The only real way to make money online is by selling products, right? Not so fast. Plenty of people make money online without selling anything.
In the digital economy, there are many paths to website monetization, whether that’s hosting banner ads, creating sponsored posts for a pre-agreed fee, or funneling traffic to an ecommerce store to earn income via affiliate links. This means just about anyone can generate income from a website—even those who assume they have nothing to sell online.
Here are some popular online business models and monetization strategies that can help you build a profitable website without stocking a single piece of merchandise.
How to make money with a website without selling anything
- Affiliate marketing
- Display advertising
- Offering online courses
- Creating a membership site
- Sponsored content creation
- Dropshipping
- Donations and micropayments
- Referral programs
- Offering professional services online
You can make money online without selling merchandise. The key is choosing a specific niche and making a consistent effort toward increasing your website’s traffic. Here are nine promising ways to earn money online without ever having to manage inventory or ship a product:
1. Affiliate marketing
In affiliate marketing, you earn a commission by promoting a third-party company’s product or service. When a user clicks your unique affiliate link and makes a purchase on the other company’s site, you receive a percentage of the sale. You are not selling the item yourself; you are simply driving traffic.
Shopify’s affiliate marketing program is highly regarded, as are the Amazon affiliate program and the Rakuten affiliate program. There are plenty of great affiliate networks, so research your options.
2. Display advertising
You can sell ad space on your website to earn money online. You’ll sign up with ad networks like Google AdSense or Mediavine, which will place automated advertisements on your website. You get paid based on impressions (how many people see the ad) or clicks (PPC/CPC). You’re not paid a percentage of sales revenue.
Your ability to generate a passive income stream from ad placements will depend on how much traffic you can bring to your website. The more people who visit, the better your chances of someone clicking on a display ad and netting you income.
3. Offering online courses
If you have particular skills or expertise in a subject, you can create and publish educational content for others to access on platforms like Udemy or Teachable. Selling online courses requires an initial upfront investment of time and perhaps some money, but the courses can live online long after you record them. This means they can generate passive income for many years while you pursue other ventures.
4. Creating a membership site
You can monetize your website by letting visitors access exclusive content for a recurring fee. You do this by placing content behind a paywall where, for a few dollars a month, your loyal audience can view it, read it, listen to it, or perhaps even download it. Patreon is a popular platform for this, but Shopify offers its own tools for creating a membership program. It’s an ideal way for creators, coaches, or specialists to create income streams without selling merchandise.
It’s become increasingly common to share premium content via a subscription-only newsletter. Substack is a leading platform for this, but it’s also worth looking into alternatives like Shopify Email.
5. Sponsored content creation
In this model, a brand pays you a flat fee to create and publish content (a video, a post, or an article) that features their product or message. You are paid for the exposure you provide, not for driving a direct sale. If you’ve ever gone on Instagram and seen a fitness influencer post a sponsored Reel demonstrating a specific piece of exercise equipment, then you’ve already seen this kind of content.
6. Dropshipping
Although it technically involves selling physical products, dropshipping allows you to run an ecommerce store without handling the actual merchandise. Instead, you forward the sales info to a dropshipping partner who stocks the product and ships it to the purchaser. You do have to handle payment processing and customer service, but you don’t have to worry about inventory management or order fulfillment. Shopify has myriad resources for entrepreneurs starting a dropshipping business on its platform.
7. Donations and micropayments
Your most valuable content can generate income even when you give it away for free—if you let supporters contribute voluntarily. This business model works particularly well for content creators, developers, and educators who provide free tools, videos, or open-source software to a community of website visitors. If you’ve ever visited a website with a PayPal donation button, then you’ve already seen this model in action. There are also apps to collect donations on a Shopify website.
8. Referral programs
Referral programs are a bit like affiliate marketing, but someone has to complete a sale for you to make money. For example, you could register with a banking referral program that pays $100 for every person who signs up using your link.
A lot of referral programs focus their rewards on their own customers and pay out via merchandise credit rather than cash. For example, satisfied clients send referral links to their friends, and if a friend makes a purchase via their link, the referring client gets a discount on their next order. As such, this may not be as lucrative a model for generating substantial cash.
9. Offering professional services online
Perhaps you’d like to make money from your website without selling physical goods, but you’d be open to selling services to generate money. In this case, you can use your website to do remote work for your clients. Maybe you’re an SEO specialist who can offer consulting services on how to drive organic traffic to a website. Maybe you’re a real estate agent who can teach property owners how to stage their homes for a sale and charge for virtual consultations through your site.
You can reach your target audience by posting engaging content on the internet that directs back to your site. For instance, you could post videos to a YouTube channel and link to your site at the end of each one. Or submit a guest post to a successful blog and direct readers to your site, where you offer your online services.
How to build a profitable website
- Focus on a specific revenue stream
- Fill your site with high-quality content
- Prioritize audience engagement
- Offer something unique
- Leverage analytics to optimize your site and boost sales
If you want to make money online, a lot of your success depends less on what you’re selling and more on whether you approach sales the right way. Use these steps as a guide to help you attract customers and generate revenue:
1. Focus on a specific revenue stream
Decide early how your website will make money. It could be through ads, affiliate links, digital products, or memberships. An “all of the above” strategy might pull your focus in different directions; generally, it’s better to do one thing very well than four things pretty well.
Think about your brand values. You might resolve to only offer quality content and not spam your customers or sell their information to third parties. Doing right by your existing audience will encourage customer loyalty and strengthen your reputation online.
2. Fill your site with high-quality content
To attract customers to your site and build authority in search results, your content must be relevant, well-researched, and engaging. Focus on topics that solve user problems, such as in-depth tutorials, guides, and honest product review articles. Top-quality content drives search engine optimization (SEO) and helps you attract an engaged audience.
3. Prioritize audience engagement
Strive to have a website that’s interactive as well as informative. Encourage comments, social shares, and newsletter sign-ups to nurture relationships. High-traffic sites often focus on UX (user experience) design, ensuring visitors can easily navigate pages, find answers, and stay connected.
4. Offer something unique
Differentiate your brand by offering exclusive content or digital downloads that your competitors can’t replicate. This is kind of like a brick-and-mortar store offering custom products that you can’t buy anywhere else.
5. Leverage analytics to optimize your site and boost sales
Track traffic sources, conversion rates, and customer behavior to refine what works—and drop what doesn’t. Because your revenue stream won’t be based on selling merchandise, it may be a bit tricky to identify the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) for success. When in doubt, focus on site traffic since getting more site visitors boosts your chances of serving them ads, presenting them with affiliate links, or getting them to subscribe to exclusive content.
How to make money with a website without selling anything FAQ
Can you make money from a website without selling anything?
Yes, you can make money from a website without selling anything. You can do this by monetizing traffic through methods like advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, or memberships.
Is it possible to make a website without paying anything?
Yes, it’s possible to make a website for free using platforms like WordPress.com, Wix, or Google Sites; however, paid plans offer more customization, features, and control. For example, if you want to use your own custom URL, you may have to upgrade to a paid plan.
Can you make money from owning a website?
Yes, you can make money from owning a website by generating revenue through ads, affiliate links, subscriptions, sponsored content, or selling digital products and services. If you’re willing to stock and ship merchandise, you can also make money by operating your website as an online store in a traditional ecommerce model.
