How to Make Money with a Website? 30 Ways to Monetize a Personal Website

Learned from Naibabijihow to build a website, so the next question is how to make money with a website?

How to make money by building a website? Naiba has summarized Google AdSense and various online website monetization methods, sharing a total of 9 major categories, comprising30 Ideas and Directions for Making Money with Personal Websites。

9 categories and 30 ways to make money with a website

There are many ways to make money online. The 9 major categories and 30 methods collected and shared in this article hope to provide you withMaking Money by Building Websitesfind a direction.

I. Website Content Monetization

Monetizing website content may require the website to have a certain amount of traffic to be easily achieved, especially since PC traffic itself is relatively scarce nowadays.

Affiliate Marketing

NaibabijiIt is believed that affiliate marketing should be one of the easiest ways for individual webmasters to make money through their websites.

Why is Affiliate Marketing the Easiest Way to Make Money Through a Website?

Affiliate marketing only requires your website to have a certain fixed user base. If they are vertical users, the monetization potential is even stronger. For example, when beginners build websites, they often visit various blogs recommending VPS to read articles. These blogs earn commissions through server referral affiliate programs.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

In simple terms, affiliate marketing can be understood as you earning referral commissions by attracting others to purchase products or services through your referral links. It can also be understood as affiliate promotion.

The most common affiliate marketing is Taobao Affiliate (Jingdong, Suning, and other e-commerce platforms have their own affiliate promotion platforms).

Additionally, major cloud server providers also have affiliate programs. For example, if you click on:Alibaba Cloud和Tencent Cloudthe link to purchase a server, Naiba will receive a certain commission.

Websites that are exceptionally good at affiliate marketing: Smzdm (What's Worth Buying)

Smzdm (What's Worth Buying) is a website that started with Taobao Affiliate (Taobao Ke) and is now listed. They have affiliate partnerships with many e-commerce platforms. Of course, at their level, they don't rely solely on affiliate income; they can also earn money through advertising fees and other methods.

Advertising Network

Displaying ads on a website by joining an ad network is an easy way to make money. However,Making money through ad networks requires the website to have a certain amount of traffic.

For example, an advertisement displayed at the end of the comments section of a Naibabiji article. Given the current website traffic of Naibabiji (200 IPs), it's basically just for show—an advertisement that benefits others without generating income. (Because most advertisements are billed per click; significant traffic is needed to earn display fees.)

If you know English, consider creating an English website and joining Google AdSense to earn money. English websites have higher rates (clicking an ad might generate several dollars in revenue).

Some experts directly operate English website networks and can earn thousands of dollars daily. Of course, these are people at the top of the pyramid; ordinary individual site owners find it hard to achieve.

Sell advertising space on the website

Selling ad space on a website requires the website itself to have a certain level of authority, such as the fixed ad placements you see on real estate or automotive websites.

Typically, vertical industry or local service websites find it easier to sell ad space for profit.

Related recommendations:4 Useful Premium WordPress Ad Management Plugins

Website endorsement articles

Website endorsement articles, similar to having a celebrity recommendation.

For example, when a product is first launched and advertised on TV, some people might still distrust it. But if they see you using it and giving a positive review, they might buy the product simply because they trust you.

This is called an endorsement article.

Make money by writing reviews

There are specialized review websites abroad where you can test products and submit reviews to earn a commission. In domestic terms, this is similar to writing positive reviews or soft articles.

Make money by selling websites

Yes, this is also a direct monetization method. When a website achieves certain results but you can't monetize it yourself, you can sell it to someone else and let them figure out how to profit.

Naiba knows of people who build websites in bulk to boost authority and then sell them to others.

II. Membership-based Website

Paid memberships are now more widely accepted domestically, such as music or video memberships. As long as your website has content that others need, you can monetize through paid memberships.

Members-only content

Naibabiji has shared:Method for making a WordPress website accessible only to registered members who have logged in

So you can easily use WordPress to build a website visible only to members.

Of course, the prerequisite is still that your website has articles or resources that these users need.

In recent years, self-media has been extremely popular, especially WeChat Official Accounts. A WeChat article with high readership can earn money simply by inserting ads. Therefore, we can also drive traffic from our website to a WeChat Official Account and monetize through the account.

Tools you will need:Method for implementing WeChat follow-to-view and read more features on WordPress websites

Private forum

Similar to the principle of members-only access mentioned above, building a forum accessible only to specific user groups for user interaction is also a way to monetize a website.

Content monetization is a hot topic this year. Essentially, it's about information asymmetry, as the internet is becoming increasingly closed off, making it harder to find what you want compared to before.

Q&A Community

For example, on professional Q&A platforms like Zhihu or Quora abroad, you can offer paid questions or paid access to answers. You can also place ad spaces, etc.

III. Navigation Directory Websites

This is a niche industry that most people are unaware of: creating a website for a specific industry or directory where websites can be listed for a fee.

Paid Business Directory

Similar to a business directory, for instance, if a user searches forChongqing website development companies, and you happen to run a directory website for web companies in the Chongqing area, you can enable a paid listing feature, charging a few dozen yuan per website. With bulk operations, the revenue can be quite good.

Paid Job Board

You might say that there are already professional websites for job postings. However, you can still find niche areas, such as a job board for your county town. Charging 10 or 20 yuan per job posting wouldn't be considered expensive by anyone.

The key is that job boards in small counties face less competition, and setting one up yourself doesn't require much effort.

Paid Event Calendar

This is a website specifically dedicated to collecting events happening on a particular day. Those needing to publish event information can come to your site to post it.

IV. Selling Digital Goods

This should also be considered a project where individual webmasters can relatively easily earn money through their websites. As long as you have something others don't, and there is demand for it, you can sell it.

For example: For instance, if you encounter problems during website building that you cannot solve yourself, you can pay Naiba to help you solve them. This is also a form of sales, selling your own skills.

Additionally, many online resource-selling websites also monetize by selling virtual goods, such as movie resources, software resources, etc. (Be mindful of copyright issues).

Sell E-books

You can search on Taobao to see if there are any e-books for sale.

E-books can also help you make money through your blog. When you are an expert in a certain field, after summarizing some valuable knowledge into an e-book, you can also sell it through your blog to those in need.

However, this monetization method depends on the quality of your e-book. For example, if you are a food blogger and want to sell an e-book titled 'Healthy Eating List for 30-Year-Olds,' your e-book content should be very comprehensive, including detailed nutrition charts, lists of snacks to eat during the day, types of exercise, etc.

But creating an e-book is also a task that tests one's abilities. The one shared by Naibabiji【Ebook】"Learn to Build Your Own Website Easily, First Edition"feels quite rudimentary. Expecting people to pay for it is unrealistic, so it was shared for free.

Sell Courses Online

Online courses have also been quite popular in recent years. You can build your own website to sell them or sell them on platforms like Tencent Classroom, NetEase Cloud Classroom, or MOOC.

For individual webmasters to make money through online training, besides needing a certain amount of traffic on their website, they also need some personal reputation. Not just anyone can start training and expect people to pay to join.

Friends who work on foreign trade websites should know about the training from MiKe, which has grown very large. Although Naiba understands many aspects of website building, some areas combining foreign trade and websites require expertise from those in the foreign trade field.

Paid Webinars

Paid webinars are similar to websites selling online courses, but webinars are typically live-streamed and often include Q&A sessions. Software like Zoom, AnyMeeting, and Adobe Connect can implement such paid webinar features.

V. Selling Services Online

Offer Freelance Services

This is easy to understand. There are many such platforms both domestically and internationally. Domestically, there are platforms like Zhubajie and Freelancer, while internationally, there are platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and PeoplePerHour.

After gaining sufficient experience with WordPress, many people tend to offer services online, such as Naibabiji'sWebsite Hosting Service。

And those website building companies on the market also provide similar services. As long as you specialize in a particular field, improve website content, and work on website SEO, users will eventually contact you to close deals.

Consulting Business

This is essentially trading experience for money. For example, those real estate influencers on Douyin; specific needs can be messaged to them privately, followed by a consultation fee.

Become a Mentor or Coach

Whatever expertise you have, you can offer mentoring or coaching services in that profession.

VI. Selling Physical Goods Online

Start an E-commerce Business with the WooCommerce Plugin

WooCommerce is a free e-commerce plugin for WordPress. After installation, it enables e-commerce operations. If you want a ready-made solution, you can use paid platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.

Create a T-shirt Store

UseWP-SpreadpluginWith this plugin, you can create an online T-shirt store where users can place orders online and you can produce the T-shirts for them.

WooCommerce Dropshipping Store

Many people in the foreign trade industry are making money through WooCommerce dropshipping. With WooCommerce Dropshipping, customers place orders on your website, and then you find suppliers on platforms like Amazon and Alibaba for one-piece dropshipping, earning the price difference.

VII. Service Platforms

Online Store

Similar to platforms like JD.com and Taobao, you can also build an online store using WordPress, with the help of plugins like WC Vendors and WC Marketplace.

However, you can also use professional e-commerce systems, such as ShopEx, Ecshop, etc.

Auction Website

To create an auction website, you can try using WooCommerce, Auction extensions, or multivendor extensions with WordPress.

Job Marketplace Website

Abroad, there are many freelance platforms, such as Fiverr, UpWork, and Freelancer. This type of website is actually a model of the sharing economy, similar to platforms like Didi Chuxing and Meituan.

In WordPress, download one calledmicro-job engineSuch a Theme can create such a website.

VIII. For Website Designers & Developers

Develop Website Plugins

Nowadays, there are fewer people sharing WordPress research, but more people are using WordPress to build websites, so market demand is still high. If you know PHP development, you can create and sell website plugins. For example,Lightning Blogis to develop and profit from paid WordPress plugins.

Sell Website Themes

If you have design skills, you can also create and sell website themes. The acceptance of genuine WordPress themes is quite high now. Besides WordPress, there are many other blogging systems where you can consider creating and selling paid themes.

Sell Images

If you have graphic design skills, you can also help people with photo editing (P图), as many people don't know how to design images.

IX. User Appreciation

If you still have money in WeChat, you can tip Naiba. Let Naiba feel the appreciation.Website Monetization Methods。

Which Method is Easiest to Make Money?

The over 30 website monetization models introduced in this article all have one prerequisite: the website has a certain amount of traffic or visibility; an empty framework alone cannot generate profit.

For individual website owners, the first basic condition to make money through a website is that the site has a certain amount of traffic.

If your website has only a few or dozens of daily IPs, then just focus on writing your blog posts; don't think about making money—it's basically impossible.

For individual website owners, the easiest ways to monetize a website are: affiliate marketing, selling virtual products, and ad monetization.

Additionally, if there is demand in your county, running a local website might be easier to monetize than other types.

Thoughts on Monetizing a Personal Blog

In recent years, fewer and fewer people have been able to persist in updating personal blogs consistently. Many personal bloggers doubt whether running a personal blog website is still meaningful and if they can make money from blogging.

Here, Naiba quotes a comment from SEO expert Zac for you to ponder carefully.

In most cases, building a personal blog nowadays is not very meaningful. Personally, I think it only makes sense in two situations:

First, being highly focused on a specific field, and is an expert in this field,Build reputation, authority, and personal brand by writing high-quality articles, then rely on the brand to find other monetization methods., rather than relying on the blog's search traffic.

The second is to use the blog system, such as WordPress,as a CMSonly,into other types of websites. WordPress is an excellent website building tool. Nowadays, many corporate websites are also built with WordPress, and they have little to do with blogs.

If you only write superficial articles in a broad field, or even reposted ones, without personal viewpoints or originality, then it's better not to do it.

Naiba's view on personal blogs is similar to that of the great Zac, so the current focus of Naibabiji isTeaching people how to build websites, and then look for monetization methods after the website gains some reputation.

Using WordPress as a CMS is suitable for corporate websites. If individual website owners don't have the resources to sell products, making it into a CMS model will likely turn into a broad-field site with shallow articles and become a junk site, making it difficult to persist and earn money from the website.

However, if you are recording your own life, it still has some meaning, and you can also make many friends in the process of blogging.

AboutHow to make money from a websiteThis article has introduced so many ways, hoping everyone can build a profitable website.

You might also want to know about：

• How much does it cost to build a website
• Steps and process of building a website
• Paid WordPress enterprise website building