Sharing Knowledge on the Internet and Earning Money in Return – A step by step guide

Knowledge is the greatest asset anybody can have. Throughout life’s journey, individuals accumulate experiences and wisdom. Knowledge should not be dumped in a place, it should be properly circulated; so that it can help improve the lives of other people (especially new generations). This is the main reason which drives people to share knowledge. There are two hindrances in the process – the first is ignorance of the ways to spread knowledge and the second is time factor. Some individuals hesitate to share their knowledge due to the perceived absence of personal gain, despite investing significant time in the process.

Everybody knows that the internet is one of the best ways to circulate knowledge. In this article following topics are covered
I. Free vs Paid ways to share knowledge
II. Different ways to earn money after using the above two ways

I. Free vs Paid Knowledge-Sharing Platforms

The basic requirement of any of these services is the availability of your content over the Internet without any interruption of the services.

Free services:

There are several free blogging platforms available, each with its own features and benefits. Here’s a list of some popular free blogging platforms:

WordPress.com: Offers a user-friendly interface and various customization options. You can use a free subdomain (yourblog.wordpress.com) or upgrade to a custom domain at a price.
Blogger: Owned by Google, Blogger allows you to create a blog with a Blogspot subdomain (yourblog.blogspot.com) or use a custom domain. It’s known for its simplicity and integration with other Google services.
Medium: A platform known for its clean design and focus on storytelling. The medium allows users to publish articles, and it has a built-in audience.
Tumblr: Combines microblogging with social networking features. It’s popular for multimedia content and short-form posts.
Wix: While Wix is primarily a website builder, it also offers blogging capabilities. You can use it to create a free blog with Wix branding in the domain.
Weebly: Another website builder that includes blogging features. Weebly offers a free plan with a subdomain (yourblog.weebly.com).
Ghost: An open-source platform designed for professional bloggers. Ghost(Pro) offers a hosted solution with a free trial.
Substack: Focuses on email newsletters but can also be used for blogging. It’s particularly popular among writers and journalists.
Strikingly: A website builder that allows you to create a free blog with a Strikingly subdomain (yourblog.strikingly.com).
Jimdo: Offers a free plan for creating websites, including blogs. It provides a Jimdo subdomain for free accounts.
Google Sites: Google Sites enables you to create simple webpages for free. It’s part of the Google Workspace suite.
GitHub Pages: If you’re comfortable with Git and version control, GitHub Pages allows you to host webpages for free using GitHub repositories.
Zoho Sites: Zoho Sites provides a free plan for creating webpages with a Zoho subdomain. It’s part of the Zoho suite of business tools.
Webflow: Webflow offers a free plan for creating webpages with its designer tool. The free plan includes a Webflow subdomain.
Carrd: Carrd is a simple and straightforward platform for creating one-page websites for free. It provides a Carrd subdomain.
HubPages: HubPages is the platform that acquired Squidoo. It allows users to create articles (Hubs) on various topics and share them with the community. You can earn revenue through the HubPages Ad Program.
Wizzley: Wizzley is a user-generated content platform where writers can create articles on diverse subjects. It shares ad revenue with writers through the Google AdSense program.
Zujava: Zujava is a writing platform where users can create pages (leafs) on specific topics. Writers can earn money through the Zujava Earnings Program.
InfoBarrel: InfoBarrel allows users to write and publish articles on a variety of topics. Writers can earn revenue through various monetization methods, including Google AdSense.
Webnode: Webnode is a website builder that allows you to create webpages for free. It’s more focused on building websites, but it’s user-friendly and offers a free plan.

These complimentary services can be categorized into the following two groups.

A. Creating websites: Services that offer free website creation typically provide a comprehensive platform for building entire websites. This includes multiple pages, navigation menus, and often additional features like blogs, e-commerce, and more. Examples are WordPress.com, Blogger, Wix, Weebly, and Jimdo. Popular in this category are WordPress.com and Blogger.com as both platforms are indexed in all search engines and have a higher ranking in web searches. Therefore both can drive targeted traffic to the quality content.

B. Creating webpages: Some websites offer the creation of webpages which become immediately available after submitting/publishing. Services that focus on free webpage creation usually provide a simpler platform where users can create standalone pages or articles. The emphasis is on creating individual pieces of content rather than a full website. Examples are Medium, Carrd, and Strikingly. Although one can make multiple webpages, the look of the content doesn’t resemble a website. Hubpages are the most popular in this category. Besides this, there are many article directories in which you can write and publish your article in different categories. The comprehensive list of websites offering article submissions can be found at Blog Organization.

Limitations of Free services

Although the above services are free, however, almost all come with limitations. It provides a nice platform to share knowledge but the major problem is that it restricts the ways to earn money through your content. Some of the problems are listed below

Subdomain Usage:
- Limitation: Free plans often come with a subdomain of the service provider (e.g., yourname.wordpress.com), which may not be as professional as a custom domain.
- Monetization: Some services restrict the use of custom domains to their premium plans. WordPress doesn’t allow display of the advertisements on their free blog service.
Limited Design Options:
- Limitation: Free plans may offer fewer design customization options compared to premium plans.
- Monetization: Advanced design features and customization may require a paid subscription.
Ad Placement and Control:
- Limitation: Advertisements from the service provider may be displayed on free websites or webpages.
- Monetization: Free plans may not allow users to control or monetize ad placements for their benefit.
Storage and Bandwidth Limits:
- Limitation: Free plans often have restrictions on storage space and monthly bandwidth.
- Monetization: Large amounts of media or high traffic may require an upgrade to a premium plan.
Limited Features:
- Limitation: Free plans may lack certain features available in premium plans.
- Monetization: Some monetization features (e.g., e-commerce capabilities) may be exclusive to premium users.
No Revenue Sharing:
- Limitation: Some free plans usually do not offer revenue-sharing programs or opportunities. However, some free services like Hubpages offer options for revenue sharing.
- Monetization: Users may need to upgrade to premium plans to participate in revenue-sharing or ad revenue programs.
Limited Support:
- Limitation: Free plans may have limited customer support options.
- Monetization: Access to priority support may be part of premium plans.
Terms of Service Restrictions:
- Limitation: Some services impose specific restrictions on content types or activities in their terms of service for free users.
- Monetization: Premium plans may offer more flexibility and fewer content restrictions.

Because of the above reason many people prefer to use their own platform to maintain their content. In this way, they can earn a lot without sharing their revenue. Here maintaining content on the internet costs money. Earning is possible in various ways discussed later in this article.

Paid Services:

The only way to maintain personal content fully under your control is by buying a domain and hosting it either on your own server or using some web hosting service providers. For convenience and security purposes web hosting services are always better.

1. Buy a domain: GoDaddy and Namecheap stand out as the two most widely used services for domain purchases. The most important aspect to start anything is theme or purpose. The name of the website/blog and its URL should point out the niche. There are several websites on every theme. Therefore it is possible that the name you shortlisted is not available. In those cases, you should have many alternative names. You can check the availability of a domain on many websites like Whois, etc. After settling on the domain name, proceed to create an account with web hosting services. They offer tools to verify domain availability or alternatively, utilize websites like instantdomains.com.

2. Web Hosting: The domain is just a name to identify a particular website. Two websites can never have the same name. Web hosting services provide a place to store your content. They also provide security to your data so that nobody can hack or misuse your content. Their servers remain available 24×7 throughout the year with very limited downtime. Therefore people can access your content at any time. There are many web hosting service providers. The comprehensive list can be seen at Blog Organization. Quality and price should be considered to selecting a particular web host for your website. The best choice should be a web host that suits your budget without compromising quality. It is always possible to change the web host if you are not satisfied with the services.

Now you have a platform to share your knowledge with the rest of the world. The next question is do you have sufficient knowledge of the basic interface provided by your web host to start publishing your content. Many people think that it is tough to maintain personalized content without good computer skills. Such thinking is not right. Web hosts provide a very user-friendly interface (like Microsoft Windows OS or Linux) to start with. But you should know some software like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, StatusNet, etc. WordPress platform is based on CSS and HTML but you don’t need to be an expert in coding. Everything is possible even without knowing CSS and HTML language. With little effort, you can easily use WordPress. The tutorials to learn basic software/platforms to share knowledge are discussed at different places on this website. Individual preferences vary, and there is no one-size-fits-all platform that suits everyone’s needs. Upon reviewing the articles on this website, you can make your decision.

Having established a solid platform to share your knowledge, the subsequent query is how to generate income from your content.

II. Different ways to earn money from your website

Affiliate Marketing Networks

Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice. It has four key players- 1) Merchant (also known as \’retailer\’ or \’brand\’ is the owner of any products/services), 2) network (a way to connect merchants with a person who advertises their products/services), 3) affiliate (also known as a publisher is a person who publicize merchant\’s products/services) and 4) Customer (who buy the product or avail the services).

Affiliates (publishers) are generally free to choose their own marketing strategies to bring customers to the owner/advertiser. Advertising over the internet(e-retailer) is one of the most popular ways of affiliate marketing. The owner of a particular website or blog can advertise the products/services in various ways like displaying banners, text links, e-mail marketing, writing product/service reviews, etc. This helps to drive traffic to the partner websites/products/services.

Affiliates earn money whenever a customer buys the product or avails the service. Earnings can be in the form of revenue sharing or gifts. Rewards are also given for diverting the visitor to the merchant.

Affiliate networks are the agencies/agents that connect merchants with affiliates. This market is growing very fast and also offering the secondary tier of players which simply means that affiliates (publishers) can refer the network to other affiliates and they can get some percentage of cash earned by referred affiliates. This system doesn’t affect the earning of new affiliates.

Affiliate Networks	Weblinks
ClickBank	Click here
Amazon Associates	Click here
Google Affiliate Networks	Click here
eBay Partner Network	Click here
Cupid Dating Affiliate	Click here
Dating Factory Affiliate	Click here

Following are the important resources to master the tricks to maximize earnings through affiliate marketing.

PPC Advertising Networks

There are various ways by which you can earn money through your website. However, earning depends on the popularity of your blog which indicates the number of visitors to your blog. PPC is one of the most popular ways to earn money through blogs/websites.

PPC stands for pay-per-click. If the number of visitors to your website is more, the probability of clicks is more. CTR (Click Through Rate) decides the earnings through this method. However, there is one more aspect to this and that is CPC (Cost Per Click). Getting clicks on different advertisements placed on your website doesn’t lead to the same earnings. Some advertisers like educational and financial pay more (even$ 1 for a single click) per click while others (a few cents). The probability of clicking is most when the advertisement is related to the theme of the blog and it is properly blended into the theme of the blog. The advertisements are generally displayed through affiliate networks which display the advertisements related to the theme of your blog. The theme will decide the high or low-earning advertisements that you cannot control.

PPC Networks	Weblinks
Bidvertiser	Click here
Google AdSense	Click here