Whether you are a new blogger or experienced publisher, we've put together five powerful ways to start monetizing your site today.
When it comes to monetizing websites, it is easy for a publisher to get overwhelmed with the amount of options, platforms and tactics they have available to earn money for their hard work providing valuable content to the world. It can also be confusing as to when to start monetizing.
“If your blog gets over 10,000 monthly unique visitors, then yes – it’s relatively easy to monetize and create a nice revenue stream with it. The real challenge is making money from a blog that generates fewer than 1,000 visitors per day” - Neil Patel
1. Start a Podcast
Podcasts are a great way for you to transform your content into a different medium on your blog or website. No matter your niche, this new content is an ideal supplement to your core material and allows you to showcase your voice and expertise on your niche in a contrasting light. Your podcasts can easily be embedded in a sidebar, footer or header of your website.
This medium is also perfect for reaching new audiences as you'll be uploading to all the major podcasting platforms such as Apple, Spotify, YouTube & more in addition to your own website. Audiences in your niche will discover your podcast on these platforms and organically find your website to learn more about your content. This is an awesome idea for increasing monthly organic traffic on your site.
Podcasting will open up new revenue streams for your website through programmatic audio ads, YouTube ads and podcasting sponsorship. Companies like Midroll will pay you to read advertisements on your podcast which will be a brand new revenue stream for your website.
2. Launch a YouTube Channel
Having a YouTube channel is an incredibly valuable extension to any blog or website. YouTube allows publishers to reach new audiences who are actively searching for content within their niche.
Your content will be engaged on YouTube by new users who will discover your brand through YouTube search. Be sure to include a link to your website in your YouTube video description for viewers to click. This is a fantastic way to stimulate organic traffic for your website while monetizing your videos on YouTube.
3. Stop Putting All of Your Eggs in One Basket
As a publisher, we understand that your main job is putting out amazing content for the world to enjoy and that monetizing your website can seem like a daunting task that comes secondary to your daily workload. Just placing a Google Ad Sense tag on your site and hoping for the best is a sure way to set yourself up for disappointment at the end of the month when the revenue stats roll in.
It is important to diversify your advertising demand partners and expand beyond Google Ad Sense. For publishers new to monetization, you'll need to start is shopping around for an ad server to meet your basic needs where you can organize your advertising demand partners and load multiple partners into one set of tags which you will place on your website. Within your ad server you will be able to set CPM floors that your advertisers need to hit in order to win the impression on your website. For example, if Google doesn't hit your floor of $1.35 and another partner like Sovrn does, the impression will be served to Sovrn and you will improve your fill rate by creating competition in your waterfall.
4. Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls
After you have mastered the art of creating your own waterfall of demand partners, it is time to ditch the tags and enter the advanced world header bidding. By definition, header bidding is a cutting-edge programmatic advertising technique that serves as an alternative to the waterfall strategy as outlined above. Header bidding is also sometimes referred to as advanced bidding or pre-bidding, and offers publishers a unique way to simultaneously offer ad space out to numerous SSPs or Ad Exchanges at once.
Header bidding is a very advanced topic so we recommend downloading our white paper on why server side mediation is best for an expert publisher. To help you visually understand the logic behind this solution, download our white paper here.
5. Consider Adding Native Ads to Your Content
Native Ads are a very good option for monetizing your website because they blend in with your content quite nicely. Your users' experience should always be top of mind when you are mapping out your ad strategy for monetization. For example, if a user comes to your website and they are hit with intrusive video ads or pop ups that take away from your content, it is likely they will not return because they had a bad user experience.
The biggest perk with native ads is that they are not intrusive and provide a positive user experience. Native Ads typically appear in the form of a content block that appears at the bottom of your blog post on your website and contains short headlines that capture your users' attention to click them and go to a different website. Native Ad companies like Taboola will pay you top dollar for each click you send their way via their content block which you will embed on your website.