Making money from your website is not a piece of cake. The internet is flooded with guides that claim to teach you the secrets of online earning, but most of them are either obsolete or unrealistic for your niche and audience.
What these guides fail to mention is that different types of earning require different types of websites. Some methods only suit websites with a devoted and engaged fan base, while others depend on a huge influx of new visitors. And some methods are designed for personal blogs, but they are misused for generic news portals.
This guide will show you the best ways to monetize your website in 2024. We have sifted through the noise and handpicked only the most suitable and effective techniques for you. You will also learn what skills you need as a webmaster and how to optimise your website for each technique.
The Main Types of Website Monetization
Before we dive into the practical tips, let’s review some theory. Not all websites are created equal. Obviously, your blog, where you share your personal reviews of the latest gadgets, is different from a news blog, where you simply repost recent events, for example, in the sports industry. And both are worlds apart from your personal art gallery, where you showcase your original creations.
The main factor that distinguishes any website is the influence of your personal brand on your audience. That is, how much your users trust you, how well they know you. Whether they come to your website for information or for your opinion on the information.
Having a strong personal brand is a great asset. It opens up more opportunities for monetization, but it also requires more effort and dedication. You will have to work hard, keep track of your users’ feedback, constantly analyse and improve your content. And you will not be able to simply publish news or other people’s ideas with a slight twist. You will have to personalise your content in a unique way, and not just in terms of SEO, which can be achieved by deep rewriting.
The second important factor is the value of your content. Again, its value is closely related to your users’ perception of your personal brand, but they are not the same. For example, if your content is valuable, you can monetize it directly, instead of your website. But if the value is low, you will have to rely on your website for income.
And if none of the above factors are present on your website, then advertising can easily become the main way of monetization. This is not bad, because you can create and manage several such websites, each of them not too demanding on your support. But a website with valuable content is usually a one-of-a-kind project. The author simply does not have enough time for multiple projects at once.
Well, now that we have covered the basic theory, let’s move on to the specific ways of how you can earn money from your website in 2024.
Donations
This might sound like an unconventional way to start, but it reflects the changing landscape of online earning. Bloggers nowadays have more sources of income than just their website or profile on some platform (like YouTube) and advertising, which account for less than 60% of their earnings. Users are more willing to donate to the content creators they enjoy, regardless of what they do.
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Sure, direct donations are mostly popular among streamers on Twitch and similar platforms. But the trend is also shifting to websites where the webmaster interacts with their audience, values their feedback and delivers quality content. And some donations are truly staggering. You can also host podcasts on your website, where you share the news of your project and listen to your users’ suggestions for improvement.
The main challenge here is the content itself. It has to be so good that the user feels guilty for getting it for free. And they will naturally want to show their appreciation to the author. There are many services that you can use for donations on your website. They are seamlessly integrated into the design, without disrupting the overall layout.
Paid Сontent
This is, you could say, the next level. If you are so proud of your content that you think it is worth paying for, why not sell it?
And you don’t have to do it directly through your website. You can easily link a Patreon account or another similar service to your site. And direct your traffic there. The payment collection system is already optimised and streamlined, so you don’t have to create anything yourself.
But the standards for content are even higher here. Usually, the service is only used by people who produce some creative content, such as literature, art sketches, movies and so on. But sometimes even mundane types of content can reach high ranks.
You can also sell your content in doses through your website. Create exclusive sections, paid databases or premium subscriptions. The key principle is that when you sell paid content, you should still offer free content. And there should be more of the latter. So that the customer can get a taste of what they are buying first. No one likes to buy a “pig in a poke”.
A subscription system is also good, as it generates more steady income in the long run. But it also means that the author should not lower the bar they have set. To earn money from your website this way, your content must keep growing, both in quantity and quality. Remember, what pleased the customer six months ago, may not please them today.
Contextual Advertising and Ad Networks
You are probably familiar with Google AdWords. But you may not be aware that this is not the only way to sell ad space on your website. There are plenty of alternatives on the internet, like Mgid, Clickadu and dozens of others. And yes, they operate by slightly different methods, but the general idea is similar.
And some of these networks are niche-specific, so you can choose an ad network that matches your website’s niche. This way, your users will be more ready to click on the ads. And the higher the CTR, the higher the payment.
The advantages are clear, you don’t need to have super unique content and a very loyal audience. A regular news site or a recipe collection can qualify for an ad network. And your profit depends on two factors. The first is the number of daily unique visitors and the second is the quality of the audience. Of course, if most of your audience are from the United States or Europe, you will earn more money per click than if your users were only from Indonesia.
But the drawbacks are also obvious – such a website has no other potential, except for what we have mentioned in this section. Other ways to monetize it are either hard or impossible. And if your audience loves and respects you and your content is top-notch, then this way of making money from your website is not for you. You will only lose the trust of your audience, without gaining any profit from this trade-off. After all, no matter how well the service works, the automatic selection of ads will always be somewhat inaccurate. And sometimes, aggressive, flashy or outright scammy ads will slip through to your website.
Affiliate Marketing
This is one of the most balanced methods. It works for websites with a loyal audience and high-quality content, as well as for websites with a low number of visitors. The only difference is that you choose different offers for different websites. But let’s start from the beginning.
Affiliate marketing allows you to take over some of the promotional work from brands and advertisers. That is, to bring customers who buy their products or services. The difference from the previous method is that here you are in charge. You can select the most suitable offer for yourself. This means that it will be:
- Profitable. You have all the information you need, such as the commission you get for a lead, the form of payment (for the click, for the purchase, for the subscription or registration). With ad networks, you can’t know in advance how much money you will earn for a lead. Plus, the network will keep a large portion of the income. After all, they pay you, not the advertiser.
- Relevant to your topic. Obviously, users who come to your website for reviews of new products in the film industry, for example, will not respond well to ads for some weight loss pills. But an offer from an online cinema will be on topic and they might be interested in this opportunity.
- Suitable for your audience. Each advertiser has its own target audience. We have explained how to create a profile of your target audience in this article. For some people, the GEO factor is important, for others, the age group or the gender. With affiliate marketing, you can choose an offer that matches the customers that your website attracts.
- Safe. With affiliate marketing, you can verify the brand you will be partnering with. This way, you can reduce the risk to your website by choosing only legitimate offers, which will not harm your website (in terms of search engine penalties) or your users.
Therefore, affiliate marketing is one of the most versatile methods of monetizing your website. And you don’t need any serious skills as a webmaster. Of course, affiliate marketers have a lot to learn. They need to know how to work with different platforms for advertising, target the right audience, calculate the advertising budget and analyse the effectiveness of the campaign. Webmasters work with one platform and one type of audience. Their task is to choose a good offer.
Online Shop
This is probably the most natural progression for any large website that has started serious monetization. It means a shop where you sell other people’s products, not your own. If you are selling your own products, then you don’t need this article, you have only one purpose for your website.
But if you have already used the previous methods of monetizing your website, such as paid subscriptions, content sales, integrated advertising through affiliate marketing, and your users have accepted them well, then the online shop becomes a way to maximise your income.
Of course, if your website was originally a personal blog, then the shop becomes just a section within your pages. Where you list, with the help of technical modules, all the products you sell. Whether it’s your own paid content, some merch or various products from partners. You can also try to use dropshipping.
If your web resource was planned for the future shop, then its upgrade is a natural step. Just like in the case of many news projects.
Often, as soon as they start using affiliate marketing effectively, the main content becomes just a part of the news feed of the project. The core part of the website is a catalogue with product listings. And considering that many major e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon, have raised their commissions significantly in the last couple of years, a website with 2000-5000 daily unique users can generate $3000-5000 monthly. Of course, it all depends on the quality of the traffic.
Integrated Advertising
This is a one-time deal of creating promotional posts, reviews, videos and so on. Such offers are often received by influencers of various levels on social media. But this advertising method is so effective that brands also offer integration to many bloggers on their own platforms. However, this method only works for those who have a personal connection with their audience. And most importantly, the audience must trust the webmaster for this monetization method.
The second key point is the native effect. The ad should be a helpful suggestion, not a blatant paid post that sticks out like a sore thumb. That’s why an honest webmaster always tries, tests and evaluates a product before doing an integration. And they only decide to advertise it if they think that the product will benefit their audience.
But the profit for a popular blog can be enormous. Brands are not shy to pay up to $3000 for one integration. And this is for ordinary bloggers, not for mega-influencers with a huge fan base. For affiliates with their own websites, the rates are similar.
Conclusion
You can earn money from your website. You should earn money from your website. And if you have a website that attracts over 100 people daily and you are not earning money from it yet, then you are missing out on time and profit. But remember, the most money from a website is made by someone who genuinely loves their web resource and their users.
