The 8 easiest ways to monetize your website

[tongfkymm44]

Requirements to monetize a blog or website
There are no specific requirements, but depending on how you are going to monetize your website, you will need to rely on one strategy or another.

What is clear is that the more traffic you have on your website, the more possibilities of monetization. It's mathematical. That's why anyone who sets out to set up an internet project should know at least the basics of SEO to attract users from Google (I would say also from the rest of the search engines, but in Spain their use is residual). And in addition to organic traffic from search engines, there are also projects that work very well with SEM/PPC , or attracting traffic from Social Networks .

But quality should be more important than quality . There are projects that monetize very well with very little web traffic. The key is to target people who are interested in what you offer. What we call qualified traffic.

And with that said, let's see how to monetize a website or blog , depending on the project you have at hand.

Forms of web monetization
1. Adsense – contextual advertising
Generate business!
The first is also the simplest, advertising. And if we talk about advertising on websites, we are talking about Google Adsense , with a share of close to 75% in EU countries (according to Puro Marketing).

Ads on websites are also called contextual advertising . The idea is that if you browse a particular website, the ad is related to the content so that it is much more relevant and the chances of clicking on it are multiplied. Unless it is a remarketing ad, the technique that consists of showing you ads from other websites that you have already visited.

In the image you can see 3 different examples of ads with Adsense . The first one, a business school offering masters while I browse a marketing portal. The second one is less related, and it is that they offered me a virtual switchboard while I read content about Google Adsense… And the third one is remarketing, where an ad for an SEO tool that I have previously visited pops up.

example of contextual advertising
Although creating a website and monetizing it with Adsense is easy because in a matter of minutes you open an account, install a plugin and start publishing ads, it is also perhaps the most complicated way to generate income that is worthwhile . And of all the monetization methods that we are going to see, it is the only one where we are going to focus on quantity. You are going to need a lot of traffic to your website to get a good income.

It is true that there are topics where the cost you are paid for each click on an ad can even reach one euro, but normally we are talking about euro cents for each click that occurs on your ads.

Therefore, monetizing a website with ads is recommended for those projects where a lot of content is generated, or those projects where SEO is applied and a lot of traffic is captured from search engines. So now you know, Adsense equals a lot of web traffic . If your project is not going in that direction, it is better to move on to another monetization path.

Advantages of Adsense
Very easy to implement
You can generate income from the first day you implement it, as long as you already have web traffic.
Advertising is related to the theme of your website
Disadvantages of Adsense
It takes a lot of traffic to make a good income, as you generally pay very little per click.
You don't control what is published 100%
There are “sensitive” topics where Adsense advertising is not accepted
2. Direct advertising and sponsored links
In addition to contextual advertising, there is another type of advertising with which you can monetize your website or blog: direct advertising or sponsored posts .

Generate business!
This involves negotiating with other brands or companies to insert an advertising banner, or directly writing content to promote the products or services of a third party. The latter is what is known as “ guest posting ”, one of the most widely used techniques in link building strategies . You just have to find a platform of this type, and depending on the theme of your website you will receive different requests to write content where you link to third party websites.

Advantages of direct advertising
Easy to implement
You set the price. The more authority you have on a certain topic, the more you can charge.
Prepayment
Disadvantages of direct advertising
You cannot start using it at the beginning of a project, since you need to have content and web traffic to have a certain authority and be able to attract advertisers.
If you do it without control, it can affect your reputation.
3. Offer services
Offering services is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about how to monetize a personal blog . You write content related to your topic so that people who visit your website see you as a reference in your field, and end up hiring your services as a professional in whatever field. Companies do it too.

Here, what you need to be clear about is that you will need to rely on a good content strategy ; it is not enough to publish your services pages and wait for clients to arrive by magic. You should even invest in paid campaigns to get qualified traffic.

What works very well on personal branding websites is what they call a “ lead magnet .” That is, offering a free product where you teach certain things for free, but you leave the door open for them to hire your services in the future because you have previously given away something of value. You have probably browsed 20 thousand websites where a pop-up pops up offering you something free for subscribing. That is what is known as a lead magnet. You leave your details so that they can send you a series of emails, where the final purpose is to end up offering you their products or services.

Advantages of offering services
It positions you as an expert in your subject ( personal brand )
It allows you to establish relationships
You can get a good and stable income over time
Disadvantages of offering services
You need to work hard on your personal brand
It usually takes a lot of time and effort to build a client base.
You trade time for money
4. Sale of info-products
It's also about having a personal brand website or blog, but instead of offering your services here, you're putting together a course, selling an ebook, etc. It involves working on a product beforehand that you then sell to your audience. As before, it's not enough to just put together the product and wait for customers to come. You'll have to promote yourself, offer a lead magnet, and even resort to paid campaigns to get interested people.

Advantages of info-products
Generate business!
It also positions you as an expert in your field by working on your personal brand.
They usually have a good income margin
Disadvantages of info-products
A lot of work to get the product out there without receiving any income
The product may become outdated (depending on the subject)
Depending on the product, you may need to provide support
5. Subscription to paid content
If you publish valuable content, and especially if you have an interested international email database audience, you can consider offering paid content . In fact, this is what almost all digital newspapers already do. And courses in membership format. That is, you pay a fixed amount per month, and you have access to exclusive content that is published with a certain regularity.

Advantages of subscriptions
Obviously you work on your personal or company brand.
Recurring income, which will also grow as more people sign up
Disadvantages of subscriptions
You need to provide a lot of value on a regular basis
Depending on the product, you may also need to offer support.
6. Online store
If you have a physical business, I don't know what you're waiting for to replicate it in the digital environment. Nowadays, setting up an e-commerce or online store is easier than ever. With platforms like Shopify or Prestashop, you no longer have an excuse.

And if you don't have a physical business, but you want to sell with an online store, all you have to do is find some good suppliers (hello Aliexpress), and start selling online .

Advantages of info-products
Higher profit margin
Total control of clients
Disadvantages of info-products
It requires setting up your own infrastructure, with logistics to store and ship the products.
You need knowledge to give visibility to an e-commerce
7. Lead sales
Something that is increasingly on the rise is the sale of leads . It is usually closely related to local SEO , and it involves setting up a website to position it for a specific topic, and when a user leaves you their data because they are interested in hiring the products or services that you mention on your website, you then sell that data to a third party so that they can contact them and end up making the sale.

Or even another option is that you can directly rent the website to that business. As I said, it is usually closely related to local services, such as: removals, home services such as plumbing or electrician, consulting services... And so on and so forth.

All you need to do is position a website, and when you start receiving requests, you contact a business that offers those products or services.

Advantages of selling leads
You can start making money with relatively little effort.
A lot of effort to start, but once you have the website positioned, the requests start coming in.
Replicable to many sectors and activities
Disadvantages of selling leads
Requires SEO knowledge or investment in paid campaigns
Finding companies interested in your leads can be tedious
8. Affiliation
And we come to one of the monetization models for a blog or website that has become more fashionable in recent times. And nobody wants to miss it anymore. Almost all the major distributors have already launched their own affiliation system, such as Leroy Merlin , which announced it at the beginning of 2021. Amazon undoubtedly monopolizes almost the entire affiliation market , but you have many platforms that bring together all kinds of companies, or other large companies such as Booking, PcComponentes, El Corte Inglés or Decathlon, which have their own programs.

Generate business!
Instead of using the CPC (cost per click) model, where you get paid for each click on an ad, or CPL (cost per lead), where you get paid for the contact of an interested user, here the CPA (cost per acquisition) model is used . That is, you only get paid if the user ends up buying the product or service.

It involves setting up a website where you recommend third-party products, you place what are called “ affiliate links ”, and if the user clicks on one of them and ends up buying on the website of the distributor you direct them to, they pay you a commission on the sale for having recommended them. It’s that easy. And it’s also that difficult, because you might ask yourself, how do I get traffic to my website if these distributors offer the same thing that I’m going to promote on my website? Well, there is a huge market where these types of pages compete, and it is none other than in all those comparative searches , where the user looks for opinions, analysis and product recommendations from people who are experts in the field and who have tried them before, or can give you their opinion as an expert. In fact, many of these types of websites give the feeling of an online store, as you can see in the image.