There are hundreds if not thousands of articles and blogs that talk about how to make money with your website. Most things on those lists are outdated and hardly yield any real money.
The 5 monetization strategies I’m going to teach you today will help you make passive income with your website. Although these strategies work on autopilot, you still have to do the work to get them going.
Sell Digital Products
One of the easiest ways to monetize your website is with digital products. You can create a digital product on almost anything. I’m often most inspired to create products when I’m facing a challenge in my own business. For example, in 2020 I created a Services & Pricing Guide for my business. I figured other business owners would need this too and decided to make it a Canva template. Using social media and my email list, I was able to generate 50+ sales on its release.
All you need to do to make this happen is add an online shop to your website. If your site is built on WordPress then you can add a shop for free with WooCommerce. If you’re unsure how to set this up then I recommend seeking the help of a professional.
Most website builders make this easy for you. You can also reach out to your website designer to discuss adding on this feature.
Offer an Online Course
Online learning is in demand and will continue to be in the foreseeable future. The world is changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and more people are using this time to learn new skills. No matter what level you’re at you can always teach something. Remember this doesn’t have to be a high-level course by any means. You can simply teach a small part of what you do such as teaching the logo design process for a graphic designer.
The most common ways to offer an online course is through a 3rd party app like Poda, Teachable, etc, or host your course on your website. The biggest difference between the two is cost and maintenance. You should reach out to a professional that specializes in the platform you’re considering building your course on.
Try our favorite WordPress Theme and Page Builder.
Offer a Paid Membership
Creating a membership is the next step after creating your digital products and online course. You can easily take your digital products and offer them as a component of your membership. You can also use your membership as a follow-up offer after your students complete your online course. The membership will help hold your students accountable to implement the information they learned in your course.
If your website is built on WordPress, then you can use a membership plugin like MemberPress to create a membership on your website. Adding a membership to your site can be quite complex and requires a lot of planning. I’d definitely recommend reaching out to a WordPress web developer for help on this no matter your tech skill level.
Share Links to Affiliate Products
If you’re unfamiliar with affiliate marketing, then the most basic definition is getting a commission when someone buys a product using your link. Most online companies especially software companies offer an affiliate program. The requirements to signup are generally filling out a form explaining how you will promote the products. Some common promotion methods are product review blog posts, hosting a resources pages, and sharing with your email list.
I use a combination of these methods but my favorite is hosting a Resources page on your website. Amy Porterfield has one of the best Resources pages I’ve seen where she shares her favorite online tools. It recommends business and marketing tools based on the stage of your business. If not all, then most links that are shared from affiliate programs.
I don’t recommend signing up for affiliate programs with products you have not used before. The easiest way to find out if a company has an affiliate program is by typing their name in Google + affiliate program. Some also link to their affiliate program in the footer of their sites.
Sell Ad Space to Other Businesses
The most common and often lowest paying website monetization strategy is displaying ads on your website from ad networks. Unless you receive lots of website traffic then you likely won’t benefit much from these programs.
However, you can sell ad space directly to other businesses. For example, if you’re a business coach then you could sell ad space to businesses that offer services that your clients need outside of your offering. This could be a web designer, copywriter, or even a virtual assistant.
An easy way to set this up on your website is by offering a directory of these businesses. Depending on the size of your directory then you can simply create a page listing these businesses. If the directory is larger then you can use a plugin to help organize it and share it on your site.
Conclusion
Do you need help implementing any of these methods on your WordPress website? Click the following links to learn more about The Support Concierge, a website maintenance plan that includes 5+ hours of website edits and unlimited email support.
If your website is hosted on another platform then check out my Partner Directory page for a list of trusted colleagues that can help.
***Disclosure: Keep in mind that some of the links on this page are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.
