12 Proven Ways to Make Money With Digital Marketing

Learn the best methods to make money online utilizing your digital marketing skills. How each method works and how much money you can make.

Do you want to learn how to make money from digital marketing? Whether it’s starting your own online business, selling freelance services, or getting a marketing job, there are plenty of ways to make money using digital marketing.

In this guide, I’ll provide the 12 most effective ways to make money with digital marketing and some practical steps you can take to get started with each.

How to Earn Money By Digital Marketing

These are the most popular methods to make money with digital marketing.

1. Make Money As a Content Writer
2. Become An SEO Expert And Sell SEO Services
3. Earn Money With Affiliate Marketing
4. Sell Consulting Services To Companies
5. Earn Money By Selling Ads
6. Work As a Social Media Manager
7. Create And Sell Your Own Digital Products
8. Become a YouTube Advertising Partner
9. Become an eCommerce Specialist
10. Manage PPC Campaigns For Other Companies
11. Get a Digital Marketing Job
12. Start Your Own Digital Marketing Agency

1. Make Money As a Content Writer

Content writing involves planning and writing content for online channels. It is usually part of a digital marketing strategy and can include writing a wide range of content types, including articles, posts for social media, and scripts for videos.

To become a content writing specialist, you’ll need to develop a variety of skills and meet certain qualifications. This includes:

• Writing skills
• Keyword research skills
• SEO skills
• Analytical skills

If you want to work for a company, you should plan on having a college degree, usually in journalism, marketing, or communications. College degrees are less important as a freelancer.

Whether you work independently or with a company, obtaining different content marketing certifications can help boost your skills and reputation.

There are plenty of content marketing courses, both free and paid, that you can use to get certified.

It’s also good practice to start a blog. This will allow you to develop your skills further and can serve as a selling point when looking to secure a job or freelance clients.

How much money can you make as a content specialist?

It depends on the job position and several other factors. For example, if you work in a company, the average base salary for content writers is $57,900 yearly.

If you work as a content marketing freelancer, you can get paid per piece (per article, etc). You can charge anywhere between $0.10 and $0.50 for each word you write. The exact rate depends on the type of content and your level of expertise on the subject.

You can also build the necessary skills and become a content marketing specialist. In this case, the average salary for a content marketing specialist is $81,000 per year. This number will vary based on your location and level of experience.

Make Money With Digital Marketing

The fastest way to start making money through digital marketing is to build your skills using a proven step-by-step training course. The Digital Marketing Full Course will teach you how digital marketing works and prepare you for starting a money-making business.

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2. Become An SEO Expert And Sell SEO Services

SEO is one of the most important areas of digital marketing to master, as it can be helpful in various roles.

As an SEO expert, you can sell your services to clients less versed in the matter. 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. It is recommended to find a high-quality SEO course, as you can easily get lost sifting through the endless amount of articles

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.

To successfully sell your services, you’ll need to build a network of potential clients.

Create a website to provide your background in SEO and list your services. You can start a blog and put your SEO skills to work by driving targeted traffic to your site.

As you start to gain clients, you’ll want to keep detailed records of your results so you can create case studies you can use to win more business.

How much can you make as an SEO expert?

The average hourly rate for SEO consultants is between $75 – $100. Prices vary per country and experience.

The average salary of an SEO manager working in an agency or company is $77K per year.

Resources to become an SEO professional

• SEO Certifications – a list of the most recognized SEO certifications to pursue and get certified.
• How to Start a Career in SEO – actionable advice on how to make a career as an SEO professional.
• How to Learn SEO – a learning plan on how to learn SEO from scratch.

3. Earn Money With Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a business model where you earn commissions by selling other people’s products.

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.

There are two primary types of affiliate partnerships. Standalone programs where you establish an account directly with a company and affiliate networks where you can join and manage multiple partnerships on a single platform.

As your blog will be the primary way of promoting your affiliate products, it’s important to perform keyword research before settling on a niche.

This way, you can see the monthly search volume for related terms and get an estimate of the amount of traffic you’ll be able to generate.

You want to pay particular attention to keywords with transactional search intent. These are search terms that indicate someone is close to buying a product. They often include words like buy, get discount, etc.

Also, look for search terms with commercial intent. These keywords indicate that someone is in the buying process but hasn’t decided on a specific product yet. They include words like best, review, and product x vs product y.

Focusing on these keywords will help you monetize the traffic you bring to your website.

Once you have an idea of the types of products you want to sell, you’ll need to create your blog and start writing content. Choosing the right keywords will make it easier to get started, as you can find product comparisons and reviews to write for your initial posts.

While you can join affiliate programs before you start your blog, it’s often a good practice to wait until you are receiving some traffic. After all, you will need the traffic to be able to generate sales anyway.

Plus, many affiliate programs have requirements for approval and may require that you already have an established audience.

How much can you make through affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing has huge earning potential, but you must establish your web presence and generate a good amount of traffic to your website to see meaningful results. Enrolling in a good affiliate marketing course will help you get results faster.

If you have the patience to build the business, you can make six figures per year from affiliate marketing.

4. Sell Consulting Services To Companies

Once you have some digital marketing experience under your belt, you can monetize your skills by becoming a digital marketing consultant and start selling consulting services to other companies.

Take the following steps to get started:

Define your area of expertise

First, you need to be able to define the specific services to offer clients.

Find the areas of digital marketing where you are strong and where there is a high demand for services. This could include:

• Social media marketing
• Branding
• Video Marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Local marketing
• Email marketing
• Web analytics and reporting

Start blogging

Once you’ve determined the specific service you will offer, the next step is to begin building your online presence.

A website will serve as the hub for your business, where you can add testimonials and case studies from previous clients so visitors can learn more about your offering.

With a website in place, you can begin building your blog. Using your blog to write about digital marketing topics related to your consulting services will help drive relevant traffic to your business while further expanding your online presence.

Besides blogging for leads, you can also use a blog to make money. Read this guide, How to Make Money Blogging, for step-by-step instructions.

Build a network

The more you grow your network, the easier it will be to find new clients. Use your professional network to find companies interested in your services.

You can also contact previous clients to see if they have any connections looking for digital marketing services.

How much can you make as a digital marketing consultant?

A digital marketing consultant’s fees will depend on their particular area of expertise, project scope, and level of experience.

Hourly rates tend to run between $50 to $150 per hour.

Resources to become a digital marketing pro

• 10 Best Online Digital Marketing Courses
• Best Digital Marketing Certifications

5. Earn Money By Selling Ads

Running ads on your site is a popular way to monetize your website traffic. Be aware that to make decent money with ads, your website needs to have a lot of traffic.

When you’re first building your audience, it’s a good idea to supplement your monetization efforts through affiliate marketing or by offering your own digital 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 serve 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.

The amount that you earn will vary significantly depending on your website category, audience demographics, and more.

Regardless of these factors, you need to plan to generate considerable traffic to see any meaningful income. There are ad networks besides Google Adsense, with popular choices including Ezoic, Media.net, and Mediavine.

If your website is already getting a steady amount of traffic and you want more control over the ads that appear on your site, you can sell direct ads on your website.

Create an “Advertise with Us” page for your blog detailing the different ad formats available and how much they cost. You’ll want to include essential traffic stats so buyers know the value they are receiving.

If you don’t want to handle selling the ads yourself, there are several online marketplaces where you can list your ads for people to buy. Some popular options include BuySellAds and BlogAds.

How much can you make selling ads on your website?

No matter the ad network you use, you’ll need to get 100,000s page impressions per month to see any meaningful income.

Google AdSense RPM (revenue per 1,000 impressions) can range between $0.25 to $3.

Resources to learn more

• How to Start a Profitable Website – How to make money online without selling anything.

6. Work As a Social Media Manager

Working as a social media manager is a great way to use your skills to make money online through 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.

There are several ways you can find work as a social media manager. You can get a salaried position with a company (we’ll discuss how to find digital marketing jobs later), or you can work as a digital marketing freelancer.

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.

How much can you make as a social media manager?

Social media managers make an average salary of $55K annually, with experienced managers up to making $83,000.

As a freelancer, your earnings will depend on the number of clients you have and your experience level. New social media managers can earn anywhere between $15 and $50 per hour, while experienced managers can earn $50 to $100 per hour or higher.

Resources to become a social media manager

• Social Media Marketing Courses – the 10 best courses to teach yourself social media marketing.
• Best Facebook Ads Courses – a list of high-quality courses to become a Facebook Ads expert.

7. Create And Sell Your Own Digital Products

You can put your digital marketing experience to good use by creating and selling your own digital products.

An advantage of digital products is that you can create them once and then sell them repeatedly. This results in extremely high profit margins and the ability to automate your business with ease.

There are a variety of different types of digital products with more popular options, including:

eBooks

Ebooks are one of the simplest digital products to create, and you can often use the content previously published on your blog to put the product together quickly.

Courses

E-learning is the future of education as more people are turning to online sources to expand their knowledge.

Creating and selling online courses allows you to share your expertise with others and is a great way to meet this demand. Along with selling through your own website, you can list your courses on markets like Udemy to reach an even larger audience.

Web Templates

If you have web design skills, you can create templates for platforms like WordPress or Shopify. You can offer your products on your site and other marketplaces such as ThemeForest.

Marketing your digital products will use the same primary channels as a store selling physical goods. You’ll want to create a blog to drive traffic to your website, collect emails, leverage email marketing, and actively engage with your audience on social media.

One thing to remember when selling digital products is that you’ll be competing with all the free content available on the internet. You want to make sure to conduct thorough research to ensure that the product you create provides enough value to convince people to buy it and that you price your offering appropriately.

How much can you make selling digital products?

Selling digital products online presents the opportunity to make a considerable amount of money.

You can easily price your products at hundreds or even thousands of dollars. With these prices, you won’t need a lot of sales to generate a meaningful income.

8. Become a YouTube Advertising Partner

If you want to earn money by digital marketing through videos, you can create a YouTube channel and become an advertising partner.

The process for earning through YouTube is straightforward. You create and publish videos on your channel and promote your videos to build an audience. Each time your video plays, a different assortment of ads will show.

When someone views or clicks an ad on your video, you’ll generate revenue.

To be approved as an advertising partner, you will need to meet the following minimum requirements:

• Follow all YouTube monetization policies.
• Live in a country where the YouTube Partner Program is available.
• You have over 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months.
• Your account has more than 1,000 subscribers
• You have a linked AdSense account.

How much can you make as a Youtube advertising partner?

Intro to Making Money on YouTube

As an advertising partner, you get paid for ad views. To determine your potential income, you’ll need to estimate the number of video views you anticipate receiving. Not everyone will watch the ads, so your ad views will be lower than your video views.

The amount you can make from a video varies per niche, video topic, and the number of video views.

• Videos with 1,000.000 views on topics related to finance and productivity can generate between $3000 – $5000 in ad revenue.
• Videos with 10 million views on a lucrative topic can generate about $10,000 in ad revenue.
• Videos on non-commercial topics (like how to pose in photos or how to take Instagram pictures) can generate about $1000 per 1 million views.

9. Become an eCommerce Specialist

As eCommerce continues to grow rapidly, the need for eCommerce specialists grows with it.

An eCommerce specialist is responsible for creating and executing a marketing strategy to help businesses sell products online.

Some of the day-to-day activities of an eCommerce specialist include:

• Website management
• Managing marketing campaigns
• Optimizing the store’s SEO
• Adjusting on-page elements to improve conversion rate optimization
• Setting up email marketing funnels
• Running up-selling and cross-selling campaigns

Being successful as an eCommerce specialist requires several vital skills, including communication, analytical, and critical thinking abilities.

Here are some practical steps you can take to develop the skills necessary to become an eCommerce specialist:

• Understand the ins and outs of eCommerce
• Become an expert in e-commerce SEO
• Get familiar with popular e-commerce platforms
• Learn how to run PPC ads
• Master conversion rate optimization
• Build content and email marketing skills

How much can you make as an eCommerce specialist?

The average salary for an eCommerce specialist is $69,000 per year, which will vary based on location and experience. For eCommerce Managers, the salary can go up to $118 per year.

Resources to learn about eCommerce

• Best eCommerce Courses – A list of the best courses and certificates to pursue.
• Best eCommerce Strategies to Boost Sales – Learn how to use digital marketing to boost sales of your eCommerce store.

10. Manage PPC Campaigns For Other Companies

As more companies turn to digital marketing channels to reach their target customers, there is an increasing need for effective advertising campaign managers.

PPC (pay-per-click) ads are one of the most popular forms of online advertisements and can bring immediate results to a business.

PPC platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads allow advertisers to bid for ad placements in a search engine’s results page when someone searches for a related keyword.

Managing PPC campaigns comes with a number of responsibilities, including:

• Finding PPC Keywords
• Add negative keywords
• Testing ad groups
• Writing ad copy
• Setting bids and campaign budgets
• Reviewing costly keywords:
• Optimizing Landing Pages:

Earning PPC marketing certifications from Google and Bing can help improve your skills and boost your credibility with potential clients.

Showing results for previously successful campaigns is essential to winning a steady flow of clients.

Like the other types of services, you’ll want to build a website to highlight your skills and create content that can help generate traffic.

How much can you make as a PPC campaign manager?

The average salary for a PPC specialist is $58,000 per year.

11. Get a Digital Marketing Job

If you want to gain valuable experience before working independently or starting your own business, you can get a job in digital marketing.

There are all kinds of digital marketing jobs available, some of which we have covered in this guide.

Here are some of the most popular places to search for jobs:

• Indeed
• AngelList
• Glassdoor
• Google for Jobs
• American Marketing Association
• com
• WeWorkRemotely
• ZipRecruiter

How much can you make with a digital marketing job?

The amount you earn from a digital marketing job will depend on your position, location, and experience.

Here are the average annual salaries for some of the highest-paying marketing jobs:

• Digital Marketing Specialist: $55,000
• Digital Marketing Manager: $97,000
• SEO Specialist: $77,000
• Content Marketing Manager: $81,000
• Social Media Manager: $75,000
• PPC Specialist: $60,000
• Affiliate Marketing Manager: $71,000

Resources to learn more

• How Much Do Digital Marketers Make – a detailed breakdown of how much money you can make working in the digital marketing industry.

12. Start Your Own Digital Marketing Agency

Now is a great time to start a digital marketing agency, as companies spend more on digital advertising than ever.

To start your agency, you’ll want to develop a well-rounded set of digital marketing skills so that you can provide quality services to clients regardless of their needs.

Winning clients will obviously be critical to your ability to generate revenue. You’ll want to take the steps to find clients we’ve previously mentioned and apply them at scale.

Running an agency has its advantages in this regard, as you can use your team members to handle many of these tasks for you, or you can outsource the work to freelancers.

When you start a digital marketing agency, you have several ways to bill your clients:

• Hourly: With hourly billing, you charge clients based on the number of hours you work on their project. This method is easier when you spend a lot of one-on-one time with the client, as it can be more difficult to track complex service offerings.
• Retainer: This is the simplest payment model as you determine how much work you’ll perform for the client, and you both agree on a flat monthly fee. This model is often easier for clients as they know how much they’ll pay upfront.
• Percentage of marketing spend: With this pricing model, your agency charges your clients an agreed percentage of the amount they spend on marketing. This is an attractive model if your clients are growing quickly, as your income will grow along with their business.

How much can you make by starting a digital marketing agency?

The amount you can earn from an agency will depend largely on how many clients your business has. The average cost for digital marketing services for small businesses ranges from $2,500 to $12,000 per month.

If you are able to find 10 steady clients, your agency can generate a solid amount of income.

Key Learnings

There are plenty of different ways to make money with digital marketing.

You can learn a variety of skills, including SEO, PPC management, eCommerce, content marketing, or social media management, and sell these services to clients.

Creating a website with a blog will help hone your skills and can be used to attract new clients for your services.

If you want to sell products, you can either create digital products of your own or join affiliate programs and sell other companies’ products. You can use your website as the hub for your business and can add extra monetization by running ads on your site.

If you want a steady job, there are plenty of companies hiring for digital marketing positions, and there are tons of job boards to find open positions quickly.

If you want to start your own marketing business, you can create a digital marketing agency and sell a range of services to your clients.

Digital marketing is only going to grow. Taking the time to develop your skills is worth the investment and will open up more opportunities for you.

About the author

Alex Chris is a digital marketing consultant, author, and instructor. He has more than 18 years of practical experience with SEO and digital marketing. Alex holds an MSc Degree in eCommerce and has consulted with Fortune 500 companies in different industries. He blogs regularly about SEO and Digital marketing, and his work has been referenced by leading marketing websites. Connect with Alex on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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