Websites make a tremendous amount of money and are responsible for billions of pounds entering the UK economy every year. But the dot com world has become an incredibly competitive landscape. Is it really possible to make money from a website you manage in your spare time at home?
Audience
If you are looking for a quick answer, yes you can make money from a part-time website. However, you need to have the site trust and content value to bring in an audience. This is possible to do completely DIY, but it will likely take months or years of grinding on site testing and SEO (prepare for spending hours and hours a week) before you can completely focus on the content that brings viewers in.
If you are looking to get started quick, you need to think of your site like a business, and almost all businesses need investment. It is well worth paying an agency to help you get started quickly, as this will save you a lot of time that you can instead invest in making valuable content for your visitors. An agency has experience in many different aspects of web design and development that you would otherwise have to learn, and there is a lot that you have to learn to build a modern website. Take a look at the services offered by this website design agency in Birmingham:
- Web design
- Mobile design
- Responsive web design
- Web development
- Content management systems
- Search Engine Optimisation
- PPC management
- Social media
All these are crucial elements of running a successful website in 2020.
Monetization
Once you have a significant audience, you can think about monetization. Here are different ways that most blog-type sites make money:
Email Marketing
Email marketing can be the biggest money-maker for your site. Build an email list that helps to build a solid brand and send out non-spammy emails that entice viewers to check out your latest content. Once you have a good email list you can start to profit from email promotions (email content with affiliate links). Some people build up email lists just to sell them on, but this isn’t a sustainable money-making approach.
Affiliate Content
Once you have good content and a strong viewer base, you can start to insert affiliate links that generate a commission payment when they are clicked. These are good for webmasters as they allow you to be selective and only use affiliate links from relevant products. Almost all products have affiliate programs, so if you are writing a blog that would mention a specific product, why not get in touch with the business and start a dialogue?
Premium Options
If your site offers good content, it might be worth having premium options like small memberships to view more than 10 pieces of content a week. Otherwise, you could offer them even better content than the content you already provide, but for a price. If you write blogs, you could have a premium option webinar where viewers ask questions and interact with you.
These 3 forms of monetization can be highly profitable, but they rely on having a great site that brings value to viewers. That should be your priority and it should come before making money for at least 6 months while you build up trust.
