How would you monetize a news website?

I have a really good domain that is related to hip-hop that I want to turn into a news website. I obviously want to monetize the site but I'm not sure which route to go. I was thinking selling merch once I get enough traffic or possibly adsense.

I'm not sure if CPA would would with the hip-hop niche. Anyone have any experience with this niche /genre that would care to comment?

Best,
Jules

There are a ton of avenues. Look at WSHH as an example the majority of their revenue comes from independent artist paying to submit videos. Their rate sheet is pretty insane. I use to run BizOps on a lot of hip hop related sites and they converted like mad. Merch can also do well, but it has to be completely optimized to push product or you're not going to be to happy with the end results. Finally you could just collect gossip content, throw in pagination and arbitrage display/native ads.

Advertisements, adsense , affiliate

AFlySociety said:

There are a ton of avenues. Look at WSHH as an example the majority of their revenue comes from independent artist paying to submit videos. Their rate sheet is pretty insane. I use to run BizOps on a lot of hip hop related sites and they converted like mad. Merch can also do well, but it has to be completely optimized to push product or you're not going to be to happy with the end results. Finally you could just collect gossip content, throw in pagination and arbitrage display/native ads.

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Thanks, bud. Good stuff.

Make sure you swing through Hip Hop Heads & WorldStar. Take notes from WorldStars ad placement and user engagement. It keps people coming back, so you'd want to have something similar. I don't think you're gonna replicate HNHH or HHDX.

Think larger. If your design is clean, your content is quality and you invest in ensuring content is consistent and engagable, your traffic will be consistent as well. Your best monetization strategy will be monetizing multiple streams. Of course there is the potential for direct monetization by permitting pay for features, but the hip hop niche is overloaded with pay to play. No pay for submission. Your best bet would be to indirectly monetize your list you could generate and offer that to those that would want to sell artist management and outreach services on artists behalf. Isolate what you can offer different from the competition. Most hip hop news sites are overcrowded, poorly designed, or lack the same luxe that hip hop artists and fans crave. Build your brand, connect with your audience, monetize indirectly to maintain the quality of your brand.

Look at hype beast as the totem for selling indirectly whilst still making bea coup money. Don't be just another hip hop blog.

If you have some premium/high value content on your website which visitors want to have i think you can consider locking it with CPA widget. Other way is to find a good affiliate product for your niche and make an article about it with aff link on it.. You can also leave the other ads (adwords) by using this methods.

you can ads.afflilate offers.