I received an interesting question via email:
I started a site that’s free, though you must register. So far the only means of monetizing it has been through selling ad space in our digital edition which goes out to all registered users. All articles get press releases, posts on at least 200 linkedin groups, face book, socially bookmarked, digg, Redit, at least 10 others, etc. I would like to be able to increase traffic, registered users, sales and if possible see if there are any other potential streams of revenue.
The site has lots of great content, so here was my response.
It sounds like you are well established (or on your way) as an authority. There are lots of ways to use knowledge and people seeing you as an authority. The three that come to mind are paid, premiere content, books and education.
Look at NetTuts for premiere content. They offer a lot of great, free tutorials on a number of subjects, and then a monthly subscription grants you access to exclusive tutorials. If some of your news or posts would be worth even $10/mo to someone, use that.
You could also (or alternately) take previous posts, polished up, combine them with a few new posts and publish a book. JoelOnSoftware (affiliate link) and 37Signals’ Rework (affiliate link) are a couple examples. Not everyone wants to read lots of separate posts, especially online. Also, if you’ve got a following, people are often happy to “support” by buying your book.
Finally if your site offers some how-tos (I couldn’t tell offhand), you could sell your knowledge in lessons. This is great, especially if there’s a potential curriculum to using the knowledge, or the process of using the knowledge takes months or year. Check out the Micropreneur Academy.
I’m borrowing a lot from great ideas from Chris Brogan, Copy Blogger, and many other s I’m not remembering right now. Did I miss anything?
Tags: income streams, monetizing a blog, paid content, revenue ideas, user question
