RachelWebsites are fun to tinker with as a hobby, but what if you could turn that hobby into a profession? By monetizing your website, this is more than just a fantasy; this can be a reality.
The monetization of your website has never been easier. While there is stiff competition in the field, the opportunities have never been greater. These are the 10 best ways to monetize your website.
1. Become an Affiliate
There are many companies that will allow you to promote their products on your website to receive a commission when they are purchased. These are called affiliate programs. While being an Amazon Affiliate is the most common, these are also some of the top companies you can join as an affiliate:
- Wal-Mart
- Target
- Bass Pro Shops
- Cabela’s
- eBay
- Microsoft
- Samsung
The commission percentage usually runs between 1% and 10%, depending on the product and the company. Becoming an affiliate is the easiest and usually quickest way to monetize your website. Marketing another company’s goods becomes a vessel for passive income.
2. Sell a Product or Service
This doesn’t have to be a physical, tangible product (while it very well could be if you want it to). This can be a digital service, such as an e-book, template, or other digital content. Selling a product or service will allow you to be in control of your own pay rate for the goods you are offering.
3. Use an Advertisement Management Company
If you haven’t heard the term pay-per-clicks, or PPC, let us fill you in. Pay-per-clicks are advertisements that are placed on your website for visitors to click. When clicked, you will receive a payment from the advertiser. Some of the best ad management companies are Google AdSense, MediaVine, and Ezoic; which we have discussed in a deeper article on our site. Advertising becomes another vessel for passive income when you are looking to monetize a website or blog.
4. Create a Membership Site
This is similar to selling a product or service, but it deserves its own designated point. A membership site is a site someone will pay a membership fee to access. This can be to gain specific information on a topic, such as health and lifestyle. There are many healthy living websites that require a membership to access the premium content. This content may include nutrition plans, recipes, and workout regimens.
5. Reach Out to Companies to Review or Demo a Product
Monetizing your website can also include receiving products, goods, or services. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a company to offer a free content piece about the item in return for letting you keep the item. The company and your website will both benefit from this type of advertising. Eventually, or perhaps even upfront, the company will offer to pay you for the review.
6. Sell Your Space
There are advertisers who want to buy the virtual real estate space on your page in return for placing their company’s ads there. If you don’t mind having a company’s advertisement on your website, then selling ad space is a great way to make money on your website or blog.
7. Create a Paywall
This is similar to a paid subscription; the only difference is that a user can access the website, but not the premium content unless they pay. This is a great way to entice users to fork over some money. While they may not have been willing to purchase a membership just to access your page, they may very well be willing to pay for specific content they are looking for. A paywall will notify a user that they must purchase the content if they want to access it.
8. Ask for Donations
It sounds cheesy upfront, but how many times have you visited Wikipedia and seen the text box at the top of the page asking users for donations to keep the site running? It’s not cheesy if Wikipedia does it, so don’t feel cheesy if you do it, too. You never know until you ask, right?
9. Build an Email List
Collect email addresses from users who visit your site by enabling a call-to-action feature on your website. When you send a weekly or monthly newsletter to these users, include third-party advertisements in the content of the newsletter for the users to click.
10. Sponsored Content
This is similar to reaching out to a company to post a review or demo of a product. The only difference with sponsored content is that, typically, the company has contacted you to create the post. The company will likely offer you a commission fee for users who have purchased the product through your website.
For example, if your website niche is beauty products, and a company contacts you to sponsor their makeup brushes on your website, they will likely give you a “promotional code” to give your readers for them to use when buying the product. This will drive traffic from your website to the company’s website, and will also tell the company just how many of your visitors you influenced to buy the product.
Some Final Thoughts on Monetizing
These are not get-rich-quick schemes that will happen overnight. No true business is and remember, you’re running a bona fide business, sisters!
Monetizing your website will take time, effort, and a lot of hard work before it starts to pay off, but that doesn’t mean the reward won’t be worth the risk.
Know your target audience, choose companies, content, products and ads that you support and that your readers will connect with. Affiliate marketing only works when your audience feels heard and encouraged.
Your website or blog may be the main vessel that you want to communicate to your audience with, but never disregard the power of social media. Social media can direct customers, readers and clients to your site so that you will have greater website traffic.
You will likely want to combine several of these methods. Keep in mind that you will want to look at the terms and conditions of being a company affiliate. You will want to make sure you are not violating any terms or conditions by sponsoring other products on your site not related to your affiliate’s brand.
Lastly, implementing ads on your website, whether free from Google AdSense or a paid management company like MediaVine, can rack up pay-per-click revenue without much work on your end.
Put some of these methods to use on your website, and you will start to see your website becoming monetized and that online empire growing!