How to start a new travel website and earn money during coronavirus

Trapped at home during the pandemic? There has never been a better time to automate your income through secondary (or main) hustle. This can happen with a strategically constructed website. Affiliate Marketing; offering a digital product; donations and membership sites, these are all ways to monetize your brand. Here are 6 essential tips from Daniel Todercan, CEO of New Light Digital on how to make money from a new website:

1. Affiliate Marketing

If you are an expert in a field, creating a website with content based on your experience can help you earn money during the coronavirus. Affiliate marketing helps bloggers and other website owners monetize your website.

“The way it works is that you link to products and services from ads or contextual links,” says Todercan. “When someone makes a purchase from those links, you get a commission on the sale.” This is an excellent business model for content marketing. To be effective, you will need to focus on search engine optimization to reach people when they search for content related to your topic.

2. Sell ads (ie Google Adsense)

Another effective strategy for travel and lifestyle websites that focus on content marketing is to sell ads. You can do this using a service like Google Adsense, or you can manage ad sales yourself. While managing your ads yourself may mean you need to spend more time, it can also mean more revenue.

By using a service like Google Adsense, you get paid when someone clicks on the ad. For users to click on the ad, you must have content focused on a topic for which Google can serve relevant ads. The more consistent your content, the easier it will be for Google to get it right.

3. Offer a digital product

“You can earn money by starting a new travel and lifestyle website by offering a digital product, such as an e-book or online course,” says Todercan. “This is another effective way for experts to monetize their knowledge.”

Offering a digital product means developing a sound SEO strategy to attract relevant visitors to your website. In addition, you will want to have a social media management that shows your experience and gains the visibility of your product in your industry.

“People want to buy e-books and online courses from people who make it clear that they know what they are talking about,” says Todercan. “Show that experience in a blog, social media videos, and online interactions.”

4. Enable donations

“When websites are followed closely and loyally, they can solicit donations from their user base to fund their work,” says Todercan. “Wikipedia is an example of this funding model as they seek donations to finance the work they do.”

An easy way to allow donations through your website is to place a PayPal or other digital payment option on your website. For this model to be effective, it must offer content that users cannot find anywhere else for free and demonstrate its value in the market.

5. Build an e-commerce business

Ecommerce websites allow you to sell a product and send it to your customers. “You can create a product or drop ship where you partner with existing product manufacturers as a way to spread the word about your product,” says Todercan.

The key to building a successful e-commerce business is having an effective and personalized web design that highlights the benefits of your products. In order for visitors to feel comfortable making a purchase on your website, it must exude a feeling of legitimacy and security.

6. Create a membership site

A membership site allows you to collect membership fees so that people receive exclusive content or access to resources. “If you’ve created a strong following, your membership site could be premium business listings that companies pay to be a part of,” says Todercan. “Other membership websites find success by offering templates and services through an online membership portal.”

Establishing a membership site can be challenging as it is a more complicated web development process. Consider working with a digital marketing agency to discuss your goals and your business plan to ensure success.