Creating and maintaining a popular and high-quality publishing web portal is a challenging task in many ways. Hosting alone can cost hundreds of dollars per month. And, of course, the core aim of every business is making money. In a modern digital world, there is a number of ways for monetization for publishers. These allow recouping the expenses, collecting resources for future improvement, and gaining profit.
Website monetization processes have changed a lot since the early years. Ad banners and popups are not as effective today, so the whole process requires a strategic approach. Furthermore, not every monetization strategy is equally effective for any publishing website; there are many hidden variables and pitfalls. In this article, we are going to review the process in detail as well as propose the best website monetization approaches in our opinion.
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Site Monetization Challenges and Common Mistakes
Mistakes in the choice of monetization strategies and their implementation can have drastic consequences in terms of income. Unfortunately, there are numerous challenging areas you can slip up at. The list includes but not limited to:
1. Content Quality
Your job as a publisher is to make sure that your website is filled with the best content. The quality of the posted material is the deciding factor in audience satisfaction. The better user experience you provide, the better would the return from the monetization methods be.
Take some time to get to know your target audience. Try gaining more data on the type and the form of content your user base prefers. This information might help you to figure out why certain monetization methods are not as effective as expected. Furthermore, it may prove useful in finding another method to focus on.
2. Ad Quantity
Deploying advertising is a time-proven monetization method. However, today it is an intricate and complex task. One of the biggest challenges is to figure out how many ad blocks you should place. On the one hand, you have to place a certain maximum number of ads, as you expect to get a certain profit. On the other hand, though, you cannot place too many of them, as it would irritate your visitors.
Multiple repeating messages can be rather annoying to users. So, how many ads should you actually place? The answer to this question is completely up to you, as it depends on a number of parameters too complex to predict. Use trial and error to get the most accurate results.
3. Ad Visibility and Quality
The next step after defining the ad quantity is to take a look at the actual content of the prospective advertisement providers. As it is the case with the previous point, when it comes to the ad visibility, the middle ground is the best. It should definitely look and feel different from the other content you post to grab attention. However, it should not be too bright and distracting to the point of annoyance.
Ad quality is another field you should not forget about. Of course, there is nothing you can do if there are limited product promotion options. In all other cases, you should advertise the products most relevant to the type of content you supply your readers with. Furthermore, make sure there is also a correlation in the tone and style of ads and posts, along with which it appears.
4. Common Use of Ad Blockers
Approximately 30% of users that visit your webpage are using some kind of ad blocker. Obviously, the exact number depends on various parameters, especially the difference concerns the platforms. If your target audience prefers to use desktop PCs, then your company’s ad conversion will especially feel this impact. This challenge is among the worst ones on this list, as it is nearly impossible to overcome on your end besides asking your visitors to turn off the blockers when viewing your site.
5. Lack of Diversity
As the previous point shows, some of the challenges you face might render your current best way to monetize the website obsolete. The only solution to this problem is to have alternative ways of gaining profit. Explore multiple strategies, mix and match them to make sure you can monetize and maintain your website in the worst situations possible.
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Alternative Website Monetization Strategies
Now that we have reached the conclusion that you should diversify your website monetization strategies, let us explore the possibilities. Here are the most notable alternative and successful ways for online monetization:
1. Video Monetization
It is predicted that by 2022 the video traffic will take up to 82% in all the data transferred over different networks. It would obviously be an erroneous decision not to try to monetize the video content in some shape or form.
Both Google and Facebook offer top-notch options for video monetization for publishing websites. This part of the market is constantly evolving and improving, so try to become a part of it and earn some money in the process.
2. Subscription Models and Paywalls
More direct ways to gain from the content you publish should not be avoided as well. Firstly, while some of the posts remain open, you can offer more detailed reports, analyzes or additional info to users who are willing to pay a fair subscription price. This strategy is often used by news agencies but can be easily used for the content of any type.
Other limitations you can tie to your payment suggestion include:
- Time limit;
- Hidden images or statistics;
- An alternative ad-free version of the content;
- Rating and commenting capabilities.
3. Native Ad Inclusion
Native advertising is a type of promotion that looks just like the content native to the website. Wouldn’t it mess with ad visibility? Turns out, in some cases, it would actually do much good.
Native ads ensure a consistent user experience across the website. This allows for smooth integration, lack of annoyance, and overall better consumer experience. Furthermore, accidental clicks after which the user gets interested in the page would count as well!
4. E-mail Promotions and Affiliate Links
If you gain enough info from your customers and you are allowed to use it, you can easily earn with it. First of all, you can use it to create newsletters promoting certain products. Secondly, you can notify your users about certain events or any promotional activity you might be doing. You can find many options that are more creative if you apply the specifics of your project.
Another way to engage your users directly is by introducing the affiliate links. In essence, you will get a part of the profit from the sales generated by users that have used the link you have provided. Create a detailed and fair review of the product you are linking to and each party will be happy to get what they need.
Conclusion
Publishing site monetization of a publishing resource is a challenging task. If you want to improve the way you earn money from it, you need to create a well-thought and detailed strategy. More importantly, it has to be complex and structured; otherwise, your website will not be able to survive through possible hardships. Overall, your best chance at being successful online is to both have a detailed plan and to be ready to adapt on the spot.