A well-maintained content site can be immensely valuable — but only if you really understand how to monetize it.
In the past, ad networks were the bread and butter of content sites. Today, this is no longer the case. Advertising represents an unreliable revenue stream at best, a delivery mechanism for malicious software at worst.
It appears that many content sites didn’t get the memo. As a result, they’ve opted to go about monetizing their content in entirely the wrong way. It’s why we see so many online publications positively flooded with ads attempting to prevent access by anyone using an ad blocker.
Equally wrongheaded are the sites that lock everything behind a paywall — rarely, if ever, is their content original enough to justify this tactic.
If you want to monetize your blog, and more importantly, increase its value to potential buyers, you’re going to need to work harder than that. You’re going to need to be more creative, insightful, and knowledgeable. And you’re going to need to publish more than just blog posts.
With that in mind, I’m going to go over a few types of content that you can use to increase your blog’s value.
Original Research
Data is powerful. Any piece of content that can validate its claims with concrete facts and statistics automatically appears more authoritative. It follows, then, that this would apply equally to a content site that publishes its own original research — its own reports, briefs, and surveys.
As you well know, any content site that establishes itself as an authority or thought leader in its niche is immensely more valuable than its run-of-the-mill competition. Commissioning or publishing your own research is an excellent way to do precisely that. It’s also a proven way to increase traffic and generate greater awareness of your brand.
In Mantis Research and Buzzsumo’s 2019 State of Original Research for Marketing, for instance, 94% of respondents stated that original research elevated their brand’s authority, and another 88% indicated that they intended to use original research again in the near future.
It isn’t just the research itself that’s powerful, either. It’s the content that can generate from it. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Webinars
- Social snippets
- Video
- Gated reports
Ebooks and White Papers
While a blog post can technically be as long as it needs to be, realistically, there are only so many words you can write before people start to tune you out. Moreover, the fact that blog posts are (or rather, should be) limited to a single topic somewhat naturally restricts their length. That’s where longer-form content comes in.
Specifically, white papers and ebooks. The former is targeted at a specific type of professional user, such as a CIO, nurse, or lawyer. The latter, meanwhile, is intended for an audience with a lower level of expertise or knowledge on a subject.
Typically available for download as a PDF, this type of content involves taking a deep dive into a topic. It allows you to showcase your knowledge and expertise, either through guiding laypeople on topics with which they’re unfamiliar or providing experts with insights they’d never considered. Given the high level of expertise required to put together a decent-quality white paper or ebook, this content is also an excellent candidate for a soft paywall.
While your audience might be annoyed if you block them from reading standard blog posts, most people will fully understand why one would gate off a white paper. More importantly, once you’ve built up your site’s reputation and authority, plenty of people will actually be willing to pay. In other words, ebooks and white papers not only enable you to showcase your authority to a greater degree, but they also represent another potential revenue stream for your site.
Podcasts
Last but not least, let’s talk about audio. Plenty of content creators already understand the value of video, both short form and long form. What I don’t see as often, however, is high-quality audio.
Given that, per Forbes, podcasts have experienced a massive surge in popularity of late, this is potentially an enormous untapped opportunity for your content site. As for what form that podcast takes? That depends mainly on the brand you’ve built around your site.
Some possible ideas include:
- A weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly podcast where you interview experts and thought leaders from across your industry.
- An online radio show that involves insightful or comical takes on your sector and career.
- A digital Q&A where you address comments and questions submitted to you by your audience.
- A freeform show, potentially hosted on a platform like Discord, in which you encourage audience participation.
In addition to bringing in more traffic and improving awareness, podcasts — curiously enough — are one of the few content channels where your audience is actually receptive to advertising. As such, a few minor product placements or a short ad or two within your podcast audio has the potential to create yet one more source of revenue for your business.
Success Is All About What You Create
Content sites can be incredibly valuable in the right hands. But you need to do more than publish the occasional blog post. If your goal is to build a thriving, valuable content site that generates decent revenue and will sell high to the right buyer, you need to take things a step further.
You need to get innovative with the type of content you create and the types of topics you cover. You need to pursue greater authority, creating premium content that both builds your reputation and provides something of value to your audience. And ultimately, you need to think of your site as more than a business or a source of revenue.
You must treat it as an outlet for your knowledge and creativity — and everything else will flow from there.
