Monitizing content

Rob Allen

Rob Allen

Life of the Party
I have an idea for creating a specific type of fly fishing content mostly written and informative not entertainment. What is the best way to monetize such content?

At the moment I am thinking of an in depth blog and a Patreon account but I am pretty ignorant of how these things work. I believe I have relatively unique expertise to provide high quality content. Will people pay for such written content?

I am intentionally being pretty vague I suppose but my intent will be to give people actually good information that will help them pick good equipment.

Anyone have any thoughts?
 
First of all, I'd pay for some well written fly fishing insights, particularly yours. Especially if they came with visual instructions as well, be those videos or something else.

To my totally inexperienced eye, there are two paths to money for this kind of content, advertisements or a paywall. I would say that both of those require free content initially to get some traffic going. I know that I rarely if ever directly pay for articles behind a wall, unless I know that the free content is good and can expect the paid content to be better.

Maybe the path is start a blog/channel/whatever and start putting content out. Link it here and everywhere and get some traction, then monetize from there.

Any way you go please link it here, I'd read it!
 
I would find some successful bloggers and pick their brain. Under 10,000 unique hits a day it becomes difficult to make real coin I have been told. That being said, 1,000 unique hits a day can bring some coin via ad revenue, affiliate links, working across multiple platforms, and of course videos...lots of very good free content out there, so to charge for yours it needs to be substantially better than other free content.

Ask yourself this question...how many bloggers or websites do you follow that you pay for each month ?

The most successful avenue seems to be a combo of ad revenue, and sales of something.
E- Commerce sites are the most common form of monetized internet content.
 
swimmy said:
My buddy got 2M hits on you tube for a video and made $6k.

Not sure that’s the approach I’d take.
Click to expand...

I have a friend who is a video producer and does lots of work for stuff on YouTube these days because that is a big market. $6K for 2 million views seems very high to me but I am no expert.
 
Yup, I think @Mossback has it right - the most straightforward path involves maximizing clicks, optimizing for search engines, and chasing that sweet ad revenue. But at that point it’s an unholy mix of social media marketing and light computer programming.
 
So, not as simple as a Patreon link where people could drop a tip if they thought it was useful?
 
Rob Allen said:
So, not as simple as a Patreon link where people could drop a tip if they thought it was useful?
Click to expand...
Depends entirely on your revenue targets! I think starting on Patreon is a great idea. Test the waters, build an audience, see where it goes. But monetizing in the sense of creating a meaningful income stream would likely require the ad/SEO (search engine optimization) stuff. But I’m no expert.
 
Look at Troutbitten. Dude has been posting gold for years, making high quality videos, hosting a podcast and guiding. I believe he was only able to make it his full time job, fairly recently. That should give you an idea of the effort to reward ratio.
 
One thing about blogging, new, high quality content on a regular basis is mandatory, without that you have nothing, especially in the start up phase.
If you are unwilling or unable to come up with that type of content every week, or every few days even better, theres really not much hope for making money...as it typically takes a few years to establish a following large enough to generate a reasonable income stream.
Patreon takes 5-12% of whatever you get, plus processing fees, depending on the plan you choose.

It isn't easy, and to make it takes a lot of time, just look at all the dead blogs out there...
 
Curious why you think written is the best avenue for the content you want to share. Why not video or podcast?

Seems like a lot of work, plus bad writing could kill good content quickly. Especially harmful would be bad writing on content informative/instructional in nature. Few would have patience to wade through it. Not saying this because I feel you are a bad writer. Just a statement/thought.

Someone above asked a good question though. How many fishing related blogs do you subscribe to? I subscribe to none and never had interest. I do watch fishing related videos at least 1-2 a week and occasionally will throw on a fishing related podcast. Even if the hosts have personality of dry toast I find it easier to get what I need from them.
 
If it was easy everybody would be doing it and getting/be rich...

Risk - reward needs to be understood.

It is not a get rich quick effort. It takes a lot of commitment, time, and understanding it is a long-term effort. Also it needs to be unique so understanding your audience and the market is critical.
 
Not a lot of money in the forum business. I'm case you were thinking about going that route.
 
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Shaky go pro shorts that feature heavy breathing and starring the back of your hands as the main character aren’t the way to go if you plan on doing videos.
SF
 
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