7 ways to make money from your website visitors

It doesn’t work without traffic

If you want to make money with your website, you first need website visitors. And quite a few, because only a small proportion of your site visitors will click on advertising banners or buy products via affiliate links. Below 1,000 visitors per month, monetization is hardly worthwhile, and this is really the lowest limit.
Since visitors do not come by themselves, a certain amount of effort is required to steadily increase traffic to your website. This does not happen overnight but requires medium and long-term measures. In addition to patience to build a website, you also need time to optimize it continuously.

You can monetize your website visitors directly and indirectly. Some direct measures require you to do something and e.g. B. click on a link or a banner. With other methods, it’s enough for them just to visit your site and read your content.

This is how you make money with your website

There are several ways to make money from your website. It’s worth looking at different options and combining them to get the best possible result.
To keep the amount of time manageable, a good strategy is paramount. So don’t just start, but think realistically about what you want and can achieve.

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing means that you promote a merchant’s products via specially generated links from the online marketplace they use. If one of your site visitors clicks on the link and buys the product, you will receive a small commission.
The best-known provider for this is Amazon. However, the commissions are very low, so you have to achieve a high number of sales, especially with cheap products, to make it financially worthwhile. So it pays to think outside the box and explore the possibilities of affiliate networks like Awin and Affilinet.

2. Google AdSense

Why do website operators put advertising banners on their pages? Because they earn a few cents with every click on it.
However, this is only worthwhile if you have a lot of traffic on your website. A simple calculation shows this: If an estimated 2% of your website visitors click on a banner and receive about 25 cents per click, you need 20,000 page visitors per month to earn at least €100.
In addition to the rather small sums, not all websites are suitable for Google AdSense. The more professional your site looks, the more careful you should use banner ads.
Danger: The GDPR makes it risky to place personalized advertising. Keep this in mind and inform yourself exactly if you want to use AdSense.

3. Rent advertising space and publish guest articles

Another way to earn money with your website is to rent space for advertising banners to other companies. It is also possible to publish paid guest articles on your site.
In both cases, you earn indirectly from your site visitors since your traffic figures are decisive for the prices that you can enforce. It is best to set up a page with your conditions on which you state your prices and the current traffic numbers.
This method works especially well if you have a very well-targeted website and high traffic. The disadvantage, however, is that there are sometimes only a few interested parties, and you have to wait a long time for corresponding inquiries.

4. VG word

The collecting society Wort offers you the opportunity to earn money by letting your site visitors read your texts. To do this, you include a tracking pixel in each text that counts how often it is accessed. If it exceeds a threshold, you can submit this to VG Wort once a year and will receive a corresponding payment.
This way of monetizing website visitors is ideal for blogs where you publish longer, high-quality articles. At times, this way of earning money means more work, e.g., B. if you subsequently add tracking pixels to articles or report articles once a year, that has received enough views to be counted. Outside of these times, this monetization opportunity is low-effort. However, you benefit from high traffic, which in turn takes time to build up.

5. Collect donations

Admittedly, it doesn’t work often. But some blogs and web magazines are successful in raising funds. Patreon is a way for your site visitors to transfer you a self-determined monthly subscription to support you.

Artists, in particular, use this way to realize their projects.
However, this requires a high level of reliability on your part. Your supporters regularly expect exclusive content. A certain amount of time is also necessary for community management and maintaining relationships with your supporters.

6. Sell your own products

This opportunity is also one of the hardest but also one of the most rewarding. Having your own online shop is not the only way to make money. E-books, in particular, are a very feasible option.
However, the prerequisite for the financial success of your e-book is that it is of good quality and that you actively promote it.

This is worth it if you find it easy to write on a topic and you are willing to invest the necessary time. This effort, however, has little to do with passive income.

7. A Premium Members Area

A paid members’ area on your site can be worthwhile if you’re an expert in your field and can provide exclusive knowledge and tips. While you offer more general information in the public area of ​​your page and show that you are an expert, in the member’s area you provide content that goes beyond the usual.
This is worthwhile if you have already established yourself and built a community. Likewise, you need to put time and effort into quality content – ask yourself how much value a member’s area needs to offer for you to be willing to pay for it yourself.

Conclusion: Earn money with your own website

There is no art in monetizing a website. However, it is an art to earn at least three-digit sums in this way without making a disproportionate amount of effort.

There are a few exceptions, but most website operators cannot live off the income from their site. If you approach the matter with a realistic idea, it can still be worthwhile and you can get a nice extra income.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about making money with the website