Content is everywhere on the internet today. And honestly, we are simply getting overloaded with more of it every single day. Statistics show that there are currently more than a billion active websites and blogs on the internet today. — all of which are generating new content and flooding the internet with more information than ever before.
However, while this overload of content and information might seem overwhelming, it’s also leading to new opportunities in site monetization and ways to make money online.
Today we will be looking at several different ways to start monetizing content on your website or blog. Best of all, no matter what type of content or traffic audience you currently have, each of these monetization methods will prove beneficial for both your revenue generation and providing value to your audience.
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Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has been one of the most effective ways to generate revenue online for well over two decades now. The way affiliate marketing works is simple. You join an affiliate program for a top brand or website, and every lead, sale, or action you send to their website, you will earn a commission. The great thing about affiliate marketing is that nearly every big name brand has one, and there is no need to hold inventory or process any orders. All tracking and commissions are done through the affiliate network on the back end. The only job affiliates have, is to send high-quality traffic and leads to the advertisers.
Google Adsense
We all know that Google is one of the top businesses in the world today and generate billions of dollars every single year. This is mainly due to the fact that advertisers are paying on a per click basis to rank at the top of Google for relevant search terms and keywords. The good news is that site owners and bloggers can also take advantage of this opportunity, by joining the Google AdSense ad program. Through the Google AdSense affiliate program site owners can have advertisements appear on their site and earn a commission on a per click basis. Google does all the work for you and serves relevant advertising on your site based on the content it currently sees.
Native Advertising
Native advertising has quickly become one of the fastest and most effective ways to monetize content on top media and entertainment websites. You will likely see this type of advertising already on sites like Forbes, Entrepreneur, BuzzFeed and any other high-traffic website. The top native advertising networks on the internet today are Revcontent, Taboola, and Outbrain. Native advertising works extremely well because it looks like real content and is recommended by websites to users at the end of most articles on websites. Just like Google AdSense these ad placements usually pay on a per click basis.
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Direct Ad Sales
While each of the methods mentioned so far are great for placing advertisements on your website, you are only going to be earning a percentage of the total revenue generated. If you already have a high traffic website or Blog then you might be better off selling your own advertising directly. The benefit here is that you will generate 100% of the revenue from each Advertiser. This will also allow for premium add placements on your websites and higher CPM earnings on traffic coming to your website. If you are worried about not having the right ad copy or creating “Advertise Here’ banners for your site, you can use any of these recommended design tools to create custom ad placements for your site and any advertisers who might also need ad creative.
Online Course Creation
Sticking with the theme of owning your content and generating as much revenue as possible, we should also discuss the opportunities and online course creation. Right now the business model of creating and selling online courses is more lucrative than ever before. At the same time, it’s now easier to create an online course and sell it to an audience as a result of course creation software and platforms that make it easy to create and sell courses online. In short, if you would like to create and sell courses online you can do so without the need of hiring a designer or even touching a line of code. Again the benefit of creating online courses is that you actually own the content and can earn up to 100% of revenue from each purchase.
How to Make the Most Money with Your Site Content
With so many different monetization methods on the table for you to choose from, how are you supposed to know which is best? At the end of the day this ultimately comes down to the content on your website, the audience you are targeting, and the goal of that audience once they visit your website. If your site is focused around information and providing content to your audience, then Google AdSense is probably a great option for you. However, if you have a website that is focused on product reviews, then affiliate marketing would be the best option.
Take time to explore each of the monetization options mentioned in this article and see which might be best for your audience. If you have enough traffic flowing through your website, then you should be able to tell if a monetization method is working for you within a few days time.