It’s no secret that you can make money with your own website. How exactly this works, however, and how much work is actually behind it, is by no means as easy to find as the many promises to get terribly rich with little effort.
But even if your website doesn’t make you enough right away, it can definitely be worth monetizing.
It doesn’t work without traffic
If you want to make money from your website, you first need website visitors. And some, because only a small part of your site visitors will click on advertising banners or buy products via affiliate links. Under 1,000 visitors per month, monetization is hardly worth it, and this is really the lowest limit.
Since the visitors do not come by themselves, a certain amount of effort is necessary to steadily increase the traffic for your website. This does not happen overnight but requires medium and long-term measures. In addition to patience to build a website, you also need time to continuously optimize it.
You can monetize your website visitors directly and indirectly. For some, direct measures you must do something and e.g. B. click on a link or a banner. With other methods, it is sufficient for them to just visit your site and read your content.
This is how you make money with your website
There are several ways to make money from your website. It is definitely worth looking at different options and combining them to achieve the best possible result for you.
To keep the time expenditure manageable, a good strategy comes first. So don’t just start, think realistically what you want and what you can achieve.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing means that you advertise a merchant’s products via specially generated links from the online trading platform that he uses. If one of your site visitors clicks on the link and buys the product, you will receive a small commission.
The best-known provider for this is Amazon. However, the commissions are very low, so you have to get a high number of sales, especially with cheap products, so that this is financially worthwhile. So it pays to think outside the box and check the possibilities of affiliate networks.
GOOGLE ADSENSE
Why do website operators put advertising banners on their pages? Because they make a few cents every time they click on it.
However, this is only worthwhile if you have a lot of traffic on your website. A simple calculation shows that if an estimated 2% of your website visitors click on a banner and you get around 25 cents per click, you need 20,000 page visitors per month to earn at least €100.
In addition to the rather small sums, not all websites are suitable for Google AdSense. The more professional your site looks, the more careful you should be when using advertising banners.
RENT ADVERTISING SPACE AND PUBLISH GUEST ARTICLES
Another way to earn money with your website is to rent out space for advertising banners to other companies. It is also possible to publish paid guest articles on your site.
In both cases, you earn indirectly from your site visitors, as your traffic figures are decisive for the prices that you can enforce. The best thing to do is to set up a page with your conditions on which you can specify your prices and the current traffic figures.
This method works particularly well if you have a very clearly targeted website and high traffic. The disadvantage, however, is that sometimes there are only a few interested parties and you have to wait a long time for corresponding inquiries.
TO COLLECT DONATIONS
Admittedly, it doesn’t work very often. But some blogs and web magazines are successful with it. Patreon is a possibility for your site visitors to transfer you a monthly subscription to a self-determined amount to support you. Artists in particular use this way to realize their projects.
However, this requires a high level of reliability on your part. Your supporters expect exclusive content regularly. A certain amount of time is also required for community management and maintaining relationships with your supporters.
SELL ​​YOUR OWN PRODUCTS
This option is also one of the busy, but also one of the most rewarding. Not just having your own online shop is a way to earn money. E-books in particular are an easy-to-implement option.
However, the prerequisite for the financial success of your e-book is that it is of good quality and that you actively promote it. This is worth doing when it is easy for you to write on a topic and you are willing to invest the necessary time. With this effort, however, it has little to do with passive income.
A PREMIUM MEMBERS AREA
If you are an expert in your field and can provide exclusive knowledge and tips, a paid member area on your website can be worthwhile. While you offer more general information in the public area of ​​your site and show that you are an expert, in the members’ area you provide content that goes beyond the usual.
This is worthwhile if you have already established yourself and built a community. Likewise, you have to invest time and effort in high-quality content – ask yourself how much added value a member area has to offer for you to be willing to pay for it yourself.
Conclusion
Monetizing a website is not an art. However, it is an art to earn at least three-digit sums in this way without going into the disproportionate effort. There are a few exceptions, but the vast majority of website owners cannot live off the income from their site. If you approach the matter with a realistic idea, it can still be worth it and you can get a nice extra income.
