How to Monetize a Finance Blog or Website in 2023: An Effective Guide

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Last updated on April 28th, 2023 at 06:35 pm

Finance, investing, insurance, and allied topics form the premium segment of internet traffic regarding advertising or monetizing. Generally, this segment is considered premium due to the fact that the audience comes from an affluent class and is more inclined towards recommendations and purchases of products that have a higher lifetime value. Thus advertisers are more open to higher bids to tap into this audience pool. This enables higher CPCs and CPMs for ads displayed on finance websites. As a publisher, the opportunities are substantial if you’ve had a niche finance blog. In this article, we are going to discuss how you can monetize your finance and investing blog in a way that can help you to maximize your overall ad revenue.

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  • List of 200+ ad networks to monetize your site across all verticals.
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  • How to Make Money with a Finance Blog or Website: Best Practices

    A snapshot of what you can say as ‘best practices’ while monetizing your finance or investing blog is something that I believe is crucial. So lay down the important pointers here, and then we move ahead to the monetization part in the subsequent segments.

    • Focus more on earnings per visitor and try creating quality content that caters to a premium audience across your niche.
    • Optimize 3rd party ads so that it brings the highest revenue from each placement.
    • Start writing your content in a more interactive way and recommend products as you find them helpful.
    • Build your own email list and subscriber list. Doing so will help you promote your products in the long run- direct or affiliate.
    • Give away free resources like ebooks and enable a subscription model for more insightful topics.
    • Never overdo it by placing too many ad units on your website. This would enable a healthy user experience and more consistent search traffic.

    7+ Ad Networks to Monetize your Finance Blog or Website in 2023

    Third-party advertisements continue to be one of the major monetization sources for finance bloggers and publishers. However, they are mostly served as backfills since the demand for finance audiences is high, and a lot of impressions are directly sold at flat CPM rates. However, the networks mentioned before will be driving substantial revenue for your blog.  

    1) Google AdSense: Best PPC Network for Finance Blogs

    Google AdSense continues to be one of the best contextual and PPC networks for niche bloggers. There is a significant advertiser demand for the finance and investing niche, and the CPCs are high too. Normally, the CPCs tend to be higher for tier-one traffic and for keywords that have higher competition. You can explore the keyword planner tool to have an idea of the highest bids across various sub-niches. Placing around 5 AdSense ads per page on long posts can bring in significant ad revenue for your blog. Also, the placements and optimization continue to be a crucial part of higher AdSense earnings for your finance websites.

    • Higher CPC for niches like finance and investing.
    • NET 25 days payment with a minimum threshold of $100
    • Prompt and on-time payments
    • Availability of a number of ad formats like display, native, in-feed, AMP, etc

    2)Setupad: Best CPM Network for Finance Blogs and Sites

    With the aim to monetize cross-border traffic and help publishers gain incremental revenues ranging from 50% to 80%. Setupad links the advertising space to the top 15+ ad exchanges and SSP platforms in a header bidding auction that brings more buyers to participate and increases CPM prices. Many publishers recommend, implement and use Setupad from all over the world, for it does all the substantial yield optimization and allows publishers to get back to their true calling- quality content creation. Setupad is a must-have ad network for your finance sites that can run along with Google AdSense.

    Also Read:  4 Signs your Website has Better Revenue Potential in 2023

    Setupad Features and Benefits for Publishers-

    • They allow header bidding and server-side bidding.
    • Guarantees a 1-second time-out and offers a possibility for customization for improved user experience.
    • With the combination of all the demand sources, a fill rate of about 100% is possible.
    • Offers customized optimization, taking into account bid responses from demand partners regarding particular geos, advertisers, and users.
    • Increases your website revenue by almost over 50% of what you’re earning from AdSense.

    Eligibility: Monthly ad revenue from display> $500

    Note for Publishers: The payout is NET 60 days, but I have been using them for years, and they always pay on time. You can request your account manager to make the first and second payments on NET 30 and NET 45 days and subsequently follow the cycle.

    3) Media.net: Best Native Ad Network for Finance Blogs

    Media.net continues to be one of the best contextual ad networks for finance bloggers. It is one of the best-performing niches for media.net since they have access to direct demand and exclusive advertisers in this niche. However, your traffic source should be primarily tiered 1, with a good percentage of visitors coming from the US and Canada. This allows media.net to provide good CPMs for certain niches and convert traffic. The page RPM can go as high as USD 20 and above for financial sub-niches, and thus, we strongly suggest you get started with media.net if you haven’t already.

    • The majority of your traffic should be coming from US and Canada
    • Quality content with appropriate niche, which converts well for Media/net’s advertiser pool.
    • Media.net works on a mix of CPM/CPC/CPL/CPA, which finally comes down to effective page RPM.
    • High overall page RPM of USD 20 and above for finance niche blogs.
    • Media.net pays its publishers on a NET 28 days basis.

    Eligibility: US, UK, Canadian, and AU traffic on niche websites like Finance, Health, Fitness, Education, and Automobile works best. Approval is flexible.

    4) Vdo.ai: Best Video Ad Network for Finance Blogs

    VDO.AI’s native units are designed to be non-obtrusive and provide a seamless way for publishers to leverage the power of video. A lot of health publishers see more revenue from a single VDO.AI unit compared to multiple banners and traditional native units. VDO.AI is headquartered in Mountain View, CA. With VDO.AI’s native video widget, you can see an increment of almost 50% of your regular earnings on sites that are typically known to perform well with video ads. The setup usually takes less than a day to get started to go live once your site gets approved by the demand partners. Blognife recommends this native video ad network to maximize your ad revenue. Listed below are the benefits of joining VDO.AI.

    • Easy integration using a single javascript
    • See an additional revenue of almost 50% of your regular earnings
    • One tag that sources the video demand from Google ADX, Appnexus, Sovrn, and other demand platforms.
    • Generate higher CPMs from native video ads. No player, video content, or ad integration separately.
    • Everything comes bundled in a simple js tag.

    Eligibility: Monthly ad revenue from display> $500

    5) iZooto: Best Push Notification Ad Network for Finance Blogs

    iZooto allows publishers to tap into web push notifications for driving traffic and monetization using native content ads. Unlike conventional display ads, native content ads served on push notifications attract CTRs of up to 2% – 3%. Publishers working with iZooto are now able to generate 15-20% of their traffic using push notifications and increase their revenue by 15%. As a publisher, you can subscribe to iZooto’s Monetization plan, which allows you to use use the product for free of cost and also helps you monetize push notifications. iZooto helps you in monetizing push notification inventory using native ads. iZooto has partnered with leading Ad-networks and exchanges, including the likes of Taboola, Pubmatic, and RevContent, to name a few. The modus operandi is simple –

    • iZooto sources contextually relevant ads from its Ad network partners.
    • These native ads are delivered via notifications to your subscribers.
    • iZooto operates on a CPC model, and when your subscribers click on these ads, you earn revenue.
    Also Read:  10 Best Demand-Side Platforms for Advertisers: 2023

    2 native content ads are pushed to subscribers. At an average CPC of 10 cents, publishers in the US could potentially start generating up to $1,000 per month in just a quarter. You can see good CPMs with iZooto, and the revenue accrued will be purely additional.

    Eligibility: US traffic of at least 50k or Indian traffic of 500k per month. Monetization starts once you’ve at least 2500 subscribers.

    6)Dianomi: Best Native Ad Network for Finance Blogs

    Dianomi

    dianomi™ is a global leader in financial content marketing. They are the only native content platform that focuses exclusively on the Financial Services vertical. Through their natively integrated Financial Content Units, they promote links to the advertiser’s content across leading tier 1 global financial publishers and stock exchanges. If you’re a good user base for US, Canadian, UK, and EU traffic, Dianomi can perform very well for you. Also, their native ads look quite like content and are definitely an additional source of monetization for any tier-one traffic.

    • Works with major financial institutions across sectors like banking, insurance, investing, etc.
    • Ontime and prompt payment for publishers.
    • High CPMs across specific sub-niches.

    7)Revcontent: Best Native Ad Network for Finance Blogs

    RevContent, which offers almost 250 billion recommendations per month, is a versatile platform for media brands and advertisers. RevContent has fast become the best-performing native ad network with the highest CPM rates in the industry and other features such as support for different geographic, contextual, and demographic channels. Having some of the top international content marketers like Forbes, CBS, Reuters, and International Business Times in its publisher list only validates that. Its 20% revenue share has made this more profit-oriented for both advertisers and publishers. If your content is more viral in nature, I suggest you should try the Revcontent widget to maximize your revenue.  

    • The widget revenue varies depending on the site’s traffic, conversion and geos. It can go higher than $3.
    • You can enable native display ads as well as native video ads with Revcontent.
    • Superior support and good payout for publishers. Also, Revcontent pays its publishers on time.

    Eligibility: An average of 3 million page views per month is required to be accepted by Revcontent.

    Monetize your Finance Website or Blog: Writingebookss for your Finance Blog

    One of the best ways to offer a customized solution to your visitors is to prepare books that address specific pain points. Typically, regular blog visitors will be more than happy to buy an ebook from you at a price range of USD 5 to USD 25, depending upon the intensity and desire for the topic. Users tend to buy products when they so value them, and social validation about the products as they see other users recommending the products. It is easy to create a product page on your site or blog with woo-commerce integration, and the reviews give a social validation of the genuinity of the product. Additionally, you can populate ebooks and promote offers and products which you see as adding value to your visitors. The free ebook can contain a more customized plan for which you can charge. Essentially, this trick retains the audience since a large number of your audience will be unwilling to shell out some bucks at the first interaction.

    Pro Tip: Get started with 2-3ebookss and gradually increase the volume as you see more ebooks are purchased. It is better to share the first 50 copies of your ebook for free across your network to get reviews of your book, and then you start with a nominal price which you can gradually increase and optimize till it doesn’t hurt the sales.

    Monetize your Finance Website or Blog: Online Courses

    These days, it is becoming extremely crucial for publishers and entrepreneurs to capture their audience, and there isn’t any better way to have a higher level of engagement than online courses. If you’re an expert in the finance and investing field, I suggest you share your knowledge and key insights on an online course so that your visitors have the opportunity to interact with you directly and also have the option to have an in-depth learning experience from your courses. Webinars also form an easy way to build engagement across your audience.

    • Pro Tip: You can further monetize this premium audience by creating an exclusive Facebook group for them. These paying customers would be more likely to interact with you or your team and would buy more products recommended by you if they truly find value in your recommendations.

    Monetize your Finance Website or Blog: Affiliate Products

    Since you already have a premium and super niche audience, you can always find the most relevant products for your audience and contextually integrate and recommend them within articles for a seamless experience. Choose those products which genuinely adds value and have recurring commission.

    • Pro Tip: You can create customized native ads via DFP and segment them across demographics and geo to offer a more seamless ad experience to your users, which guarantees a higher conversion rate.   
    Also Read:  How to Choose Influencer Marketing Platform

    Monetize your Finance Website or Blog: Sponsored Ads

    Direct deals and ads continue to be one of the perennial sources of monetization for niche bloggers in the finance segments. Mostly, the contracts are sourced directly or through popular websites like BuySellAds. Sponsored ads can get you CPMs as high as $2 to $5, depending on the sub-niche of the website. However, most direct deals generally take some time. But, once you start getting direct deal ads, you can be assured that the revenue coming from it would be approximately 2x of what you’d be generating from third-party banner ads on the same placement.

    • Pro Tip: Always serve direct ads on a CPM basis via DFP at the Sponsorship level line item. This allows you to have an additional monetization opportunity when First price buyers pay a higher rate for your impressions, and thus, you can make around 20% extra revenue with this trick along with your existing sponsored ad.  

    Monetize your Finance Website or Blog: Sponsored Listings

    A number of listing articles should form an integral part of your content strategy. It can be a top 10 product recommendation list that has the opportunity of additional product listings. Once these articles start performing well on your website, you can promote certain products which you feel are beneficial for your readers and charge flat rates for product inclusions within those lists. Sponsored lists continue to be one of the top monetization sources for a number of bloggers since it is often served at premium rates and is highly targeted to conversions (due to their organic and contextual nature). Also, bloggers can sell a number of listing slots on their websites, provided there are a sufficient number of articles. The main idea behind monetizing listing articles is to ensure they have a decent volume of traffic and is indexed at the top position for relevant keywords. This would automatically grow interested among advertisers who believe their products would be a good fix on your article.

    • Pro Tip: Always go for a yearly pricing model for list inclusions for ongoing revenue.

    CPM Rates for Finance/Investing Blogs and Websites

    One might come up with a popular question like “what are the CPM rates for finance blogs and investing blogs?”. While the CPM rates will vary extensively depending on the niche, audience, and conversion of the website, it is, however, possible to give some predictable numbers. For display demands, the CPMs can be anywhere between USD 2 to USD 5 for tier-one traffic for top-performing niches. The rates can sometimes go higher than usual for native recommendation widgets as well. We have seen websites with page RPM of USD 20-30 on the media.net platform.

    Ezoic banner

    It often becomes difficult to double your traffic in a year’s time. However, you can double or triple your revenue by adding new monetization channels. The purpose of this article is to give you ideas that can help you broaden the entire monetization spectrum for your blog and also limit the ways to the ones which are tested so that you have a proper direction in place. Make sure the modus operandi for monetizing your site should effectively comes down to one metric– earnings per visitor. Following the above-listed tips and tricks can effectively help you in monetizing your Finance website or blog. For a more customized plan and consultation, get in touch with me on skype.

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    Looking to Increase your Ad Revenue: Get in touch with me for a personalised consultation and increase your ad revenue across native, display, video (instream and outstream), in-app and other verticals. I also assist in customized DFP setup, header bidding, and content creation strategy. My skype id is: ronniedey. Feel free to connect!

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