The number of ways to earn money through digital marketing is increasing day by day. According to a survey by Edtech Company Simplilearn, there has been a 82% increase in digital hiring after the pandemic. As digital marketing continues its explosive growth, the possibilities to monetize your skills, assets and ideas keep increasing. Whether you are a creative content producer, a tech-savvy marketer or an entrepreneur with innovative ideas, you can leverage digital platforms and marketing tactics to generate revenue.
In this blog, we will explore the top ways on how to make money by digital marketing to generate passive income on the side.
How to Make Money By Digital Marketing?
There is a certain number of ways by which one can earn money through digital marketing such as:
- Content marketing
- Launching and selling your digital products
- Affiliate Marketing
- Freelancing
- Starting a Digital Marketing Agency
- Becoming a YouTube advertising partner
- Starting a Podcast for Selling Products
- Starting an eCommerce business
- Developing and monetizing your app
- Selling your website, domains, themes, and plugins
We will explore these ideas one by one
Content Writing
For businesses advertising online, content is king. It is the foundation of every digital marketing strategy through which businesses build their funnels and attract the right leads. There are various forms of content that you create and specialise on including blogs, whitepapers, website content, ebooks and social media content. When writing content for businesses, you also need to be mindful of what the target audience is looking for and select the right topics to get your customers into the funnel. The best way to start making money through content writing is to pick a niche and then create a portfolio of content topics to build your expertise. Writing on social media sites like Twitter and Linkedin also helps you get clients for content marketing.
Tips For Making Money as a Content Writer
- Pick a focused niche to specialise in
- Build a strong portfolio of client work and writing samples
- Offer your services to relevant businesses in your niche
- Get active on social media within your niche
- Focus on SEO optimization in your writing
- Consider content marketing packages beyond just writing
- Build long-term relationships and be a thought partner to clients.
Blogging on paid platforms
You can also earn money online through blogging on paid platforms. Here are some popular paid blogging platforms in India that you can consider writing for:
YourStory – One of the leading publishing platforms for writers in India. You can write on various topics like business, technology, social issues etc. They have a good readership and provide decent compensation.
Medium – Global platform that’s very popular in India. You can find niche publications on Medium to write for within your area of expertise. They offer both free and paid plans.
News18 – Leading media platform that accepts articles from freelance writers. You can pitch relevant articles around trending news topics.
Webdunia – Popular platform to write in multiple Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali etc. Pays up to Rs 400 per Hindi article.
iWriter – Long standing content marketplace with Indian clients posting writing gigs. Charges membership fee to apply for gigs.
Social Samosa – Influencer generated content platform focused on social media. Accepts contributors in marketing/social media niche.
Momspresso – Lifestyle platform with a large mom blogger community. Open for writers on parenting, food etc.
The key is to find platforms aligned with your niche/expertise and build long-term relationships by delivering quality work.
Earning money by selling ads on your website
Creating a website for selling ads on your website is quite different from creating a website for a business. While creating websites for monetization through ads, your website needs to have a lot of traffic. Hence, you need to focus on content about what Indian audiences search for and include relevant keywords.
Also, initially you can supplement your monetization efforts with affiliate marketing or selling digital products on your website. You can further use email marketing to monetize your audience through sponsorships or through your own products.
There are many advertising programs available you can use to monetize your web traffic, the most popular being Google Adsense.
When you sign up for Adsense and add the appropriate code to your website, Google will start serving ads on your web pages.
Your ads can generate revenue through views and clicks. However, Google pays very little for views, if anything at all.
An alternative is to create an “advertise with us” page to help sell direct ads for your website.
Detail to prospective advertisers your current analytics of the website, the different ad formats you offer and the pricing card rate for each ad format. You can also sell your ads in online marketplaces in India like AdmyBrand, HeadStart app and AdPushup.
How much can you make by selling ads on your website?
The amount of money you can make through selling ads ultimately depends on your website traffic. The more the traffic, the more money you can earn. Hence, employ different strategies to attract the right traffic to your website by writing about topics that your target audience would be interested in. Some niches like finance, technology, and business tend to monetize better through ads compared to entertainment or hobby sites.
Launch and Sell Your Digital Products
The best part of digital marketing is the ways you can create passive income by creating informational products. You can create ebooks, website templates, simple tools for digital marketing or worksheets based on a niche to launch your informational product. Selling premium subscriptions to your newsletter is also a great idea to generate income if you have built a large audience.
Tips for Creating and Selling Digital Products
- Identify a niche audience and understand their pain points. Create a product that solves a specific need.
- Choose a product format that suits your expertise – ebook, online course, templates, toolkits, plugins, etc.
- Focus on a smaller niche first and create a minimal viable product to validate the idea.
- Use simple tools like Google Docs, Canva, Teachable, Gumroad to create the product. Avoid overspending initially.
- Write compelling sales copy that clearly conveys the product’s value proposition.
- Build an audience through content marketing before launching to have buyers ready.
- Promote through your website, email lists, social media, affiliates, selling on marketplaces.
- Price based on the value you provide, not just time invested. Offer discounts to boost initial sales.
And voila, you have a simple digital product ready to generate passive income for you.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is another best way to convert your website traffic into passive income.
The process is straightforward. You find products you want to promote, create a website promoting those products, and drive interested visitors to your affiliate products.
As an affiliate, you might be paid by different methods like Cost per click, cost per lead or cost per sale. MAke sure to read the affiliate offer document completely to understand the rules and conditions while advertising the client’s affiliate products. USually businesses provide restrictions on how you can promote the product, allowed marketing channels and content guidelines. Ascertain that you follow these guidelines while advertising their products to avoid payment rejections.
In most cases, affiliate networks and individual affiliate programs pay publishers on a pay-per-conversion or revenue sharing basis, as the business only wants to pay commissions on measurable sales/lead outcomes.
Apart from the Amazon affiliate program, the other big companies that offer affiliate programs in India include Flipkart, Hostinger and Cuelinks.
Freelancing
A great way to start earning money online is by offering low-competition freelancing services on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. All that you need is to create a gig with the description of your services Here is an example of how a sample gig would look like. Once you create the gig, responding quickly to buyer queries and providing quality services to attract reviews from clients will help you scale your freelancing services on Fiverr.
Alternatively, you can also offer your services by advertising on social media about your services and starting to work with a few prospective clients. Below are some of the ways yo make money by digital marketing as a freelancer.
Becoming a social media manager
Becoming a freelance social media manager is one of the lucrative ways to earn money using digital marketing. As a social media manager, you’ll look to grow a brand’s online presence through a variety of marketing tactics.
Your responsibilities can include everything from writing and scheduling posts, creating graphics, and running ads, to replying to followers’ comments.
First, build up your own strong personal social media presence by being active on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. This will showcase your skills and expertise in engaging communities online. You can highlight your social media profiles in your freelance pitch.
Like selling consulting services, you’ll need to build your network and establish your reputation to earn a consistent flow of clients. Creating a website with a portfolio of previous clients and case studies of the results you’ve driven can help you win new business.
Become a SEO Expert and Sell SEO Services
SEO is one of the most important areas of digital marketing to master as it can be useful in a variety of different roles. If you are a content writer, then packaging it along with SEO services would also be beneficial to your clients.
To become an SEO expert, you’ll first need to understand the fine details of how search engines work.
After that, you need to begin developing your SEO skills. There is no shortage of SEO material on the web. As your knowledge and skills begin to grow, you’ll want to get familiar with the popular SEO tools to help streamline the way you work.
SEO is constantly changing so it’s important to stay up to date on all the latest SEO changes and be able to adjust your projects accordingly.
Tips for providing SEO services as a Freelancer to Earn Money
- Set up an SEO optimized website to promote your own services and showcase your work with case studies. Write blog posts to establish thought leadership.
- Build outreach skills to connect with potential clients over email, phone calls and messaging. Offer free audits but focus on converting trials into retainers.
- Explore niches like local SEO, ecommerce SEO, SaaS SEO etc. and tailor services for those verticals. Develop niche expertise that sets you apart.
Managing PPC Campaigns for other companies
As companies increasingly rely on digital marketing to connect with their target audience, the demand for skilled advertising campaign managers is on the rise. Whether it’s for building email lists or engaging in affiliate marketing, effective ad management is crucial.
One of the most effective forms of online advertising is PPC (pay-per-click) ads. These campaigns can yield immediate results, making them particularly attractive to small businesses seeking quick and measurable outcomes.
The primary PPC platforms where businesses run their advertising campaigns include Facebook, Instagram, Google, and LinkedIn. These platforms offer diverse targeting options, enabling advertisers to reach specific audiences and maximize the impact of their campaigns.
Tips for managing PPC campaigns for other companies as a freelancer
- Get certified in Google Ads and Bing Ads to demonstrate your expertise in pay-per-click advertising.
- Build a portfolio by creating and optimizing PPC campaigns for a few small businesses for free. Track and showcase results.
- Reach out to digital marketing agencies as a subcontractor for their client accounts. Offer discounted rates initially to get your foot in the door.
Start an SEO or digital marketing agency
Once you have developed freelancing skills in the digital marketing industry, the next step is to scale your services by building a digital marketing agency.
When you scale your services into an agency, the benefits and revenue generated from the business is even more. Let us look at this scenario.
For small businesses in India, the average monthly cost of digital marketing services ranges from ₹50,000 to ₹2,00,000.
The services in demand are SEO, social media marketing, online reputation management, email marketing, PPC ads, and content marketing.
As a startup agency, if you aim to get at least 5-10 clients paying ~₹1 lakh per month. This can provide a monthly revenue of ₹5-10 lakhs.
A team of 2-3 people with skills in content, graphic design, web analytics can handle 5-10 steady clients effectively.
Consider niche expertise like healthcare marketing, ecommerce store management to stand
With 10+ clients and team expansion, you can easily target monthly revenues of ₹20-30 lakhs or more.
With strategic planning, unique positioning and good client relationships, a startup digital marketing agency can earn ₹60 lakhs to ₹1 crore in annual revenues within 2-3 years.
Additional Ways to Earn Money Using Digital Marketing
Becoming a YouTube advertising partner
YouTube presents a major opportunity to make money online for creators developing video content. By building an engaged subscriber base around a niche topic and consistently publishing quality videos, you can monetize your channel through Google AdSense.
The key requirements are – having over 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months. Once you hit these milestones, you can enrol in the YouTube Partner Program to start serving ads against your videos and earn ad revenue based on views and engagement.
Starting a podcast for selling products
The podcast is a recent trend that one can use to generate passive earnings. You can use a podcast to promote blogs, eBooks, online courses, affiliates, and many more.
The main steps in a great podcast’s success are to resolve one’s audience’s problems and produce excellent quality content and valuable information for the audience. It will furthermore help with the marketing of one’s products or services.
Starting an eCommerce business and becoming an eCommerce strategist
One of the best startup ideas that you can launch with minimum investment and low risk is an ecommerce business. You can either employ a dropshipping model and ship your products directly from the suppliers or launch your own product line for a niche product.
Some examples of niche ecommerce product ideas that could work well for the Indian market are
- Traditional clothing and jewelry representing cultural designs of a particular state.
- Natural, organic health and beauty products featuring indigenous ingredients like neem, turmeric, coconut etc.
- Home décor and accessories with printing of folk art or special crafts like Warli paintings.
- Artisanal food products from regional cuisines such as pickles, spices, snacks, sweets etc.
- Natural fabrics and clothing made using textiles like Khadi cotton, Banarasi silk, Chanderi weaves etc.
- Stationery made from recycled paper featuring Indian designs.
- Educational toys and products designed based on Indian concepts.
Also read: Ecommerce opportunities in India
With the right product-market fit and promotion, an ecommerce brand can become a steady source of income. You can also monetize your ecommerce expertise by consulting for other businesses.
Developing and monetizing an app
With increasing smartphone penetration, building and monetizing your own mobile apps presents a lucrative digital income opportunity. You can utilize your development skills to create useful apps that solve specific problems for consumers or businesses.
Some popular app monetization models include – freemium (free app with paid upgrades), in-app purchases, subscriptions, and showing contextual ads. You can also integrate affiliate links and lead generation functionality within your app.
Selling your website, domains, themes, and plugins
If you have a high-traffic website, premium domain name, quality WordPress theme or useful plugin/addon, these assets can become sources of passive digital income.
Websites that rank well for commercial keywords, have good traffic and engagement metrics can be sold for attractive valuations through marketplaces like Flippa. Premium domain names consisting of dictionary words or short memorable phrases also sell for thousands based on market demand.
Freelancers who have development skills can earn regularly by designing and selling quality WordPress themes and plugins on platforms like ThemeForest and CodeCanyon. Useful, well-coded assets that solve problems for users and have positive reviews can continue to deliver sales revenue month after month.
Steps To Gain Clients and Earn Money By Digital Marketing
Digital marketing has a plethora of opportunities and even if you are a newbie, you can make money through digital marketing. Follow these steps to upskill yourself, gain clients and build a steady source of passive income.
📚 Learn: Start by gaining knowledge about digital marketing through courses, books, or online resources.
💼 Experience: Gain practical experience by working on real projects or internships.
💡 Skills: Develop essential skills such as SEO, content marketing, social media management, and data analysis.
💻 Online Presence: Build your online presence through blogs, social media, and a personal website to showcase your expertise.
🤝 Networking: Connect with professionals in the field, attend conferences, and join relevant communities.
📢 Freelance or Job: Consider freelancing or working for a company to apply your skills and earn money.
📈 Continuous Learning: Stay updated with industry trends and keep improving your skills to stay competitive.
By following these steps, you can increase your earning potential and make good money using digital marketing
