Anyone can create a website or blog and launch it on the web but only a small percentage can create a website that will ACTUALLY generate revenue every month. In this guide, I would like to share the best and most popular ways to make money from a website. The results may vary from one website to another because it’s based on the website’s niche and the volume of traffic. Therefore, I can’t guarantee any numbers but the only thing I can promise is that if you follow my 6 step guide on building a niche website and monetize it properly using the methods below then you’ll definitely start making money from your website. From the list of monetization methods below, you should start off by implementing the first one but as your website grows, I highly recommend that you implement a few more in order to scale up your monthly earnings.
Ad Networks
Ad networks are revenue sharing programs that act as the middle man to manage ad placements between the advertisers and publishers. If you own a website or blog that provides useful content and receives monthly organic traffic then you can apply to an ad network as a publisher. If you get approved, they will provide you with simple codes that you can place all over your website which will automatically generate targeted ads for your audience. In my opinion, joining an ad network is the easiest way to make money from a website because all you have to worry about is placing the ads within your content and rest of the work is done by them. And here’s the best part, if the website visitor finds an ad interesting and clicks on it then you’ll get paid for that ONE CLICK or number of impressions (ad views) so no purchases or sign ups are required to make money. Therefore, the more website visitors you get,, the more money you’ll make but make sure that you implement the SEO keyword strategy I shared in step 3 of my 6 step guide in order to receive the highest CPCs (Cost Per Click).
Which Ad Network Should You Sign Up For?
There are tons of high paying and reputable Ad networks available like AdThrive, MediaVine and Ezoic but unfortunately it’s hard to get approved to these networks since they require high volumes of traffic (25, 000 – 100,000 page views per month). If your website receives 5000 page views or less per month then try your luck by applying to Google AdSense (google.com/adsense) and Media.net. Google AdSense is actually one of the best revenue sharing programs I’ve ever used because they make the process to get started very easy for a beginner and they even give you the option to place ALL your website ads using one simple code (auto ads) instead of doing it manually. Google AdSense used to calculate the earnings of a publisher based on the Cost per Click (CPC) model but they have recently switched to the Cost per Thousand Impressions or Cost per Mile (CPM) model. This means that Google AdSense is now paying a publisher 68% of the total earnings from the website visitors’ ad impressions (views) and no longer calculating it based on clicks. You can find lots of free training videos on YouTube on how to start with Google AdSense and Media.net so I will not get into that but I only have one important advice for beginners: Follow their guidelines/policies and never engage in any fraudulent activities (ex. Clicking on your own ads or sending invalid traffic) because they will not hesitate to disable your account immediately without any notice if you’re ever caught.
Pay Per Lead
Lead generation is the process of collecting peoples’ personal information (name, email, phone #, address, etc.) who are interested in a specific product or service in order to follow-up with them. This strategy is perfect for niches websites as the publisher can connect his/her audience with local or online businesses in exchange for a flat fee for every lead. For example, let’s assume that you have a niche website that specializes in Honda vehicles. You can contact Honda dealerships near you and offer them targeted leads and if they agree, you would include links in your Honda articles to an opt-in form or the dealership’s contact number. If any of your website visitors actually contact the Honda dealership then you would get a flat fee of $25 for that lead. If you’re not comfortable in contacting local businesses then as an alternative, you can just join a CPA marketing network. CPA marketing networks have hundreds of businesses registered with them that will pay you per lead. If you join a CPA network, they’ll provide you with a unique affiliate link which you can place in your articles for any offer that you’re promoting and if people sign up through your link then you get paid for that lead. There are many affiliate CPA networks that you can apply to but my favorite one is THE MAXBOUNTY AFFILIATE NETWORK. Maxbounty’s platform is easy to use for beginners if you compare it with other CPA networks and their affiliate managers are very helpful so you can reach out to them with any questions or concerns.
Sponsored Guest Posts
Once your website has grown and it receives traffic from various sources on a monthly basis, you’ll be approached by some marketing/outreach specialists within your industry who will give an offer to pay you for a GUEST POST. A guest post is an article that contains backlinks (hyperlinks) that point back to the website of the individual who’s requesting the guest post. These marketing specialists will have the guest posts written and ready for publishing so all you have to do is edit it and ensure it’s a good match for your blog/content. The sponsored guest post can be an article that promotes or reviews the individual’s products/services or it can also be just a general informational article that has nothing to do with the individual’s business. In short, guest posting is a marketing strategy that marketers use to create brand awareness, create new sources of traffic and build backlink profiles. You will also be contacted by others who will offer to write a free article for your blog in exchange for one or two backlinks which will be inserted in this article. You’re not going to be compensated to publish these guest posts but I still consider it paid because it will save you the time and effort to write an article yourself or save you the money that you would spend on a freelance writer.
Informational Products
Creating an informational/digital product and selling it is one of the best ways to make money from a website and grow as an entrepreneur online. When I say informational products, I’m referring to something simple like PDFs, eBooks, video training series, one on one coaching, etc. These types of products don’t have any major costs to create and they’re easy to deliver to the buyer (ex. Download, email delivery, phone conversation, etc.). The reason why I think this is a great idea to take advantage of is because you already have a niche website that is attracting thousands of people every month who are interested in what you have to say so why not give them more value and get compensated for it. For example, John has a niche website/blog that discusses real estate. This website talks about the best practices to buying a personal family home and how to make the best choices. John has experience in making a profit out of buying and selling homes in the New York State so he decides to write a PDF guide or eBook about real estate investments in New York and sells it for $25 a copy on his website for whoever is interested.
If you’re website is already providing high quality content for free then the visitors of your website will consider you as an expert in your field and will be more than happy to pay a small price to get more value out of you and learn your secret of success. I understand that writing a PDF guide or eBook isn’t an easy mission but there are ways around it. You can just write a simple draft of bullet points on what you want to share in the document then you can just hire a freelancer to write and design the whole document for you. If you’re interested to get some help in creating and designing a digital product then start looking for the best and most affordable freelancing services HERE
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to make money from a website and it’s actually the first thing I started with in my internet marketing journey. Affiliate marketing is the process of promoting other businesses’ products and services in exchange for commissions. When you sign up to an affiliate program of a certain company, they will provide you with a URL link for each sale page that contain a unique affiliate ID. If someone makes a purchase through that affiliate link then you earn a commission. What’s beautiful about affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to worry about any of the technical issues on the business side and you don’t have to deal with any customers on the sales/support side. You don’t own the business so all you have to worry about is marketing and traffic generation. If you own a niche website/blog, you’ll never face a problem in finding an affiliate offer within your niche to recommend to your audience. In fact, most of the products and services that you currently use have an affiliate program which you can sign up to. In the start, affiliate marketing can be over-whelming due to the information overload and the number of different options to choose from. This is why I have divided the affiliate marketing industry into 5 categories. Please read this article which will help you understand the different types of affiliate programs/networks available and how to make the RIGHT CHOICES?