There are many ways to monetize your website content, and you have the option to choose the right models, strategies, and platforms to suit your industry, audience, and business goals.
This article focuses on website monetization platforms, and the best part is that many of them come with built-in services designed to make it as easy as possible for you to monetize your content.
This means that as long as you are knowledgeable, experienced, or passionate about a specific niche, and if you get a lot of engagement from your audience, then you'll likely be able to use the platforms mentioned below as a way to generate more earnings from your website.
Read the rest of this article to discover the different website monetization platforms available to you so you can start making more money with your website.
I’ve divided the platforms into different categories that include:
Video Monetization Platforms
Digital Product Sales Platforms
Social Media Monetization Platforms
Affiliate Marketing Platforms
Ad Monetization Platforms
Premium Content Monetization Platforms
Fan Base Monetization Platforms
Video Monetization Platforms
Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and… allow you to monetize your video content by acting as a third party between website owners and advertisers. With the right strategy, you can create a lucrative source of income for your website.
However, keep in mind that with this type of website monetization strategy, your audience is your product, and the platform (whether it's YouTube, Facebook, etc.), is your customer.
Having said that, this can be an extremely lucrative way to monetize the website, and here’s how you can do it.
1. Start a YouTube Channel
With the increase in online video content consumption, a YouTube channel can be a lucrative way for monetizing your website. You publish your video content on the platform, and YouTube will pay you to run ads from advertisers. Publishing the majority of your video content on your YouTube channel is one of the easiest and most direct ways for monetizing it.
2. Use Twitch to Make Money from Streaming
Although this streaming platform is mainly used for broadcasting live video games, it has a lot of other applications that allow bloggers to monetize their website video content, including features for enabling “Bits”, a kind of currency used within the platform that lets users send and get emoticons that cost $0.01 each. This adds up to a healthy stream of income over time.
3. Use Dacast for Pay-Per-View Video Monetization
Dacast is a popular video streaming platform that allows creators to broadcast and monetize their live events and channels. You can create as many streaming prices as you like for your pay-per-view content, and you also have the ability to control rates and promo codes.
Sell Digital Products
Digital products are any intangible items that people have to pay for to get access to the product. This can be anything such as an eBook, online course, illustrations, stock photography, music, or even usage rights for media. Here are a few commonly used ways for monetizing your website through digital products.
4. Create Online Courses with Thinkific
Creating your own online course is a great way to generate revenue for your website. An intuitive online course platform like Thinkific makes it easy for you to upload, publish, market, and sell an online course - even with no prior knowledge or experience.
5. Sell Digital Music on Sellfy
Another way to monetize your website is to create and sell digital music., or alternatively, you can simply add a link to other people’s music or even links for discounted rates on popular software platforms like Sellfy, Bandcamp, or CD Baby. Whenever someone makes a purchase, you’ll be paid for your referral.
6. Sell eBooks on Amazon
One of the best things about creating eBooks is that as a blogger or website owner, you likely already have all the raw materials required at hand. For example, you may have a series of in-depth blog posts that performed particularly well, and it’s just a matter of putting those together to create an eBook which you can then self-publish on Amazon and promote on your website.
Monetize Your Social Media Followers
It's easy to monetize your social media audience because most platforms come with built-in services that allow you to benefit from organic engagement, as well as PPC ads once your engagement has reached a certain threshold.
7. Make Money From Your Followers on Facebook
Facebook lets you use in-stream ads, fan subscriptions, branded content, and paid online events as a way to monetize your audience on the social platform. As long as you follow the platform’s guidelines and share authentic content, you’ll be able to monetize your content.
8. Use Instagram to Turn Likes into Cash
Instagram is another platform that lets you make money from your audience. Simply share relevant content from your website on the platform and you’ll be able to build an established presence over time. You can then use the platform’s many monetization methods to help you make money from your audience.
9. Turn Views into Paying Customers with TikTok
On TikTok, you can upload video content and monetize it in a variety of ways, including in-feed ads to send viewers to your products, collecting gifts and tips, or adding affiliate links to your profile.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is an arrangement whereby you can earn a commission by promoting another company's products or services.
In a sense, you'll be selling your website audience to merchants like Amazon. You get paid to direct them to the retailer’s products that are advertised on your website - whether by product placement, where you include the product in your content, or by linking to it within your post.
When readers click the link, they will be directed to a custom landing page, and if they make a purchase, you get paid a commission.
10. Become an Affiliate with Amazon Associates
Amazon makes it extremely easy for affiliates to sign up and get free unique referral links for products. This means you can start earning money immediately. There are tons of products to choose from for websites in a wide variety of niches, and if your website content performs well, this could soon become a steady source of income.
11. Sell Digital Products on CJ Affiliate
Another affiliate network that is similar to Amazon except that it offers mostly digital products. ?? If you recommend more SaaS (software as a service) products than physical goods, then this could be the best affiliate platform for you.
12. Use ShareaSale to Generate Passive Affiliate Income
With the minimum payout of just $50, share a sale is a great affiliate network to try out for new bloggers who want to get into affiliate marketing. It has an easy approval process and offers more flexibility than Amazon Associates.
Ad Networks
Ad networks allow you to make money by showing ads to your website visitors. Although this can be a lucrative way to monetize your website, it can also take away from the quality of your content, which is why you must do your best to be as selective and authentic as you can when deciding what ads to show on your website.
Here are two examples of at networks you can work with to monetize your website:
13. Google AdSense
The largest and most used ad network for on-site monetization is Google AdSense. With AdSense, you can make a lot of money if your site is generating a significant flow of traffic.
However, AdSense, at times, tells you that you’ve made so much money and then only later tells you that you’re not actually getting that much because of “invalid clicks.” And the amount of money you can end up losing because can be quite significant.
For example, between January 2019 and July 2020, these so-called “invalid clicks” cost me nearly $33,000:
For this reason, I decided to look into [other ad networks]{(entry:blog/adsense-alternatives}) and found that many pay much, much more than AdSense.
14. Ezoic
After the invalid click fiasco, I tested out a lot of different ad networks. I discovered that Ezoic offers much greater ad revenue than AdSense and all of the other ad networks I tested. In May of 2022, I used Ezoic display ads to generate over $10,000 in revenue across five websites while I only generated less than $2,000 across six sites:
Most noteworthy is that I used both Ezoic and AdSense on websites 3, 5, and 7:
On website 5, I earned $678 using Ezoic compared to just $68 using Adsense
On website 3, I earned $3,623 using Ezoic compared to just $802 using Adsense
On website 8, I earned $4,854 using Ezoic compared to just $879 using Adsense
Monetize Premium Content
Unlike ads, premium content means that your content, not your audience, is your product. The content consumer is your customer. Monetizing your website in this way works well if you already have an engaged audience who enjoy your free content on a regular basis. Once you offer premium content, they will be more likely to pay to access your exclusive content because they’ll already know that you produce high-quality content.
15. Sell Membership Subscriptions on Shopify
You can monetize your website with subscriptions where you offer readers frequent updates, such as additional posts, tools, or resources in return for signing up for membership to your blog. This is a great way to earn recurring income from your website.
16. Use SamCart to Sell Digital Downloads
You can create relevant interactive content, such as apps, tools, plugins, or PDFs, and offer them to your audience as a way to generate income for your site.
17. Use WebinarJam to Sell Tickets to a Live Webinar
This is a great way to monetize your personal brand with premium content. You can simultaneously record and broadcast a video in real-time over the internet using webinar software like WebinarJam which allows you to interact with viewers to answer questions, make comments, etc.
Monetize Your Fan Base
If you have an audience of engaged readers or viewers, you can easily monetize them using a variety of platforms.
18. Get Donations From Fans Via Patreon
A great way to monetize your fan base is to launch a Patreon. This platform allows you to either take donations from your fans or offer them exclusive content. This is similar to the premium content model, except that's…
19. Let Fans Support Your Work with Ko-fi
This site lets you offer your fans a free way to support you with donations. You are paid directly and there are no fees whatsoever for receiving donations through the platform.
20. Use Rebrandly to Make More Content Sales
This is a great platform that lets you evaluate your influence and reach by providing you with analytics and insights into your audience. You can track your links and see who is clicking, reading, and sharing your premium content so you can optimize your marketing campaigns.
Conclusion
There you have it: 20 website monetization methods explained. Now you have all the information you need to get started monetizing your website. But don't feel the need to try and do everything all at once. Choose one platform…
Over to you. Which of these website monetization platforms do you intend to use to bring in more revenue? Share your thoughts below!
creating a YouTube channel, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do DIY blogs make money?
Yes, DIY blogging can bring you are steady income. There are several effective and proven methods to monetize your DIY blog and earn some real money.
How do beginner blogs make money?
One of the most common ways that beginner blogs make money is through display advertisements and affiliate marketing.
How much money can you make from a blog?
In the first year, most bloggers earn very little money, mainly from affiliate marketing and ads. However, it’s possible to earn $50-$200 per month in the first year. When you increase your traffic, you can start earning over $1,000 per month.
Can you make money selling photography?
Yes, you can make money selling photography. There are many ways you can do this. You can offer your photography services, sell prints, or sell digital images.
Ron Stefanski is a website entrepreneur and marketing professor who has a passion for helping people create and market their own online business. You can learn more from him by visiting OneHourProfessor.com
View all posts by Ron Stefanski