Basics of Content Monetization
What is a Content or Information Product?
Content is what people can read, look at or hear. When you pay for it, it's a product, like a book or a movie. Content can be entertainment or information. Or both. Writers create content with books; when you buy a book, you're paying for the content.
Formats of Content and Information Products
A content or information product is made from text, sound, or visual media. Content and information products can be physical or digital. Common physical forms of content are books, magazines, or DVDs. Some digital content products are websites, online videos, audio files, games, and applications.
As an example of how I use digital content, I'm using the Duolingo app to learn Spanish. The app contains all the lessons that would have been in a book or on a CD. Online streaming services, YouTube, and podcasts are some of the ways that digital content is increasingly part of our everyday life. While much free content is available, people are willing to pay for content they like and want.
Content vs. Information Products
While a content product is any content, the term "information product" refers to content based on expertise and skills - it's usually not fiction or strictly for entertainment. You often see information products like how-to guides, training videos, white papers, and magazines.
Companies often use information products for marketing, and it's usually free. An example is a free white paper or how-to guide. Free information is used for marketing because it helps educate a potential customer and build a connection. If the information is valuable enough, say, a magazine, and has a price, it's a product.
Some content provides entertainment, but entertainment products are somewhat speculative in nature. It's hard to know what people want until you create it, and it's subject to the tastes and whims of the marketplace.
An information product can be created to fill a need. You can create your own information product if you know something people need. If the information is valuable enough, you can sell it.
Ways to Make Money
There are two ways to make money with content. One is charging for the content itself, so it's treated like the sale of a product. The other is using the material to attract an audience, like viewers to a tv channel or a website, and making money with advertising.
Using advertising or sales to make money or "monetize" the content is possible. You might see them used together. Let's look at each one and how they work to make money.
Advertising
Making money from advertising is based on attracting people who watch or listen and displaying advertising that appears within the content. Think of a popular television show like the Superbowl, which uses the game to attract viewers who watch the ads between the plays.
For online advertising, there are three common ways to make money from people to visit a website, watch videos, or listen to a podcast.
These are:
Display ads
Text or graphics that appear on your web pages. When people see an ad, that's called an impression, and when someone clicks or taps, that's a pay-per-click ad. Advertisers usually prefer pay-per-click advertisements that take people to their website, but some buy impression ads. Google allows anyone with a website to run ads and offers YouTube channels with larger audiences to make money from video ads.
Affiliate ads
An affiliate ad often looks like a display, but it works differently. With a display ad, the advertiser pays when the ad appears (impression) or is clicked (pay-per-click). With an affiliate ad, the viewer clicks on it and is taken to an e-commerce webpage where they can make a purchase. If the viewer completes the sale, the advertiser pays the website owner a commission. Over 18,000 companies pay commissions for referrals from websites. You can check out an affiliate-supported website at wirecutter.com to see affiliate ads in action.
Sponsorships
Podcasts are a popular form of sponsorship. The podcaster mentions a product or service within the broadcast, much like a radio talk-show host who talks about a sponsor. People and organizations with social media followers obtain sponsorships from brands that want to reach their audience.
Advertising revenue uses your website, blog, or app to attract visitors and make money. When a visitor clicks an ad or makes an affiliate-linked purchase. With advertising, the information is free, given away to draw attention to a website destination, where some action results in making money.
Content Products
Entertainment content is about appealing to what people like, but a lot of content monetization deals with information. People and businesses will pay for information packaged as a product. Subscriptions to online newspapers, eBooks, digital downloads, mobile apps, games, and membership websites are just a few ways content can be sold. For example, when you purchase an ebook, you're helping someone monetize their content.
For content products, charging for it is about the perceived value of the content to the potential customer. Someone with credentials in a field of study, a well-known personality, or some scarce knowledge can often charge for their wisdom.
Some forms of content are sold as a newsletter, the online equivalent of a magazine or newspaper. And photographers and artists can sell their images as digital or physical products and use stock photo sites to sell pictures online.
Membership programs charge a monthly or annual fee for investment advice and industry news because this type of information is often specialized and time-sensitive. Many newspapers and periodicals, like the National Geographic Magazine or the Wall Street Journal, offer online subscriptions with access to content that includes videos available only to online subscribers.
You don't have to be a significant publication to provide memberships; however, it's more about the value of the information and if people will pay for it that determines success.
And as I mentioned earlier, some content is sold as a mobile app, like Duolingo, for language learning. Popular forms of monetized content are learning apps and apps that help people develop new skills. And new types of content are being developed, like virtual reality games where people can immerse themselves in another world.
What Does it Mean
Any size organization, from an individual to a large organization, can monetize content. If they can attract an audience, they can make money by offering advertisers the opportunity to reach their audience. Or if the content has enough value, it can be sold as a product in and of itself. And it's possible to make money both ways.