Fortunately, there’s no shortage of ideas out there. That’s one of the Internet’s biggest strong suits — it’s so versatile, you can make money almost any way you want. Show
But there are so many revenue models that it’s hard to narrow down which one is best for your business. The right revenue model for your business is one that’ll help you reach your goals and sustain long-term growth. We’ll talk about some of the most popular on this page, so keep reading to learn more. And give us a call at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist. Want to earn more revenue online?
WebFX campaigns have delivered more than 12,936,451 ecommerce transactions in the last 5 years Read the Case Studies1. Product sales / ecommerceEveryone is familiar with this revenue model since it’s the most direct. It’s the easiest premise in the world — you sell a product and people pay for it. The value of a physical product is immediately apparent, whether people are buying it for practical use or just for fun. Some products may have a niche market, but you can always find success in ecommerce. Learn about the 4 Ps of marketing ProsProduct sales are easy, and there are tons of products out there that people want to buy. Because there’s so much variety, you have a huge opportunity for profit. ConsThe issue with product sales is that they can include a lot of additional costs on a large enough scale. Unless you drop-ship only, you need to have a storage facility for your stock. You also need to replace any items that are broken, and you’ll have to issue refunds for items that aren’t delivered properly. Last, there’s a lot of competition in the ecommerce world. 2. B2B lead conversionsIn the B2B world, you rely on lead generation to get new customers. Leads are people who go to your website and either contact you or tell you to contact them somehow. You turn these leads into customers by nurturing them, which includes sending them emails, offering them free information, and encouraging them to finally convert into paying customers. ProsLead conversions are great for any product or service that requires a contract, face-to-face meeting, or signatures to finalize. They generally create more revenue over long periods of time, as opposed to small, lump-sum product sales, as well. Finally, their long-term payoff ensures stability for your company. ConsLead generation takes a long time, and it’s possible that you can spend a lot of time on one lead just to have them turn you down. B2B companies have a lot of competition online, just like ecommerce. 3. SubscriptionsMedia outlets commonly use this model, even if they’re delivered electronically these days instead of through the mail. But subscription payments are also popular for software services, premium television, and online streaming companies. ProsOne of the biggest advantages of this revenue model is the recurring revenue stream that ensures a consistent income each month. Subscriptions also give you the chance to upsell your customers to bigger and pricier packages, getting more money for your company. ConsOn the other hand, it’s hard to upsell from a cancellation, and once subscribers cancel it can be difficult to bring them back. 4. AdsIf you have a website, there’s some space on your page that another business would love to use to advertise. That’s the theory behind the ad sales revenue model. One site opens up space for banner and display ads on its site, and an advertiser buys space on that site. Both parties get together through an ad display network that helps match ad source with advertiser. ProsThe model works because it brings in additional revenue with very little investment of your money or time. It’s also one of the easiest ways to generate a passive income. You basically rent out real estate on your website. ConsAds are everywhere these days, and too many of them can hurt your search engine optimization (SEO) rankings or annoy your visitors. The last thing you want to do is turn away potential customers. Choosing a revenue model for your businessIn an increasingly complex digital world, you can build profitable business models and generate more revenue than you ever could with brick-and-mortar stores. The secret is to find the model that serves both your goals and your customers’ needs. Some of the best in the world are listed above, and the right one will take your business to a whole new level. WebFX specializes in online revenueAt WebFX, we specialize in earning more money for businesses that want to grow. Our team of Internet marketers exclusively uses online resources to implement revenue marketing strategies that reach your goals, and we’ll do everything we can to exceed your expectations. We’ve helped some of our clients reach record-high annual revenue — we want to do the same for you! Contact us today to create a revenue generation strategy for your site!
We all know that a reliable revenue model is one of the major pillars of a viable content strategy. Here I’ve listed some of the most popular revenue models used by content-based businesses. While I admit that this is not a comprehensive list of all possible revenue models, it can be a good starting point for anyone interested in generating revenue with content creation and delivery. Direct vs. Indirect Revenue ModelsGenerally speaking, there are two fundamentally different types of content revenue models:
While direct revenue models consider the audience (or content consumer) as their source of revenue, indirect revenue models differentiate between users and customers. It means that the audience consumes the content freely and the content business generates revenue through third parties. Some Examples of Direct Revenue ModelsHere you can find a list of the most popular direct revenue models used by content-based businesses: Content as Facilitator of Selling Products and ServicesThis is one of the classic approaches to revenue generation in the online world and most of the first e-commerce websites were grounded on such a basis. For example, you have a CRM solution, and create a large amount of content around this topic. There are various roads to revenue through this approach to the content creation:
Selling Content as a ProductThe content itself can be sold as a product. Selling audiobooks, pdf files, research papers, and market reports, are still popular in various topics and can be considered as a source of revenue. However, you have to find your own ways of dealing with the content piracy. Subscription-based revenue model, sometimes call time-based access models, are very popular in the content industry. Many news outlets offer different packages for monthly, quarterly and yearly access to their articles. But such a model is not limited to journals and news publishing companies. Many streaming services (such as NetFlix and Spotify) use a similar model for selling their content to the audience. Further Reading: Subscription Revenue Model (Definition & Examples) Collecting DonationsYes. Collecting donations can be a revenue model for content creating organizations. In this model, you provide content to the audience and ask them to donate if the content is helpful and they are happy with it. Brainpickings and Wikipedia are just two examples of the content creation services based on user donations (Brainpickings as content pipeline and Wikipedia as a content creation platform). Collecting donations can be considered as a crowdfunding business model in which funders are not looking for their principal money and its interest. No matter you call it donation game or crowdfunding, sure the success of this type of revenue model depends heavily on the audience culture and type of the content you provide. Many of the donation-based revenue models, use it just as a complementary revenue stream. It means that they have a primary revenue source (such as creating and delivering sponsored content) and use donations to complement or cover the other revenue streams. Some Examples of Indirect Revenue ModelsHere I have listed some of the popular indirect revenue models used by content creators:
Selling Advertising SpaceSelling advertising space is still the most popular indirect revenue model in the online content-creation world. Many social media companies, news websites, personal blogs, and professional forums, rely on selling advertising space to the other businesses. Some of these businesses (usually the ones with a large audience base) sell ad-space directly to the others, while smaller ones, use the third-party platforms such as Google’s Adsense service. The Ad Space Selling (ASS) Revenue Model is as old as the modern content industry itself. This practice got popular even before the digital age by newspapers, radio stations, and other mass media. Collecting User InformationLatest advances in big data and data mining practices have resulted in various opportunities for turning the user information into money. Here are just some of the marketable user information which many companies and organizations are willing to pay for them:
As such reports need a large user base, it’s more often used by content platforms (e.g. social media) than content pipelines. Extracting and selling this kind of information has always been a source of debate, with many ethical activists criticising them as unethical. However, the companies usually refer the critics to the not-read-but-easily-signed terms and conditions while users register for the service. Sponsorship contracts are used by businesses as a part of brand awareness or brand identity management efforts. In this model, a business covers the whole business costs (sometimes with a markup) and asks the content creator to guarantee a certain level of some performance metrics. Alexa Rank and total monthly visitors are among the most popular metrics used These kinds of sponsorship contracts are not limited to the companies. Nowadays, you can find many individuals who enter sponsorship deals with content creating businesses, to improve their competitive position in the professional services market. |