Unlock Your Content's Earning Potential: A Comprehensive Guide To Monetization In 2024

We publish content on our blog and social media for a purpose - to earn money.

Earning money online is not easy though. It's a grind.

You have to show up daily, do your thing, get traffic to your content, and grow your followers and lists before monetizing your content.

However, monetization opportunities for your content have grown in leaps and bounds.

Let's see some of the distribution channels for our content and the monetization opportunities.

Blogger

If you are a blogger and have a website, you can monetize your blog through:

Display Ads

You can publish ads on your blog through ad networks like Google's Adsense, Ezoic, Mediavine, Raptive, etc.

They use a metric called RPM (Revenue Per Mile) to determine how much to pay you. Some of them use a different terminology for RPM, but it's all the same. The 'Mile' here means, every 1000 sessions of traffic to your blog.

The rates vary from one niche to another and they are different every month.

Some companies also use the CTR (Click Through Rate) metric. So you will earn only when someone clicks on the ads.

Affiliate Marketing

If you have a blog, you can earn a commission as an affiliate of products and services. Most of the blogs publish reviews type of articles to promote products they are an affiliate of.

Bloggers tend to write reviews even if they have never used the products. It is unethical to write fake reviews. However, companies don't mind, and neither do the bloggers.

But Google does. Their Product Reviews Update entails their policy to write genuine reviews.

Email Marketing

Every blogger should have an email list. If you don't, then start building one A.S.A.P.

You can monetize your email list through sponsors, affiliate products, brand partnerships, and digital products.

To get sponsors for your emails, you have to reach out to the advertisers through outbound or inbound strategies. ConvertKit has a sponsorship network to help you get sponsors too, if you meet their eligibility criteria.

Lastly, you can also monetize your newsletter through platforms like Substack, Ghost, and Patreon.

Publishing Networks

If you like to write articles, then you can write on Medium. Medium's Partner program is based on the engagement of your articles with your readers. You can also earn when readers sign up through your referral link. You can create your own paid publications too that have exclusive content.

Creator

Almost all social media platforms have earning programs for the creators.

Facebook and Instagram have their Reels Play bonus program and In-stream ads along with others.

X also shares ad revenue with the creators. You can earn through the Creators Reward Program, Subscriptions, Ticketed Spaces, and Tips.

Although LinkedIn does not have a direct earning program like others, you can sell courses on LinkedIn Learning and earn royalties.

YouTube has its Partner Program too where you can earn a share of the revenue they earn from ads if you meet their eligibility criteria.

We have covered some of these programs in detail in our other articles.

If you are a creator and are just starting, keep in mind that the eligibility requirements for most of these programs are very high. Unless you have a large number of social followers or viewers for your content, monetization on social media platforms is very difficult to achieve.

Influencer

There is a fine line of difference between a Creator and an Influencer [Link to the article].

So, if you are an Influencer, you can earn from Amazon's Influencer program [Link to the article]. You can earn commissions if people buy the products from Amazon through your videos.

You can also work with brands for sponsorships, ambassadorship, speaking engagements, etc.

Podcaster

If you are a podcaster, you can earn through networks like Midroll or Acast.

You can offer exclusive episodes or ad-free versions through platforms like Stitcher Premium or Spotify's Subscriber-only podcasts.

You can work with brands for sponsorships.

You can also re-purpose podcasts into books and courses. Or offer consulting services.

What's Next?

As you can see, earning opportunities abound for every type of content you create online.

If you feed the algorithms with fresh content consistently, you will grow your followers, get traffic, and eventually earn. It's a long process, but very much doable.

But remember, monetization is the last part of the puzzle. If you are just starting, first pick your niche, then create content and distribute or market them. Do this consistently over time and you will start getting traction.

If your content sucks or you have chosen the wrong platform to market your content, there is no point in thinking about monetization.