💸18 creative monetization options

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Spring’s coming and Jack Frost’s time is coming to a close. I couldn’t be more tickled.

Warmer temps should heat up our creativity too, so now’s prime time to think about 18 creative ways to monetize your content beyond advertising. This story was seeded by a Beehiiv webinar on creative monetization with a local newsletter success story called Catskill Crew.

After that, you can dig into Monday’s Marketing News.

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Ways to Monetize Content

One reason I love Beehiiv is because they make it easy to run ads in a newsletter to monetize content. 

Its ad platform is super simple. Gives you lots of ad options. And they keep refining the features (usually for the better😎).

However, some content producers don’t want to run ads. Or don’t wanna run too many. 

Or maybe you need to generate more money than ads alone can generate.

Either way, it’s good to have options for monetizing the content you share with the world — whether in a newsletter, via blogging, in YouTube videos, or on social media.

At the end of this post, I’ll list 18 options for making money with your content that don’t involve using ads. 

First, let’s look at how monetization has been done even before the internet ruined everyone’s lives (I mean became the best invention ever).

Content Monetization History

The New York Times was founded in 1851. Before the Civil War.

The Wall Street Journal? Founded in 1889. Same year as the first long-distance electric power transmission line was completed in Portland.

Those content creators were earning money ages ago, so they have wisdom to offer today’s content creators.

Both newspapers used daily newspaper sales and recurring subscriptions to generate money beyond ad revenue.

Also, before Craigslist swooped in and wrecked newspapers’ classified sections, tons of money was made by traditional publishers from classified ads  — which are not the same as business advertisements, obviously. 

Pre-Internet Classified Cash

• Total classified advertising volume in daily papers was $12.5 billion in pre-Craigslist 1994.

• Despite the 2000 dot-com bubble busting, classified ad revenue remained strong at $14.2 billion, even as Craigslist began expanding nationally.

• Pre-1995, print classifieds commanded 40% of total newspaper ad revenue industry-wide.

Impossible to use classified ads today to monetize content, you say? I wouldn’t be so sure. Craigslist now charges a small fee to run a listing in many of their categories. Plus, there are other small print publications that still have classified sections up and running. 

Moving on. 

Other publishers earn money via licensing and distribution models. 

AP News is an example. Similar to TV and radio programming, AP uses syndication to spread their content and monetize without relying on ads only. 

The beauty of syndication is the flexibility… 

• Reuters, for example, “cherry picks” content to monetize, selling their market analyses to fintech platforms.

• Bloomberg uses similar tactics, selling customized financial data feeds to corporate clients.

Live events were another way old-school publishers piled on revenue back in the day. Author book signings and speaking engagements, for example. 

Today’s Monetization Landscape

In today’s content creation world, other options for monetization keep popping up and evolving. 

Some publishers use hard paywalls. No entry unless users pay up.

Other publishers give users some free content and tease the full article, video, or audio if you become a paid subscriber.

Still other creators offer full-fledged free content, but then add cherries on top for premium subscribers who pay for the extras. 

Then there are platforms like Patreon (or Super Chat on YouTube) that let your audience provide bonus revenue for you. See the image below showing a podcast I’ve never heard of generating nearly $180,000 a month via Patreon.

A similar option? Forming a community that users are willing to pay to be a part of, where the publisher can even offload some of the community wrangling to their VIP fans. 

Lastly, there are hybrid models like the following case study:

30Seconds.com: Elisa Schmitz monetized lifestyle content via Google Ads (52% revenue growth), e-book sales, and partnerships with St. Jude’s Hospital, proving hybrid models’ viability.

After all that, it should be plain that ads are not the only way to make money off your content. Heck, the fly fisherman from the Beehiiv webinar we noted at the start sold a ton of board games. 

Anything can produce revenue. But it takes creativity, testing, and listening to your audience. 

Now for the list of ways to monetize your content. 

18 Modern Content Monetization Strategies

1. Subscription Paywalls 

2. Premium Newsletters 

3. Membership Communities (e.g., LO Sister app)

4. Affiliate Marketing 

5. Licensing Content 

6. E-commerce Integration (e.g., Mr. Beast’s Feastables)

7. Online Courses

8. Crowdfunding 

9. Virtual Events  

10. Live Experiences (e.g., live podcast tours)

11. Consulting Services 

12. Donations (e.g., Wikipedia’s fundraising)

13. Dynamic Pricing  

14. White-Label Content  

15. Patronage Platforms  

16. Branded Merchandise (e.g., YouTube creator merch)

17. Mobile Apps (e.g., Calm’s premium meditation guides)

18. Lead Generation (e.g., gated industry reports)

How about Monday Marketing News now…

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Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

“We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.” ~Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

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