Website Monetization and Managed Advertising Programs

Website monetization, like many other areas of digital publishing, should be thought of as investing: specifically, you’re investing in growing your business. Think about how you built your blog or publishing business. Most of us started as writers or video creators, possessing the skills needed to create basic content about a topic. Over time, we acquired additional skills that helped us grow our business more quickly (SEO, social media, and email) or operate more efficiently (WordPress, video editing, and outsourcing). As we progressed, we combined these skills to create a competitive advantage.

Publisher Monetization University, the Content Connect guide to website monetization, takes a similar approach. We’re going to start with the basics of website monetization, which are the simple managed advertising programs that require minimal effort from you. These are enough to start generating income without you having to learn additional marketing or technical skills. However, there are higher levels of monetization you can unlock once you master the basics. These may require you to learn new marketing and technical skills, which you can combine in order to grow the commercial side of your business.

As the principal investor in your business, you’ve got a strategic choice to make: Given a limited number of hours to spend on your digital business, do you earn more from accelerating your content creation (more traffic) or going deeper on monetization (more profit per visitor)?

With that in mind, let’s explore the most basic monetization option: setting up a managed advertising program.