6 Ways to Monetize a Website or Web Application

The web is one of humanity's finest inventions, it's a means of transmitting knowledge, but it can also become a source of income!

In this article I'm going to list all the different ways to make money with an existing website (or application) so that you can decide what best fits your project.

Note that not all revenue sources are always compatible with every project, and that to make money on the internet, you must at minimum register a micro-business and declare your income!

If you want to set up a micro-business, I invite you to read my step-by-step guide (article) on the subject!

Advertising

Personally, I think today's web is saturated enough with advertising, but nonetheless, some projects couldn't have survived without it, and this article aims to be as exhaustive as possible.

Ad networks

An ad network is a network of advertisers (companies) that pay to have their ads displayed across a large network of websites. Compensation is done via CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and will depend on your traffic, your niche, the advertisers, and sometimes even the season.

The problem is that worthwhile ad networks can be counted on your fingers, and it's nearly impossible to avoid Adsense, Google's ad network.

If you're interested in hearing about my experience with ad networks, I published a Youtube video on the topic.

Partnerships/Sponsoring

A partnership is a business relationship (short or long term) with one or more companies willing to pay for you to promote their services or products.

It's a less automated alternative to ad networks, but one that offers many advantages:

• You can turn down companies that don't suit you
• No exploitation of personal data by ad trackers
• Lots of possible formats/media (image banners, videos, product placement, etc.)
• Often less intrusive since it's better integrated

As you may know, this blog partners with the WeLoveDevs recruitment site, which supports my work and offers great job listings throughout France!

Selling services

Since most real-world companies aren't solely based on advertising/visibility, you can also monetize access to or use of your site directly as a service, in several forms, listed below.

This is what's known as "SaaS" (or Software-as-a-Service)

Licenses / Subscriptions

If your tool provides enough value to people (in the broad sense), then why not simply charge a monthly subscription (or an unlimited license) to use it.

You can even offer a trial version to attract and reassure your potential customers!

For managing subscriptions, third-party payment tools like Stripe or MangoPay will let you set this up very easily.

This is, for example, Netflix's business model: pay every month and you get access to the catalog of all movies. Pay more and watch in HD!

In-app purchases

You want to keep the core use of your product free, but you still want to make money?

You can follow the "In-App" purchase model: Do you offer a site for learning languages? Give one free language upon sign-up and sell additional languages afterward!

This model is widely used in video games (DLC) and mobile apps!

Support

In the case of complex software used by professionals, and sometimes even open-source software, it's possible to sell support for a tool that's originally free.

Many companies are willing to use software for free, even if it means paying a few thousand euros for support, consulting, etc...

Not every project is compatible with this model, and you obviously shouldn't degrade the quality of the product just to sell support behind it!

This is, for example, the business model of Red Hat, the publisher of the Linux distribution of the same name, which offers a premium support service.

And other alternatives

Selling merchandise

This isn't necessarily the simplest or most reliable source of income, but for entertainment-based projects with a strong brand, this can help bring in a bit of revenue without changing your site.

For example, you can use the Spreadshirt platform, which handles everything from ordering to shipping for you!

Donations / Crowdfunding

If your site brings together a community united behind your work, whether for your personality or your creations, you can offer them the option to support you through donations or crowdfunding campaigns, on various platforms:

• Open-source projects: Open Collective (https://opencollective.com/)
• Creators: UTip (https://utip.io/)
• Crowdfunding: Ulule (https://fr.ulule.com/)