How to Make Money with a Website: 10 Ways to Do It
You have a website, you’ve put a lot of love into it, you’ve positioned it well… and now you’d like to know how to make it profitable.
Sergio Salón
3 years ago
You have a website, you’ve put a lot of love into it, you’ve positioned it well… and now you’d like to know how to make it profitable. Let me tell you that it is possible, but not in any way. So, how do you make money with a website? This question is the reason for this post.
Before we start, we must keep in mind that there is not just one way to monetize a website. In this article, we will address the main ways to do so, understanding the necessary prior work to reach this point.
Let’s get started!
Preliminary Steps to Make Money with a Website
Before understanding how to make money with a website, we must have a series of elements. It’s not just about buying a domain and starting to earn income. If it were that easy, everyone could do it.
Therefore, we will address a series of elements we must have to monetize a website:
A Market Niche
You probably already have it, but if you haven’t started creating your project to monetize yet, the first thing you need to clarify is the market niche you are going to position yourself in. That is, choose a specific theme or sector in which you can act as a reference.
If your website has a more generalist cut, it is also possible to generate income with it, as long as you have notable traffic, although it is likely to take you more time, as the competition will be greater.
A Website with Traffic
It is useless to try to make money with a website if it does not receive visits. And the main drive for monetization is having users who interact with what you share or offer.
After all, this is what happens with advertising and other actions that seek to monetize a space. If there are no people buying, there is nothing to monetize.
Create SEO Content
Linked to the previous point, to obtain greater traffic and present yourself as a reference on a specific topic, it is essential to work on SEO positioning.
To do this, establish a content calendar based on keywords that have a traffic level and a search intent aligned with what you are going to publish. To know these search data, you can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs.
Don’t Forget Social Media
When it comes to continuing to grow your web project, you should have social media profiles. Not only for the engagement you can generate, but because you will create a community around your project and this will lead to various actions.
These actions can be contests, challenges, exchanges, promotions… all of which can offer you greater online visibility and support you in your path to earning income.
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Once we have clarified the elements we need, we can move on to see the main ways to make money with a website:
Adsense as an Advertising Platform
One of the main ways to monetize your website can be found in Google Adsense. This automated advertising system from Google will allow you to have ads on your website without having to decide anything.
You verify your website on the Adsense platform in a few really simple steps and, as long as it meets the minimum requirements for monetization, it will start showing ads selected by Google for each user.
With Adsense, you will earn based on the clicks users on your website make on those ads. That’s why it’s important to have good traffic, as the more users visiting the website, the more chances they will click on those ads.
Affiliates, Another Great Resource to Make Money
If you are looking to earn income with your website, you cannot overlook doing affiliates or referrals within it. What does this involve? It consists of recommending and linking to a series of products or services within your website. Users who access their purchases from your link will buy the product at the usual price, but you will earn a percentage of that sale.
One of the most well-known affiliate systems is Amazon. If you have positioned your website in a specific niche, as we mentioned earlier, you probably have a series of products to recommend. If those products are on Amazon, don’t hesitate to put an affiliate link to recommend them.
The best part of systems like Amazon’s is that, even if the user does not buy the referred product on your website, but purchases another one that they reached by navigating from your link, you will also earn a percentage of that sale.
Banners and Other Advertising Spaces
One of the most classic ways to monetize a website is to offer a promotional space where brands can advertise.
The element par excellence is usually the banner. In this sense, a space is reserved for the advertiser to insert a banner with their logo or a brand image. It is usually a banner that, generally, the user can interact with by clicking and being redirected to the advertiser’s page.
Sponsorship of Your Website
Beyond advertising, there is the possibility of having one or more sponsors for your website. This system basically consists of having the presence of these sponsors: on your website pages, in the form of a logo in the header, as a message in the footer…etc.
If you want to make it known that your website is open to this type of sponsorship, it is ideal to indicate it on one of its pages. This way, it will be much easier for sponsors to contact you for it.
Membership Systems
If you have that valuable content we mentioned earlier and can offer an extra to your most loyal users, the membership system presents another great option to make money.
You can provide a series of exclusive content in exchange for a subscription based on a monthly or annual payment. This way, users who want to go beyond what you offer openly will subscribe.
You can establish different plans that fit your different types of audience: free, medium, and premium, for example. It all depends on what you can offer and the prior study of your audience.
Patronage and Donations
Another great possibility that arises if you have a loyal audience that values your content is patronage.
Patronage occurs through platforms like Patreon, where as a creator, you can offer a space for users to support you financially. In return, they will receive a series of exclusive benefits on your website: mentions, choice of topics, participation in changes to it…etc.
Donations are somewhat different. In this case, users who value your work make donations as a thank you, intending for that website they value so much to remain active. Many pages and creators open a PayPal account where users can direct their donations.
Sell Your Own Services or Mentorships
If you have positioned yourself as a reference in your sector, it is very likely that your audience wants to learn more from you. And hire what you can offer.
In this sense, you can provide a series of services and earn economic returns from them: consulting, coaching, courses… etc. You can also choose to offer personal mentorships if you have a series of specific knowledge that you can offer privately.
Take Advantage of an Online Store
If you can offer a series of products, you can set up an online store. This way, users purchase them on your website, and you earn a profit.
However, remember that establishing an online store requires a series of resources: payment gateway, shipping management, product storage, return policy…etc.
Set Up Dropshipping
If you want to take advantage of online sales without the demands of a traditional store, then the dropshipping model will help you make money with your website.
The dropshipping system basically consists of offering the product from a supplier to the customer. With this, you do not need to have a warehouse with the products. The customer makes the purchase on your website, and you manage it with the supplier to have them send it to the customer. Therefore, the product never passes through your hands.
This is somewhat easier than setting up an online store, but the profit is also lower. Additionally, you must keep in mind that you depend on third-party stock, in this case, your supplier or suppliers.
Sponsored Posts and Links
This way of making money with your website is one of the most positive, both for the advertiser and for you, who want to benefit from your work. With sponsored posts, you can provide value and knowledge to the user while also earning income by including that content and links to the advertiser.
On their part, the advertiser also gains greater benefits, as it starts as a recommendation from a valuable article, and users will consider it another reference for appearing in it. A win-win situation.
That said, remember that the affinity of the media and links is an essential factor. It is what marks the naturalness, the positioning by Google, and the attraction of the user. At Unancor, we are clear that without affinity, the link ends up getting lost in limbo.
If you need to know more about how we work with affinity and links on our platform, this mega post will help you.
If this article has been useful in understanding how to make money with a website, we invite you to share it on your social media. See you in the next post!
