One of the main reasons people make websites nowadays is to monetize them.

Monetizing means making money.

Whether you want to have a personal blog or start a website for your business, you can use your website as more than just your little space on the web; it actually can become a business opportunity of its own.

That’s because there are a lot of ways to get paid while selling ad space on the web.

The idea is to get creative with methods of advertising so that your website doesn’t feel like one big billboard that no one will want to visit.

Instead, follow along with this guide that includes 26 ways to make money through advertising on your website.

How to Advertise on Your Website and Get Paid

There is a lot to consider when you want to earn money on your website.

How will you do it?

Should you use more than one method?

Which method will work the best for your site?

To be honest, much of it boils down to trial and error.

You might have to experiment a little to learn what kind of ads work the best on your site and what your visitors respond to the most.

So, not all of the methods we list below may not work well for you, but they’re still legitimate tactics you might want to try until you find what works best as your site continues to grow.

Advertising is an excellent way for your site to make money.

You can place ads on your website, use affiliate marketing, or write sponsored posts that act like advertisements to keep earning.

Let’s go into detail about these methods:

1. Earn Money by Placing Ads on Your Website

One of the most obvious ways to make money with ads is by placing ads in spots where your visitors will see them on your website.

You might put ads in your header, on your sidebar, or within the content of your blog.

Many ad networks will even help you with ad placement so you can have your ads in ideal spots for your website’s needs.

In other words, they’ll go where visitors will see them and click on them the most.

The problem with ad networks is that you may not see much money come in until you start getting a lot of visitors.

If your ads aren’t highly relevant to your audience, you also probably won’t get many clicks on them.

Signing up for ad networks that are well-known for their ability to provide relevant ads for your site can help you boost your earnings faster.

Try one of these:

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is what most people flock to when they want to place ads on their site.

It works, and it’s relatively easy to set up.

Google also helps you optimize your site for ads by suggesting the best placements for your ads based on the layout of your site.

Media.net

Media.net is another major player in the advertising space.

Many large publishers use this company to monetize their content, and it has a lot of different types of ads that fit right in with your site.

Outbrain

Outbrain keeps your ads optimized to help your visitors stay on your site longer – which is always a good thing for ads.

The network also uses video content when it works with your site and content.

Verizon Media

Verizon Media consistently measures itself to make sure it’s providing your visitors with the best advertising strategy to help them interact with the ads on your site.

Revcontent

Revcontent is an ad network that uses lightweight code to bring paid ads to your site without weighing everything down and making it slow.

Propeller Ads

Propeller Ads features some of the most popular types of ads, like smart links and push notifications, to help visitors engage with and keep coming back to your site.

Read more: 41 Best Sites Which Will Pay You Instantly For Clicking On Ads

2. Sell Ad Space Directly

Instead of going through ad networks to place ads on your site, you can set up ad spaces on your website to sell to companies or people who want to buy them.

Some people choose to place images on their site that note where ad space is available to buy, but this can sometimes harm the aesthetic of your site.

Instead, just have a mockup of your site that shows where you set aside some space for ads that you can show to prospects who are interested in buying space.

You can also reach out to companies that are relevant to your brand to see if they’re interested in buying ad space from you.

When your site is still small, it’s a good idea to shoot for smaller pricing, too. Once you grow and your ad space becomes more competitive, you can always increase your prices.

3. Earn Money with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is, hands-down, one of the most popular ways for website owners to cash in on their sites and content in today’s digital world.

And it’s not difficult to understand why.

Affiliate marketing takes a little getting used to, but once you’ve got the hang of it, you can figure out a more automated process to make money referring people to products, services, courses, businesses, etc.

It’s important to make sure that whatever you’re promoting is relevant to your website and the topics you cover on your site.

Your audience doesn’t want to click on links for dog food and treats, for example, if they’re on your site to read about cars.

Choosing the right affiliate programs to line up with can really help you zone in on stuff that’s relevant to your audience and will get people to click and buy the things you promote.

I personally like joining affiliate networks that let me access tons of products and companies, so I can find ones that make sense for my sites.

Some companies have their own affiliate programs, but it can be difficult to keep track of them if you’ve joined several.

Instead, you can get set up with the affiliate marketing networks below to have access to more companies and get your commissions paid through the network.

Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates is probably the most well-known affiliate marketing network.

Although it doesn’t necessarily offer the best commissions, it does have an incredible amount of products to promote, so it’s a good place to find affiliate links for almost any piece of content.

CJ Affiliate

CJ Affiliate has been around for a while, but it’s now surpassing many other networks in popularity.

I’ve seen several brands switch from other networks to this one, so it definitely seems like it’s the go-to place for many.

Share-A-Sale

Share-A-Sale partners with lots of big and up-and-coming brands in various categories, so it’s easy to find programs that will align with your niche.

Rakuten Advertising

Rakuten offers a lot of support for its publishers to make affiliate marketing work for them, including training guides and regular emails with news and new promotions.

eBay Partner Network

eBay is a great place to find affiliate links for unique products, and you can promote what you want through the eBay Partner Network.

FlexOffers

FlexOffers includes more than 12,000 advertisers, and publishes deals and promotions that you can make even more money from right on your dashboard.

Awin

Awin is a huge and popular affiliate marketing network with over 15,000 advertisers, many of which are well-known brands that people already love to buy from.

ClickBank

ClickBank is mostly for digital products.

Not only can you sell your digital products in its marketplace, but you can also earn money promoting yours or others.

Some commissions are even as high as 90%!

Pepperjam

Pepperjam partners with brands like Puma, Ace Hardware, and Bath & Body Works to give you monetization opportunities with tons of relevant products and services.

Walmart Affiliates

Walmart has a little something for everyone, which is why it makes such a great affiliate network.

Browse the site, grab links to what you want to promote, and start making money.

rewardStyle

This network is a good one for fashion and home décor bloggers because there are tons of relevant products you can promote!

4. Monetize Your Links

You could place links into your content with affiliate marketing, or you can use a network that monetizes links you already have in your content for you.

The following networks do just that, and it’s just another method you can use to earn money when you start getting more traffic and make your content click-worthy.

These networks connect with companies that want to advertise on sites.

You’ll add a code to your site that helps the monetization network know when you’ve placed a link to a partnered advertiser.

When you do place a link, the company will automatically convert it to an affiliate link so you can get a commission when someone clicks on it or makes a purchase.

It’s one of the easiest ways to do affiliate marketing!

Infolinks

After you paste the Infolinks code to your website, you can start earning money passively when you create links in your content to websites that are Infolinks partners.

Skimlinks

Skimlinks works similarly to Infolinks, but its large network of 48,000 advertisers makes it easy to monetize your site through the links you add to your content.

The Skimlinks code will automatically search the links on your site and turn them into affiliate links without you needing to do anything.

Sovrn

Sovrn is formerly Viglink, another link monetization network.

This code turns product links into affiliate links.

5. Make Money with Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are posts that you write and a company sponsors.

Basically, it’s advertising in a different way.

You’ll work with a company to outline a service, product, or something else the company wants to highlight.

You and the company negotiate a price for your writing and promoting the post (often, you’ll need to promote the product/service/whatever on social media too).

Then, you’ll write up the post, submit it, and get paid.

Influencer networks like those below can help you connect with businesses that pay for sponsored posts.

Pollinate Media Group

This influencer network looks for influencers with a strong social media presence, who make meaningful connections with their visitors, and have at least 20,000 visitors to their blog each month.

Acorn

Acorn has opportunities for people with all sizes of audiences, although there usually is more available for those with lots of blog traffic and social media followers.

The company works with brands like Barilla, Murad, and Nickelodeon.

Sway Group

Sway Group is a very selective influencer network that’s best for people with large followings on at least one or two networks.

Cooperatize

You can join the Cooperatize community to have access to influencer campaigns when the company partners with advertisers.

Most publishers can earn anywhere between $150 and $800, depending on the brand and the campaign.

Social Fabric

This network is an excellent one for food bloggers to join, but it also has some campaigns in the health and beauty, family, and lifestyle niches.

Most campaigns require you to visit a store, complete a shop, and then create a blog post or social media posts, sharing your experiences and photos.

How to Make Advertising Work for You

Advertising in any form is only going to work if you want to put in the work!

It’s not a start-today-and-get-paid type of thing.

Instead, you’ll need to nurture an audience, make awesome content, and be strategic in the type of ads you sell and the methods you use to make money.

Here are a few tips to help you succeed:

Grow an Audience

The first step is always building an audience.

You should have some content on your site already for your audience to enjoy.

Websites usually start out with a small audience, so don’t feel discouraged if you don’t get many visitors for your first month or so.

But you should be continuously working to get more traffic to your site through SEO and social media promotion.

You can also comment on other blogs to get your name out there and build your social media presence so people can get to know you.

Network with Others

Networking is an excellent way to get your foot in the door of your site’s niche.

Find other people on LinkedIn or social media channels who do similar stuff as you.

Comment on their posts, like their stuff, and keep engaging with them.

You might offer a guest post exchange or other mutually beneficial tasks to those who are already established in the industry.

Eventually, your network can help you out by linking to your content or telling people in their network about your site.

Start an Email List

An email list is just another way that you can reach out to people who visit and enjoy your site.

You can also use it for more advertising!

I don’t suggest sticking ads in your emails (although you could), but you can add relevant affiliate links to the content of your emails.

Just be careful about sending out too many emails each week, as it could be a big turnoff to your subscribers.

Promote, Promote, Promote!

Finally, build a promotion strategy that keeps people coming to your site.

Social media is key, but you might also consider starting a podcast, making a course, or doing something else that leads people back to your site.

Advertising on your site is only going to boost your bank account if you have people visiting, so sometimes you’ll need to advertise your site, too, through promoting.

It’s Time to Start Making Money with Website Advertising!

Website advertising is one of many ways to make money with a website.

And, it can be somewhat of a passive income stream once you get into a routine of advertising that works for you.

Plenty of people make money advertising on their website every day using the strategies above.

If it can work for them, it can also work for you if you put the work in to successfully grow your site.