14 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog

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14 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog

A short time ago I posted an extensive writeup about various methods to make money on your website or blog through advertising. Now, in the conclusion of this two-part series, I’ll cover other methods for monetizing your online endeavors.

Sell Your Intellectual Content

1. Write an E-Book: If you’re an expert—or even a passionate hobbyist—write an information- filled e-book about your subject and sell it for download directly from your site. Depending on the subject and your enthusiasm, you may be able to produce multiple books. Be liberal with diagrams, photos, charts and whatever other visual methods you can utilize to help people understand.

2. Write a White Paper: Another way to market your expertise is through selling white papers. These authoritative reports or guides have traditionally centered around technical or business topics, addressing issues and offering solutions. More recently, certain business and marketing sales-tool writings—the kind that explain the benefits of a product or technology—have come to be known as white papers.

3. Self-Publish a Hard-Copy Book: Write and self-publish an actual book–you remember, the kind you can hold in your hands?–using a third-party service like Lulu (here’s a list of ebook publishers to check out). Your readers can purchase a single copy and have it mailed to them. If they prefer, they can choose to receive their purchase as an e-book.

4. Make a Video: Maybe your expertise is best demonstrated on video; for instance, you can show people how to change a battery or replace a woofer (I actually replaced the woofers in my speakers after watching a video that showed me how to do it). CreateSpace offers free online publishing tools for your video, and can help you and can help sell your work through distribution on Amazon.com, your own website, or other retailers.

5. Produce a Website/Blog PDF Miniguides: Gather up a related series of helpful articles or posts and sell them as a PDF download.

6. Put Together a PDF Tutorial: Write one or more tutorials centering around your website or blog topic and sell it as a PDF download.

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Sell Your Products

7. Create Instant Products: Does your blog or website have a great logo? Or perhaps cover a subject that lends itself to being publicized on a hat, t-shirt, ball-point pen or other product? Look into an online company that specializes in producing those products for you. Some can also provide an online shop and do the shipping for you, so you never have to mess with paperwork or inventory. Two companies with good reputations in this field are Café Press and Good Storm.

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Become an Affiliate

Affiliate programs allow you to sell products in a variety of ways—everything from a full-on e-store, selling a wide variety of products, to marketing a single product at a time via a simple URL.

8. Join Amazon Associates: Amazon offers one of the most popular affiliate programs around, and it’s easy to use. As an Amazon Affiliate, you can sell anything on the Amazon website. (In the interest of keeping things transparent: I’m an Amazon affiliate and maintain a store on my travel website; I’ve had no problems and am thoroughly pleased with the experience.)

9. Join an Affiliate Network: An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between website publishers (that’s you) and merchants. They basically serve as an HQ to help you find and utilize affiliate programs offered by a wide variety of retailers—they do all the paperwork and take a small commission from what you earn. Top affiliate networks include ClickBooth, OurFreeStuff, and Commission Junction.

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Charge for Content

If the information on your site is extremely useful to others, then consider charging them for access.

10. Create a Members-Only Section: Of course you’ll want to offer some helpful information on the public pages to give visitors an idea of the wonders awaiting within the members-only section. To gain access, they’ll need to pay a fee.

11. Sell Your Expertise Via Phone: Offer consulting advice via phone calls. I’ve noticed that this is popular with psychologists who specialize in crisis management. But it could work with many consultants across a wide range of expertise. Charge by time allotments: half an hour, an hour, a bundle of 5 half-hour phone calls, etc.

12. Produce a Subscription-Only Newsletter: Once or twice a month, send out a newsletter that contains valuable information related to the subject of your website or blog. That word “valuable” is important, since nobody will be happy paying for a newsletter that doesn’t offer value.

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Ask for Money

13. Make a Straightforward Request: Simply ask your fans for a donation and provide a PayPal link so they can easily send you some cash.

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Run Ads

14. Place Ads on Your Website: As you’ll see from my post, Tips for Making Money with Website Ads, this form of website monetization can be extremely profitable.

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