Congratulations! After months of growing your traffic and converting leads to your website you have finally amassed a loyal following. Now what? Well, the next logical step is to monetise your website or blog and begin making a passive income. There are over 1 billion websites on the internet and even more users visiting these websites. Many before you have found ways to make a real income from their website and we are going to show you how you can too.
Today we will look at 6 of the best ways to monetise your site or blog, while also providing your audience value in the process.
Table of Contents
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. Simply put, it is the process of earning a commission by promoting another person’s (or company’s) product. Products exist in your target market right now (that people are probably already buying) and if you can become the link that recommends those products, you can generate a commission as a result.
Affiliate Marketing is one of the most powerful ways website and bloggers create revenue streams from their online presence.
There are many Affiliate Marketing programs you can sign up for to help bring in revenue. One of the most popular affiliate marketing programs is Amazon Associates. Depending on the affiliate’s program you choose, you can earn 10, 20 or even 50% in commission.
Out of all the ways you can make money blogging or owning a website, affiliate marketing requires the least amount of time, money, and resources. You don’t have to build, market, or sell a product or service. Simply insert affiliate links into your blog posts, it doesn’t cost you a penny. All you have to do is wait for people to click on them and buy something.
2. Google AdSense (Pay per Click Advertising)
Google AdSense provides a way for website owners to earn money from their online content. AdSense works by matching text and display ads to your site based on your content and visitors. The ads are created and paid for by advertisers who want to promote their products. Since these advertisers pay different prices for different ads the amount you earn will vary.
How is AdSense different from other platforms?
The Google AdSense program differs in that it delivers Google’s adverts to your site. Google then pays you for the ads displayed on your site based on user clicks on ads or on ad impressions, depending on the type of ad. AdSense gives you instant and automatic access to a huge source of advertiser demand, which means competition for your ad spaces, more relevant ads, and ads for all your online content.
Why it works so well?
Google AdSense performs so well because Google has the ability to look at the content on your website and serve advertising that is relevant to your audience and their wants.
3. Native Advertising
While visiting other ‘big-name’ sites and blogs, how many times have you scrolled down the page and saw a bunch of content recommendations for you to click or read through? This is native advertising at its best. Content networks like Revcontent, Outbrain and Taboola are powering this type of content marketing and advertising across the internet today. With billions of impressions served daily, native advertising is still one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to websites and blogs while earning money in the process. Just like Google AdSense, native advertising pays most site owners on a per-click basis.
4. Selling Adspace
When you have amassed a high traffic website or blog, a part from using any referral-based marketing programs you can simply market space directly on your website by selling Adspace. This can be done by approaching companies within your niche that have products and services that your audience wants. By opting to use direct marking, you ensure that all revenue is received by you 100%
You can create packages with different price points of Adspace on your website based on the dimensions of the Ad. You begin pricing at $500 for example to run an Ad for a month. The sky is truly the limit with direct advertising and it can be quite very lucrative for you. This is a great method to use in order to monetise your site and ensure all revenue flows directly to you.
5. Sell Your Own Products and Services
This one is an obvious way to monetise your site. If you are not running an e-commerce business online, obviously you have to use different channels to monetise your site. However, you can offer products and services to your audience, especially after you become an authority on a topic and have garnered their trust. For example, you can sell an e-book on a particular topic you are a trusted expert on. You can even convert a few blog posts into an e-book. You can also offer Coaching services and paid webinars to share your expertise. As your experience grows you can also offer freelance writing services from your website to or about your niche. If you are in to internet technology, website design or website development, you could offer reseller hosting for example, as a complete package to your clients. Just remember that selling your own products or services is another way to ensure that 100% of the revenue flows to you.
6. B2B Lead Funnels
By creating a lead funnel for your product or service you can increase revenue. First, you have to create a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a way to entice your prospective customers to visit your website. A lead magnet is an offer (usually free) that is dedicated to giving your website visitor some relevant value in exchange for their contact information (an email address at the very least). Some examples of lead magnets are: webinars, pdfs, worksheets and other limited or exclusive material. Rule of thumb, is to keep your lead magnet simple.
To get your lead magnet to convert, you need a landing page to promote it. That brings us to our second step. Your opt-in landing page is going to explain the lead magnet, including why prospective clients would want to download it. The copy should focus on advertising the benefits that the potential client will get if they opt-in to receive it. Use numbers and statistics when you can to add credibility to offers. Create a list of all the benefits of your lead magnet, including the problems it solves and processes it simplifies. Make sure your download button is big, colourful, and prominent. Keep it above the fold so prospective clients can’t miss it.
Follow-ups help to Monetise Sites
By this point in your lead generation funnel, your prospective client has converted and is on your email list. Now it’s time to automatically follow-up via an email drip sequence. You should send at least three email follow-ups. These are meant to engage your new leads.
Then you can nurture qualified leads with more blog posts and lead generators through email or Facebook ads. Consistently educating them and helping them solve their problems will build their trust, making it more likely they’ll move to the middle of your funnel when they’re ready. And once you see them researching your product or service by reading articles, requesting a demo, or trying to contact sales, you can move them to the bottom of the funnel, where sales will qualify their fit as a customer.
Sales will close some of these leads into customers, and they’ll be thanking you when they do. Your blog introduce customers to your brand.
Finally
There you have it, 6 of the most popular and advantageous ways to monetise your website. There are plenty of ways to make money with your website content and we have only broken down 6 proven ways.
In the end, it doesn’t matter which option you choose or if you choose multiple options, as they are all effective ways to monetise your content, while providing value to your audience. Without this value in place, audiences will simply visit and then leave your website. The aim is always to convert and build a loyal following. These are the same blogging rules that will always apply.
At all times make sure any type of monetisation on your website is relevant to the content you provide. When this can turn into a call to action, the results will be even better.
