In August 2013, a friend of mine, Victor, bought a brand new 2012 model Toyota Camry for almost $40,000 (which was just over six million naira at the time). This surprised me for two reasons: he never once mentioned his plan to buy a car and secondly, he earned slightly less than $1,000 (150,000 naira at the time) per month where he worked and had only worked there for a year or so. Naturally, I was curious to know how he made that much money.
On the night he took me out to a bar to ‘wash’ (Nigerian slang for celebrating a new acquisition) his new car, I asked him the one question I had in mind. “It’s my blog,” he said. “What blog?” I asked, even more curious. “My website. Google Adsense has been paying me cool dollars,” he added, with a wry smile on his face as he sipped his drink.
I wasn’t sure of how to feel at that moment. In 2010, Victor suggested we set up a blog and write content about trending topics in Nigeria. I wasn’t particularly interested because I had a 9-5 while he was unemployed, and also, I just didn’t see what good could come out of blogging.
He soon registered a domain name and started posting content on there and that was that — or so I thought. Somewhere along the line, he got a job and I imagined the blogging thing must have failed. Anyways, he kept publishing content on the website and would often send me the links on Blackberry Messenger. At no point did I imagine his content was getting monetized.
Back at the bar, I probed further, asking how much he had made and when he started making money from his website. He didn’t tell me the exact amount he had made but said he started getting monetized somewhere around December 2011 and while it was only a few dollars here and there at first, he started making between $1,000-$4,000 (150,000-600,000 naira) monthly from 2012 and sometimes even more as the traffic to his website increased. He saved up every dime and relied on his income from his 9-5 for his day-to-day living.
So, what exactly did Victor do to make so much money within a short space of time with just one website?
Simple answer: display advertisements.
What is display advertising? It is a digital form of advertising that places digital advertisements on websites or mobile apps and is typically placed in strategic spaces on specific web pages. These advertisements can be in the form of static images, videos, or interactive elements like games.
Publishers who have this type of advertising on their websites or apps can monetize using any of the following models: cost per thousand impressions (CPM); cost per click (CPC); or cost per action (CPA). Display advertising also has other monetization models like revenue share and fixed fees. However, from what Victor told me, he only monetized through CPM, CPC, and CPA, so let’s focus on those three.
Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM): Also known as cost per mille, CPM is a monetization model where the advertiser pays a specific amount for every 1,000 impressions their ads get. This means that for every 1,000 times, the ad gets seen, the advertiser pays a certain rate. It doesn’t take into account whether the audience engaged with the ad or not.
Cost per Click (CPC): In this model, the advertiser only pays when a user clicks on their ad. Unlike the CPM model, your website and app users must click on the display ad for it to count as extra dollars in your pocket.
Cost per Action (CPA): CPA only pays the publisher when their website or app user takes a specific action on the ad. The specific action is determined by the advertiser. This can be a sign-up to download something.
Read Also: Unlocking The Monetization Potential Of The African Audio/Video Content Publisher
In Victor’s case, he was able to incorporate all three models to increase his earning potential. However, that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the media representation company he partnered with.
One challenge that African content publishers face in their quest to monetize their content is the lack of adequate representation, which affects their earning potential and sees them leaving money on the table as African content publishers typically make 30-40% less from their content than their global counterparts.
Even in Victor’s case, he could have earned more if there was an African and Africa-focused digital content monetization platform at the time.
Since 2018, Atunwa Digital has been helping African content publishers create new revenue streams to add more value to their digital content and inventories.
Atunwa Digital’s radical customer support and transparency ensure people like you and Victor are rewarded accordingly for your creativity and hard work.
Note: Atunwa Digital does not work with Victor but his story is testament to the earning potential in the digital space. He is also a personal friend of the author.
