Project monetization tips

Question

Blogs

Hello Habr!
For several years I have been producing content of various kinds and quality on the Internet: articles, podcasts, screencasts, video guides and just notes on various topics (for example, you can look at my topics on Habré). In principle, the indicators for an amateur project are not very bad: about a thousand subscribers on the blog, about 500-600 unique visits, ~ 2000 subscribers on YouTube and almost 2 million video views there + several hundred subscribers to all podcasts (in total). I've done several jobs in the past: commercial podcasts, screencasts for Rambler, tutorials for websites and hosting, and even messages for a heart center's answering machine.

Recently, I thought about how now you can get material benefits from this, I need your advice. With banal banner advertising and the like, everything is clear, but I want more interesting ways. I am considering the following options:

- paid subscription (with a symbolic amount) to access a small amount of additional content
- search for a sponsor / sponsors
- reincarnation of some frozen projects in the hope of finding a sponsor for them
- production of audio / video and text to order, staging this production for a little more professional rails

I have a full-time job, but I want to additionally bring at least a fifth/fourth of my salary to my Internet activities.

What do you think? What do you advise? I am also open to any ideas and collaborations.

PS website

Answer 1

- paid subscription (with a symbolic amount) to access a small amount of additional content

This item makes sense either with attendance 2 orders of magnitude higher, or with some kind of exclusive content that has commercial value.

— search for a sponsor/sponsors

This point is the most realistic in my opinion.

Answer 2

I can advise you to watch the recent performance of Denis Kolesnikov (courage-bumbay) at 404fest. A good translation and voice acting of good things will ultimately bring its dividends, if not at the expense of donations (it’s clear that it’s a penny), then at the expense of customers who will come themselves if they see quality work and a willingness to work for money - for example, this can be discussed in copyrights to the voiced video.
This is from the classic success story. From the rest, I can offer the following ideas:
- A simple service where you can upload a video or a link to it, pay some money and after a while get your (or your team's) translation or voice acting (there may already be subtitles). In fact, the classic scheme of working with commercial customers, but focused on ordinary people who sometimes need such services, but with easy access and interface to it - without long discussions of conditions and prices.
- Learn. Giving private courses. Sell ​​your educational content.
- As far as I know, you live and study in Canada, which means you can provide people with interesting video material about this country and the intricacies of living there (you seem to have already talked about training). Do excursions, travel and shoot interesting places, interview interesting people. It is possible to take a certain amount for access to materials, although there should probably be all the same donations here.
This is what first came to mind. In general, translations and voice acting are always a hot topic, I think it’s quite possible to earn something on this, some do it quite successfully. I wish you good luck too.

Answer 3

First, try combining it all. Calculate which of these components will bring more and which will bring less. On this basis, you can determine what will be more convenient and more profitable for you.

Answer 4

Try it, just - sell one of the successful projects.