Whether you have a blog that you started as a hobby, or a page to help people find your small business online, there may be extra ways in which your website can make you money. Here are a few suggestions on how to monetise your site:
Sell advertising space
By allowing companies like Google to display adverts on your website, you can receive a percentage of the advertising revenue generated when people click on the ad. Google’s AdSense platform is a popular option because you can control what kinds of ads are displayed, and they’ll be relevant to your visitors. If you want to find out more, check out Google’s AdSense beginner’s guide.
Become an affiliate marketer
Affiliate marketing is where you earn money from a company for directing customers to them. For example, someone who writes a popular blog about indoor plants might strike up an affiliate marketing deal with a local garden centre or nursery. The Amazon Associates programme is a good example of affiliate marketing. In that scheme, a blogger can set up an Amazon page and fill it with products they recommend to their readers. Amazon then pays them a commission for any sales made through that page.
Sell premium content
If you’ve generated a good following for your blog, then it proves that people are interested in what you have to say. You can take that one step further by selling e-books or regular email newsletters with premium content that isn’t available to those who read your site for free.
Publish sponsored posts
Sometimes companies in complementary industries may pay you to publish articles on your site that promote and link through to their products. We’ll use the houseplant blogger as an example once again – a company that makes premium potting mixes might pay the blogger to publish their article on ideal substrates for different plant types, with links to their online shop.
Create a course
If you’re a subject matter expert, people will want to learn from you. Our indoor plant blogger might create a series of videos demonstrating different propagation methods, for example. Make something like this available on your site for a fee, and you have created a passive source of income.
Add a members-only forum
People love belonging to online communities where they can discuss their passions and hobbies. It’s easy to set up a forum where they can do this using the bbPress plugin for WordPress. You could create a one where people have to pay a subscription to join, or have one that displays advertising to non-paying members.
Sell merchandise
Are people fans of your blog, café, or toy store? Pop your logo on useful merchandise like water bottles, tote bags, tees, post-it notes, or USB drives. Choose something that is a logical fit with your brand. Our plant blogger might decide to sell branded watering cans or pruning snips.
These are just a few ways to get your website working harder for you. If you need help developing your new website, or a hosting plan for your existing WordPress site, get in touch with Moreweb today!
