WHEN SHOULD YOU START MONETIZING YOUR SITE

So, you have got a website, and you are thinking about when and how should you monetize your site?

Website monetization is crucial to your website investing strategy, it will not only help you return your initial investment, but it will also help you start making a profit.

Furthermore, website monetization will also determine the value of your site, this typically tends to be between 35-55 multiples based on your monthly revenue.

So, let’s get to it then!

WHEN SHOULD YOU START MONETIZING YOUR SITE?

Here’s the deal: to generate sales from affiliates or get money from display ads, you need one crucial thing, and that’s traffic.

Without traffic, there is no money.

So, you will first need to start getting some traffic to your site (either from organic search or from socials)

When you start getting traffic, my suggestion would be to start monetizing immediately.

HOW MUCH TRAFFIC DO I NEED TO START MONETIZING?

Now, this can be anywhere between 100 to 1000 visitors per month. There is no fixed answer.

But what you need to remember is, that the more traffic you have, the more money you will be making through monetization.

So, if you decide to monetize when you have 100 visits per month, that won’t really make you much money.

Typically, the average earnings per 1,000 pageviews with display adverts across niches will come out to a range of $12-18 for most sites.

So, you can do the maths.

However, this can be driven even higher by optimizing the Ad placement, the quality of the content, and the type of content.

DISPLAY ADVERTS

Now that you have traffic, you need to consider one more thing – the number of blog posts you currently have on your site.

Most legit display adverts companies will require a minimum amount of blog posts for them to accept you.

Let’s take a look.

GOOGLE ADSENSE

To apply for the easiest entry display adverts (Adsense) you need a minimum of 30 quality blog posts. You will also need to have a contact page on the site.

It’s worth noting that the age of your site also matters. If you are a brand new site, often Adsense would require your site to be a minimum of 6 months old.

However, this isn’t a fixed requirement, as many sites can still be accepted even if they are not 6 months old.

Adsense doesn’t have a minimum traffic requirement, however, as I mentioned above, what’s the point in sticking display ads, if there are no visitors to your site?

So, make sure you have these 3 things covered first; traffic, site’s age, and 30 blog posts if you want to start monetizing with display adverts.

EZOIC

Ezoic typically pays more than Adsense, and at Niche Website Builders, we always recommend to our clients that they skip Adsense and go straight for Ezoic.

However, Ezoic has slightly stricter requirements.

Here’s a list:

ALL SITES MUST COMPLY WITH GOOGLE’S POLICIES.

This includes:

• No invalid clicks / impressions
• Not falsely encouraging clicks
• Not offering copyrighted material / downloads
• Not offering counterfeit goods
• The site should have reliable traffic sources 
• Sites shouldn’t redirect users to undesirable pages / sites / pop-ups or pop-unders
• Gambling content – click here for more info
• Not using automatically generated content
• Not creating empty pages with no original content
• Not using content that is copied from other webpages
• Not keyword stuffing
• Not using adult / dangerous / derogatory content
• Not offering alcohol / tobacco / healthcare related content 
• Not using aggressive / threatening content
• Not using illegal content

This all sounds fair enough though. They are basically only allowing legit sites.

WHAT ABOUT TRAFFIC?

Now, it used to be 10,000 visits per month, however, Ezoic scrapped that off.

They haven’t got an official number that you need to hit in order for them to accept you, but some webmasters claim that if you don’t have at least 1,000 visits per month, they will just instantly reject you.

Saying that it’s just like the Adsense scenario, they typically require the sites to be at least six months old, but they can allow sites that are not six months old. So, the only way to find out is to apply and see if they accept you.

NUMBER OF BLOG POSTS

You will need a minimum of 50 blog posts on your site in order to increase your chance to be accepted in Ezoic.

But once again, this is not an official requirement by Ezoic, but it’s known that typically you would need 50 posts to get accepted.

And this is pretty much it for Ezoic.

MONETIZATION THROUGH AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

Now that we covered display adverts, let’s look at another option to monetize your site, and that’s with affiliate programs.

Monetization through affiliates is simple – you sign up for some affiliate programs, and you link their products to your site, when you make a sale, you get a commission.

The % will very much depend on the affiliate program you are signed up for, furthermore, the niche you are in will also determine.

Some niches will be better paid in commission than others.

WHEN SHOULD I SIGN UP FOR AFFILIATE PROGRAMS?

It’s easy to monetize through display adverts, but affiliates can make you more money.

A good monetization strategy is to monetize through every single method you can possibly use. Typically this will include display adverts + affiliates, it shouldn’t necessarily be one or the other.

Signing up for affiliate programs isn’t as easy as display adverts, however, the Amazon Affiliate is the easiest entry.

The problem with the Amazon Affiliate Program is that the commission is typically very, very low compared to other affiliate programs. And the % keeps dropping.

So, if you are looking at higher-paying affiliate programs, you can do a bit of research and find affiliate programs within your niche, and sign up.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact requirements for all affiliate programs, as they all individually have their own requirements for entry.

Most affiliate programs are free to enter and are pretty straightforward.

However, typically, you would need to be an established website, with consistent traffic coming through.

OTHER WAYS TO MONETIZE YOUR SITE

Now that we have covered the most common monetization methods, let’s take a look at some other methods for website monetization.

1. Courses

If you are knowledgeable in your field, and you feel like there is more value you can bring to your readers than just blog posts, make a course – and sell it!

You can have a “buy course” option on your website so that is visible.

You can also advertise this course through different methods, including within your blog posts in order for you to generate sales.

2. Write a Book!

If you are in the food niche, or any other niche really, you can write a book about your expertise within that niche. Doesn’t have to be printed, it can be a downloadable version.

3. Sell Products Directly To Your Readers!

If you specialize in physical goods (or even digital goods) you can sell them directly, instead of signing up for some affiliate programs.

SUMMARY:

Traffic is key in order for you to make money through your website.

If you have the traffic, monetization is the easy sweet step. Getting the traffic is the hardest bit, so, once you get some traffic coming to your website, start monetizing ASAP.

If you do need a hand or expert advice, get in touch with Niche Website Builders – we are experts in the field and we will be happy to help you out!