5 ways to monetize your website and make it profitable

Last modified on August 3, 2021

If you have a website or blog that is starting to generate traffic, it is quite normal to want to monetize it and want to make money with it. In this guide, I present the most common and effective methods to monetize your website.

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is one of the most popular advertising networks. The advantage of this program is that you do not need to be in direct contact with advertisers. You simply place your banners on your site and Google chooses to highlight relevant ads related to your content. When your visitors click on the ads, you are then paid CPC (Cost Per Click) which is a few cents.

Let me tell you right away that you will need to generate several thousand visitors per day for the remuneration to be sufficiently interesting. However, Google AdSense can act as a complement to other monetization methods. There are also countless alternative programs to AdSense. This is particularly the case with Ezoic, which allows you to double or almost triple your income compared to Google AdSense.

Benefits Disadvantages
  • Easy to put in place
  • Recurring revenue
  • Very low pay
  • May be intrusive to the visitor
  • Limited interest in ad blockers

The affiliation

Also known as affiliate marketing, this monetization method is primarily performance-based. Depending on the topics you are talking about, you can insert affiliate links to a product or service offered by the affiliate program. If one of your visitors clicks on this link and purchases the good or service, you will then receive a commission calculated on a percentage indicated by the program.

The most popular affiliate program is Amazon. However, there are also affiliate platforms that offer many programs such as CJ Affiliate, Awin, Tradedoubler and many more. Companies can also set up their own affiliate programs for their products or online offers.

Benefits Disadvantages
  • Commissions that can be interesting depending on the products
  • Many platforms that offer plenty of choice
  • Recurring revenue
  • Performance varies from one program to another
  • You have to test and re-test before finding the best programs that are profitable.

Selling leads

Offering “leads” means that you qualify your visitors in order to resell their data to other companies. A visitor therefore becomes a lead when he fills out a form to enter his contact details, his email address or a telephone number. The more qualified the contact is, the more expensive it can be resold.

To give an example, in the theme of house construction, it is possible to sell leads for construction companies. Thus, a visitor can fill in different fields such as the surface area to be built, the start date of the project and its location. When your visitor enters their contact details and the necessary information, you are then paid.

This is very similar to affiliate marketing, but your visitor doesn’t necessarily have to buy something. A simple contact information is more than enough. The sales people will do the rest. There are different marketplaces to sell leads like Exolead, TimeOne LMT, Leadigo or Edilead

Benefits Disadvantages
  • Finding the right partners
  • Integration into the site not always easy

Partnerships

This is undoubtedly one of the most common ways to monetize a website provided you have the traffic and notoriety to make it possible. For example, it is possible to write sponsored articles talking about a brand or a site. Backlinks can also be negotiated because they help increase the natural referencing of a partner site.

Another way to partner is to offer product or service testing so that the brand can reach your target audience. In exchange, you can receive products for free in order to give your opinion on them through articles and/or videos.

Benefits Disadvantages
  • Attractive remuneration if rates are well negotiated at the start
  • Ability to receive products or have access to these services for free.
  • Needs to be contacted regularly
  • Income varies from month to month

Sell ​​your products or services

There are several possibilities in this way of monetizing a website:

  • Selling services/coaching: This is one of the fastest and easiest ways. By offering personalized advice to your potential clients, you will be able to share your knowledge while earning money.
  • Selling training: They can be done physically but it is often more interesting to carry out training online to reach people all over the world. A course can be made simply with slides and a voiceover from you. The advantage is that you can record your training once and sell it to dozens or hundreds of customers.
  • Selling physical products : Why not stick with the classic and open a small online store to sell products online. If you have the soul of a creator or want to sell derivative products, this option can also work very well if you have an audience ready to buy.
Benefits Disadvantages
  • Full control over product and/or service pricing
  • Income varies from month to month
  • Requires expertise in offering services and/or products for sale
Loïc Frissard

Passionate about the web and entrepreneurship, I founded Digitiz in 2016. My goal is to share my experience with you and save you time in choosing your tools.