WordPress websites are a great way to earn money online. It has a user- friendly interface that makes it easy for beginners to learn their way around it and it is also compatible with a wide range of plugins, both paid and free. This makes WordPress a popular platform among individuals and businesses who want to share their content, products and services to a global audience. Whatever the size of your business is, there are many ways to earn from your WordPress website and in this article, we will explore the 5 ways to do just that!
The advantages of having an online income
An online income has several advantages. WordPress being an easy to use platform is just a cherry on top! Since we are going to talk about 5 ways to earn money online using a WordPress website, let’s take a look at some of the advantages of having an online income in the first place.
1. You will have more flexibility
The best part about having a platform to earn money online is the flexibility it offers. You have the freedom to set your own schedule and choose your own work location as long as you have an internet connection.
2. A better work- life balance
With greater flexibility you have the perfect balance between work and personal life. You can take care of all your personal needs and fulfill your responsibilities while having an online income to provide with the financial support to sustain it.
3. Lower investments
You will save a lot of money because you do need to invest in a physical office space or invest in inventory or even hire more employees. This means that you will get a good chunk of the profit that your business generates.
4. Reach wider audiences
If you have the right tricks up your sleeve, your online business will reach a wide global audience. Even if you are not running an online business and are just sharing your content, it still has the potential to reach wider audiences than the content that is published in a book or a newspaper.
5. Much easier to scale up or down
It is much easier to scale your online business. If you want to expand, you won’t have much expenses as you would have with a physically run business. This makes it much easier and faster to grow your business.
6. The potential to earn passive income
Some of the methods to earn an online income that will be discussed here can help you generate passive income over time. So even if you are not actively working you will still be earning money.
5 ways to use WordPress websites to earn money online
Now that we know the advantages of having an online income, let’s look at the 5 ways to earn money using your WordPress website.
- Ad placement and display advertising
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling digital products
- Membership sites and paid subscriptions
- Sponsored content and sponsored posts
But before you consider any of these methods, you need to have a WordPress website first! If you don’t have one already, then we’ll help you with it. The first step is to choose a domain name, then you have to select a hosting provider who will help you get online.
Once all of that is sorted, you are ready to earn!
1. Ad placement and display advertising
To earn money using this technique, you need to have a good number of visitors to your website. For this, you have to provide them with good high quality content. Make sure that your audience is engaged with your website. Once you have reached this goal, you can start signing up for ad networks that offer display advertising options.
Google AdSense, Media.net and AdThrive are some of the good options to choose from. These networks will then review your website. They will evaluate your website and check if it meets their guidelines and content.
Once the website is approved, you will receive a code from them. Place this code on your website to be able to display ads. There are WordPress plugins available to insert the code. Many ad networks provide you with these plugins or they give you instructions to insert the code.
You need to decide where to display the ad carefully. Make sure that it has maximum visibility while ensuring that it does not annoy your visitors! You can place the ads within content, in the sidebar or at the top or bottom of the page. You just need to ensure that it is very visible without negatively affecting user experience.
You have to be wise when using ad formats. You will get many options from your network. Before choosing any of these for the long term, you could experiment with the formats and see which works best for you.
Regularly monitor the performance of the ads and stay updated. If everything works out well, this will be a great way to earn money using your WordPress website.
2. Affiliate marketing
To use affiliate marketing as a method to earn money through your WordPress website, you will first need to select a niche that interests you and has the potential to gain an audience that could buy these services or products. So your website and its content should have the capacity to attract these potential customers.
Next, you have to find the perfect affiliate program relevant to your niche and join it. Again, your website will be evaluated before you can promote their products or services.
After that you can choose the products or services that are best suited for your audience.
You will have to create content that organically integrates these products/ services and the affiliate links. You could do product reviews, create tutorials or make a list of recommendations to promote these products.
When your visitors click the affiliate link and purchase the product/ service you will earn a commission.
The key to successfully using this method is to create a loyal audience base and make them trust you.
3. Selling digital products
Decide which type of digital product you want to sell. Some of your options could include e-books, online courses, design templates, music and a lot more. You should carefully research the needs and preferences of your target audience.
Once you have created a high- quality product/ content/ service you need to install an e-commerce WordPress plugin like WooCommerce. After successfully completing this step, you will have your own online store! Integrate a payment gateway so that all transactions are safe and secure.
Make sure that the landing pages offer great detail regarding your products/ services and include high quality images as well. You will need to learn how to climb up in the search engine rankings to gain visibility. Constantly improve your marketing techniques.
It will also be a good idea to deliver your digital products automatically to the customers after their purchase. You will find many plugins that have built- in mechanisms for this type of deliveries to be implemented securely.
Once you have started seeing a growth in your customer base, you should continuously update and improve your products as well as your WordPress website!
4. Membership sites and paid subscriptions
This method is great if you want to generate recurring income. Just as mentioned in the previous method, firstly you will need to select your niche.
After you have selected your niche, you have decided what kind of exclusive content or benefits you will be offering to your subscribers. You also need to define the different levels of access/ benefits you want to offer.
For example, you will have a free subscription and then you will have premium membership. The premium membership plans can have varying levels of benefits, more features and access as we get to higher tiers. The price of the plans would vary too.
Next, select your preferred membership plugin, like MemberPress or Restrict Content Pro and then go ahead with the installation.
Once all of this is planned out and set up, you can start working on the exclusive content and features that you are going to offer. This can be detailed tutorials, in- depth online courses, webinars etc.
Keep in mind that this has to be of great value to your customers. People will only opt for exclusive memberships if you provide them with content that is useful for them.
You can provide more advantages to the paid subscribers in the higher tiers, such as private forum access, exclusive events, personalized support, live sessions etc. Keep your content fresh and unique while maintaining high quality.
5. Sponsored content and sponsored posts
To earn money online using this method, you will have to be in partnership with brands or companies that are willing to use your WordPress website to promote their products. They will only partner with you if you have a strong online presence. Also, select companies that make products that are closely related to your content.
So the first step is to create a strong online presence by creating high- quality content that is engaging and useful for your target audience. This ensures that you will be having a loyal audience. You need to maintain this high level of content viewership to attract sponsors and make them trust your content quality.
Another thing you can do to attract and convince companies for sponsorship is by creating a compelling pitch. This should include the value of your website, audience demographics and ultimately how they will benefit from the sponsorship. You can also create a page that is entirely dedicated to highlight sponsorship opportunities that your website offers.
You also have to determine the pricing for different types of sponsored content. Some of the factors you can consider while doing this include target audience size, engagement metrics and content type.
It is beneficial to maintain long- term relationships with sponsors that are good for you. And for this you have to consistently deliver them best results.
Some other points to consider regarding this method include transparency. Make sure that the sponsorship is clearly disclosed. Another point is that you should stay authentic.
Partner with brands or companies that match your values and your audience. This helps you create content that is unique, real and appealing. It also increases and maintains the trust of your audience.
Summing it up
Having an online income source is great as it offers you flexibility, better work- life balance, has lower investment costs, you reach wider audiences, has much easier scalability and has the potential to help you earn a passive income.
Using a WordPress website to do this is much better because WordPress is a lot easier to learn and use.
In this article we have discussed 5 ways to earn online income using a WordPress website. You can use ad placements and display advertisements on your website to earn an income from ad networks. Affiliate marketing is also a good option for you if you are able to create a loyal audience base. Selling digital products/ services online is another great way to earn online.
Membership sites and paid subscriptions are a good option if you have the desirable content to cater to the needs of your target audience. Lastly, sponsored content and sponsored posts are very good for earning online. This method may seem quite intimidating at first, but it is one of the best ways to earn an online income through your content.
We hope you found this article helpful. If you liked this article, then stay tuned to explore new and interesting topics.