5 Traffic Monetization Trends You Should Not Skip in 2024
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Wanna learn how to make money blogging? Or how to profit from your social media followers?
You are at the right place.
We stepped into 2024 with a certain understanding of what’s trending in the world of traffic monetization, but it seems like there are still a couple of unwrapped things that could greatly affect your website revenue.
What is shaping publishers’ lives and will continue to do so in the months that come, we will reveal in the lines that follow.
Stay tuned. You might be surprised by what’s coming.
Contents
What’s the best way to monetize a website?
One thing is clear, though – there’s no unique recipe for each and every website owner. As SEO & Performance Marketing Specialist, Servando Silva says – it really depends on what your website is about. There’s no “best way” that applies to every niche. Your niche and capabilities are what should define your monetization methods.
And one of Monetag’s publishers, Z. N. (the author of Zambian job website case study), agrees with this:
“There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to this question as it largely depends on the nature of the website, its audience, and the goals of the website owner. However, some popular monetization approaches include display advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, selling digital or physical products/services, and subscription models. It’s essential to assess the website’s niche, audience preferences, and engagement level to determine the most suitable monetization strategy.”
However, other publishers who were eager to provide comments shared more specific answers, like R. M. (who also signed a case study on Facebook traffic):
“I would recommend display advertising, as it is particularly effective for websites with high traffic volume, especially those in broad niches like News, Entertainment, or Lifestyle.”
Or another one of our partners who was even more precise by sharing the names of two monetization formats you can use for this exact purpose – Banners and Interstitial ads. He also suggested right away to base your monetization strategy on launching one of these every 6 hours.
But let’s see what monetization format is the most promising one, what type of traffic you should consider this year, what niche and topics are considered popular at this very moment, how to start a blog and make money, and what are several other things to bear in mind when thinking of ways to profit from your audience.
Trend #1: King of all formats – Popunder
This probably isn’t a surprise, but Popunder ads remains one of the best formats to rely on when monetizing a website, due to many reasons:
- It comes with always high CPM rates
CPM payouts for Popunder ads are much higher compared to traditional display ads. Publishers can get up to 200% more revenue from their audience.
- It works well with most niches
No matter if you have an entertainment, news, movie-based, sports, or educational website, you will effectively monetize your visitors with this ad format.
- No ad space is needed
You won’t have to squeeze the ad anywhere on your website page. It will pop in a new tab, behind the tab of your site. Your website design will remain intact.
In case you are looking for a different, more subtle approach when monetizing your visitors, think about including our almighty SmartLink to turn traffic into profit. It’s suitable for site owners of any kind, but also for publishers who do not have a website.
SmartLink is a specially designed URL that will take your visitors to the most relevant offers, and therefore lead to high conversion rates. And it’s perfect for social publishers who have a large audience.
The way it works is this:
User clicks on the link that can be placed on a website, landing page, or simply in a social media post → Monetag’s AI algorithm analyzes data (it takes into account the user’s personal preferences, GEO, device, etc.) → and then the user is redirected to the most relevant and most converting offers.
Note: Before placing SmartLink in your socials, you need to check the policies of social media platforms and see if they allow its usage.SmartLink and Popunder: Two sides of the same coin
It’s important to explain that both of these formats will open the offer page. They have the same end result. So if the publisher integrates an advertisement into a website page using a tag (Popunder), the advertisement will open to the user after he clicks on the page.
Note: The publisher can configure the ad frequency.
And if the publisher chooses a SmartLink, then he needs to insert it into separate elements of the page (like buttons, for example). The advertisement will open only after clicking on these particular elements.
Either way, you are dealing with the most profitable monetization formats that won’t disappoint. But as a publisher, you need to decide on which method is the most fruitful and user-friendly for your particular website or landing page.
Trend #2: Social media traffic – An absolute must
While we are on the subject of social media traffic, we are all aware social media has taken over the world. So why not use the momentum and generate income from your audience on social channels.
New social services are constantly appearing, and it makes it easier for publishers to work with such traffic. At this point, Facebook is the most popular traffic source, but TikTok is beginning to attract more and more attention as we speak.
Social media allows you to promote products and services with very little effort (but quite a bit of social media knowledge and a good understanding of your audience!). The steps you need to take are:
#1 Define your audience – the very first and the most crucial step in monetizing your social traffic. You need to establish who you are creating content for. And then to get deep into your targeted user’s problems, needs, desires. If you offer content that users can engage with, monetization will come naturally.
#2 Optimize your profiles – to widen your audience and generate more social traffic you have to pay attention to social media SEO, with an accent on profile optimization. Only then you will become more visible in both search engines and social media platforms.
We recently covered this topic in a post where you can find all the information on how to improve your social media SEO, especially for YouTube and Facebook. Check it out →
#3 Make Smartlink your partner – we have already mentioned a way to do it via Monetag’s SmartLink. It’s a perfect option for every social publisher due to its simple integration, and yet outstanding performance. Just look at these case studies and results SmartLink can bring:
- Here’s a story of a Nigerian publisher who managed to earn more than $2000 in two months with SmartLink, and on Facebook traffic
(Stats showing Nigerian publisher profits from September and October 2022)
- This is another example (case study signed by our publisher, R. M.) of how you can earn from this type of traffic. The profits are smaller, but the monetization strategy is quite interesting
(One of the Facebook posts that illustrates the publisher’s strategy)
- We suggest you also read a success story on how to monetize Telegram traffic. Our publisher from Zambia is discovering all his moves
(An example of how to use SmartLink in Telegram channels)
We asked our publishers and influencers if they believe monetizing social traffic is what today’s publishers should be focused on. This is what they responded.
Servando Silva: It should be one of their main channels, but not the only one. It can be profitable to build a social audience and monetize it in different ways, even without a website. Building an audience can help you kickstart any business. However, always remember you don’t own that traffic, and algorithms change, so it can always drop or increase radically when a social network decides to make updates.
It’s important to diversify into different channels, build an email list, and use multiple ways to capture that audience to stop relying on a social network forever. Use social media to reach new audiences and convert them into loyal followers/readers on other platforms.
Z. N: While monetizing social traffic can indeed be lucrative, it’s not the sole focus that publishers should have. Diversifying traffic sources and revenue streams is crucial for long-term sustainability. Social traffic can be profitable, but it’s important to complement it with organic search traffic, email marketing, and other channels. Additionally, engaging with the audience on social platforms like Facebook, Telegram fosters community interaction that can enhance monetization opportunities.
While social media platforms can bring in a lot of website traffic and profit, they also have drawbacks. These include low conversion rates, tough competition, limited control over your audience and content, and algorithms that can limit how many people see your posts.
Trend #3: Blogging is still in – focus on content people
By the end of 2023, there were approximately 600 million blogs on the Internet. And the predictions say the number of bloggers will surge up to 40% by 2028. So no, blogging is definitely not out of the picture despite how old-fashioned it may seem.
Now, regarding our subject, the main question is how to make money from a blog. And once again, there is no simple answer to it. A great number of factors will define how profitable your endeavors will be.
Tip: You can lead users from social networks to your blog and place a SmartLink there. Social publishers often do this.
However, one thing is what we all agreed on. Content quality remains a top priority.
Here’s what our publisher R. M, said:
“To get started, focus on making great content. Provide valuable, interesting, and easy-to-read articles for your audience. This helps you build trust, gain loyal readers, and bring more people to your blog. Also, be patient. Making money from blogging takes time and hard work. Stay consistent, keep writing, and adjust your approach as you learn what works best for your readers.”
And Z. N. confirms this stand by explaining:
“For individuals just starting in the blogging world, I would suggest focusing on building high-quality content that resonates with their target audience. Content consistency, authenticity, and addressing audience needs are key. Additionally, exploring multiple monetization avenues such as affiliate marketing, ads on the website, and eventually creating and selling digital products or services related to their niche can be beneficial.”
Working on the quality of your blog posts will lead to gaining a loyal audience and increasing traffic to your blog, and then the time is right to start monetizing it.
“Most people who start blogging try Google AdSense or Amazon Affiliates. That’s a good start, and it’s great to learn the ropes. However, keep in mind you need traffic to make money. Therefore, you should focus more on your content and marketing channels initially instead of thinking about filling your blog with ads from day one”, Servando Silva concluded.
Trend #4: Entertainment rules the world
To all the publishers out there who are deciding on the niche or the main topic for their website, with a single goal of making money, we advise these three categories:
- Entertainment
- News
- Sports
All three niches are super wide and will allow you to explore and find a more narrow-specialized topic or approach to reach your targeted audience. Yes, competition within these niches is quite fierce, so you will for sure bump into the challenge of fighting through it. But if you manage to rise to the surface, the income could be impressive and absolutely worth it.
We suggest you take a look at how some of our publishers managed to monetize their traffic with websites in these niches:
- With movie fansite, this guy got to a point where he now has $200+ daily profits ($6000 a month); he based his strategy on Popunder and Vignette Banner
- This publisher earned thousands of dollars ($26k till the moment the case study was published) on anime website; he used three of Monetag’s monetization formats
(The overall earnings publisher of an anime website made with Monetag)
- If you see yourself as s sports publisher, here are some ideas on how to profit during major sporting events (you will find 4 case studies in one)
(The number of impressions one publisher received during the UEFA Europa League in 2021)
- And we offer you a first-hand guide on how to start earning when running a news website. The guide comes in the form of a case study with stats and all the steps to take.
R. M. shared his thoughts on the subject, while offering some monetization options you could find useful:
“In the News niche, there’s lots of traffic, but it’s hard to make money because of high competition. Some succeed by doing events or subscriptions. Entertainment websites covering movies and TV have many ways to make money, like ads or memberships. Sports sites can also make money through ads, sponsorships, and subscriptions. I’ve found the Entertainment niche better of all niches I have tried, for it has better conversion rates with high CPM and CPC.”
Trend #5: Networks on watch – Safe traffic purchase
Now, you are probably aware there are times when publishers need to purchase traffic. Actually, this happens more often than you think, especially when it comes to launching a new website.
Why’s that a case?
Because organic traffic is not the only option, and because purchased traffic is sort of a tool for publishers that can help them grow their business. This way, they can expand the area of targeted audience, monetize their business faster, study user’s reactions and behavior, etc.
But this is not a new thing. It’s been a practice for years in the world of website owners. What’s novelty and trending is networks being more aware of problems their clients are facing along the way. And the main issue is bot traffic.
So, they started investing more time and money into developing anti-bot systems and monitoring the quality of traffic.
Some of the tools ad networks present will neutralize all invalid traffic that’s threatening to affect your revenue, possibly notify publishers about each policy breach, and prevent Google bans from happening.
Note: We are currently working on a blog post that will cover this very topic, so stay tuned and learn more about it soon!To wrap up
You wanted to learn how to monetize your traffic. This is how:
- Choose wisely your monetization formats – try Popunder or SmartLink for a wider reach
- Focus on the right traffic type – Social traffic is hot right now
- Don’t forget to remain relevant and offer nothing but quality content – bloggers, we refer to you!
- Carefully select your niche and topics – Entertainment, News and Sports are promising
- Develop partnerships with the right ad networks and scale your business – why not combine organic and paid traffic (if the site is new and if you knows how to make money from paid traffic)
We just stepped into March, time is flying by. Wait no more – use the information we provided, up your game, and stay on top of monetization trends so you can earn big money in 2024.
