it is the most energy-dense source of nutrition, which makes it the easiest way to get enough food into the dogs to prevent weight loss.

It turns out the dogs are very good at converting fat into glycogen. Racing dogs studied by Davis managed to maintain their muscle glycogen after repeated runs, day after day, even when their carbohydrate intake was just 15% of the total calories consumed.

A 1973 study determined that racing dogs on a zero-carbohydrate diet actually gain cellular advantages compared to dogs on a higher-carbohydrate mix of foods. They had more red blood cells and higher levels of haemoglobin, and were protected against mineral deficiencies that are commonly caused by exhaustive exercise. It seems that, in racing dogs, the more fat the better.

A musher and his sled dogs returns to Nome at dusk (Credit: WorldFoto/Alamy)

"You couldn't feed that diet to a pet dog, though, not even a pet Siberian Husky," says Davis's colleague Erica McKenzie of Oregon State University in Corvallis. "Any dog owner who has worried about their pet snaffling the Christmas turkey knows that some dogs can die from pancreatic inflammation if they suddenly ingest a large amount of fat."

Dachshunds are longer than they were 200 years ago, while pugs' noses are more squashed

When a pet dog consumes high amounts of fat, it shows up as fatty acids in the bloodstream. But in sled dogs, it does not.

Researchers had assumed the fatty acids were being transported directly from the blood into cells to be burned as fuel. That is what happens in highly-trained endurance athletes of other species. But Davis's latest findings indicate that sled dogs prefer to burn carbohydrates instead of fats, even at low exercise intensities that are typically fuelled by fat.

"Whenever we think we've got it figured out and there could only be one possible answer to their amazing endurance, the dogs find a different answer that we thought was impossible," says Davis.

Sled dogs are phenomenal athletes (Credit: Design Pics Inc/Alamy)

Even today, racing dogs are still changing.

Visitors expect to see a Siberian in a dog sled team

The Siberian Husky does not exist as it once did, but then the same is true of any dog breed. Dachshunds are longer than they were 200 years ago, while pugs' noses are more squashed. Older breeds are born for their looks, paving the way for new breeds to appear and, in the case of the Alaskan Husky, take their racing crowns.

But there are still a few racing Siberian Huskies. Vickie Pullin works at Arctic Quest, a British company that takes people sled-dog racing. She trains some Siberian Huskies at her kennels.

"Visitors expect to see a Siberian in a dog sled team," says Pullin. "They look fantastic and are great with people."

Nowadays these dogs run in the context of leisure and fun. But their ancestors once saved a town from obliteration.

How dangerous are the phones in planes?

Samsung’s exploding mobiles are the latest of in-flight phone fears.

If you’re boarding a plane, chances are you'll be bringing a phone aboard with you. But the technological sophistications of phones have left airlines and governments with safety concerns — and in the case of Samsung’s new faulty phones, the concern is very real.

On Saturday, the US Department of Transportation officially banned Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from all aeroplanes in the United States. “Passengers who attempt to evade the ban by packing their phone in checked luggage are increasing the risk of a catastrophic incident,” the department’s new guidelines state.

The news stories are well known, at this point: A few weeks after the Korean electronics giant launched the phone in August, reports from around the world of the lithium batteries catching fire during or after charging started flooding in. Around 2.5 million phones were sold globally, until Samsung finally announced a worldwide recall. Earlier this month, the company then announced it would permanently cease production of the phone once and for all.

This is yet another case of how phones have posed headaches for airline companies and government organisations over the years. While electronics spontaneously bursting into flames pose a clear danger, other issues are less clear leaving most of us still unsure of what is deemed safe or unsafe.

Phones as terrorist weapons

In a post-9/11 world, the fight against terrorism, combined with the meteoric rise of the personal electronic devices (PEDs), has left the relationship between planes and mobile phones extremely complicated.

In 2014, the US Transportation Security Administration, the government agency established in 2001 in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, introduced a new rule for bringing PEDs on flights: If travelling from another country to the US, your devices must have enough battery charge in them to turn them on upon request by a security agent.

The reason? A concern that global terrorists could replace batteries in portable electronics like mobile phones with tiny bombs. These bombs could potentially go unseen or undetected, even with X-rays or metal detectors, the agency said. It’s part of “enhanced security measures” that apply to certain airports, including direct flights between the US and the UK.

How real is this threat, though?

It was real enough for the TSA procedures to come at the behest of the US Department of Homeland Security. “Aviation security includes a number of measures, both seen and unseen, informed by an evolving environment,” Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in a statement in 2014, without providing much more context or explanation. The TSA started suggesting that travellers keep chargers handy at airport gates.

"TSA, in close cooperation with our intelligence community partners, continues to assess and evaluate the current threat environment to ensure the highest levels of aviation security without unnecessary disruption to travelers," the TSA said in an email statement to the BBC. "We will not discuss publicly information about specific elements of security. We will continue to make necessary adjustments to security protocols to meet an ever-evolving threat.”

Thankfully, there have not been any known incidents aboard an aeroplane that involved a hidden bomb inside a mobile phone.

Phones interfering with plane communication

Worldwide, fliers take their seats on planes, and soon hear a request from the crew that’s become all-too-familiar: “Ladies and gentlemen, please switch your cellular device to flight mode.” But what if a passenger leaves their mobile device off flight mode? What’s the worst that could happen?

Since cellular phones emit radio waves, they could potentially interfere with the plane’s communication capabilities, like collision avoidance systems and radar. There’s even a suggestion that the interference registers on pilots’ headsets. That’s why flight mode, or aeroplane mode, exists — it shuts off any signal-emitting technology.

But the truth is that many of us have at some point accidentally left our phones on during a flight to seemingly no ill effect. In a survey in 2013, around four out of 10 US air passengers admitted they don’t always turn their gadgets off on flights.

Nasa has compiled a list of PED-related incidents that have taken place on flights. On this list, last updated in January, at least five incidents are included that involve signals being emitted from mobile phones. For example, one reads: “Captain reported possible interference from cell phones in the cabin that could account for the electronic anomalies they were experiencing during the flight.”

But there hasn’t been any definitive, damaging incident of a phone switched off of flight mode taking a plane down or causing an accident. Still, as far as the authorities are concerned, it’s better to err on the side of caution.

But above all: the devices themselves must be safe

Could all the rules, regulations and security checks ever become more relaxed? Maybe. They have been before. For example, before 2013, mobile phones and other electronic devices on many flights had to be switched off completely — not just turned to a mode that cuts off cellular signals. The US Federal Aviation Administration went on to cancel that requirement, as did other agencies in other nations.

Security and signal worries aside, the real issue the Samsung PR nightmare poses is this: Electronics, particularly ones like phones that are powered by lithium-ion batteries, absolutely must be physically safe for consumers to use. Those types of batteries are prone to overheating and exploding — something electronic manufacturers need to keep in mind before making products that passengers will fill airports with.

If faulty electronics are on a plane, that is cause for concern. As for all of the other potential phone-related threats that require you to go through rigamarole at security or to go without sending SMS messages for hours in the sky, know this: it's better to be safe than sorry.