Everything you need to know about content monetization in 2023 and beyond

As the demand for content and niche expertise grows, so do the potential revenue opportunities. 

If you’re unfamiliar with how content monetization works, we’re here to guide you through the process, including how you can get started with the Skimlinks platform.

Contents:

• Content monetization explained
• Content monetization formats
• Content monetization opportunities with Skimlinks
• Getting started with Skimlinks

Content monetization explained

Content monetization is the process of making money from the content you create – such as articles, videos, podcasts, or any form of digital content. This can be done through advertising, sponsorships, subscriptions, or affiliate marketing. 

In short, content monetization is all about finding ways to generate revenue from your content, so you can continue creating valuable content and grow your audience over time.

Content monetization formats – native advertising, sponsored content, and affiliate marketing.

Advertising is the longest-running and most obvious form of content monetization. Some formats include native adverts and sponsored content. Here, content is monetized as you take an upfront payment to create content promoting a product or brand to readers. Typically these formats will contain monetization disclaimers like “sponsored” or “advertisement”. 

But, with the digital ad market in a slump, publishing media (both print and digital) is forecast to see ad spending decline by -7.7% year-on-year in 2023. With that, the need to explore new ways of making money from content is rising. 

With Google’s crackdown on misleading advertising, affiliate marketing has become a favored method for publishers looking to monetize their content. The industry is already worth $12 billion and is set to grow to $15.7 billion by 2024.  

But what is affiliate marketing? In short, it’s a process where content creators and publishers earn a commission by promoting a product or service made by another retailer or advertiser using an affiliate link. 

Content powered by affiliate marketing is known as commerce content – curated recommendations around a particular theme, like a holiday gift guide or product reviews. Usually, a short disclosure is placed near the top of the article, so the reader knows the content is monetized.

Affiliate marketing and content monetization opportunities with Skimlinks

At Skimlinks, you can monetize your content in three ways: JavaScript, Link Wrapper, and Accelerated Mobile Pages.

Automating affiliate links – Skimlinks JavaScript

The JavaScript is important for getting the most out of Skimlinks. It’s the easiest way to affiliate new and existing content – a simple line of code added directly to your website template.  With the JavaScript enabled, you can track clicks, sales, and more – so you can learn which products, merchants, and content types your readers are most interested in.

The mobile-first mindset: affiliating Accelerated Mobile Pages

If you want to cater to mobile readers, the Skimlinks Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP for short, is a great tool.  The AMP integration, like the JavaScript, is easy to install. It’s a few lines of code added to an Accelerated Mobile Page and only needs to be installed once. Then there’s nothing else for you to do – the Skimlinks AMP integration will automatically affiliate your commerce content across all AMP articles.

The great thing about AMP is that it can be implemented alongside the Skimlinks JavaScript – and all performance and revenue data can be tracked in the Publisher Hub.

Monetize links across all your channels – Linkwrapper

What about monetizing content outside of your website? This is where Link Wrapper comes in. 

With Link Wrapper, you can monetize links outside of a website – content on social media, newsletters, in-app, and even print.  It also applies to syndicated content. There are two ways you can go about doing this.

The first way to get the most out of Link Wrapper is the Editor Toolbar. This easy-to-use Chrome Extension lets you generate affiliate links directly from a merchant’s website. You can choose between a standard link or a ‘short’ link, which is great for social media.

The other way is to use the Link Generator in the Publisher Hub. All you need to do is to paste the page URL to turn it into an affiliate link. It’s that simple.

Getting Started with Skimlinks

Now that you have a better idea of how content monetization works, we’re here to help you get started. 

Everything you need to start monetizing your content can be found in our “Getting Started as a Publisher” guide – how to set up your account, how to find the best merchants, and how to write revenue-generating content.

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