Monetizing Content Today

Aside from Ads, other ways to generate income

[justa]

I had a look around the forums and couldn't find anything on this topic, feel free to move it if it belongs somewhere else.

The web has evolved and it is difficult to see ads continuing to be a dominant source of income for content sites as better adblockers appear and browsers, particularly Firefox and Brave, are taking a privacy orientated stance.

The current ways that I try and make money back is...
- carbon/buysell ads on a web design/development based content site (these have been steadily declining over the past 36 months)
- Sponsorship for a weekly newsletter that I run along side the site, one feature and one text based spot each week

These have worked so far, but I'm really interested in looking at the approach that Brave and Coil are using. Essentially you pay a subscription fee to Brave/Coil, and if you spend active time on a website that is hooked into that eco system then the content creator gets a steady stream of micro payments while I consume their content.

How are you monetizing your sites now and in the future?

[engine]

AdSense ads are still working for me at the moment, however, because it's seasonal, it's in the doldrums right now, as normal. It should pick up, as usual, early next year.
However, you're correct, ad blockers and privacy is starting to make a difference, and i'm expecting to review it in the new year.

A subscription-based model is one solution.

[NickMNS]

@Engine

AdSense ads are still working for me at the moment, however, because it's seasonal, it's in the doldrums right now, as normal.

What planet {I guess you could replace planet with niche} are you on? This is the high season for AdSense. Because, Christmas shopping ads. Once the New-Year rolls in ad budgets dry up and RPM falls off a cliff. Even if your particular niche is does not thrive during this period, the market as whole is propped up by the spike in ad demand.

To answer the op's question, subscription models are great but they do not fit every website. I don't know if your post is simply a thinly veiled plug of the company you are referring to, but regardless, my guess is that whatever minimal amount of money that one could get from a subscription or donation model, handing it over to a third party to manage and skim seems like a terrible idea.

Should your website be able to sustain a subscription model, then there should be no need for a third party. And if you can't sell the price of subscription, however low it may be then it is not for you. Find a new concept/niche or work on optimizing your current revenue streams.

I think the bottom line is, that one needs to have large and captive audience before anything. If you have that then you can find the method monetization that best fits your needs and situation. Without it, you essentially have nothing, no matter what monetization method you choose

[engine]

What planet {I guess you could replace planet with niche} are you on? This is the high season for AdSense. Because, Christmas shopping ads. Once the New-Year rolls in ad budgets dry up and RPM falls off a cliff. Even if your particular niche is does not thrive during this period, the market as whole is propped up by the spike in ad demand.

@NickMNS
Well, I guess that's where sectors are different, and once you have a niche you make it work or get out. My sector has nothing to do with what people buy at black friday or Christmas.

Back to the OP...
I used to have a product review site, and it worked, for a while, until, as an affiliate, it all dried up. I stopped reviewing products and just let it expire.

Sponsorship is another route to consider, and depending upon the traffic and sector, could become quite lucrative.

[justa]

@NickMNS

I don't know if your post is simply a thinly veiled plug of the company you are referring to

Not intended to be a plug of any kind, just seeing if anyone else is looking at ways to make money online as the ad revenues dry up with the changing perspectives and privacy on the web.

I agree a subscription based model can work well, but I think that only works for larger sites and there is a threshold for the number of subscriptions any one person is likely to take on. Sites like Smashing Magazine and A List Apart do well enough from subscriptions from readers, but even then their conversion rates from readers to subscribers is low and they need to produce a bunch of additional 'members only' content to get folks to make the jump. I have noticed that Wordpress.com now offers subscription capabilities baked into their own hosting, and there are a couple other smaller CMS players that are doing the same (Ghost is one I'm aware of).

The plus I see with a centralised approach is that you're just paying what you want into a central pot, and your money goes to those who content you consume the most (and this is just regular content, no paywall needed). You could argue that Medium does this already, but the difference in that approach is Medium owns all the content and is taking a fair chunk of that money with them. The other approach allows content owners to own their own content on their own site, but still benefit from the time people spend on their site. Mozilla is invested in this approach and I'm sure they'll need to skim some off the top, but it seems like they're in it for the good of the web and not to add it as their own revenue stream.

As long as Google is the main player on the web with Chrome being the most common browser, ads will still be a viable revenue stream because that's how Google make their money. If that ever changes things will become very interesting.

[tangor]

As the years pass advertising options are becoming more ingrained and homogenized. SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, will skim off the top before your payday.

Else, do direct sales (the hard way, but imminently more profitable!).

ymmv