I have been trying to make a go of making money on the internet for nearly 10 years. I’ve found some success, and a lot of failures. Learn from my mistakes.
There are really just a handful of ways to make money:
1) Ad placement
2) Affiliate links
3) Merch/Product sales – Online Store
4) Classes/subscription content
5) Direct donations
Ad placements are probably the most common way people make money on the internet. They create content that other people want to consume, and allow for ads to be placed on that content. Youtube, blogs, news feeds, etc. Adsense is probably the biggest source of ad revenue, but there are others out there. They pay out on both impressions and on clicks. It takes thousands of impressions to earn any appreciative amount of money, clicks earn you a lot more. This is the way you make money as a youtube partner. They have pretty high requirements to be able to display ads on either youtube or other sites. You can also create sponsored content, where you will have some sort of ad read in your conent
Affiliate links are a lot like ad placements, but can be focused to a review or article about a specific product. This is really good for people who review specific products or services, as you can focus your audience on the products you are reviewing. I have found the most success with this kind of revenue, as I review products a lot in youtube videos. They can be A LOT more lenient on what they allow the links to be put on, since they ONLY pay out of a purchase is made through the link. They do not have to worry as much about what kind of content or traffic the ads are going to be put around.
If you have an audience, or make a product. having an online store is a great way to make money. Being able to sell through etsy, ebay, amazon, means you have a large audience already looking for products just like yours. If you have an audience you’ve already built through other means, you can sell them merch with a slogan, catch phrase or other image and make more off of one sale than off of many thousands of views. I personally do not have a lot of experience with this method, but it is a very large and lucrative space to be in, but it does require a lot of work.
If you are an expert in your field, a creator with a large fan base, or have really strong…. Assets. Then you can provide premium content on a subscription base. Everything from patreon, skill share, and even onlyfans gives people a chance to pay for specific content, and access to creators. A lot of creators have their own websites with content behind pay walls. This allows for content to be accessed only by those paying directly to the creators. This option is great for people who already have a large fan base, or offer content that covers a specific topic, something that people will seek out.
The last way I’ll briefly discuss in this post is through direct donations. This could be through paypal/venmo apps, some sort of crowd funding site, sending crypto, super chats, or any other type of direct to creator pay. Typically this option really is only viable for larger online creators or ones who come up with a really popular idea that people want to support. It is one of the most direct ways of getting money, as there is very little between the creator of the content and the money given to them.
As an online creator, I work hard to build up my presence online to create content that people hopefully will enjoy and continue to watch. The goal is good content, the money will follow.
-AIC