Get The Most Of Your Traffic... Monetize It!

The Internet is the most powerful marketing tool ever. A few people with an idea can have the entire world hear their message or be a part of their revolution. You don't need to use expensive marketing methods either. The power of digital advertising is so accessible, there are plenty of options that you can start out with for as little as $50 on Amazon FBA and grow it into a full-blown, six-figure business plan in less than a year!

Writing this article has been an exercise in learning more about content monetization strategies by studying successful online entrepreneurs and emulating what they do best. I've been a part of the online community for a few years now, and I know that even though I've taken my own steps to get involved, there's much left for me to learn. This article will put together the things that I've learned from all of my observations, the things that have worked best for others in the past, and it will be designed in such a way that you can easily apply what you learn with your own ambitions as well.

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So what exactly does it mean to "monetize" your content? Here are some of my thoughts:

This is what content monetization means: making more money than you spend on creating or promoting your content (or getting paid only on revenue).

You can have lots of content without being a successful business, but you can't actually do well without attracting visitors and selling something. So you need to get people to see your content, and then you need them to take what they've seen and be persuaded to buy something. And the key here is words. All of the different strategies for making money work are simply ways to promote your words so that others will take them from you and buy your products or services.

Here are some possible examples:

1.  Find out what other people are making by promoting their stuff for them through affiliate links on social media sites like Facebook or Pinterest .

2.  Have your own products and services and sell them through your website.

3.  Find out what people want and then create a product based on their needs.

4.  Find out what people like, then use it to advertise something else that they might like even better (e.g., you make a free video explaining how to do something, then you try to sell a paid course showing how to do the same thing).

5.  Create your own brand and build it up so that you have enough authority to become a trusted source for information. Then you can use that authority to sell books, e-courses, coaching packages, etc. This is called brand authority .

6.  Use the content on your site like a billboard , letting other people know something about you before they even meet you or buy anything from you.

7.  Monetize brand awareness with paid advertising such as Google AdWords or Bing ads or Facebook ads.

8.  Pay someone else to write for you (e.g. paying bloggers, guest posters, or content owners).

The list goes on and on. I think that you see the point here. There are hundreds if not thousands of different ways to try and turn your content into cash, but there are just as many ways to fail so do yourself a favor and try some of them out! Let's get into the meat of what makes these strategies work by looking at each one in further details...

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1. Find Out What Others Are Making -  Affiliate Marketing

This is one of the simplest and most universal revenue streams that works. You simply have to find someone with a lot of visitors and then give them your link so that they can place it somewhere else for someone else to find it. Here are a few ways to do this:

• Link To Your Affiliate URL on Your Website

Click on the "Link To" column in the top right hand corner of my blog. That's where you can see all of my affiliate links. I also have affiliate links under "Purchasing Options" at the bottom of every post on this site as well.

 • Use Social Media Sites To Promote Affiliate Programs

This is a really great idea, and it works well on sites like Facebook so long as you keep your posts interesting. I've seen this work over and over again, so I'd definitely recommend doing this if you're already using social media. I don't have a lot of experience with Pinterest yet, but I think it might work well too. Here are my affiliate links for Facebook and Pinterest . It's worth noting that you need to be careful about spammy links here so that your social media page doesn't get banned. Plus, you can only do this with certain programs.

• Use Your Blog as Your Affiliate Page

I tried this once and then deleted it so I wouldn't be spammy. That's a good idea. You can also use Amazon FBA to make your affiliate link more accessible (as explained in my article here ). This is a really good way for you to get your affiliate links out there without having to create new ones for every single site that you link to!

This is how the "Link To" column looks on my blog (click on the image to see a larger version). You can add an Amazon affiliate code or a Facebook/Pinterest/Google+ one too!

2. Make Your Own Products And Services

The first step in this one is to find out what products or services people want, and then deliver those things. It's not always as easy as it sounds, but the most important thing is to find a product or service that has a market of its own. This means that someone will pay you money for what you have even without you having an audience. Here are some good ways of doing this:

• Create A Video Course

YouTube is definitely the leader in this area, but it's still possible to get attention on other video sites if your videos are good enough and the content interesting enough. The most important thing is marketing the videos on other sites and social media .

• Create An E-Course

I have to confess that this is not my forte, and I don't do it very well. But there's no reason why you can't put together a series of posts or an ebook and then turn that into an automated revenue stream with the help of a service like Teachable .

• Get Someone Else To Create The Course For You

This is a great strategy but not always the most profitable. The reason why it works so well is because you're paying someone to write the course for you (normally at $1 per word or some other fairly low rate). Once the course is written, you can resell it multiple times without having to create or record anything new.

Conclusion

If you're starting out as a blogger, you may have to choose between making income from your blog or making money from affiliate marketing. If it's the later, it's definitely worth considering. There are lots of advantages to affiliate marketing, but there are also disadvantages so you want to make sure that you focus on the right ones if you decide to give this a go.

I hope that this article gave you some ideas about how to get started!

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