Imagine waking up and just receiving notifications of sales from your phone. This can only happen when you have your own business online. The next step to make this a reality is to start your website, specifically with WordPress. In this article, we will give you ideas on making money with WordPress and give practical tips that can get you started.
Almost every business today has its own home on the internet. Whether it’s for your personal coaching business, a product you want to sell, an event you want to organize, software you want to sell, or services you want to provide, a WordPress site is a tool that can help you achieve your business goals.
Now, there are so many options on where you want to choose to build your website. The next section will talk about why WordPress is the best and safest option because of its ease of use and its potential profitability. Aside from that, we will provide you with ten best strategies on how you can monetize your WordPress site.
Article Outline
Why Choose WordPress?
WordPress powers over 40% of the web and has been in the web hosting industry for more than decades. In terms of credibility, you can trust that WordPress knows what it’s doing.
WordPress is a popular and versatile content management system (CMS) that allows users to create, customize, and manage websites without needing advanced technical skills. Think of it as a tool that simplifies the process of building and maintaining a website, like a digital Swiss army knife for your online presence.
Whatever your business needs are, there are tried and tested WordPress plugins that will make your job easier. A plugin is like a mini-app for your website that adds extra features and functionality. Think of it as a power-up for your site, allowing you to do more without having to code from scratch.
For example, if you want your website to appear on search, WordPress has a YoastSEO plugin that can aid in your SEO needs for your website. For advertising opportunities, Google AdSense integrates easily. WooCommerce is also tried and tested for e-commerce needs.
WordPress also uses Elementor – what you use to create custom layouts and designs for your website pages without coding, Elementor is a versatile drag-and-drop page builder plugin that offers a wide range of design elements and templates.
Let’s now discuss the different ways you can make money online using WordPress.
10 Monetization Strategies for WordPress
Display Advertising
A passive way for monetization via WordPress is through display advertising. When your WordPress site hits a certain monthly traffic, you can partner with ad networks like Google Adsense to display ads on your website.
Display ads, like banners, text, and video, are targeted based on website content and visitor interests. With display advertising, website owners can monetize their traffic and generate passive income while providing valuable content to their audience.
FAQ: How many views do I need to make money blogging?
Depending on your niche and target audience, some reports say you need at least 1000 views to earn a cost per view from placing ads.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based monetization strategy where website owners or bloggers promote products or services from other companies and earn a commission for each sale or referral made through their affiliate links.
With an affiliate program, bloggers can leverage their audience and influence to recommend products or services that align with their niche or audience’s interests.
By strategically integrating affiliate links into their content and promoting relevant products, website owners can generate passive income and monetize their online presence effectively.
E-commerce for Products
Your WordPress site can also be your own online store where you sell your products and display information about your business. E-commerce for products is a powerful monetization strategy that allows website owners to sell physical or digital products directly to consumers through an online store.
With platforms like WooCommerce or Shopify, website owners can easily set up and customize their e-commerce store, manage inventory, process transactions securely, and track orders and shipments—all from within their website’s dashboard.
E-commerce for products offers website owners the opportunity to diversify their revenue streams, reach a wider audience, and capitalize on the growing trend of online shopping.
Ticketing Website
Another potential lucrative business opportunity is an events business. When you think about it, our life is a series of events or moments that come from events. If you enjoy organizing events, meeting people, and entertaining guests then an events planning business might be perfect for you.
Selling tickets for an event can be a profitable way for almost all types of events. Whether that’s for a conference, seminar, tradeshow, or educational class, you can use your WordPress site to take registrations for your events.
The best WordPress plugin for events is Event Espresso. You can sell unlimited tickets for no commission fees and enjoy features like customizable registration forms, multiple ticket types, and more.
Marketplace of Digital Products
WordPress websites are also an ideal platform for building a marketplace of digital products like ebooks, online courses, video tutorials, digital planners, and more. Digital products are a great way to passive income because creators can just create once and sell for a long amount of time.
WordPress’s intuitive dashboard makes it simple to manage inventory, track sales, and analyze performance metrics, empowering creators to make data-driven decisions to optimize their online stores for success.
Subscription-Based Products or Services
Another way to earn money using your WordPress website is through a subscription service model. A subscription-based type of business ensures a monthly recurring revenue. Plugins like MemberPress and Restrict Content Pro enable businesses to easily set up subscription plans, manage member access, and automate recurring payments, streamlining the subscription management process.
By leveraging WordPress’s subscription capabilities, businesses can cultivate a loyal customer base and establish predictable revenue streams, driving long-term growth and sustainability.
Some examples of businesses on a subscription basis are software as a service (SaaS), online communities, exclusive/ premium content, etc.
Personal Services Portfolio
If you’re a professional service provider or offering freelance services, your WordPress website can serve as your online portfolio for your potential clients to see. Photographers, writers, marketers, stylists, therapists, and more can input their information into their websites and collect registrations or sales online.
As a service provider, visual content is important to showcasing your skills and talents effectively. WordPress allows you to easily integrate photos, videos, and multimedia elements into your portfolio, allowing potential clients to see your work in action and get a sense of your unique style and capabilities.
Content / Newsletter Website
Showcase your expertise on your industry or a specific topic with a content website run on WordPress. You can start with a WordPress blog writing about a topic of your interest and develop your expertise there.
Once you establish a following, you can accept sign-ups from visitors and create a newsletter for your subscribers. Monetization options for content or newsletter websites include advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, or offering premium subscription tiers for exclusive content or features.
With WordPress, you can easily integrate with popular email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and Constant Contact, allowing you to capture email subscriptions directly from your website and automatically sync them with your mailing list.
Community Forum
Building a loyal community is one of the most effective ways to make your business. Use your own website to produce content that is targeted to your audience for your community. Monetization options for community forums include membership fees, premium access to exclusive content or features, advertising, or sponsored partnerships.
By fostering a sense of belonging and providing value to your community members, you can turn your WordPress forum into a thriving online hub and generate revenue from your engaged audience.
Fundraising Platform
Charities and nonprofit organizations can also use the WordPress site to raise funds for a specific cause. With Event Espresso as a WordPress plug-in, event planners do not need to pay high commission charges, unlike other ticket-selling platforms.
By using Event Espresso’s features, such as customizable event pages, secure payment processing, and attendee management tools, organizations can streamline their fundraising efforts and maximize their revenue potential.
Best Practices for Making Money on WordPress
Make it SEO-friendly
The benefit of having your business on WordPress is that you can customize it to make it SEO-friendly. By implementing SEO best practices, you can attract more organic traffic to your site, increase your rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs), and ultimately drive more revenue.
Here are some tips to make your website search engine friendly:
- Choose an SEO-friendly theme that is lightweight and fast-loading
- Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
- Incorporate your focus keyword into your page for an appropriate amount of time
- Optimize your page titles, meta descriptions, headings, and content with target keywords
- Think of the user experience of your site visitors
- Address the technical aspects of SEO like broken links, crawl errors, duplicate content, and XML sitemap optimization.
- Keep your site updated by constantly posting new and relevant content related to your industry
Offer Quality Products and Services
The product or the offering is critical for your online business to be profitable. Start by identifying a niche or market demand and conducting thorough market research to understand your audience’s needs, preferences, and purchasing behavior. Then, develop high-quality products or services that address these needs and provide tangible benefits or solutions.
Regularly Update your Site
WordPress releases frequent updates to its core software, themes, and plugins to improve performance, security, and functionality. By keeping your site’s software up-to-date, you can ensure optimal performance, protect against security vulnerabilities, and stay ahead of emerging trends and technologies.
Additionally, you can also regularly update your site by posting timely and relevant content to keep your audience engaged.
Strengthen your Branding and Credibility
Your branding and credibility can impact your online presence far more than you realize. Choose a brand identity that conveys your unique value proposition, personality, and ethos. This will help you stand out in a crowded marketplace and resonate with your target audience. Produce quality content and do not use black hat SEO strategies to keep your site credible.
Nurture your Audience
Businesses are all about relationships. Don’t just produce content for the sake of posting but create value for your audience that can genuinely help them. Whether it’s informative blog posts, engaging social media updates, or helpful tutorials, aim to address your audience’s pain points, answer their questions, and provide solutions to their challenges.
A key tip is to spark a desire in your audience to compel them to purchase your offer. Highlight its unique benefits and features, demonstrating how it meets their needs or improves their lives.
Diversify Income Streams
Consider providing additional services and add-ons on your site to increase revenue streams. This not only sets your brand apart but also builds customer loyalty and establishes your business as an industry authority.
Use Cases and Examples
A professional freelancer or marketing executive wants to build their portfolio and start taking clients online. The first step is to create a professional site that he can use to display his portfolio. WordPress has customization options and widgets that are easy to use to achieve its goals.
To promote his site, he makes sure to optimize his website targeting keywords that he can rank for to gain visibility online. He started to host webinars and offered digital courses as an add-on to his services which he easily achieved with WordPress.
Through the seamless integration of WordPress plugins and features, freelancer can expand their offerings, enhancing their professional brand and attracting a wider audience of potential clients. This approach highlights expertise and generates extra revenue streams, showcasing WordPress’s versatility and effectiveness as a monetization platform.
Consider an Events Business via WordPress with Event Espresso
We hope this article has helped give you ideas on the different ways of making money on WordPress. If you are interested in setting up a fulfilling events business, consider using Event Espresso to avoid headaches and problems. Event Espresso is a WordPress plug-in that allows event registration and ticket sales for all types of events.
With Event Espresso, event planners can enjoy no commission fees on an unlimited number of tickets sold. Enjoy customization features on your site, registration forms, and the power to manage multiple ticket types.
Check out our free live demo now and start earning through your WordPress site now.