Content Monetization Tips From Top Publishers
Content Monetization Tips From Top Publishers & Experts
“Find What Works For You… Test!”
This was a common theme among some of the veteran publishers. The idea of finding the right mix of monetization methods and strategies was something many of them expressed clearly; as some owner multiple sites that required different content monetization approaches.
> “Whether it be programmatic ads, affiliate revenue, or selling some type of content or service, it was important for us to test and look at all of these things independently.
> In most cases, we found that our content generally performed best when we got the ad stuff right. You can waste a lot of time here focused on the wrong thing. That’s why ads are easy. If you get those right, you can simply focus on your content…”
> Even the way we monetize with ads changes month over month. Having a static monetization strategy has caused us to leave a lot of money on the table. This is something we’ve gotten better at over time. We really think it’s important to test. If you have a partner that won’t let you test how different things compare or work, BEWARE!“
“Beware Too Many Ads”
> “If I had to say that there is one thing we are focused on the rest of the year, it’s reducing the amount of ads we show certain types of visitors.
> I’m specifically [concerned about floating ads](https://blog.ezoic.com/anchor-ad-placement-costing-publishers-revenue/) now _(laughter)_. I want to make sure we know when we should show those and when we shouldn’t.”
> “We just simply want to avoid showing every visitor the same ad placements. We test this and make adjustments based on data using [Ezoic](/?page_id=1148). We used to just use the same ad positions across all of our websites. We lost hundreds of thousands of dollars doing this.”
Many publishers claimed to have struggled with this in the past and expressed that in years passed they had gotten locked into contracts and agreements forcing them to show certain ad tags and placements on their site. It was shared in several instances that this ended up harming organic traffic and visitor experiences.
Which leads us to the last point.
“Avoid mandatory contracts and exclusive services”
> “We worked with one company that forced us to turn over our entire monetization stratgey to their team. They were a great group, but we started seeing traffic take a major hit after about 6 months. They were showing the same ad placements to every site they worked with. This was a terrible fit for our audience and we saw bounce rates double. We got out as soon as we could.”
> “If a 3rd party wants to take the control out of your hands, there’s usually a reason why… Always keep the ability to compare apples to apples in your back pocket…”
Final content monetization tips for digital publishers
The big takeaway from talking with all of these publishers and experts was that putting their content first seemed to be paramount to success.
This meant avoiding spending more time on monetization than on content; while also maintaining control over the decision-making associated with monetizing the content.
It was cautioned that there were many parties in the space that would seek to lock publishers into contracts and agreements that would take this kind of freedom out of the hands of the content creator. It was agreed upon that, historically, this spelled trouble for publishers.
Additional tips? Leave them below and we will keep the thread growing.