So you have created your website/blog and now you’re ready to make money from it but you’re not sure which strategies will be most effective, this is where this honest guide on how to monetize a site comes in handy. In this guide, I have outlined the most profitable ways to monetize your website.
Monetizing a website or blog takes time and dedication. You might not get the expected amount of earnings at first, but don’t let that discourage you.
For you to get the results that you desire, there’s a unique quality that every profitable website should possess ‒ traffic. Without traffic, you may find it difficult to earn money from your website.
Now that you know the hurdle to overcome, let’s find out how to monetize a website.
Post Contents
Monetizing a Website
Once your website or blog starts generating a good amount of traffic, you can be rest assured that monetizing it wouldn’t be a difficult task.
1. Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is an online advertising model that allows website and blog owners to earn passive income each time a reader clicks on an advertisement banner that is displayed on their site. The most popular platforms for PPC are Google AdSense, Taboola, Infolinks, and Munchads.
The above-mentioned advertising companies are the easiest ways to earn extra cash from your site and they don’t require much effort to set up thereby making it easy for website owners can quickly place ads on their blog or website. One great thing about Munchads is that you can easily apply to be a publisher even if you have multiple sites. The only criteria you may need to fulfil is having huge traffic to your website.
The process of monetizing your website using Munchads is straightforward. First, you should read and understand the terms and conditions of being a publisher and then ensure that your website or blog meets all the requirements. Thereafter, you can proceed with creating an account, creating ad units and placing the JavaScript codes anywhere you like on your website.
2. Native Advertising on Your Website
Native advertising is another great way to monetize your website or blog. This method of ads fits seamlessly into the content that surrounds it, providing a more intuitive and engaging experience for the reader or viewer.
There are different methods of native advertising. This could be either sponsored blog posts on your site or discovery platforms, which serve sponsored recommended content on your site. You can place the recommended content on a homepage, in the middle of an article, or at the end of an article. This will reach and grab the attention of your readers when they’re ready to discover something new and related to their interests.
Importance of Native advertising.
As readers and consumers grow weary and tired with intrusive ads, such as display banners and pop-ups, it is recommended that publishers search for new ways to serve them ad content that grabs their attention and avoid being blacklisted by ad blockers. Native advertising is the answer to this. Publishers use it to monetize their websites with personalized ad content that doesn’t disrupt the user experience.
Taboola is a leading giant and frontrunner in the native advertising industry, connecting publishers with a network of high-quality advertisers who are ready to place relevant, brand-safe sponsored content on their sites.
As a publisher, you can control ad experience by using keyword filters, category selection, and blocking capabilities. You can track transparent metrics, such as revenue-per-visit, to ensure your native ads are working, and they can optimize campaigns for continued engagement
3. Selling Ad Space on Your Website
As a website owner or publisher, you can sell ad space on your site directly to advertisers. This method may be time-consuming, but it maximizes the earnings that you will get from displaying advertisements.
The ads can come as a link at the bottom of your site, side banners, or small pop-ups. The pricing for each of the ad spaces also vary, and you are fully in control of the prices for the different ad types.
However, to make use of this method, you need to have a high conversion rate as well as traffic. Also, as this method utilizes the pay-per-click or pay-per-visitor model, you will be paid by advertisers depending on the number of people that click the ad or visit the site.
How to Get Advertisers to Notice You:
Make a summary that outlines the statistics and key facts of your website.
Send it to your potential advertisers. Letting them know why they should work with you.
Finding the right advertisers can be tricky. But, with the help of Google Ads, LinkedIn, and SellerCrowd, you’ll find a good match in no time.
4. Affiliate Marketing
As a Publisher, joining affiliate programs is another great way that will help you earn money from your website.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate networks connect website owners with brands looking to promote their products. Once publishers join the network, they advertise the brand’s products on their site in exchange for a commission.
Through the affiliate links on your site, you can earn commissions when readers buy the products or services of the companies that you subscribed to or are affiliated with.
Affiliate marketing remains one of the easiest methods to earn passive income with. But to do so, your website should have a large and active user base/audience.
How to monetize a website via affiliate marketing:
Create a website that focuses on recommending and promoting products or, post an item or service review related to your content.
Join affiliate programs such as Clickbank and Amazon or search Affiliate networks like JVZoo and CJ Affiliate.
Include affiliate links in your content organically.
5. Donation-Based Monetization
This is another great way to earn money from your website. As a publisher, if your content offers value to the reader and you need support to grow your website, you can politely ask them for donations. Although not every reader will donate, if you have good traffic, you might earn enough to fully sustain your website and make some cash on the side.
Lots of publishers create content for free as a hobby. If they have a loyal fan base and returning visitors, they may set up a donation system. So, readers who enjoy reading your blog posts may be able to give you some donations that will help keep the blog running.
You can set up donation buttons on your site that allows readers to contribute directly. Link them to payment processors such as PayPal, Stripe, or Fundly, etc.
Add the buttons as widgets and place them anywhere you like. Ensure the readers can find them easily.
6. Publish sponsored posts and product reviews
Sponsored posts are adverts in the form of an article and they usually contain the advertiser’s website link.
Sponsored post or content comes as a collaboration between you as a publisher and the brands that you’re partnering with. Businesses pay you to create content for them and publish it on your site with their links embedded in the content.
Some advertisers may send you their article, but if you are able to write the content for them, you will be adding more cash to your pocket too as you can charge a higher rate for that.
This content can be in the form of product or sales announcements, offers, infographics, or reviews.
Things to Consider before you start creating sponsored content:
How much influence do you have online?
The number of sponsored posts you’ll be writing each month.
How much time you’ll spend creating the content?
Brand value (the sponsored content vs. your blogging brand).
Once you are good to go, join blogger network groups on Facebook and share your website, as that’s where the advertisers are looking!
NB: Advertising regulations state; if you’re paid to publish an article on your site by a third party, you must always write “Sponsored Post” on the page somewhere.
7. Membership Websites
This is like an upgraded donations method. On a membership website, you’ll be charging readers before they can access specific content.
The New York Times, Condé Nast, The Washington Post, International Living are all an example of a membership site. Readers need to sign up or subscribe if they want to access the content of these websites.
You can try monetizing your website this way if you’re confident that your content is worth paying for.
Monetizing a website via memberships:
Find the right fit for your site.
Subscription: users pay monthly or annually to access a site’s content and benefits.
Transaction: separately selling individual contents such as tutorial videos, audio downloads, or training programs.
Metered: content is free until readers reach a certain checkpoint. They will have to pay a certain amount if they want to continue reading.
If you have a WordPress site already up and running, then all you have to do is add a membership site plugin.
8. Sell Your Own Products or Services
If you have products or great skills you can offer as a service, you can consider using your website to sell those products or services. You can do this by simply converting your website to an eCommerce store.
Although the process of making an online store is a bit more complicated than just creating a simple website. However, that does not mean that you can’t have an eCommerce store up and running in a few days.
9. Flipping your Website
Flipping a website is a bit different from the methods mentioned above. This is because it involves selling your website; just as people flip houses and other properties, publishers flip websites to earn a profit.
Flipping a website is the process of finding an online site or blog that needs work, improving its design, content, and marketability, proving its success in traffic and engagement, and selling it to an interested party at a higher rate.
Publishers can also build a website from scratch and flip it once they establish an audience. They can then use that money to start a new website or small business venture.
Flipping a website can be profitable depending on the type of site you run.
To get an idea of how much a site can sell, you can browse through the listings at Flippa.
10. Set Up Online Courses and Coaching
Creating an online course or coaching platform as an add-on for your website is also a huge deal. You can use this to monetize your website if you have valuable contents to share with your audience.
This will be a paid premium content where visitors pay to access that additional information.
Digital courses come in different formats. This can be simple PDF downloads, recorded audio, or well-produced videos.
If your website is about weight loss, for example, you could have a course teaching people the different methods of losing weight naturally or through a particular diet plan.
How to monetize a website with digital courses:
Pick a topic/niche.
Create a new website or integrate your course into an existing site.
Upload the content and promote it.
Setting up online courses can be a profitable solution as your revenue will only be limited by your traffic.
Conclusion
Earning money from managing a site can be an exciting experience. Whether you’re running a blog or selling items online, there are several techniques and strategies to earn money from it. Study these ten monetization strategies and use them to find the best website monetization method that suits your brand. Finally, it is important to note and remember that monetizing a website needs time, dedication, and most importantly – traffic (website visitors).
