Monetization 101: The Best 5 Ways to Monetize Your Content

Monetizing your content and your skills has never been easier!

I began my journey as a digital entrepreneur almost twenty years ago, and it’s surreal to still be here and at it. I’ve seen my share of Google updates, the coming and going of new social media platforms, and the evolution of influencer marketing.

Whether you call yourself a blogger, influencer, content creator, digital publisher, or mompreneur, there are so many different ways to monetize your online content that you can easily explore. 

I’d love to connect on what I see, and what I’ve seen work, as trends come and go. We’re going to cover content marketing musts, content monetization strategy, and the best resources and best practices in your monetization journey.

Are you ready? Let’s gooooo!

What is monetization?

Monetization means making money! You monetize your content when you earn money from the content you create. You can monetize your visual content, video content, written content, audio content, etc., whether short form or long form. 

You can monetize no matter what kind of content you create: videos, blog posts, podcasts, live streams, newsletters, or social media posts if you’re a social media influencer.

You’ll choose content monetization platforms and monetization methods that will fit the type of content you create. For example, you could use YouTube, TikTok, Medium, Substack, Teachable, WordPress, or Patreon. 

Monetizing different types of content on different types of platforms will help you create multiple streams of income for a balanced and safe monetization model. As you get access to more revenue streams, you can also learn and grow, reach new audiences, and make a bigger impact.

Yes, monetization is not a dirty word—it’s a way to sustain yourself while adding value to the lives of your loyal friends, fans, and followers. 

Content Monetization Strategy

Everyone will have a different content strategy depending on audience, message, and purpose. The first rule of monetization is to provide high-quality content that is authentic to you and that is helpful to your audience. Monetization is an exchange of value! To execute the best strategy, you need to:

Know your audience 

What are their challenges? What do they want? What do they need? What are they searching online? What social media channels are they on? 

A consistent message 

Consistency is key in digital marketing. To be consistent, you must know exactly what your authentic message is and post about it regularly in the format they most enjoy consuming.

The Right Platform 

Choosing an online platform randomly or because it’s a popular platform is the wrong approach. You want to find the best home for your original content and provide the best user experience. Ask yourself: Where can I provide the most value and love doing it? Post there!

Five Ways to Monetize Your Content

There are many ways to monetize your digital content and many can yield results quickly. 

Below is a list of five content monetization models to get you started:

1. Brand Partnerships and Placements

This has been my number-one focus in monetizing my content creation. I have been sponsored by over 500 brands! 

Brands will sponsor your content by paying you to promote their products or services on your blog or online content. I love working with brands because it’s a win-win-win. 

• Win for my sponsors: brand awareness and product placement to potential customers within my target audience
• Win for my readers: relevant content and helpful service or product reviews
• Win for me: opportunity to share my message and ideas, and a new stream of income

You do not need a “large audience” to attract partner brands. They care most about the value of the content you create.

I don’t consider free products and services or exchanges monetization. I absolutely love all things gifted and hosted as added perks for the work I do, but to consider yourself a professional content creator, digital entrepreneur, or mompreneur, you must get paid! 

I’ve created sponsored content on social media, YouTube videos, newsletters, as well as sponsored blog posts, such as the one you are reading.

What relevant brands could you partner with to create amazing content? Start visualizing and deciding how much you’ll charge.

2. Affiliate Sales

Affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting another company or brand’s products or services in your content to earn a commission on any sales that were generated from your referrals. This happens by adding your unique link URL to your own content. Affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable monetization options, it’s quite easy to set up, and it doesn’t take up a lot of time. 

What I love about the affiliate links revenue stream is that you can get started right away simply by joining affiliate programs (such as Amazon Associates). I’ve been using this monetization tactic for many years, and I love recommending products and services I use and trust, and that can be beneficial to my audience.

3. Ad Monetization

Advertising is a common monetization tool for online content. As a digital publisher, you can sell ad space on your website or blog or partner with an ad network to place ads throughout your content.

Over the last few years, I’ve been generating passive income by displaying programmatic ads on my website, and so I felt it was time for a positive change. With that, I recently said yes to a no-risk switch of ad management providers to Playwire, which guarantees an increase in my ad revenue.

Yay!

One of my goals this year is to be more intentional about my monetization strategy. Playwire makes ad management easy. They do all the heavy lifting, from implementation to day-to-day monitoring, so publishers like myself can focus on creating great content and features while increasing ad revenue.

The best part about Playwire is the level of personalization. I have been working as a small web publisher for almost two decades, and I have never received this level of support before. It’s very hands-off and yet very high-touch.

I have the most amazing account manager, who I have been meeting with every week, during which time she answers my every question and explains everything I need to know. The coolest part is that I’ll have the chance to meet her—and the rest of the Playwire team—in person at my favorite conference for content creators, influencers, and mom entrepreneurs, where I will be speaking: Mom 2.0 Summit!

I’m really excited to have accountability in this area as I juggle motherhood, running my business, and going to college online. I now understand exactly how my business makes money through advertising and can optimize the design and layout of the content and ads on my site to maximize revenue. 

Playwire has been empowering content creators and independent publishers to run their businesses more effectively for nearly two decades. They make ad management simple and more effective than any other solution available. Backed by award-winning technology and complete with all the tools to grow a digital publisher’s business strategically, Playwire’s RAMP Platform seamlessly integrates ads into your website with the push of a button. If you are ready to monetize your traffic and drive more ad revenue today, check out Playwire here.

4. Product Sales

While I wrote and published my first ebook in 2005 to build an email list, I have been selling my own products since 2009. You can sell physical or digital products by compiling and packaging your most popular and most valuable content. I sell ebooks, printed books, journals, white papers, coloring books, workbooks, and online courses. Many of my coaching clients sell merchandise, recipes, vectors, photos, spreadsheets, trackers, checklists, templates, and more.

Contrary to what you may have heard, products can be created with a low budget and without requiring much time or having to keep an inventory, operate your own online store, manage orders and returns, etc. (unless you want to, of course).

For example, when I saw how much people resonated with my blog post on how to “Keep Positive After A Hard Breakup,” I knew it was a good idea to turn this content into a book: The Breakup Recovery Journal, which is available both at online and brick-and-mortar bookstores across the globe. If something is performing on search engines, then creating a product is a great way to take your monetization to the next level.

I know that even thinking about publishing a book or creating a course can be overwhelming. But as a book coach and book publisher myself, I have good news:  you already have content, and you’re already a storyteller. With a bit of support, you can take your free content and use it to create paid products to support you.

5. Thought Leadership 

One of the ways to repurpose your content and monetize it is to sell services that promote thought leadership. For example, you can create a one-on-one or group coaching program, create a membership site, establish a consulting practice, or speak in public (at conferences, corporations, etc.) or retreats. This will not only provide additional income streams but will also create media opportunities and create a bigger difference in people’s lives.

Running membership sites is one of the best ways to create an engaged community and make content creation personally rewarding. In addition, it allows you to generate recurring revenue. 

There are other popular ways to generate income that are worth mentioning. 

Some fans and followers are willing to support your work by voluntarily donating to you directly or leaving a tip. At the bottom of each of my blog posts, you will see a link to a “love offering,” which some of my readers click to donate. Other creators and influencers usually ask followers and subscribers to “consider buying me a coffee if you enjoyed this content.” And as you know, I don’t drink coffee!

Subscriptions are another way to monetize an exclusive piece of content. Some of my loyal audience members pay a monthly fee to subscribe to exclusive content on my Instagram account. You can use Patreon, add a PayPal link, or use your Venmo or Ca$happ handle for one-off payments. Or you can simply have a paywall behind premium content anywhere you publish.

Other ways to monetize your content are sponsored social media posts, paid newsletters, and even freelance work (such as writing blog posts, editing videos, building websites, creating illustrations, and producing podcasts).

Get started with content monetization

You put so much time, effort, and love into creating and publishing your content, and you deserve to be compensated.

One of my mentors, Bob Proctor, used to say:

“Money is only used for two things. One is to make you comfortable, and the more comfortable you are, the more creative you will become. The other purpose is to enable you to extend the service you provide far beyond your own presence.”

As you monetize your hard work, you’ll be comfortable enough to create more and reach a wider audience. The most important thing is that you’ll be able to bless so many people with what you do as you bless your family!

How do you currently monetize your content? Which of these monetization options will you try? I have personally used each of these monetization strategies, and I know they work! Be sure to comment below and check out my friends at Playwire to learn how they help website owners generate more ad revenue.

Founder of the Positive MOM® and creator of the S.T.O.R.Y. System: a blueprint to craft and share powerful stories that will transform your results and help others do the same. Dr. Elayna Fernández is a single mom of 4, an award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Student of Pain. She’s a bestselling author, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 5x TEDx speaker. She has spoken at the United Nations, received the President’s Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award, and was selected as one of the Top Impactful Leaders and a Woman of Influence by SUCCESS Magazine. Connect with Elayna at thepositivemom.com/ef and follow @thepositivemom. To receive a gift from Elayna, click HERE.

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