As a business owner you may be thinking about additional ways to monetize your online business. Exploring other avenues in which you can monetize your business is only natural as your business grows and expands.
I can’t think of anyone with a business who doesn’t want to increase their income. The challenge that may come into play is how to monetize your online business. There are several ways to do this that are worth considering. A successful business is one that capitalizes on the resources available. Just like some people never reach their full potential, the same can be said of your online business. Don’t miss out on opportunities to make more money due to not utilizing all the resources available to you.
Start with a couple of the monetizing techniques below. Then as you become more comfortable with using these techniques and fine-tuning your strategy you can incorporate some of the others.
As a word of caution do not get over-zealous and start using every monetizing technique possible. This will just create an overwhelming feeling. The trick is to pick a couple of monetizing techniques and learn them well before implementing more. Then if you feel you still want to explore more ways to increase your income then you can. It’s always best to become good at a few things instead of mediocre in many things.
If you want to diversify your business portfolio then implementing some of these ways to monetize your online business will help you do just that.
Here are 11 ways to monetize your business.
Blogging
Having a blog is one of the most popular ways to monetize your online business. Many people have high hopes and dreams when they start a blog. One thing to keep in mind is that blogging requires time. When writing for your blog ask yourself what problems you can solve for your audience. Then come up with solutions for those problems and write about them. You will also need to know who your target audience is, as well as what knowledge and information they are looking for.Spend time doing research to find out these things.
Within your blog posts you can post affiliate links to relevant content and earn money whenever someone purchases a service or product using the link. Be sure your blog posts and affiliate links are on topic and pertain to your niche. Your readers don’t want to read a post about meal-prepping if you have a financial business. Maybe you can get away with that if you talk about how meal-prepping can save you money but still it’s a stretch. Stick to your business. Here’s a supplemental article on how to monetize your website and blog?
So how else does a blog make money? Well as I mentioned earlier there’s affiliate marketing. There’s also paid sponsorships where you get paid for writing about a company’s product and posting the article to your blog. Ads are another good way to increase your income but be mindful of how your blog looks when using ads to monetize your business. Place your ads in areas that aren’t annoying to your readers and try not to have too many ads. These are all great ways to increase your income. However, you must have enough traffic to your website for blogging to be a money maker for your business. Traffic, SEO, and other factors go into monetizing your blog.
Social Media Platforms
Social Media isn’t going anywhere any time soon so why not use it to your advantage. It’s a great way to market your products as well as other’s products. Building a brand and then showcasing it on social media while creating engaging posts and stories will bring in a large audience and followers.
To make money as an influencer on Instagram you’ll need to gain followers that are interested in what you are selling and have to say.
Making money as an influencer is done in some of the same ways it’s done on your website. You can obtain sponsors, do affiliate marketing, create stories and ads of products, and more.
Another social media platform to make money on is YouTube. You can use affiliate links, obtain sponsors, and have ads on your videos. If you aren’t camera shy and like making creative videos or talking then you could do well with this platform.
Courses
If you have expertise in your area of business, then creating an online course is another way to make monetize your online business. Even if you are knowledgeable and have lots of information to share you may not know how to get started or how to lay out the information online in a way that others can easily understand it. Start out with an outline of what you want to teach in the course. Then decide on your title and topics. Then from there create sub-titles which will become your content. It will be helpful to think about your audience’s struggles and challenges as you create your course. Will your course be all text? Will you create videos? What about supplemental tools such as quizzes and workbooks? Or will the course be a mix of all of these?
You will also want to think about your course platform. The teaching platform I use is very user friendly and easy to figure out and navigate. You can have up to 10 people enroll in your course until you have to start paying for the platform. This is great as it will give you a chance to check out the platform and see if you like it.
If you do decide to create courses as part of your income strategy plan for your business, just be sure you are creating quality courses. No one wants to spend their hard-earned money on low quality content or take a course only to find out it doesn’t offer the learning experience or knowledge they need. Create value for your students and price your course accordingly.
Podcasts
A podcast is a great way to expose yourself to a wider audience, show off your expertise, and help your audience feel more connected to you. Your podcast gives you another way to express yourself and have a voice. What better way than a podcast to engage your audience and help them get to know you.
Be sure you can commit to a podcast before you start one. Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to having a successful podcast.
You may be thinking starting a podcast sounds interesting and all, but can I make any money from it. Let me first say that the exposure alone will be worth it. However, part of having a business is to make money so let’s talk about making money with a podcast.
One way to make money with a podcast is through sponsorships. Podcast sponsorships works like a mini-ad. In exchange for a sponsor’s support, a podcaster mentions and/or discusses the sponsor’s business, service and/or product. Of course, the bigger your audience, the more you get paid from your sponsor.
Another way to get paid is through affiliate marketing. You mention a company’s product or service and if your listeners buy the service or product you get paid. For tracking purposes, you would need to have some type of discount or referral code so that the company will know when you are the direct cause of a purchase.
In the mist of talking about other companies and what they have to offer, don’t forget to talk about your own business as well! Discussing what your business has to offer as well as your products and services can help you increase your sales.
Coaching
If you enjoy helping others in a more up close and personal way, then you may want to add coaching to your business. Coaching can be done in person or virtually, but the important aspect of coaching is giving of yourself. There are many ways to make money coaching as well as different types of coaching.
Giving of yourself and helping others move forward and achieve their goals can be very rewarding. A mentor or coach that guides you along your journey is sought after by many. Therefore, it is possible to make a living from coaching others. It only takes a little creativity to turn your knowledge and expertise into a full time coaching gig.
Writing
If you have good writing skills and grammar, then it’s not hard to get paid for writing. So many people and businesses hire writers because they either do not have the time to write or may not be confident in their writing abilities.
Let’s face it, as a business owner, creating content can be very time-consuming. If you’re well-versed in a certain area, you may want to narrow down and only write for that niche. Some niches (such as the health industry) are wildly popular and you will rarely find a lack of work. For those that really enjoy writing starting your own writing business may be just what you’re looking for.
There is a high demand for quality writers. Business owners, companies, bloggers, and the like all need content for their websites. That’s where you come in! As a business owner yourself, you can write for other business owners in the same industry. While creating content for others, just don’t neglect your own business!
Digital Shop
Creating content that complements your business and provides additional information to your customers and audience is something all businesses should be doing.
One way to do that is to create a digital shop. Of course if you choose to have a digital shop on a digital shop platform you will need to learn how to create your digital shop as well as run, brand, and share it. You can even sell Kindle ebooks on Amazon. If you’d rather not have a digital shop platform for selling your digital products and just want to showcase and sell them on your website then that can be done as well with this handy digital product delivery tool.
Selling ebooks and informational products are easy ways to make money with your business.
Webinars
Who doesn’t love a good webinar. Hold on…I said a GOOD webinar! Unfortunately, I’ve lost count of my useless webinar attendance. You know the webinars where you get to the end only to find out they didn’t teach you anything. Or they spend 5 minutes giving applicable and valuable information, and the rest of the webinar selling you something. By the way-selling a product in your webinar is perfectly okay but you must also bring value to it as well. You want to engage your audience and give them tools, resources, and information they can use and apply.
Printables
Printables are creative documents that people use to help stay organized. They can be for professional or personal use. Some examples of printables are calendar planners, meal planners, financial planners, trackers, to do list, journals, and other various templates.
There’s tons of money that you can make selling printables. The sky is the limit on the types of printables you can sell as well. It doesn’t take much to get started selling printables either. Of course, there are some things you should know when it comes to selling printables. But selling printables is a relatively easy thing to do and start. Not sure how to create printables to sell? Here’s everything you need to get started selling printables.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves selling other people’s products and collecting commission from the sales you generate. There are several platforms that allow affiliates to promote products. A popular affiliate platform is Amazon although there are many others so if you don’t get accepted into their affiliate program then just pick another. If you can find an affiliate program that complements your niche even better. Sure Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc. all have affiliate programs, but unless you have tons of traffic, you’re not likely to make a lot of money. The pro of these programs is that there is a wide number of items you can sell that fits and relate to your business. Once you’re registered with these platforms, it’s just a matter of adding your affiliate links (on your blog) to RELEVANT products in your niche. Finding an affiliate program that directly relates to your business is the best way to practice affiliate marketing.
If you can find others in your line of business that have affiliate programs and don’t mind selling and talking about their products, then affiliate marketing is a good choice for you. You don’t have to promote the exact type of product you may already be selling in your business or on your website. But if you find something that you don’t know much about or that complements your product then affiliate marketing will work well.
Membership Site
Membership sites are great if you want to bring in a steady flow of income. Just remember that you need to create value (there goes that word again) in your membership and provide fresh content and resources to produce a thriving membership site that others want to be a part of and stay in. It’s not the kind of income producing platform you want to have if you don’t have time to nurture the membership site and be present.
Thinking about trying some of these techniques at the same time? Then you’ll need a tool to help you. For instance if you want to sell courses, sell products, set up email campaigns, have an affiliate program, and more then you should consider this all in one tool. It’s the cheapest tool I’ve seen out there that does so much and great for launching your online business. It has everything! It allows you to create sales funnels, email marketing, product selling, business automation, create online courses, dropshipping, and more!
Finally, don’t be afraid to seek guidance and help when striving to take your business to the next level or income bracket whether it be seeking tax help or achieving your business goals.