10 smart ways to monetize a news website in 2022

Looking for ways to monetise your website? Prepare to devote some time and effort into your website. It’s often a slow or rather unpredictable process. Building a subscriber base and learning their behavior takes time. This is why it’s often encouraged to diversify your revenue streams. Have you subscribers as priority but don’t block any channels that could bring you the revenue to keep your newsroom/content team steady.

Let’s start easy, your first step, the universal quality that any successful profit making website would have is - traffic. This is what will bring those dollars into your bank.

Monetization is challenging and often requires a lot of time to get results out of. However by diversifying your revenue channels you are at better odds. Publishers cannot make money without a regular stream of readers. Once you’ve got users interested, it’s important to give them what they’re looking for and more. Remember that the goal is long term revenue.

Subscriptions and affiliate links

Seems like an obvious one doesn’t it? Subscriptions can be tricky if you’re new or trying to scale your business. The number of digital transactions have risen since the introduction of micropayments. It’s important for publishers to look into paywall strategies and find one that would best fit their needs and their audience. There are many paywall models out there but it’s best to start with a hybrid model to understand where your subscribers stand. You can also make revenue by adding affiliate links to have more engagement on your site.

Paid Newsletter

Newsletters have been used around a lot by publishers. Most of them end up in spam folders or witness un-subscriptions on the daily. However, if you’ve got content that can cater to a niche, it’s time to put a price tag on it. Use paid newsletters to improve reader’s experience and make it interactive. You can also use this to provide a hyper-personalized experience for your readers and encourage the mobile-first audience to access the most relevant chunk of content through the comfort of their inbox.

Donation Based Monetization

If you have content that offers value and you need support for your website, you can always just ask for it. With platforms like Discord witnessing success today, it’s a smart decision to create a community of people who would be willing to donate to you. Bigger media houses like - PARI network work solely based on donations. This would require you to be more vocal about your functioning by once you’ve built a community you can depend on steady revenue. You can add donation buttons on your website that allow readers to contribute directly. Promote donations organically and use easy & safe payment gateways to remove any friction.

Sponsored Content

Content wherein your content team and brands come together to collaborate. There’s a thin line between a flat advertisement and a smart one. Remember to use the creative juices of your team to come with content that is engaging and subtle. You can label content as ‘sponsored’ to avoid any misleading messaging. Brands will pay you depending on the traffic and engagement on your website - this could be lucrative as you build your website.

Advertising

This is an easy one. While subscriptions tend to offer an ad-free experience, you could try packages that balance ads in exchange for a lower subscription fee. This way you can have different revenue channels and your readers can look into plans that fit their budget. You can make use of Google Adsense - it’ll show you which ads will be of interest to website users. A little insight can go a long way.

When it comes to ads it’s important to look at the different types of ads you can have. Native ads are shown to have an 18% increase in purchase intent. You could have an inhouse team to create ads for you - native ads that are subtle and video ads for a more immersive experience. Make use of programmatic advertising to get the best results by investing in the right spaces to reach your target audience.

Paid reviews on goods and services

Reliable reviews supersede product descriptions today. If you have a dedicated audience, you can look into relevant brands that would peak their interest and write reviews for them. A good product review can be charged as it could lead readers to their homepage while also promoting the brand. You do, however, want to ensure autonomy of the review lest you find yourself having to lie to please a brand. This would also backfire quickly and leave you with no-one who trusts your reviews.

Webinars

If you have subject experts, it’s always a good idea to encourage webinars. Not only do they globalize learning, it also promotes branding. A webinar needn’t be more than an hour long. You can include concise information about topics you hold expertise in and share it with the target crowd. Encouraging discussions and interactions will further provide readers a chance to voice their feedback and opinions in a more constructive platform. Once you’ve organized a few webinars, you can start collecting registration fees and expand your efforts with the revenue.

Pay Per Click Advertising

PPC is an online advertising model where website owners earn income each time a reader clicks on an ad. Google Adsense is a popular tool for the same. You can easily place ads across your website or blog. Google helps publishers carry this out with ease and they even have tutorials to ensure you don’t have trouble. As a publisher, you can place ads that are relevant to the content to have maximum impressions and enjoy the passive income coming your way.

E-Commerce

Many content creators and bloggers have started creating and selling their merchandise or content to create the income stream. If you’re a food website or a travel website e-commerce is something you must consider. Depending on your content, you can sell products or services online. Such as - e-books, magazines, niche specific products, webinars etc.