8 proven ways to monetize your website

Index

• How do websites make money?
• How much money can your website make?
• Before you start making money online
• The monetization strategies
  • Sell Ad Space with Google AdSense and its alternatives
  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Sell Sponsored Content
  • Build A Paid Email List
  • Digital products you can sell online
  • Membership Websites
  • Sell Your Freelancing Services
  • Accept Donations
• Summary

How do websites make money?

Are you already running your excellent website or blog? After putting so much time and effort into it, are you now looking for ideas to monetize it? In other words, are you wondering how website owners and bloggers make money online?

You came to the right place, here we will show you the top methods for driving revenue with your website. We will show you how owning a website can be a real source of side or even primary income.

Firstly, you obviously need a website, blog or online store. In case you don’t have one yet, you can fix it right now – visit our portal to check out our beautiful templates, they will allow you to become a blogger or online entrepreneur in just a few clicks.

Webnode templates

Now that you are all settled and have your website published, let’s look into how to monetize a website or a blog.

There is no need to pick only one of the listed monetization strategies – you should combine a couple of them at once to maximize your profit. By patient testing, and investing some time into the process, you will earn extra bucks just by running a webpage.

Sounds good? Let’s get started then.

How much money can your website make?

The actual revenue can vary from single to multi-digit amounts; it depends directly on the monetization method chosen and on the traffic you are able to generate.

Before you start making money online

Fill your website with original and helpful content

Nowadays, with a plethora of websites and blogs accessible online, it’s crucial to stand out. To make that happen, create valuable and authentic content which will attract and satisfy your visitors.

Write informative texts, provide solutions for your visitors’ problems or share your professional knowledge. It’s essential to create content that matches your audience’s needs and answers their questions. Satisfy their queries and make them come back for more. Be generous.

Optimize your website for search engines

Search Engine Optimization

Known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an actual process of enhancing your website, so it gets the highest possible position in the Organic Search Results. Simply put – correctly done SEO will put your blog in the top posts of the Google search page.

Typically, there are two ways to make sure your website is Google-friendly. The first is to ensure the code and all the other complicated technical stuff are correctly set up. By having a website created using Webnode templates, you don’t need to worry about this. We ensure the code is regularly updated and meets the latest standards.

The other way is to use the correct keywords within your industry, which have the highest traffic and a lower amount of competition. So do proper research and identify the keywords.

Use tools like SEMRush, Afhrefs, or Google Analytics. Once you have them, prepare your content according to these. For more SEO tips and tricks, visit our special article on this topic. Proper optimization will help you achieve excellent visibility in your market and attract visitors from search results. Which leads us to…

Generate and analyze your website traffic

Finally, you need to start driving visitors and customers to your website. The amount and type of traffic are crucial for the majority of presented monetization strategies. Don’t worry. With the excellent and original content that helps your customers, you get there quickly.

As a famous motto says: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” The most efficient way to analyze the traffic is to use the above mentioned Google Analytics. This service provides you with detailed statistics not only of the number of visitors or the flow in which they browse your website; it also shows you which keywords they used to enter your webpage.

This information is handy for creating the right content for your target audience and selecting the right ways to monetize your website. We prepared a detailed article about this service. Do not hesitate to check it out.

Another method to generate traffic to your website is known as Pay-per-Click Advertising (PPC). This marketing strategy will help you drive more visitors to your website. It involves placing ads in search engine results pages (Google).

PPC ads are acquired through a bidding process. Publishers bid on different keywords people search for on the Google platform. The highest bids win the top slots on the search results page. Check out the Google Ads portal for more information.

Now that your website is popular, thanks to its original and quality content, let’s choose the best ways to monetize it.

The monetization strategies

1. Sell Ad Space with Google AdSense and its alternatives

We start with probably the easiest and most straightforward way to monetize your website. This undemanding method will enable you to make money simply by posting ads online. What is more, there are various platforms you can sign up for with tutorials, tips, and tricks provided by professional marketers.

These will help you put ads on your website and get paid quickly. You can also calculate the expected profit by using specifically developed tools. Once you choose to make money posting ads, the support will be extensive.

Google AdSense

Google AdSense

This vast and well known platform is provided by the giant of the online world – Google. To get started, you need to sign up for their system here. Once your website meets their conditions and is approved, you put the obtained code into your Webnode project. We made it easy for you – learn how to implement AdSense in your Webnode project with this tutorial.

Google will let you do countless settings to help you put ads on the website and obtain profit effectively. You can even make the ads look like an organic part of your website by choosing fitting visuals. There will be testing needed to initially select the best settings, position, or number of displayed ads. Once settled, be ready for some nice gains.

Agencies

As mentioned above, Google is not the only provider of digital ads. Don’t be shy, start to collaborate with other (local) media agencies as well.

Selling ad space in the form of pictures, videos, animation, or retargeted is an easy method to earn money online. It can be set up quickly and, after initial testing, requests low maintenance.

However, your ads could get blocked by a special adblocking plugin your visitors might use in their browsers. Also, the revenue might not be that high since it depends directly on the website traffic. Therefore we recommend combining this monetization strategy with other ones.

PROS +	CONS –
quick set-up	visitors might use the AdBlock plugin
massive support	require high traffic
low maintenance	visitor might overlook the ads

2. Affiliate marketing

Webnode Affiliate Dashboard

Don’t have any of your own products to sell? You can sell other people’s stuff. For many bloggers, affiliate marketing is the primary source of income, and it is suitable for beginners. To do it right, partner up with only the suppliers you personally believe in. What is affiliate marketing exactly?

Your mission would be propagating their products so your visitors would buy them. Your visitors trust your opinion. Should you promote a product you don’t trust just for economic reasons, you might soon lose your loyal audience. That’s why it’s crucial to pick your affiliate partners wisely, and this is how to do affiliate marketing.

What is an affiliate link?

Every time your visitor buys a partner’s product via a unique link, you earn a commission. The top method is to create a particular page on your website with a list of your favourite products or producers. Each link leading to the partner’s webpage would be unique so that you would obtain this link from the partner herself.

How to get the affiliate link? You might need to contact your partner and enroll in their affiliate program. Now it’s time to talk about cookies a bit since this is how affiliate links work.

Thanks to cookies stored in your visitor’s browser, your partner knows whether your visitor purchased at her website. You only receive a commission when your visitor uses this link to purchase at your partner’s store.

Best practices

There is no need to use a simple link only – place banners throughout your website to lead to the affiliate’s page. Also, don’t forget to promote them via your newsletter.

Another great way to promote your partner’s product or service is to write a review. An honest review can help a buyer to decide to make the purchase. Again, they need to use your affiliate link. Similar to a review, a comparison article helps your reader decide between several products or providers.

These articles receive the best affiliate conversion rate, as your readers are usually ready to make a purchase. You just help them decide. You don’t even have to pick the best one – just list the pros and cons.

Generate leads

Quite similar to affiliate marketing is generating leads to relevant websites. The difference is the company will pay for driving traffic to their website. It doesn’t matter whether a visitor stays there or makes any purchase.

Every company needs sales, but they need to generate traffic first. You can find companies that are willing to pay for generating leads for themselves in the affiliate network. Your job would be to direct your visitors, so they click on the affiliate link placed on your website.

Webnode also provides its own affiliate program. Should your visitor purchase our premium services, you will receive 100 dollars. Tempting? Click here to become our partner!

Affiliate marketing is a convenient method of earning a fair amount of money once you achieve your visitors’ trust and choose the most suitable affiliate partners.

PROS +	CONS –
no expertise needed	no control over the affiliate program and your competitors
low investment costs	no possibility to establish your own customer base
flexibility and independence	tendency to choose quantity over the quality approach and spam your visitors

3. Sell sponsored content

As an alternative to joining an advertising network, you can cooperate with the brands directly by publishing sponsored content. This works best if you have a big enough audience. What is sponsored content? Contact your favorite companies or brands and offer them publishing, for example, a review or promotion article in exchange for a fee.

The idea is simple – you would write an article, publish it on your web, and the company would pay you for this. Make the paid content look like an independent invitation, review, or report with links to the partner’s webpage. Again, choose only the companies you believe in.

The difference between the last two listed methods is that you would need to put more effort into writing the content yourself in the latter one.

PROS +	CONS –
higher engagement rates than classic ads	sponsored content might be deceiving
better performance than showing ads	creating sponsored content requires more time and effort
leads directly to sales as it looks native, trustworthy and less obtrusive

4. Build A paid email list

Email marketing

If you already know you have plenty of regular visitors returning for more of your great and original content, provide them with a premium mailing list. They would be the first to know about new articles, videos, or products you create. Do not worry. Your visitors will be eager to pay for your content which helps them or entertains them.

Have you already considered creating an email list but don’t know how to start? Which tools to use to create it? How to grow it? More importantly, what to expect? We will show how to start, build and grow an email list for marketing from scratch.

You don’t have to limit the types of emails only to one kind. A mailing list is a perfect way to invite them to events, promote affiliate products, and offer them premium content such as a free ebook, online lesson, or webinar.

You can also share your reviews of an affiliate product or promote your partners to generate traffic to their websites. If done organically, your visitors won’t be annoyed by regular or obvious marketing.

Grow Your Email Marketing Audience

Ways to offer and grow a premium email list are many, among them, promoting your newsletter on social networks, your email signature, using pop-ups on your web, or timed pop-up surveys.

You can also offer your premium newsletter as a gift for buying your ebook. Don’t forget to put a personalized call-to-action button on every relevant page. Start a video series and make them crave more. Promote your newsletter by capturing Instagram videos or giveaway offers.

Create great and helpful content for your visitors, and don’t forget to be authentic. Show your funny side in the “no-thank-you” response. Be creative and make it fun!

A premium email list is one of the best ways for monetizing your online activity, and it is undoubtedly one of the methods all the big players use.

We strongly recommend buying your own domain, so your website looks professional. What is more, having your domain will let you create your email address! Using services such as Mailchimp, Ecomail, or Mailerlite will greatly help set up your email marketing.

PROS +	CONS –
affordable, easy to set up and customize	high competition
builds a relationship with your customers	most people would never open your mail; it would be marked as spam, they would delete it or unsubscribe
easy to share and bring customers to your website	the design is crucial

5. Digital products you can sell online

Make money by selling digital products

Become a self-published writer, speaker, mediation guru, or online teacher. Sell your ebook and other digital products online via your website. Nowadays, digital content monetization is a vast topic, and you can use your Webnode project to promote your products quickly.

Ebook

Recommending making money from books should come as no surprise. This is a perfect way in case you have some expertise you can sell to others or if you are an independent writer. Feel free to self-publish your debut with beautiful pictures with 100% revenue with no fees to printers, publishers, distributors, or booksellers.

What if you are not precisely a novelist or a poet? Try to sell your magazines, document templates, academic research or papers, recipe books, cover letters, email campaign templates, copywriting templates, dispute letters, and much more.

Meditation or Audiobook

Are you a professional life coach or a meditation guru? Do you want to profit from your voice? Record and sell your thoughts in the form of an audio file or an audiobook.

Music, Beats, and Jingles

You are probably familiar with the following situation – while editing a home video, you suddenly need music for the background. There is plenty of royalty free music online, but why don’t you try and offer your original production? You can sell your sound effects, instrumental tracks, or even voiceovers.

Images, Photos, Illustrations, Graphic Design

You can go crazy here. Sell your photos, illustrations, logos, icons, business cards, printable calendars, journal templates, coloring book pages, and much more.

Your Application

Independent developer? Use your website not only as your portfolio – sell your product as well! This also applies to browser plugins, games, or code snippets.

PROS +	CONS –
no storage needed; hence no costs	maintenance of a server/website required all the time
no inventory shortage – unlimited downloads possible	high competition
no shipping costs – instant delivery possible	higher possibility of stealing ideas and copying

6. Membership websites: premium content/locked content/premium forum

Membership Website

Offer your visitors to become members of a special club! Ensure them the fee would be well worth it, and they will be thrilled to join. A membership site can include special forums, online lessons, webinars, or gated content like news, insider information, pictures, videos, or online streams.

As all of the listed ideas are self-explanatory, let’s take a closer look at the most efficient ones.

Insider (business) information

Are you the first to know what’s going on in a sports club, rock bands, big companies’ management? Are you successful with stock trading, cryptocurrencies, or betting on sports results? Share your knowledge with others who want to become successful. Sneak a little preview for free, so they are eager to pay you for your premium information.

Online streams

Although most online streams happen on portals like YouTube or Twitch, you can provide your viewers with premium access to them directly on your website. Stream yourself playing video games, cooking, or reviewing new gadgets, movies, or books. While you create original and helpful content, your viewers can send you regular membership fees or donations.

Online lessons and webinars

Online education via lessons and webinars has become a powerful method of spreading knowledge and ideas as well as selling products and services. Take communication to the next level and teach your students or clients using a variety of digital tools. There is no need to limit yourself by packing all your knowledge into just an e-book.

Are you an expert in your field? Create thoughtful content that catches eyes and attention; above all, be helpful and efficient. This way, your lessons will attract the right audience. Pick the right topic, make it fun and share your webinar on social media profiles or your newsletter.

Don’t know how to create a webinar? You can find loads of tutorials, tips, and other lessons online that will help you start. Indeed, it is more complex to create an entirely online course than an e-book, but in the end the finished product will not only be rewarding for yourself. By making the lessons in the proper way, your profit will be much higher as well.

It takes more time and more complex skills to create an online course, but the feeling of completion will be incomparable. Also, webinars could be more profitable than articles or e-books. Use your Webnode project to promote your online courses, webinars, or coaching sessions by selecting a suitable template.

PROS +	CONS –
affordable, low investment costs	constant updates are required
recurring, predictable revenue	people would drop out eventually
builds a solid relationship with customers	might get uncomfortable while collecting the payments from customers who are not willing to pay

7. Sell your freelancing services

Freelancing Services

What if you want to make money online but without running an online store? Maybe you don’t see yourself packing boxes, running to the post office daily, or creating handmade products if you have other intangible skills to sell. There is no need to offer material products only – promote your skills and sell your services!

Create a captivating website presenting your experiences, abilities, and portfolio. Showcase your best works and list your references.

This monetization method is perfect for freelance artists like photographers, illustrators, musicians, writers, teachers, life coaches, online marketers, handymen, and many more professionals. We prepared plenty of templates you can choose from.

Extra Tip:

Don’t forget to include a form or design a Hire Me section at the bottom of each page so your potential customers can contact you quickly. Also, it is crucial to provide good references for your work. Ask your customers or students to leave a good word for you and publish it on your online portfolio as well.

PROS +	CONS –
low investments costs	great competition
great way to present your services	a need to stand out and create an original website that would sell you
easy to share and get contacted

8. Accept donations

Example of Donation

Are you a creative freelancer who produces music, draws pictures, or writes short stories? Get your fans to support you by asking them for one-time or regular donations via PayPal or other special services like Patreon. You can put these widgets in your Webnode project and thus create a donation website.

The fee itself does not have to be high – ask them to buy you a coffee or an avocado toast. In return, you can offer your supporters a piece of your original production.

This method is popular among game streamers as well. If you can entertain your viewers, they will love to keep you going.

If you are a non-profit or provide free and quality valuable content for your local or Internet community, you can ask for support too. Let your visitor choose the level of their donation by offering some little rewards in return.

PROS +	CONS –
easy to set up and customize	unreliable and unpredictable income
easy to share	not everyone is comfortable donating money online

Summary

There are many ways to earn a living via your Webnode project, whether you choose to run an online store, sell webinars and courses or be a blogger.

The website itself won’t start making money until you understand your audience and choose the monetization strategy that works well for you. Selling ad space, affiliate marketing, or having a premium email list are among the top methods you can set up and combine easily.

If you are determined to work hard on promoting your work, we are here to help you make a profit as well.

Do you know other ways to make money by running a website? Share them with us!