Starting a blog or website is so much easier in this day and age than it use to be.
However, that’s the easiest part too. You then have to get traffic to your website before you can even begin making money with it.
But once you have that steady flow of traffic that is coming in daily, your hard work from the very start will begin paying off, your earnings will all depend on how you are monetizing your site.
I’m going to explain some very common, WORKING ways to monetize your website so you can ensure you will start seeing some income for your efforts as soon as the traffic starts coming in.
Sell Ad/Banner Space
Selling ad space on your website is truly a great way to make a passive income without having to worry about what ads are working for you, especially if you’re a newbie at blogging.
As you get more experienced, you can then begin trying your own ads and seeing if you make more money than selling ad space alone.
But in the meantime, sell that space right away and get a solid monthly income!
Pros:
- Great way to get a passive income
- Really simple to sell your websites ad space nowadays
Cons:
- Need steady traffic coming to your site before you can sell the available space
- You might be losing out on money than if you tried your own ad
PPC Advertising
If you want to make some really easy money from your visitors, PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising is a really common way of getting easy cash flow.
One of my favorites is Google Adsense.
Basically, people click on the ad that’s in your content or on the side bar, (wherever you choose to put it), and you get paid for every click.
And yes, it really is that easy!
Pros:
- Incredibly simple to make money even, with a small amount of visitors
- Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to set up
Cons:
- It isn’t the best choice for long term benefits
- Not a good idea to make it your main source of websites income, because you will need thousands of visitors to make a full time income with it
In-text Ads
You can still have ads on your website without flashing and annoying banners.
One common method is text ads, you sign up for a company and follow the instructions.
When people read your content, words will be hyperlinked to the ad, and most of the time it shows a small snippet/preview of the ad.
This is so your visitor can determine if they want to check the ad out or not.
It lets your readers believe that you are the one recommending it rather than your typical irriting type of ads that show the same thing over and over again.
Pros:
- Easy way to make money, especially with a small amount of traffic
- The ads aren’t as invasive as banners or other similar ad types
Cons:
- Not the best choice as a full time website earner, there are much better ways
Donate Buttons
PayPal offer stress-free ways to add buttons to your website/blog, and the beauty of it all?
It takes only 10 minutes to set up, and even newbies can implement the code into their website so that even just their friends can “donate” to their site.
Pros:
- If you have a small amount of traffic that trust you immensely, there’s a slight chance they will donate to you
- Make money in the early stages
Cons:
- Not the best monetization method
- Can get in the way of better ads that you could be using instead
Build An Email List
You can capture your visitors email address with a sign up form and this is very much a recommended technique for all online marketers.
The best way to do this is by offering them something in return for it first as people like freebies.
This can be anything from a simple e-book you created or a short video you found on YouTube that you think will be incredibly helpful.
Ever hear the saying “the money is in the list“?
This is exactly what that is referring to and like I said, very much recommended.
Pros:
- A huge money maker when you have a big list
- You can gain thousands of loyal subscribers
Pros:
- Takes a long time to build a big list
- Difficult to make money with a short list
- You have to learn how to build trust with your subscribers
Sell Courses
If you’re truly an expert in what you do and you have returning visitors that fully trust you, you’re in a position to create some courses and sell them to your customers.
It doesn’t matter what your niche is either, people love learning about something they are passionate about, you can also make them put their email address in before they purchase it.
This allows you to promote to them over and over again since you know they are buyers, and if your course was the BEST, they will have no hesitations in purchasing from you again.
Pros:
- You can set it up so they have to pay monthly, these payments start to add up as you get more and more loyal customers
Cons:
- You have to know a lot about your niche so you can build something really spectacular. You will then gain a huge amount of trust from your audience
Pop-up Advertising
Pop-up advertisement is actually decreasing by a lot, and that’s because it doesn’t work as good as it used to.
But you CAN have a “subscribe to me” pop-up page come up, allowing you to capture their email address before they leave, this is where you can offer your free e-book in exchange for their email address too.
This very well goes hand in hand with email marketing so you can actually implement both at the same time.
Pros:
- A really common way of capturing emails
- Probably where a big chunk of your sign ups will come from
Cons:
- You will have a hard time selling something if you have your advertisement as a popup
- Can and will annoy your visitors if you constantly pitch to them, whereas a “signup form” is not as annoying
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is extremely common in this day and age and the absolute best way for anyone just looking to make money without a product or service to offer.
Essentially, you sell other peoples products and get a commission for the sale.
Pros:
- There are thousands of affiliate programs you can promote and they are all available in EVERY niche
- You don’t have to worry about customer service or shipping even if you’re selling physical products
- You don’t need to own an actual store
- You don’t have to deal with any customers
Cons:
- Requires a website
- You are making the creator of the product a large amount of money too (win/win)
Sell Your Own Product/E-book
This is also a great way of making money and a huge income earner if you do it properly.
You can build your own product, service, or e-book and sell it.
Place it on affiliate networks and have other people promote it too, you then give them a small commission for the sale.
Instead of being an affiliate in affiliate marketing, you are now on the product owner side and have a higher chance of making more money.
Pros:
- This is a massive money maker when you have other affiliates promoting your product
- When you get other affiliates to promote it as well, it improves your brand quality while getting your name out on the world wide web
Cons:
- Only for advanced Internet Marketers
- Takes a very long time to create an e-book/service and a good landing page that will actually convert
- You have to do your own customer service
Writing Product Reviews
This is by far my favorite monetization method.
You add affiliate marketing in with your review article and you have a very powerful money-making technique.
And that’s because your visitors are highly targeted and buyer-ready. They have their credit card out ready to purchase the item they are searching up.
The secret to making money writing product reviews is to actually be honest, and to answer ALL questions and concerns regarding the product that they may have.
And you can’t do that with a 400 word article, so it needs to be a lot longer than that, and you have to sound believable.
So basically – tell the truth, even if a product is trash, say it.
Pros:
- A really great way of making passive income for years to come
- Oftentimes you can earn huge commissions from one buyer, it all depends on what product/s you’re promoting
Cons:
- You have to do research on the product or service that you want to review
- You have to create a lot of reviews if you want to start earning a lot with this method
Which One Do I Recommend?
One method that’s really potential of making you a full time income is actually writing product reviews and including your affiliate link throughout the post.
So product reviews + affiliate marketing together!
When you “strategically” put links in your content, people click without hesitation.
And when that cookie gets saved in their browser, you will get paid for the sale.
I could go on and on, but I would rather you check it all out and see for yourself.
Personally, I use a program called the Wealthy Affiliate.
At Wealthy Affiliate, you will learn everything about affiliate marketing and how to properly create your website to make it a massive income earner.
You will learn how to be an authority in your niche so you can absolutely dominate your competition and watch your visitors roll in every day to purchase something.
Learn more here on how you can get started too!
Thanks for reading and hopefully you have learned a thing or two from this post.
Cheers!
– John
A Work at Home Jobs