Top Six Ways to Monetize Your Web Content

Entrepreneurs all across the world are using the internet to capitalize on their existing skills and to learn new ways to make money online. After all, when we spend so much of our time on the internet, and when it is so cheap and easy to create a web site, what's stopping us from taking this interest to the next level and actually making some profit in the long run?

Google the phrase "make money online" and you'll be bombarded with millions of search results, each promising you the best way to make money online. But ultimately, the ways to make money online are limited; it's how you do it, given your own personal skills and enterprise, that makes every case unique.

In this post we talk about how to make money with one particular online asset: web content. Web content simply means content that exists online. This is primarily written content, but increasingly also includes images and videos. Here we focus primarily on written content, but any skill that you have which can be converted to web content (including web design) can be used to enhance your portfolio and put some serious money in your pocket.

How to Make Money with Content

1. Use contextual advertising

This method is effective for any web site or blog with a lot of content, especially if it focuses around a few specific keywords. Enroll in an advertising program, include the ads on your site and get paid every time a user clicks on one of the ads to visit a vendor's page. Ads are primarily text and image-based, but video advertisements can also work well for high-traffic web sites.

2. Affiliate Marketing

If you know how to create great content around specific keywords, there's no reason you have to limit yourself to side-advertising. You can write directly to sell affiliate products. Select a profitable product, preferably one that you know something about, write up a persuasive copy on its value and benefits, and place an affiliate link to the site where a reader can buy that product. When you send a visitor to the vendor who ends up buying a product, you are paid a considerable percent of the price as a commission - this can vary from 10 to 80 percent, and products can be anything that is regularly sold online.

3. E-Products

E-products are digital products that generally contain content (and so are different from software). If you are skilled in web designing, you can not only sell designs but also write e-books, create DVDs, conduct webinars and even maintain subscription newsletters. In fact, if you own useful content about any subject that people want to learn more about, you can package your content as a product and make a neat profit!

4. Pay-for-Participation websites

Many web sites now pay people to participate as writers, photographers and/or video artists. Even if you don't already own valuable content but know how to create it with the help of the numerous resources online, you can join a pay-for-participation website and not only get paid for every submission but also make residual income from advertising.

5. Writing sponsored content

Many companies offer bloggers payment in return for writing reviews and sponsored content. If you already have a blog with a large and loyal following, you can leverage your influence to write about products that you genuinely feel will be of value to your readers, and get paid doing so. But remember that even the most loyal readers expect you to be transparent about such things, so let them know that the review is sponsored, not doctored.

6. Freelancing

Freelancing is one more way you can leverage your online skills — content creation, design, coding, marketing etc — into a profitable source of income. There are numerous web sites where you can find companies and individuals looking to hire skilled individuals to create their site and content and to market it successfully, and if you have sufficient time on your hands you can build a thriving side-business or even make it your full time work. Remember, though, that most freelance work is "for hire" only — so you forego the passive income making opportunities that exist when you make your own web site or market products. On the other hand, however, those projects usually require a lot more commitment and management from your end.

So take stock of your skills and decide how you can best leverage them to create a steady and significant source of income for yourself. And remember, never stop learning!