As a WordPress website owner, it’s easy to develop tunnel visison when it comes to generating revenue. If you have one main way to earn money with your website, you might invest all your efforts into that single avenue. While that’s not generally bad advice, you may find you have painted yourself into a corner revenue wise and that it’s time to diversify your income streams.
After all, there are a number of other ways to make money with your site. To help you do so, today, we’ll be exploring some of those other possibilities, discuss who they are most suitable for, and compile tool and plugin suggestions to help you hit the ground running.
Let’s go!
Why is Income Diversification Important?
There are a number of reasons why diversifying your income streams matters. Let’s review a few of them now.
- Building a buffer for tough times — First, more income streams provide additional secuirty. If one stream of income dries up, you have others to fall back on. This is especially important if your website is your primary source of income.
- Increase revenue — Diversifying your income streams can also lead to a better bottom line. By offering multiple products or services, you can appeal to a wider range of people. This, in turn, can lead to more sales and profit.
- Create a more robust business — Finally, having multiple income streams can make your business more stable. This is because, again, you’re not as reliant on any one stream of income. And you might happen upon an even more financially rewarding income stream during the process – even if it wasn’t your original pursuit.
In short, the point to diversifying your income streams is to not put all your eggs in one basket. By having multiple sources of revenue, you can weather the ups and downs of any one particular stream. For example, if ad revenue suddenly declines, sponsorships might keep your business afloat.
11 Ways to Diversify Your Online Income Streams in WordPress
There are a number of different ways to monetize your WordPress website. Let’s explore 11 of those methods in detail and discuss their viability for diversification.
1. Create a Membership Site
A membership site is a website where visitors pay a monthly or annual fee to gain access to premium content. This can be in the form of videos, articles, or even physical products.
Benefits
- Recurring revenue: By providing exclusive content to members, you’re able to keep them coming back month after month.
- Increased customer loyalty: Memberships also allow you to build long-term profitable relationships with your clients.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
Create a membership site if you already have:
- A highly engaged audience.
- Ideas or a plans for how to provide further value to them with premium content.
- A healthy backlog of published content that you could readily repurpose/update/expand upon for membership-only content.
Tools & Plugins
A variety of plugins and tools are available for creating membership sites, including:
2. Sell Digital Products or Services
Digital products and services are a great way to monetize your WordPress website. They have much higher profit margins than, for example, affiliate marketing.
What kind of products can you sell? Anything from ebooks and online courses (more on that soon) over PDFs, templates, software, and mobile apps to videos, audio files, or stock photos.
Benefits
- Wider audience: By selling products or services online, you’re able to reach a wider audience than you would be able to offline.
- Convenience: Customers can shop for your products or services at any time, day or night.
- No shipping costs: Since the products are digital, there are no shipping costs involved.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
Consider selling digital products and services if:
- You already have a loyal and engaged audience.
- Visitors repeatedly reach out with specific questions your content has yet to answer. This is an opportunity to offer a paid solution.
Tools & Plugins
A variety of plugins and tools are available for setting up digital-only eCommerce stores, including:
3. Place Ads on Your Website
Advertising is a common way to add a secondary website income stream. By displaying ads on your site, you’re able to generate revenue from clicks or impressions.
Benefits
- Vast inventory: There are a variety of different types of ads available, giving you a vast inventory to choose from.
- Easy to set up: Ads can be easily added to your website with the help of a plugin or code snippet.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
You may wish to use ads on your website if:
- You pull in large amounts of traffic. Online ads are very much a numbers game. Conversion rates on ads are very low, so high traffic is necessary to consider this for an income stream.
Tools & Plugins
A variety of plugins and tools are available for adding ads to your WordPress website, including:
4. Create a Course or eBook to Sell Online
Another way to diversify your income stream is to offer an online course or eBook. Although they fall under the digital-products category, we are listing them separately because they are such a natural progression when you already create content. Often, you can use your existing posts as a jumping off point for creating them and it can turn into a passive income generation method over time.
Benefits
- Repurpose existing content: Use old blog posts or other content to create your courses or ebooks.
- Cheap and easy delivery: Since the products are digital, you don’t have to worry about shipping costs.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
Create a course or ebook to sell if:
- You’ve published a lot of content already. Blog posts can serve as the jumping off point for an online course or book that goes more in depth.
- You have an engaged audience with repeat visitors and a good list of email subscribers to work with.
Tools & Plugins
You can use plugins or other tools to create an income stream centered around online courses or downloadable ebooks. Here are just a few that may prove beneficial:
5. Partner with Other Businesses to Promote Their Products or Services
Partnerships can be a great way to monetize a WordPress website by promoting the products or services of another business. In a partnership, you agree to promote the other business in some way in exchange for a commission.
Benefits
- Easy to set up: Partnerships can be easily set up with the help of a simple agreement.
- Possibility for cross-promotion: Partnerships can go both ways. While you are promoting your partner, they might do the same for you.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
This is a good option if you can find products and services that are a good fit for your audience. It also helps if you can demonstrate the ability to send customers to your potential partner.
Tools & Plugins
You don’t necessarily need to use any tools to manage partnerships or collaborations in WordPress. However, if you wish to keep tabs on more complex partnerships (with sponsored posts, promotional logos, or individuals tasks to be assigned) some plugins that could be helpful are:
6. Use Affiliate Marketing to Make Money from Other People’s Products
Affiliate marketing is not dissimilar from partnerships. It’s when you promote another person’s or company’s products or services in exchange for a cut of the sales. The difference is that you can simply sign up to different affiliate programs and then start generating revenue by using your unique affiliate links.
Benefits
- No inventory required: Unlike other methods of monetization, affiliate marketing does not you to create the product yourself.
- Little effort required: Once you’ve set up your affiliate links, you will largely go about your standard content creation process.
- High commissions: Commissions for affiliate marketing can be quite high, providing a good source of revenue.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
Any company that publishes regular content and maintains a blog can benefit from affiliate marketing. Though those with higher traffic will see a more consistent income stream with this method. A good topical fit between your audience and the product you will promote is also important.
Tools & Plugins
A variety of plugins and tools are available for setting up affiliate marketing on a WordPress website, including:
7. Start a Podcast and Sell Advertising or Sponsorships
Starting a podcast is a great way to share your thoughts and expertise with the world. It can also be a profitable way to add an income stream to your WordPress website. There are a number of ways to sell advertising or sponsorships on your podcast, including:
- Ad space on your website or podcast homepage
- Ad space in the form of pre, post, or midroll ads
- Exclusive sponsorships for individual episodes
- Offering premium content to listeners in exchange for sponsorship pledges
Benefits
- Can be highly profitable: Advertising and sponsorships can generate significant revenue for your podcast.
- Flexible: You can choose to sell advertising or sponsorships in a variety of ways, depending on what makes sense for your show.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
Companies and business owners that have some amount of expertise to share. Consultants and service professionals can thrive with podcasts. It also helps if you feel comfortable behind a microphone.
Tools & Plugins
You may find the following helpful for setting up a podcast with WordPress:
8. Create a Directory on Your Website
A directory catalogs and provides information about other websites or service providers. By charging listing fees, it can be a great way to add another income stream to your existing site.
Benefits
- Potential for passive income: A directory will continue to generate revenue even when you are not actively working on it.
- Builds credibility for your site: Having a well-designed and informative directory on your website can help to build credibility. In addition, it might improve your site’s search engine ranking.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
If your website centers around a particular topic, you can provide a directory that lists professionals, services, or service providers in this niche. Aside from that, decent traffic and industry awareness/respect are prerequisites.
Tools & Plugins
There are a number of tools and plugins available for setting up and managing a directory, including:
9. Write Posts for Other Blogs in Your Niche
Writing for other websites in your industry is a double whammy for increasing your revenue. It can both directly generate money as well as get your name out and increase social capital. Two options are available: writing freelance for other blogs or paying to place sponsored posts.
Benefits
- Earn money as a freelancer: If you already have a portfolio of relevant blog posts, you can leverage that into getting paid to write for other websites.
- Boost traffic: A well-executed sponsored post can drive significant traffic to your own website that you can capture and monetize.
- Build relationships: Working with other bloggers can help you build relationships with influential people in your industry.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
Freelancing blogging and sponsored posts are suitable for almost any type of website. It helps if you have a proven track record of good content that can work as your portfolio.
If you are going the sponsored post route, go with websites that have steady traffic and are valued industry voices. This will give you the most bang for your buck.
Tools & Plugins
No specific tools or plugins are required, but you may find the following helpful for sponsored posts:
10. Provide Consulting Services
If you have expertise in a particular subject or industry, you can offer paid consulting or professional services. Doing so is a great way to add an income stream to your site without having to acquire new skills.
Benefits
- Can be done on a freelance basis: This means you can work with multiple clients and set your own hours.
- Takes little to no preparation: You already have the skills and expertise required, all you need to do is advertise your services.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
Anyone in any field could likely be a consultant so long as they have the required knowledge. However, those who like working with other people directly and who serve as an industry voice already stand to benefit the most.
Tools & Plugins
There are a number of tools and plugins available for setting up and managing a consulting or professional services business. They are largely centered around taking and booking appointments and include:
11. Resell Web Hosting
Lastly, you may wish to consider reselling web hosting as another income stream. This is especially great if doing so would complement services or products you already offer.
Benefits
- Low threshold: Reselling web hosting doesn’t require any technical knowledge. You can outsource all of the necessary tasks to a web hosting provider.
- You can set your own prices (to some degree): This gives you the flexibility to charge what you think is appropriate.
Who Is This Most Suitable For?
Reselling web hosting is suitable for almost any type of WordPress website. However, it is particularly well-suited for websites that revolve around web design and development, as it’s a natural fit.
Tools & Plugins
Many hosting companies provide reseller accounts you can use to sell hosting plans to your site visitors. However, the following can help with setup:
How Will You Diversify Your Income Streams?
There are many different ways to add more than one income stream to your WordPress website. And the options you select will depend on your specific needs and goals.
However, some of the most popular methods include selling products and services, setting up a subscription membership service, or being a consultant. Whichever method you choose, be sure to research the options and select the one that best suits your skill set.
Which method do you think is the best way to add a secondary income stream to your website? Did we miss a method? Let us know in the comments below!
