Anyone can build a website in minutes, thanks to the market’s range of intuitive website builders. Coding knowledge is no longer a barrier to entry, but you will need a little business know-how if you want to earn money from your website.
Luckily, Investors Club is here to help.
Introducing 5 smart strategies you need to monetize your website and get your corner of the internet working smarter and harder for both you and your bank balance.
1. Sell a Product or Service
Perhaps one of the most obvious ways to earn money through your website is to use it to sell something. Of course, what that something is will depend on the type of website you’re running.
Popular ideas include:
- A physical product – branded merchandise, dropshipping, a third-party product, handmade items
- A digital product – eBooks, online courses, guides, templates, printables, NFTs, audio files (music, podcasts, books, guides, etc.)
- A service – consulting, coaching, software, skills (e.g., accounting, photo-editing, etc.)
To take advantage of this monetization method, you’ll need to make sure your site is shop enabled. Most major website builders offer this either as standard or via a downloadable plug-in.
If you haven’t started your site yet, Shopify is a popular website builder and eCommerce platform in one.
Alternatively, you could link out to a third-party marketplace such as Etsy, where your products are listed for sale. The benefit of this option is that the financial backend is taken care of for you, but you will have to pay a commission/fees on the sale.
2. Display Advertising
For a way to monetize your website that involves almost no effort on your part, display advertising is a great option. One of the most passive ways of generating revenue from a site, it’s easy to set up and requires little, if any, technical expertise.
Display Advertising is one of the most popular ways to monetize a website. To get started, all you need to do is sign up for an advertising network. Once that’s done, ads are displayed on your site, and you make money if someone clicks or views them.
AdSense is perhaps the most common ad network in the game, but there are various other options that might be a better fit depending on your site. We’ve covered 15 of the best right here.
The one downside to this monetization model is that most ad networks have relatively high minimum traffic requirements to qualify. However, it can be an easy and lucrative way to earn revenue from your site if you meet their criteria. Display ads can also be combined with any other methods on this list to give your site’s finances a boost.
As an added bonus, it costs you nothing to run, meaning it’s pure profit. One thing to watch out for is too many ads can negatively impact the visitor experience. Striking a balance is key.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Similar to Display Advertising, Affiliate Marketing is an easy, passive way to earn income from your site.
All you need to do is sign up for an affiliate program — Amazon Associates is the market leader in the space — and start inserting affiliate links into your content. Then if someone purchases via the link, you receive a commission.
It’s easy to set up and can be added to past, present, and future content to maximize its impact.
Affiliate Marketing offers some of the highest returns for the lowest risk of all the smart strategies on this list. It doesn’t interfere with your site’s UX and is a non-intrusive way of earning money (although new rules mandate that you declare affiliate links). The downside is you have no control over the % you receive for each sale, and Amazon has been known to clash commissions with little to no warning.
4. Sponsored Posts
If you’re creating content anyway, you might as well get paid to do it — or better yet, have someone pay to do it for you! Sponsored posts are a way to earn money by posting what is essentially a well-disguised advert for a company or product.
Typically either you or the brand writes a piece of content for your site, or you’re asked to write an article for the company’s website. Either way, by working directly with sponsors, you have complete control over what you’re paid for it. There are no third-party payments or commission changes to worry about, and sponsored posts often go hand in hand with affiliate links so you can get paid for the same piece of content multiple times.
Sponsored posts offer more flexibility than other advertising methods as there aren’t necessarily minimum traffic requirements. That being said, sites with high page traffic and an engaged audience will find it easier to attract sponsors and can charge more for the privilege.
5. Membership/Subscription Program
The last smart strategy on our list is to add a membership/subscription element to your site. If your site operates within a niche where people would be willing to pay for exclusive content, membership offerings are a great way to generate recurring income.
At Investors Club, we keep the lights on by offering a premium membership to our investors. In return for a yearly subscription, they get exclusive access to our complete due diligence reports, discounts on products and services, access to our private Discord community, and more.
Other membership offerings include
- Ad-free versions of software/programs (e.g., Spotify’s Premium offering)
- In-depth research/industry reports (e.g., Investors Club due diligence reports)
- Exclusive content (e.g., checklists, templates, printables)
Human nature has us wanting what we can’t have, which is why hiding content behind a paywall is such an effective monetization method. But that content needs to add real value if you’re going to make someone pay for it, especially if you want repeat customers.
Establishing authority within your niche isn’t mandatory for this monetization method, but it’s certainly going to help. The more credible you appear, the more people will line up to hear what you have to say — they’ll likely pay more for it too.
To start generating real income from a site takes time as you need to be generating consistently high traffic to make any kind of financial impact. This is why buying an already profitable site is often easier than building one yourself, especially if you’re not good at being patient.
The only sites you’ll find on Investors Club exclusive marketplace are profit-generating ones. With fee-free escrow, site transfers, legal docs, and 0% buyer fees included as standard, it’s easy and cost-effective to acquire them too.
Sign up for an account and explore what our marketplace has to offer today.
Hannah Beazley
Hannah is a content marketing specialist at Investors Club and a freelance copywriter. When she's not busy behind the keyboard, you'll find her baking her signature salted caramel brownies or trying to sink that elusive hole-in-one.