Monetization Steps
The good news here is that many people and businesses have pioneered the ways to make money with content monetization, so the steps to follow are a well-paved path.
Determine Niche
First, you'll want to determine who will find your content appealing. It doesn't matter at this point how you're planning on making money, but it is essential to have marketable content. Here's where the most common challenges are for content creators.
One of the most common challenges is for a content creator to take existing content they created and find an audience who will pay for it. While the material may be excellent in quality, there may not be any audience interested in it. Finding an audience for content you've already created can be time-consuming and may not always be possible.
The other approach is to do market research on what is in demand, and then create content that fills that demand. Finding a content niche where people are actively looking for content and filling the need can be an alternative approach, and businesses use this approach every day.
If you are committed to your existing content but aren't sure of the market, do your research and see what people want. Maybe there is a way to modify your content to fill the demand.
When I first started teaching classes at community colleges, I offered a class on Computer Security. Many colleges listed the course, but very few people enrolled. Out of the 20 courses offered, there was enough enrollment for only two. In those two classes, I listened to why students wanted to learn about computer security. It had very little to do with keeping their computer secure. They all wanted to know how to prevent infections from slowing their computers down. I changed the class from computer security to "Improving Your PC's Performance," and enrollments started to grow.
Create and Publish
Creating
If you already have the talent to create content, then you have a head start on making money from content monetization. Whether you're a writer, blogger, photographer, illustrator, artist, videographer, or speaker, you are already creating content. Any media that can be published online is a form of content that can make money. But it has to be created first. That's where you come in, or you can hire someone to create it for you.
What many people forget is that the same content can appear n different formats. For example, a digital book can become an audiobook. A recorded lecture, transcribed, becomes a document. Think of different ways of reusing the same content to simplify your content creation efforts.
Publishing
Publishing is the part where you get your content on the internet. You can publish on your website or blog, on services like YouTube, on Apple Podcasts, or through many other means to make your content available for people to view or purchase. Some choices will determine what kind of monetization approach you use. For example, publishing a YouTube video offers advertising and subscription fees, while a website/blog provides advertising and affiliate commission options, along with downloadable products. We'll examine these options in more detail. For now, keep in mind that you just need to get the content up on the internet somewhere.
Apply Monetization
We'll cover a range of ways to make money from content. Charging for a downloadable ebook, making money from ad networks, offering sponsorship opportunties, using affiliates, and others are what we'll be covering in more detail on each method. Some types of monetization are more suited to certain types of content and vice-versa. What's great about the internet and digital content is that you can always apply new approaches and make changes!
Build Traffic
Once you have content published, to make money, you have to attract people. Promoting your online content is the marketing aspect of building an audience. Using search engines, social media, and advertising are just some of the ways to attract people to your content. Your job changes to keeping them coming back once you've got their attention. But both tasks are marketing efforts.
Some content, like a subscription, has a scheduled activity so users can setup recurring payments for a monthly subscription or donation.
Marketing isn't within the scope of this book or class, but I will cover some of the basic approaches. For more in-depth information on marketing, my books and courses on Marketing with Facebook and Social Media, and Secrets of Internet Marketing cover these topics. Let's move on to finding a profitable niche and how to determine what content is valuable.