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Tips for Successfully Monetizing a Website

Whether you are looking for a new business venture where you can work from home or you are just looking to add a form of passive income to your salary, there is money to be made online. One of the best and most legitimate methods for earning money on the internet is through a website. A well-written and professionally constructed website can earn you passive or even regular income if you put in the work.

A professional website gives you a starting point to add elements that can make you money, whether from ads, marketing tactics or by selling merchandise.

Keep in mind that these are not get-rich-quick schemes, and work will be needed to draw an audience to your site, but by knowing what you are working towards and how to implement new strategies, you can successfully monetize your website.

Affiliate Marketing

One of the most common methods of monetizing a website is through affiliate marketing, which is essentially earning a commission by selling other companies’ products. You do this by joining an affiliate program like that offered by Amazon and then linking to their products in your high-quality blogs. There are different types of affiliate marketing methods, including bloggers who review and link to products, email affiliate programs and working through coupon sites, among others.

Although it might be tempting to sign up for an affiliate program and then shower your pages with links, more is not always better when it comes to affiliates. One reason is that the search engines might see it as spam and not lead anyone to your site. On top of that, it is also obvious to customers that you just want them to click links. Instead, you have to have quality content that is helpful to the reader and then strategically add an affiliate link.

To set up your site for success and maximum profit, you need to do your homework on different affiliate programs and think seriously about how to make your website the one that everyone visits. The first step to successful affiliate marketing is choosing a specific vertical, whether that be health products, travel gear, or anything in between, and then narrow it down even more so you set yourself apart from the rest.

It is very important to remember that you will not see immediate profits with affiliate marketing.  However, over time, as you add more quality content and increase marketing efforts, you will begin to see revenue as your site continues to bring in new potential customers.

Advertisements

If your platform is engaging, helpful, and well written, then you could make money by posting advertisements on your website. There are several different advertising strategies that you can try on your site, including the ability to earn money whenever someone clicks on an ad or when someone visits a page where your ad is placed. Again, the trick is to have quality content on your website, so users pick your site over the thousands of competitors.

One of the most popular advertising products that most new users flock to is Google AdSense. With this program, a simple line of code is added to each page where an advertisement should appear, usually at the top. Then, when customers come to your site and interact with your advertisement, that information goes back to a dashboard that calculates your views and earnings.

The good thing about hiring a professional company like this is that the ads are usually customizable and inspected to ensure that they are of good quality. Keep in mind that being accepted into a program like Google AdSense is not instantly guaranteed. Since Google has a name to uphold, they don’t want to advertise on a site that doesn’t meet their standards. In order to get the best chance, you need to have a high-quality website that has a good amount of helpful and engaging content that a large company would be happy to attach their name to. Also, keep in mind that to have the best chance of acceptance, you will want to have at least 100 visitors per day, or your website may be declined until you escalate your traffic.

Sell Directly From Your Site

A more direct way to monetize your website is to charge fees for products or information. For instance, you could set up membership tiers where you have content for all to enjoy, but also more exclusive content available only to paying members. The good thing about membership tiers is that it can become a recurring income stream year after year, though you will have to produce enough content for both paying and non-paying members. You might also consider creating a message that asks users to donate money so you can continue creating the content they enjoy.

Once you have a brand that you know people will latch onto, you could then also try selling merchandise on your website. If you manufacture your own products, sell them on your site. If you are more of an informational or entertainment website, then you can create shirts and mouse pads with your business logo or catchphrase. Not only will this lead to another income stream, but when people see your logo out in public, you get free advertising as you add more members.

While it may take some time, all of these monetization strategies can earn you at least a passive income, but it can all go away in an instant if you are ever the victim of a data breach. We have all heard the horror stories of businesses that were hacked and the information of their customers stolen. If that happens to you, your customers could lose trust in your business, and your profits may fall. To that end, make sure that your website is secure with updated firewalls virus protections, and extra security layers so it cannot become vulnerable to hackers. You should also consider encrypting all monetary transactions so criminals cannot steal that information even if they get their hands on it. In other words, make sure your data is secure at every step of your processes.

In the end, it is very possible to make money with your website. There will be a fair share of hard work and trial and error, but by trying the tactics above, you could see a nice profit down the road.

Brooke Faulkner
Brooke Faulkner
Brooke Faulkner is a mom, writer, and entrepreneur in the Pacific Northwest. She loves all things literary, doggish, and plant-based. Of those, words are her favorite. You can find more of her work on Twitter @faulknercreek.

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