We’ve all heard the old saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” It’s the basic premise of diversification — an approach that’s often used to shield investors from market volatility and reduce risk within their portfolio.

But diversification applies to more than just stocks and bonds. As a publisher, diversifying your revenue streams can help to protect you from inevitable ebbs and flows across the industry. By tapping into a variety of income opportunities, you can ensure your earnings will be more sustainable over the long term.

For publishers, the only constant is change

Things move fast in the world of online publishing. Innovative tools, channels, and tactics spring up constantly, and there’s always something new to explore. At the same time, tried-and-true revenue sources can fall out of favor with little or no warning.

Recent economic upheaval and widespread uncertainty make it more difficult than ever to predict which monetization strategies will be successful at any given time. Here are just a few examples of current trends that are impacting publishers’ ability to earn:

• Labor and supply chain disruptions. While retailers have borne the brunt of labor and merchandise shortages, online publishers are also seeing the impact. Earnings from ecommerce and affiliate may take a hit due to out-of-stock products, fewer affiliate deals, and less generous commissions.
• Negative social media perceptions. For the first time in its history, social media giant Facebook is seeing a decline in usage. While other platforms like Instagram and TikTok are still growing (albeit slowly), mounting concerns about data privacy and transparency could impact publishers’ ability to drive revenue through social ads.
• The rise of subscription fatigue. Revenue from digital subscriptions soared during the Covid-19 pandemic, but publishers are now faced with the challenge of retaining those subscribers by continuing to deliver the value paying customers demand.
• Increased resistance to traditional marketing. Born between 1996 and 2010, Generation Z already possesses enormous spending power, but they also pose a unique marketing challenge. These digital natives are savvier and more selective than any group before them – so typical approaches may be less effective as Gen Z matures.

4 ways to diversify your revenue

As an online publisher, you have endless options for expanding your mix of revenue streams, from ecommerce and affiliate to advertising, data, and more. Of course, not every tactic is right for every publisher. Before you start your diversification efforts, consider your audience, brand identity, content production capabilities, and the resources you have available.

Here are a few options to kick off your journey to better income diversification:

1. Advertising is one of the most common ways for publishers to generate revenue. And even if you already have an active ad program, there are always opportunities to improve and add new categories to your advertising mix: display ads, native ads, programmatic, and more. For details and inspiration, download 50 Ways to Make Media Pay from our partners at What’s New in Publishing.
2. Affiliate marketing is a foundational element of online publishing. It’s also one of the easiest ways to diversify your earnings. Start-up is simple, it offers tremendous revenue potential, and it’s endlessly flexible – whether you’re endorsing products you love, sharing links on social, or providing price comparisons. If you’re looking for new affiliate ideas, check out our ebook: 5 Ways to Make Affiliate Marketing Work for You.
3. Data monetization offers a variety of ways to drive incremental revenue from your proprietary first-party data. If you have an extensive subscriber list, you can safely monetize your email data using our hashed email solution. You can also enhance the value of your website audience data through data enrichment.
4. Other content-based strategies let you tap into the value of your high-quality content to drive revenue in creative ways. For example, newsletters can provide diverse monetization opportunities like sponsorships, paid advertisements, and subscriber-only exclusives. Ebooks and other long-form assets can be sold as standalone products or positioned as premium content for paid subscribers.

More ways to monetize with Sovrn

If you’re ready to expand your income streams, Sovrn can help. We’ve made significant investments in new products and services to help publishers diversify their revenue and maximize earnings.

• Commerce: With the addition of price and merchant comparisons to our Commerce offering, you can now earn more revenue from every click. Diversify merchants, improve conversions, and boost revenue by building price comparison widgets into your existing commerce content.
• Advertising: We’ve made it easier to optimize every ad placement using “engaged time,” which measures not only when an ad can be seen but also when a user is actively engaged with the content. With engaged time, you can accurately identify your most valuable ad inventory and price accordingly.
• Data: We’re working to provide publishers with a standard and scalable way to transact their first-party data, as the first SSP to support IAB Tech Lab’s Seller Defined Audiences Specifications in Prebid.org. We’re also helping publishers to increase the value of their proprietary data and create meaningful audience segments through data enrichment.
• Ad Management: Optimizing your revenue diversification can be complicated, but you don’t have to go it alone. With Sovrn Ad Management, you can stop worrying about the details and get back to what you do best: creating great content and growing your audience. 

To learn more about these innovations – and all the other ways Sovrn supports publishers – just email us at sales@sovrn.com and our team will be happy to help.

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Whether you’re struggling to find the right strategies to increase your earnings or simply want to try out some new ideas, take the time to read 50 Ways to Make Media Pay. This new report, sponsored by Sovrn and published by What’s New In Publishing, explores both common and unconventional tactics to help publishers diversify their income opportunities.

5 Ways to Make Paywalls Work for You

One of the most common strategies for monetizing content is the paywall, which helps publishers drive more paid digital subscriptions by limiting access to content for non-subscribers.

The idea of restricting access to essential information came under fire at the height of the pandemic. As a result, many news outlets temporarily reduced or removed paywalls for COVID-related content. 

Despite this short-term fluctuation, paywalls are on the rise – and the trend toward subscriber-only content is expected to increase as publishers look for ways to offset lost ad revenue. Among the most common structures for online paywalls are:

1. Hard paywalls Certain sites – like the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times – keep all of their content behind a paywall, which means you must subscribe before you can read even a single article. Inflexible paywalls like this have become increasingly rare for all but the most niche publishers, as prospective subscribers tend to exit immediately when they encounter a paywall that requires payment to access any of the site’s content.
2. Metered paywalls This type of paywall lets readers consume a certain number of free articles before requiring a subscription. Metered paywalls typically reset monthly, which gives visitors the option of paying for additional content now or coming back when more free content becomes available later. Research shows that in recent years, publishers have reduced the average cap on free content from 10+ articles per month to just five.
3. Hybrid paywalls A hybrid or “freemium” paywall model lets publishers make certain content available for free, while placing other content behind a paywall. This blended structure was widely adopted by news outlets for COVID-related content, but is now being applied in a broader context. For example, USA Today has moved some of its more in-depth journalism behind a paywall, while the New York Times offers paid access to certain sections like NYT Cooking.
4. Geolocation paywalls This model creates a variable paywall based on the reader’s IP address. Many newspapers use this location-based approach to ensure that local audiences have access to more content for free, while those beyond a certain radius will hit the paywall sooner. Geolocation restrictions can also be used to limit access to content that may not comply with local laws – for example, US publications that are not compliant with the EU’s GDPR requirements.
5. Dynamic paywalls The rise of AI and automation in publishing offers a host of new opportunities to create smarter, more dynamic paywalls. Under this model, different users may encounter paywalls at different times, based on any number of factors: content consumption, on-site behavior, browsing history, subject matter, geography, and device type, to name just a few.

Download the full report for more ideas on leveraging paywalls, plus dozens of other strategies to make media pay through subscriptions, advertising, content-based strategies, and more.

More ways to Monetize with Sovrn

When you’re ready to try out some new monetization strategies, Sovrn can help! We made significant investments in new products and services throughout 2021 to help publishers diversify their revenue and maximize earnings.

• Commerce: With the addition of price and merchant comparison technology to our Commerce offering, you can now earn more revenue from every click. Diversify merchants, improve conversions, and boost revenue by building price comparison widgets into your existing commerce content.
• Advertising: We’ve made it easier to optimize every ad placement using “engaged time,” which measures not only when an ad can be seen but also when a user is actively engaged with the content. With engaged time, you can accurately identify your most valuable ad inventory and price accordingly.
• Data: We’re working to provide publishers with a standard and scalable way to transact their first-party data, as the first SSP to support IAB Tech Lab’s Seller Defined Audiences Specification in Prebid.org. We’re also helping publishers to increase the value of their proprietary data and create meaningful audience segments through data enrichment.

To learn more about these innovations – and all the other ways Sovrn supports publishers – just email us at sales@sovrn.com and our team will be happy to help.

The post Offsetting Ad Revenue with Subscriber-Only Content appeared first on Sovrn, Inc..

With the wide range of tools and APIs currently available for affiliate marketing, publishers can really get creative with their affiliate strategy. Even if you’re not a traditional content publisher or social media influencer, it’s possible to capture incremental revenue from search traffic.

Search engines are a natural fit for affiliate marketing because they’re also shopping engines. Readers often begin their search with immediate purchase intent. After all, as Google once famously stated, “People searching for barbers probably want a haircut.” 

By monetizing search traffic, you can help your readers discover new merchants and products, turn browsers into buyers, and add a new source of revenue. The key is understanding what your audience is searching for and how they found you in the first place. 

From there, publishers have several options for converting search traffic into revenue. Here are two of our favorites:

1. Merchant Tile Placements
   Even if you don’t sell or review specific products on your site, there may be an opportunity to earn money by highlighting merchants related to your content. Some publishers do this through permanent (or semi-permanent) merchant tile placements, usually shown in a prominent spot well above the fold on the homepage. 
   
   By placing these merchants in front of readers immediately, publishers can give their readers a quick and easy way to buy products they’re already interested in — while building a clear association between their content, their readers, and high-quality brands. And merchants love tile placements because they’re highly visible and appealing to readers.
   
   Merchant tiles can drive incremental revenue without competing with other ad units on your site. Tile placement is easy to implement using a tool like Sovrn Commerce, and tiles can be changed out at any time based on merchant performance and reader engagement.
   
   
2. Knowledge Panels
   Another way to monetize search traffic is by using knowledge panels. When a reader conducts an online search, a knowledge panel directs them to your merchant hub — allowing you to capitalize on more clicks. 
   
   Knowledge panels work by connecting motivated buyers with the product or merchant they’re interested in. When they search for a specific product, merchant, or sale, you simply give them a direct route to their desired destination and convert their purchase intent into income.

Get Creative with Your Affiliate Strategy

These innovative placement tactics allow you to diversify your revenue without relying on individual pieces of content (like articles or social posts) to drive clicks. But tactics like these aren’t just for search engines! They can be applied to any number of scenarios to drive incremental revenue in creative ways.

For example, say you have a website that offers software coding tips and tricks. You could place merchant tiles (as shown above) on your site, linking out to your favorite software courses or products. If you run a fashion website, you might create permanent tiles linking to your favorite stores. Your recommended shopping destinations will likely appeal to readers who share your sense of style.

Ready to Start Earning with Affiliate Marketing?

While affiliate marketing is relatively easy to understand, getting started can be daunting. And even if you’re already making money through affiliate marketing, there are always new ideas to try and new opportunities to enhance your strategy. 

Download the free ebook, 5 Ways to Make Affiliate Marketing Work for You in 2021. You can also visit our website to learn more about Sovrn Commerce, the fastest and easiest way to start earning through affiliate marketing.

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