What are the ways to earn money through a website?
Join the Awin network and gain access to thousands of affiliate programs, including major brands such as TripAdvisor, Etsy and Nike.
Then simply insert an affiliate link (provided by Awin) when mentioning products from your chosen partners on your website.
Check out our complete guide to getting started and making money with affiliate marketing.
Use skimlinks
Skimlinks is quite similar to Awin (and other affiliate networks) in that it allows you to earn commissions for purchases made through links on your site.
The key difference is that in addition to allowing you to create individual affiliate links as and when you want, skimlinks can also be installed on your site to automatically monetize your content.
If you link to a merchant in your content that is part of the Skimlinks network, Skimlinks will automatically convert the link to an affiliate link!
You get paid if a visitor makes a purchase through your link, and commissions range from 2% to 10%.
Add banner ads
You can easily set up network ads with Google Adsense or Media.net by copying and pasting the code into your site to create ads that are relevant to your visitor’s recent internet searches.
Taboola is another increasingly popular service for bloggers to monetize their content. It works by displaying relevant articles (rather than banners) from advertisers on their network.
These networks pay you every time a visitor clicks on an ad (cost per click or CPC) or for 1,000 impressions (cost per impression or CPM).
You can also sell banner ads directly to companies with a relevant product/service. This option can be much more profitable because not only will you be setting the rates yourself, but the advertiser will (hopefully) know that your audience is one they’d like to target!
Use text link advertising
Offer basic text links to the advertiser’s website (in-content advertising) and charge a flat rate per month (eg £20). Alternatively, you can charge per click.
There are plenty of marketplaces like Backlinks and LinksPanel where you can list your offer.
Sell to email subscribers
The biggest regret we hear from bloggers is that we didn’t start an email list sooner.
So get an account with AWeber from day one to get your audience and engage with them after they leave the site.
You can then send them an email with recommended products they might be interested in (affiliate promotion) and get various commissions if they sign up or buy something.
Publish sponsored posts
Sponsored posts, sometimes known as advertorials, are advertisements in the form of an article, usually containing a link to the advertiser’s website.
An advertiser can send you an article, but if you can write content for them, you’ll be in for the money because you can also charge for your time.
You can earn between £35 and £200 per sponsored post depending on the popularity of your site.
Join blogger network Facebook groups and share your website because that’s what advertisers are looking for.
Note: Advertising regulations state that if you are paid to publish an article on your site by a third party, you must always write “Sponsored Post” somewhere on the page.
Product reviews
This is especially useful if you have a niche readership, such as new parents or avid gamers.
But even if your readers don’t come from a particular pool, you can still get into the product testing sauce. If you’re happy to write a review for a product after you’ve tried it, companies will be more than happy to send you some attention – and maybe even pay you!
Register with Toluna as soon as possible and get the latest opportunities.
Sell digital products
eBooks, print, graphics, templates, and podcasts are examples of digital products that can help you generate ongoing passive income from your website.
You could charge around £2.99 for a 5,000 word e-book – that doesn’t sound like a lot, but that adds up to 20 e-book sales a month.
Check out the Envato Marketplace for inspiration and ideas.
Sell Physical Products
Use your website as a base to sell your own physical products. For example, you can use Zazzle to create designs for t-shirts or mugs – maybe even with your website branding if you think people would buy it.
You can also create handmade products to sell on eBay or other sites like Etsy.
But wherever you sell, make sure you link to the marketplace from your website – it’ll give you an edge over other sellers on the platform right from the start.
Include Business Directory
Start a business directory page where companies pay you a set fee to have their business listed.
You can charge a monthly or annual listing fee and charge anything between £20-£500 (and more) per year, depending on your website traffic levels.
For example, let’s say you had a website that reviewed sound systems. Assuming that sites like Amazon are probably already very popular, you can charge independent sellers (both offline and online) to be listed on a page that lists places that sell top-of-the-line speakers.
Publish premium articles
laptop with wordpress on the bed
If you can create incredibly useful content, you can make money from it.
Let’s say you have a gaming website and you can share some little-known strategies in an article. You can engage your visitor by sharing a few tips and then linking to a password-protected page (this is an option within WordPress) where you can find the most valuable information.
The reader will receive a password to unlock the premium content once they pay you a fee via PayPal. Charge what you want, although £2-10 is a fair price for a premium article.
You may have seen some major media outlets, such as The Telegraph and The Times, use this strategy in recent years, so clearly it has some merit.
Add member forum
You can add a “members only” forum to your website using free WordPress plugins such as bbPress. You can then monetize this by charging a regular subscription or a one-time access fee.
Crucially, the amount you can earn depends on how much value you can create for forum members. If you can turn your forum members into a true community—one that networks and shares tips—you’re onto a winner.
Create an online course
Create an online course as an add-on for your website. This is another type of paid premium content where visitors pay to access additional information.
The course can be delivered automatically via AWeber to those who have paid and signed up with their email address, or you can add it to Udemy to reach a wider customer base.
For some inspiration, or just to think about what your readers might be interested in, check out our guide to free online courses.
