Thousands of prosperous website owners miss out on money every day. You may make significantly more money from your website than the majority of website owners do from ad revenue by using tools like Ezoic. However, over the years, content creators of all stripes have made billions—yes, billions—of dollars through a variety of tried-and-true, profitable, non-ad related methods.
Here are five of the easiest non-ad related money streams you can start utilizing to increase your monthly website revenue by at least $3000.
1. Online Courses
In its most basic form, most websites give people information — answers, solutions, and help in creative, entertaining, convenient ways.
There are plenty of ways to deliver that information — articles and eBooks, podcasts and videos, etc. Online courses are an excellent method to deliver your site’s information in more nuanced, specific, or expansive ways (and are popular products that have been accepted by the masses for years). As Influencer Marketing Hub put it:
“Are online courses profitable? Yes. They’re actually one of the best business models you can adopt as a digital business because they’re in demand and more and more people are willing to pay top dollar for them.”
According to Think Impact, the overall online learning market was valued at around $200 billion a couple of years ago and has continued to see steady growth, helping content creators make enormous website revenue. You could spend dozens of hours researching how to make an online course, but the premise is simple: your website has fans who want more of your content, and if you can give them special, exclusive, unique, more convenient, or more quality content, they’ll pay you for it if you package it in an online course.
It’s simply a matter of writing/recording your content, putting the information in videos/articles, and selling that product through your site. Online courses are a great starter product for your audience, and you can expect to see strong sales rates from your newsletters and promotional posts about it.
2. Coaching Programs
Coaching has become one of the fastest growing business industries in the world — the ease of virtual communication paired with the need for training in the post-pandemic world has made online coaching an extremely lucrative industry.
If you’re used to writing and producing content for your website, the work is already almost done. All coaching entails is simply teaching one or more people that information live.
In essence, coaching is just another way to deliver information. It’s also one of the most lucrative income streams a site can have because you can’t put a price on results — you can charge significant amounts of money, and people will be happy to pay if it gets them what they want.
Take dog training. It’s a very popular topic — plenty of new dog owners want to have a good dog. You can’t really put a price on teaching a family how to have a well-trained obedient dog, and you could realistically charge anywhere from $20/hour to $200, depending on the result you can deliver.
Whatever you’re already teaching your audience on your website can easily be translated into a coaching package. Many website owners make the majority of their income through coaching alone because they already have all the ingredients: their customers, the information, and the method of delivering it to them.
3. Affiliate Links
While this income stream isn’t particularly new, it’s still a wildly successful option. In addition to ad revenue, you can start including hyperlinks to relevant products or services in your content.
Here are some examples to help inspire you:
- If you write about personal growth and self-improvement, start including affiliate links to popular/relevant books, courses, and coaching programs about that topic
- If you make videos about traveling abroad, start including affiliate links to transportation methods (plane/bus/taxi tickets, etc.), hotel/hostel discounts, or festival/event experiences
- If you help people with fitness/nutrition, consider linking to popular workout equipment, supplements, or diet programs
This takes a bit of manual work. But it doesn’t take much to start seeing a significant website revenue stream in — all it takes is one optimized post full of current, helpful information to start seeing a spike in traffic and revenue. If you have affiliate links in that article, you can expect to start making more money each month. It’s a natural, low-maintenance income stream that lends itself well to your content.
4. Medium/Quora
One of the easiest ways to start making more money through your website content is simply to put it on other platforms and sites. While social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram don’t pay you directly for views or traffic, other sites do.
Read Also: What is The Highest Paying Work From Home Job?
Medium has become one of the most popular writing sites in the world. It’s been steadily increasing in views per month, regularly attracting hundreds of millions of views each quarter, and it’s continuing to grow. Quora has similar traffic and has also become one of the premiere go-to websites for information and answers.
Medium pays writers based on their audience traffic and read time, and you can take advantage of this simply by putting your website content on Medium as well. Quora recently launched a similar program for writers called Quora+, paying content creators for their monthly traffic and engagement.
Adding your existing and future content to these kinds of sites is an excellent way to maximize your website revenue for virtually no extra work. Why not get paid directly for your traffic and views, while also attracting new readers who are actually looking for your kind of content?
5. Membership Access
In the past few years, paid newsletters and exclusive membership access have become normalized and viable for website owners. This income stream’s best strength is providing website owners with consistent monthly income they can count on and plan for.
There are plenty of tools that help you accomplish this setup. Substack is one of the largest paid newsletter platforms, and several others like Ghost are also gaining prominence. Essentially, you invite your readers to pay a small monthly fee (around $5 to $10) to get access to exclusive gated content. You might provide more specific content, longer articles, or more nuanced answers and information for your more active users who want more of your work.
$10 a month might not seem like a lot, but multiply that by 10, 50, or even 100 users, and you can see massive growth really quickly. It’s a great outlet for more nuanced and specific content that you can leverage into more monthly income.
The key to making a successful membership income stream is to give content your users can’t really find elsewhere. You can leverage your story, your personal experience, or your deep knowledge about a niche aspect of your particular topics that readers will be hard-pressed to find in other places.
What is the Easiest Form of Passive Income?
Making money without having to labor actively all the time is known as passive income. You put in the most work up front, and a little extra work here and there keeps the money coming in. Consider creating an online course, for instance. All you have to do to keep making money off of it is provide infrequent updates.
There’s a saying that goes, “Make money while you sleep.” The main allure of passive income is that. Even when you’re not actively working on them, projects like blogging, courses, ebooks, videos, and online stores can bring in money.
These are some examples of dividend-paying assets that can generate a stream of passive income.
1. Dividend stocks
One way to build an income stream is to invest in dividend stocks, which distribute part of the company’s earnings to investors on a regular basis (typically quarterly). The best dividend stocks increase their payout over time, helping you grow future income.
As a bonus, dividend stocks typically are less volatile than growth stocks, so they can help diversify and even stabilize your investment portfolio. Investors can also choose to reinvest dividends back into the stock, potentially increasing your investment if the stock does well.
2. Dividend index funds and exchange-traded funds
You can also invest in index funds or exchange-traded funds that hold dividend stocks rather than picking and choosing individual stocks to buy. This is a form of passive investing for those who prefer a more hands-off approach.
Index funds hold a well-rounded selection of many stocks that aim to mirror the performance of a given index, such as the S&P 500. A dividend ETF or index fund will invest in a selection of stocks that pay dividends. Index funds can help balance portfolio risk, as market swings tend to be less volatile across an index compared with individual stocks.
Dividend ETFs offer the diversification benefits of index funds while mimicking the ease with which stocks are traded. To invest in dividend stocks, index funds, ETFs or other publicly traded assets, you’ll need to open a brokerage account if you don’t already have one.
3. Bonds and bond index funds
Rather than buy an ownership stake in a company through stock, bonds are a way for investors to lend money to companies — as well as federal, state and local governments — and collect interest income. Bonds are considered a safer investment than stocks, but also generally earn a lower return on your investment.
Experts suggest investing a portion of your portfolio in bonds because of their lower volatility and relative safety compared to stocks, then having a higher ratio of bonds in your portfolio the closer you are to your investing goal (such as retirement).
4. Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
If you want to build passive income from real estate without the fuss and bother (not to mention the hefty down payment) of buying and managing properties yourself, REITs may be the answer.
Similar to mutual funds, REITs are companies that own commercial real estate, such as office buildings, retail spaces, apartments and hotels. REITs tend to pay high dividends, but they vary in complexity and availability. Some are publicly traded on stock exchanges; others are not.
New investors may want to stick to publicly traded REITs, which you can purchase through an online broker. You can also diversify your real estate holdings by investing in mutual funds or ETFs that track multiple REITs.
5. Money market funds
Like high-yield savings accounts, money market funds are currently paying lucrative interest rates — you can find rates upwards of 4%. Money market funds are mutual funds that invest in lower-risk securities like short-term government debt or corporate bonds that pay income. In some cases, that income may be tax-exempt. Keep in mind that money market funds are not the same as money market accounts, which are more similar to a savings account and typically come with FDIC insurance.
These interest-based ideas are less risky than investments since their rates are set by the Federal Reserve, and there’s no risk of loss of principal. Your money doesn’t risk losing value in these types of interest-based investments the way it does in a stock or fund.
6. High-yield savings accounts
Another way to earn passive income (albeit at a lower level than stocks and bonds) is a high-yield online savings account, which can be ideal for growing your emergency fund. The interest paid by savings accounts is added to your balance.
High-yield accounts are a type of federally insured savings account that earns an interest rate that’s often much higher than the national average. The APY of these high-yield accounts may vary slightly, and over time, those small differences add up to real cash, so it pays to shop around for where you put your savings.
7. CDs
A certificate of deposit is a type of savings account that’s used for a fixed period of time. For example, you might deposit funds in a three-year CD, and in exchange, you’ll receive a fixed interest rate for those three years. This is in contrast to a high-yield savings account, which typically has a variable interest rate.
CDs often pay higher interest rates than savings accounts, because they require you to lock up your money for a set period of time. (You’ll pay a penalty if you want to access your funds before the CD term ends.) If you’re willing to do that, locking in interest rates while they’re high can be well worth it — especially if you expect them to come down soon, as many experts do.
These ideas revolve around owning and renting physical property. Some, like buying a rental property, may feel out of reach, but if you have a spare room you could consider renting it out.
8. Buy a rental property
Investing in real estate to earn rental income is another way to build passive income. Long-term rentals can provide a reliable source of cash if they are located in a healthy market for renters, but they also carry long-term stressors like maintaining those properties, as well as paying multiple mortgages, property tax bills and other costs.
9. Rent out your own house
If you can’t afford to buy an entire rental property you can consider renting out your own residence while you’re away on vacation. AirBnb and Vrbo allow you to set exact dates when people can rent your spot. If you’re away for the summer or over the holidays, it may be an opportunity to earn some extra cash.
10. Get a roommate
If you’re looking to get into real estate, you can also start small: Rent out a room. Getting a roommate will provide regular, most likely monthly, passive income. Unfortunately, it may mean you have to share a bathroom and fridge space.
Bottom line
While not spending your money is one of the best methods to gain money, some suggestions might not directly lead to passive income. Said to be easier said than done, but then so are certain methods of generating passive income. These are the simplest methods of saving money, which you may begin using immediately with no out-of-pocket costs:
Eat less meat. Swapping out ground beef for lentils on taco night has its benefits: According to a 2021 study from Oxford University, vegan diets reduced food costs by as much as one-third.
Reduce your electric bill. Lowering your electricity bill isn’t just about turning off the lights. Changing your showerhead, using smart power strips and doing an energy audit can make a big difference.
Cancel unnecessary subscriptions. According to 2022 research from C&R, Americans spend $219 a month on subscriptions. If you use and enjoy your subscriptions that’s great, but it may be worth an audit to make sure you’re actually using everything you’re paying for.
