You really shouldn\u2019t start monetization right after your website\u2019s launch. You will just scare users off. Not a lot of people are ready to look at annoying ads on an unknown website that comes with no recommendations. That\u2019s why the first couple of months of your website\u2019s life will be in the red.<\/span><\/p>\n Later, once you have some amount of constant users, you can start a careful monetization. Just don’t over do it:<\/span>\u00a0a couple of well-picked banners and an affiliate link are OK, but putting dozens of banners or a pop-up will kill your user base almost instantly.<\/span><\/p>\n As for the best moment to start monetization, everyone is going to have their own answer. I recommend starting when the website reaches the mark of 1000 unique user per day.<\/span><\/p>\n Ad banner is an image that advertizes some sort of a product or a service. Usually it is clickable and sends user to the target page \u2014 usually a landing or a store page for the product.<\/span><\/p>\n Placing banners on a website is the most popular type of monetization. It is easy and doesn\u2019t require any investments \u2014 only a relatively popular website and some elementary HTML\/CSS skills.<\/span><\/p>\n The most popular advertisement network is <\/span>Google Adsense<\/span><\/a>. Google automatically determines the subject of your website and calculates which ads will be the best for your visitors. But it\u2019s not perfect, so you might see an ad for authentic North Korean uniforms next to your cat picture gallery. Luckily, you are still in charge and can easily ban the subjects you are not comfortable with from your website.<\/span><\/p>\n All you need to do is insert a snippet of code in your website. The rest is Google\u2019s job.<\/span><\/p>\n Adsense is not the only one popular network. There are other advertisement companies with similar offers. Sometimes they offer better prices, but usually require higher level HTML to implement.<\/span><\/p>\n Good examples of such alternative networks are <\/span>Adsterra<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Media<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Affiliate marketing is, roughly speaking, mediation.<\/span><\/p>\n As in:<\/span><\/p>\n The main advantage of the affiliate marketing is that you shouldn\u2019t really advertise or embellish the product. For example, <\/span>my favorite website with tech reviews<\/span><\/a> places such links even after the reviews for the absolute disasters \u2014 and people still click them.<\/span><\/p>\n On the other side, the more attractive you make the product, the larger the chance people will buy it.<\/span><\/p>\n You can find offers for affiliate marketing at <\/span>ShareASale<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n There are two ways this can work:<\/span><\/p>\n A post from the sponsor.<\/strong> In this case, the company simply gives you an article you should publish on your website.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Payment may be calculated per click on the link or per publication.<\/span><\/p>\n The main problem of sponsored posts is high requirements for them. If your visitors realize that your promotions were paid for, they will stop trusting you.<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s why you should pick sponsored content carefully. Or even say from the get go that the content has been sponsored \u2014 which is getting traction among the more professional bloggers. Alas, some sponsors specifically forbid you to do this.<\/span><\/p>\n Before you start posting sponsored content, make sure that you have a disclaimer on your website that states, that some content may be sponsored. Otherwise, you and your sponsors will have issues with FTC and similar organizations from other countries due to \u00abmisleading your customers\u00bb. <\/span><\/p>\n You can find offers on <\/span>PayPerPost<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n You must have some sort of e-mail on your website, even if it is simply a notification for your dedicated readers that are subscribed to your blog.<\/span><\/p>\n Well, subscribers are also a resource that can be monetized. Like this:<\/span><\/p>\n If there are no such offers \u2014 you can take up the initiative and join the affiliate marketing program.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s always a risk that some readers will not appreciate this and unsubscribe. You have to understand and be ready for it.<\/span><\/p>\n The most profitable way. But at the same time \u2014 the most difficult one. You have to convince your users that your content is worth the money \u2014 which is not an easy task. And then you have to fight the pirates that distribute your content for free.<\/span><\/p>\n But if your content is really interesting, unique and desired \u2014 you will find your buyers. And if you update it regularly \u2014 maybe even subscribers.<\/span><\/p>\n In order to get the payments for the content, you will have to hook your website to the payment systems. You can do this manually, but if you are using WordPress, I highly recommend <\/span>Tinypass<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n TIP. <\/b>Do not monetize all content. Leave some in the free access, so that the users could see if the rest is worth paying for.<\/span><\/p>\n The main problem of the premium is that not a lot of people are willing to pay for it. Especially if it used to be free before. So get ready to lose 50-70% of active users.<\/span><\/p>\n In the age of the internet, everyone can write and publish their own books. You can keep up with the trend and write a book that you will later sell on your website.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s more interesting than simply premium content \u2014 most of all due to the form factor. Not a lot of people will pay $20 for the privilege of using the website catadvice.com for a year. But an eBook \u00abHow to train your kitty\u00bb priced at the same $20, will find its buyers. Even if it will have the same data that would have been published on the website in a year.<\/span><\/p>\n Why? Because in the first case the user buys a service \u2014 a right to use the website. But there are many websites on the Internet and most of them are free. So when the user sees a price tag on your website, they shake their head and furiously click the Back button.<\/span><\/p>\n In the second case, you are not selling a service, you are selling a product \u2014 a book. Even if its an eBook. And there are much more people ready to pay for books than there are people willing to pay for websites. Which in turn means that the users won\u2019t be offended, they would be curious.<\/span><\/p>\n As always, remember to give people an appetizer. For example, the first two pages of every chapter in the book.<\/span><\/p>\n Premium e-mails is an interesting solution. Unlike the premium content, they do not limit the active (but greedy) users of your website. You are just offering a new service, specially for the users who are willing to pay for it.<\/span><\/p>\n There can be two kinds of e-mails:<\/span><\/p>\n Static<\/strong>. For example, an online course on how to write good novels. Static e-mail chains have a beginning and an end, which means that your profit from a single user will be limited. On the other hand, such courses do not get devalued with time and can be profitable even years after the course is over.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Just like with content, I recommend you to have a single free e-mail, so that the users could assess your skills.<\/span><\/p>\n Webinars are the seminars that you can attend by turning on your PC and connecting to the Skype conference.<\/span><\/p>\n You shouldn\u2019t do your webinars paid. Just like with the paid content, it won\u2019t be understood by the majority of the users. But you can and absolutely should use paid webinars as a bait, and then start selling the online lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, webinars and lessons require investments. It\u2019s not like content that you can write and forget the next day. Webinars require:<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019ve got what what it takes \u2014 you are start your first webinar tomorrow. If you don\u2019t \u2014 you\u2019ve got to get up to speed first.<\/span><\/p>\n Merch are the products with the logo of the company\/website or a channel.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, a t-shirt. Or a USB drive. Or a cap. There are many, many options. But if you want to monetize with merch, you will need to make and support an online store.<\/span><\/p>\n If you want to make one on a budget, you should take a look at our review of <\/span>E-shop WordPress plugins<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a working, but not particularly effective method. In most cases, it\u2019s barely enough to pay for the website itself.<\/span><\/p>\n The exceptions are the websites of the projects. For example, a website for the <\/span>Wii U emulator<\/span><\/a> casually brings its developers $50000, which is barely enough to pay the bills for the two programmers involved in the project.<\/span><\/p>\n The best system to process the donations is <\/span>Patreon<\/span><\/a>. Its interface is convinient and easy to use, while the donations themselves can be either one-time or regular and automatic.<\/span><\/p>\nTypes of monetization<\/span><\/h2>\n
Ad banners<\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Affiliate marketing<\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Sponsored posts and articles<\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Ads in e-mails<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Premium content<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Sell an E-Book<\/span><\/h3>\n
Premium e-mails<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Webinars and online lessons<\/span><\/h3>\n
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Merch<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Donations<\/span><\/h3>\n
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