The ultimate goal for anyone with a website or a blog is to earn money from website visits. But this can seem like a daunting and even impossible task if you do not know how to go about it. So then how exactly do you start making money from your site? Sit back and read keenly because this article is about to break it down for you!
There are several ways to turn a profit from your website traffic ranging from passive techniques that don’t require a lot of intervention to more aggressive ones that need a lot of progressive work. Be sure to pick one that best fits your website and needs.
The first thing to consider on your journey to monetization is the kind of traffic your website has. To earn from your website, you need to have a decent amount of traffic. There’s not much even the best methods of monetization can do for you if you don’t have consistent quality traffic, and this brings us to the first tip:
Build your Website Traffic
Understand your audience to better tailor your site to attract them. You can get traffic from different sources; all you have to do is know how to promote your website. Some of the more accessible sources of traffic include:
Organic Search Engine traffic – Google is the leading search engine for organic web traffic. However, there are other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, and more. You should not focus on Google so much you forget about the other engines. Search engines work with content from your blog to send visitors to the most relevant answers to their queries. Create content that drives more traffic to your site through Search Engine Optimization.
Social Networks – these have been a godsend when it comes to reaching a vast audience in one sweep. Social networks are widely used and highly accessible across the world. Promote your website on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Telegram to grow your traffic.
Email Marketing – this refers to the emails you send to your subscribers. They are regarded as loyal followers and present with the potential of high conversion. Tap into that resource to increase your website traffic and income.
Once you have steady traffic to your website, you can now move on to monetizing it. Traffic is critical for making money, but without the correct strategy, it could all be for nought. These tips are probably the best bet at getting started.
Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
Pay per click is where you make income from each click a guest makes on an ad on your website. Here, profit is not guaranteed because you will only get paid if someone clicks on the ads, so you have to ensure you partner with relevant advertisers to boost clicks. The most popular platforms you can sign up for PPC advertising is through Google AdSense. Here you will be able to tap into Google’s massive advertising network and allow advertisers to run ads on your website.
AdSense is also ideal because it allows advertisers to post ads relevant to the kind of content on your website. For example, if your website is a cooking blog, then AdSense will post ads relating to cooking and cookware to better your chances of getting clicks and making money.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves recommending products and services to your guests. It is one of the most in vogue ways to monetize a website mostly because of how quick it is to pay out. All you need to do is find a product or service you like and can endorse and promote it to your visitors and subscribers. This is done through an affiliate link which they can follow to purchase the product or service, and when they do, you get a percentage of the sale in the form of a commission. Affiliate marketing also works hand in hand with email marketing. Combine the two to maximize your profits. And best of all, just about any product or service that exists has an affiliate program with companies around the world providing affiliate commissions of up to 12%.
Sell Ad Space
AdSense is not the only way to make money from ads on your website. You may also sell ad space directly to advertisers. It’s as simple as quoting a price for each space. You will then get paid according to the number of guests you get. This method is ideal if your site has significant traffic. More traffic means more money, however, if you have little traffic, then that means you get paid less. Alternatively, you can sell the ad space using a direct price. Here, you quote a price you think is fair relative to what the competition is asking and get paid in advance at the beginning of the month. This pay is a flat fee not dependent on the clicks on the ads like on AdSense.
Sell Your Own Products/Services
Increase the income from your site by selling your products or services. It’s pretty straightforward, sell through your website and get paid immediately, no middlemen!
However, that’s about all that’s straightforward about this option. Creating a quality product that’s well made and polished takes a lot of time and effort. You will also have to put in some work to ensure secure payment for the products and shipping. You also have to package the product in an attractive way to set it apart from all the others on the internet. But once all that has been sorted, then you are set! And it does not have to be just products and services; you can sell digital products like e-books and music or even premium memberships to your site. You just have to be creative in the design of a product that will entice your audience and has a decent conversion rate.
Sponsored Content
Companies strive to get their products featured as sponsored content, especially on sites and blogs with a decent amount of traffic. What you need to do is ensure the products you feature on your site lines up with your primary content; this way, it will come across as genuine and relevant. Another genius way to incorporate sponsored content on your site is through a review. That way, the report will be partly an ad and part content for the website. Two birds with one stone!
Be careful with this kind of monetization, though. If done well, it makes for a win-win situation with all parties involves happy. However, when done poorly, it comes off are inauthentic and may destroy the goodwill you worked so hard to earn from your audience.
These are just a few options to get you started on earning money from website visits; the tip of the iceberg as it were. Do not constrain yourself to only one method, consider all the options available, and combine different techniques to earn more. Remember that sometimes the option with the highest income is not always the best. Focus on methods that will add value to your website to bring you even more traffic. The more visitors you get, the more money you will make. So go out there and make some money!
