When you start an affiliate business, much of your energy will likely go on getting your site up and running, creating a vast library of content, and then striking deals with casinos and sportsbooks to monetize your site.
Historically, the only way to monetize was through these deals but in the ultra-competitive world of affiliate marketing, generating multiple revenue streams is crucial for long-term success. Below, we talk through some of the ways you can do this.
Displaying Ads on Pages
One of the easiest ways to monetize your affiliate business is to open up your pages for ads. You can include banners at the top of them, along with others down the side.
To get people to pay for ads on your page, you’ll need to have built up a large enough monthly audience first. But once you do, it can become potentially lucrative over time.
Imposing a Paywall
Have you noticed that many of your favorite publications have gated their content in recent years? There’s a reason for this: Good content costs money. You might feel a little unethical putting your information and insight behind a paywall, but it’s important to ensure that you’re compensated for your efforts.
When you do put content behind a paywall, it’s worth allowing a selection of free content per month. Doing so will tempt readers into wanting more, making them more likely to pay. You can increase your earnings by offering discounted packages for those that pay annually.
Creating Exclusive Subscriber Content
You don’t necessarily need to put any of your affiliate website’s content behind a paywall. These days, you’ll find plenty of additional ways to attract an audience and generate income for your business.
One of the best ways for content creators to monetize themselves is by putting together exclusive content for subscribers. You can use a tool like Patreon to set up subscriptions and take payments.
Creating premium content might seem daunting, but it’s actually straightforward. All you need to do is content with added value that site visitors will be willing to pay for.
Video and Audio Content
YouTube has exploded in recent years, and it offers a great avenue for you to monetize your content in the long run. You’ll need to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours to be eligible – but after that, you can start to earn an income.
When you allow ads to run on your YouTube videos, you’ll receive revenue when they’re played all the way through. You can also run ads on a podcast using other platforms, which will bring in additional money over time.
Things to Keep in Mind When Monetizing Your Affiliate Business
When monetizing your affiliate business, it’s important not to sacrifice the user experience. Placing too many ads on your website can impact page speeds and annoy users, which will stop them from revisiting – and could also impact your search engine rankings.
Meanwhile, running too many ads on YouTube will stop people from watching your videos – meaning that the investment – both in terms of time and money – could go to waste. Try to be strategic but not greedy.