Monetization Planner: Which Methods, Networks & Platforms Fit Your Property, Traffic and Niche
Tell the planner what you have (blog, newsletter, podcast, app...), how much traffic it gets and what niche it is in, and get a ranked mix of monetization methods with the networks and platforms that will actually accept you.
Your plan: 6 methods for a youtube / video channel
Start with the first two; add the rest as the audience grows. Only providers that would accept a property of this size are shown.
Sponsored Content & Brand Deals Medium
Brands pay for a post, video, integration or review featuring their product, sold directly or through a creator marketplace.
Sponsored content is a piece you make about a brand for money: a review post, a YouTube integration, a sponsored newsletter issue, a series of Instagram posts, a dedicated podcast episode. Unlike an ad unit, it carries your voice and your recommendation, which is exactly… Read the guide →
Affiliate Marketing Medium
Recommend products with tracked links and earn a commission on every sale: the highest-earning method for review and comparison content.
Affiliate marketing is recommending someone else's product with a link that identifies you, and receiving a commission when a reader buys. A network or the merchant's own program provides the tracking link, records the sale through a cookie or a code, and pays you after… Read the guide →
Memberships & Paid Communities Medium
Readers pay monthly or yearly for access, extras and each other: the most reliable recurring revenue a small publisher can build.
A membership sells belonging and access rather than a product: a paid tier of your newsletter, a private community with you in it, early or ad-free access to episodes, members-only posts, a monthly call, a badge. It runs on a subscription platform that bills the… Read the guide →
E-commerce, Merch & Print on Demand Medium
Sell physical products to your audience: branded merch through print on demand, curated goods, or your own line.
Physical products for your audience: a merch line of shirts, mugs and stickers made and shipped by a print-on-demand supplier when someone orders; curated products you source and sell; or your own designed line. The store runs on Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, Big Cartel or a… Read the guide →
Online Courses & Cohorts Hard
Package expertise as a self-paced course or a live cohort and sell it at $50-2,000 through a course platform.
An online course packages what you know into lessons, exercises and outcomes and sells it at a price only expertise can command: $50-300 self-paced, $300-2,000 for a live cohort with feedback. It runs on a course platform (Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, LearnWorlds, Maven for cohorts,… Read the guide →
Digital Products Medium
Sell ebooks, templates, presets, printables, swipe files and toolkits: near-zero marginal cost and 90%+ margins.
A digital product is a file or a licence sold and delivered automatically: an ebook or guide, a Notion or spreadsheet template, a Lightroom preset pack, a font, a set of icons, a printable planner, a swipe file of proven emails, a code snippet library,… Read the guide →
How the planner works
Each method in the directory carries the property types it suits, the traffic it needs to be worth doing and how passive it is; each network carries the minimum traffic it accepts and the niches it allows. The planner scores every method against your answers, drops anything your traffic cannot support yet, and shows the providers of each kind that would take you today. It is a starting point, not a strategy: read the guides, run the calculator for numbers, then check the deals before you sign up.