Creating content for other companies and getting paid for it is one thing.
But creating content for yourself and learning how to monetize it can be even more rewarding.
Here are five ways you can monetize your content.
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways people earn money online. If you’ve ever been successful in sales, you’d probably excel at affiliate marketing.
All you’re really doing is selling other people’s products for them.
Find a niche and some high-ticket, high-quality affiliate offers and you’re in business.
Now, it might take some time to earn some money with affiliate marketing if you try to do it by getting traffic to your blog.
I tried it that way and let me tell you – I wish I’d posted to sites like Medium years ago. I could’ve earned money through both the Medium Partner Program and through affiliate links placed strategically throughout my articles.
I’m kicking myself now, but I’ve transferred most of my articles to Medium and I plan on posting regularly and building up a community of like-minded writers like you that’ll hopefully follow me (and of course, I’d follow back – we’re all in this together, right?).
2. Offer Consulting Services
Are you a life coach or career coach? Creating free content that helps your readers achieve a goal or solve a problem (and then linking to your services as the next step) can help you make money from your content.
Think about what kind of consulting service would make the most sense. What kind of experience do you have? In what industries have you been successful?
Think about that when deciding on what kind of consulting services to offer.
3. Create a Subscription/Membership Site
Another way to monetize your content is to create a membership or subscription site and make people pay for certain content.
This can be your exclusive content – more high-quality content than the rest of your content.
Advertise this subscription as a call to action at the end of each post and even sprinkled throughout relevant posts.
Some of the best sites to create membership or subscription sites: CMS Hub, MemberPress, Wix, YourMembership, Weebly, Wild Apricot, Morweb
4. Create Niche Sites (And Sell Them)
You could either create niche sites and sell them. Or you could keep them and monetize them yourself for a source of passive income.
Ads don’t work as well as they used to, so I’d steer clear of those. Instead, something like OptinMonster for things like:
- Lightbox popups
- Scroll boxes
- Exit intent detection
- Page level targeting
- Gamified wheels
- Floating bars
These things can all help you convert your readers to subscribers to your email list.
And if no one’s told you, an email list is an invaluable tool to have in marketing. So if you haven’t been building your list, start now.
You can also try content locking to help you grow your email list.
Related: Top 5 Email Marketing Platforms to Skyrocket Your Email List
5. Repurpose Your Content into eBooks
Repurposing content is one of the most overlooked ways of creating content. And if you’ve got a lot of it, you can repurpose it into eBook content.
Let’s say you’ve got a series of blog posts dedicated to writing great blog posts. You can repurpose those posts into an eBook about how to write great blog posts and expand upon some of the information.
Make sure to add your affiliate links if you’ve joined any programs and you can make money two ways with eBooks.
BONUS # 1: Sell Digital Products
Digital products can be a pretty lucrative source of income – as long as you find a good niche.
So, what’s a good niche?
Something that’s high-volume but has low competition. Of course, that could always change because people tend to copy what does well.
But there’s room for everyone to make money, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.
Do some research and think about what kind of digital products you want to sell. Then, set up a Gumroad or Etsy shop and start creating and listing your products.
You can use Canva to create graphics for free, but I recommend getting the paid version, which is only $12.95 a month (and no, I’m not an affiliate – it’s actually a really great tool).
Related: 30+ Digital Products You Can Easily Create and Sell
BONUS # 2: Sell Merch
Can you come up with catchy slogans and funny sayings? Are people always telling you that you should write jokes for a living?
Well, maybe you should – and slap them on a t-shirt.
If you already have a following, great. Use that. Sell merch to your growing audience of loyal followers.
If not, you can still sell merch and promote your shop using Facebook ads or through posting on social media. You can also use other forms of content marketing to help you promote your merch.
Related: How to Make Money Creating Memes
Ready to Monetize Your Content?
Monetizing your content doesn’t have to be difficult. With a little bit of research and some dedication, you can start monetizing the content you already have and creating new content to monetize.
What’s your experience been like with content monetization? What methods and/or platforms have you used? What worked best for you?
Let me know in the comments and feel free to share with your network if you found this useful.
