The American Dream is slowly transforming as the world adapts to the digital age. While people used to dream of obtaining a steady 9 to 5 job that they worked day in and day out until they retired, that life is starting to seem more like a nightmare.

People are realizing that the idea of working 50 weeks a year to enjoy two weeks of vacation is borderline insanity. We’re learning that it’s better to work in order to live, rather than live in order to work.

That’s why digital entrepreneurship is a massively growing field. But learning how to make money from a website can’t be easy, can it? Don’t you need a physical store or some other business to sell things online?

It may surprise you to learn just how many options there are to monetize your website. For example, with third-party storage and shipping companies, you don’t even need to hold inventory to sell it. Before we get ahead of ourselves, however, let’s start from square one.

Keep reading for an in-depth guide on how to make money with a website.

1. Find the Right Niche

Did you know that nearly 50 percent of all small businesses fail within the first five years? There are several root causes of their downfall, from poor marketing to high operation costs they can’t keep up with.

Being an online entrepreneur won’t grant you immunity to failure, but it will allow you some reprieve from costly brick-and-mortar expenses.

However, learning how to make money with a website requires finding a niche that you’re both passionate and knowledgable about. It also requires a fair amount of market research to learn how much competition you’re facing, how much room for growth there is, as well as current market trends and patterns.

Your niche must be unique, so you’ll stand out from others. However, it can’t be so exclusive that it limits your target audience. Find the sweet spot between peacocking and alienation.

2. Optimize Your Website Design and SEO

If your main goal is learning how to make money with a website, that means your website has to be pristine. It must be aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly. By user-friendly, we mean intuitive and quick.

A slow-loading website can escalate your bounce rate, as people don’t feel like waiting around for pages to load. A high bounce rate will kill your SEO ranking.

SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the complex algorithms search engines use to find your website based on keyword searches. For example, when someone uses Google to search for products or services, SEO ranking determines what websites come up at the top of the list.

You can maximize your SEO by publishing relevant content such as blog articles, infographics, pictures, and videos. You also need to make sure you’re using keywords and other forms of metadata. Additionally, ensure you’re using alt tags on visual media such as images and videos.

3. Figure Out What You Can Monetize

A big step in learning how to make money with a website is to figure out what you’re going to monetize. There are tons of options out there, but it should coincide with what your particular niche is. For example, if you’re all about interior design, it wouldn’t make sense for you to sell car parts.

Digital Products

There are digital products you can create to make a profit. However, this means you must offer something people want to pay for. This can come in the form of e-books, online courses, software, apps, etc.

Physical Products

You also have the option of selling physical products. As mentioned above, however, this doesn’t mean you have to have a physical store. In fact, you never even have to touch the product you’re selling.

For example, you could create t-shirt designs online and use a third-party company to provide, print, and ship the t-shirts. They’ll receive a large part of the cut, but you can be completely hands-off in terms of handling products.

Review Other Brands’ Products

Another option digital entrepreneurs use when learning how to make money with a website is product reviews. Other companies will pay you to review their products on your website, like surfnbuy.com.

Granted, you must build a big enough following to be considered by most companies. Once you do, however, you’ll have a ton of companies reaching out to you to review your products, although it pays to be proactive and seek them out yourself.

Be a Consultant or Coach

Finally, if your niche field is something others seek to better themselves, you can always turn to online coaching or consulting. Depending on what field of coaching you’re in, you may be required to be licensed or certified.

Regardless, you can host webinars or one-on-one sessions with people for a nominal fee.

4. Use Social Media Direct Traffic to Your Website

Social media is one of the best platforms for any company to build a following. People have started from the ground up, amassing millions of followers using Pinterest, Facebook, and/or Instagram.

Using social media to learn how to make money with a website is simple. There are 2.4 billion Facebook users – the audience is already in one place. Your job is creating engaging content to get them to follow you.

Then, use your posts to encourage followers to click on links to your website. This can be done by posting articles you’ve written for your blog, offering great exclusive deals to social media followers on whatever it is you sell, etc.

5. Build an Email List

Another way digital entrepreneurs are learning how to make money with a website is through email marketing. Email marketing involves building an email list of subscribers, typically through the means of social media, internal and external advertisements, and landing pages.

However, there’s a little more to it than that. You also have to create a series of emails to welcome your subscribers and gently seduce them into paying clients or customers.

These email campaigns must be well-thought-out and automated. This will lower your workload and keep things humming along smoothly, potentially giving you passive sales.

Learning How to Make Money With a Website Has Never Been Easier

Ultimately, there’s never been a better time to learn how to make money with a website. There are countless companies out there whose main purpose is to help people like you monetize their websites and make a living digitally.

However, that’s not to say there won’t be plenty of work involved. But we have faith in you. Just remember two things:

Consistency is king Knowledge is power

Good luck, and feel free to check out the rest of our articles for more advice and useful information!