A comprehensive summary of the latest self-media monetization methods in 2017!

Q: Why do you do self-media ?

Almost 10 out of 10 friends would say that they want to make some extra money!

Yes, this is the current situation of self-media. There is no shortage of self-media platforms and no shortage of self-media people, because almost everyone can do self-media. I have a colleague who usually only writes some financial analysis articles on WeChat public accounts . However, since WeChat public accounts are relatively closed and the number of readers depends entirely on subscribed users, the income is almost negligible. Recently, he asked me which platforms can monetize his articles, and I listed a lot of them for him, but in the end, only Toutiao , Xueqiu, Eastmoney, Sohu, etc. were left. The monetization of platforms like Toutiao is undoubtedly considerable, while platforms like Snowball and Eastmoney can be used for personal brand building.

In fact, there are far more than the few self-media platforms mentioned above. Today I will tell you what each self-media platform has and the ways to monetize them.

1. Toutiao

1. Headline advertising, I believe everyone is already familiar with this, so I won’t say much about it.

2. Enable original creation through appreciation; the appreciation function is a unique way for original Toutiao accounts to earn income. When using this function, an "Appreciation" button will appear at the bottom of the content page. If Toutiao users like the content you post, they will click the button and pay you a "tip".

3. Start self-operated advertising. Self-operated advertising is an open and free promotion method unique to Toutiao. The promotional materials are uploaded by the Toutiao account authors independently and displayed on the content page. Whether it is self-promotion, event introduction, APP download, or traditional marketing promotion , it can be achieved in self-operated advertising. The service is completely free.

4. Product functions

Toutiao has officially been promoting the product function, which is similar to a Taobao customer. As everyone knows, Toutiao has very large traffic . After the product function is activated, becoming a Taobao customer can bring very good income.

5. Selling accounts

A friend of mine has a Toutiao account in the financial field. Now the Toutiao index is stable at over 650, with more than 15,000 fans. Someone paid him 8,000 yuan to become a monk. So as long as you work hard to maintain your account, you will be rewarded.

6.Wukong Q&A. I have learned that some high-quality question-and-answer experts are selected every month and receive a bonus of 1,000 yuan. I have never received the bonus, so I can’t say much.

2. Sohu Account

Compared with other self-media such as Toutiao, Sohu's monetization models are relatively few.

1.Backstage promotion function

This backend promotion function is actually equivalent to Toutiao’s self-operated advertising. Self-media only needs to get advertisements from outside and place them there.

2. Sohu wins more

In the middle of this year, Sohu launched an internal advertising and marketing service platform - Sohu Duoying - to help self-media people monetize. It means inviting self-media people to join, and then automatically matching you when advertisers want to place advertisements with you. It's pretty useless, with almost no effect.

However, compared with other self-media platforms, Sohu has an advantage that it is included in Baidu very quickly, and its weight is unmatched by other platforms. This can lay the foundation for the branding of some small and medium-sized enterprises.

3. Big Fish

Dayuhao is actually the original UC subscription account . Who is behind UC? Alibaba ! Don’t underestimate this Dayu account, it is a platform with “one-point access, multiple distribution points, and multiple benefits”. What's the meaning? Translated into plain language, it means: once you post on Dayu, the content will be pushed to multiple platforms, such as: UC, Tudou, Youku, Taobao, Wandoujia , Shenma Search , PP Assistant , etc. Why is it so awesome? Because these are all from Alibaba ! Not only will it be pushed on multiple platforms, but you will also enjoy the benefits of multiple platforms. Not to mention other benefits, the big fish bonus alone is 10,000 yuan, and many friends have received it.

1. Content monetization model. Like other self-media platforms, creators on the platform realize content revenue by publishing pictures, texts and videos.

2. Enable original creation. Create more high-quality content and start original works. Having an original DaYu account can open up more ways to earn money.

3. Enable rewards. The reward function can make your articles appreciated by readers, so you should create more high-quality and valuable articles.

4. Advertising revenue sharing. We display advertisements to readers or fans through our articles/videos and earn commissions. If you want to get advertising revenue, you must:

Five-star Big Fish;

The original protection function has been enabled;

The content recommendations and reading volume meet certain platform standards.

5. Big fish bonus. High-quality creators of short videos and pictures on Dayu have the opportunity to compete for double the creative bonus!

Starting from April this year, the "W+" quantum plan will be upgraded to the "Big Fish Plan". Alibaba Entertainment has added another 1 billion in pure cash investment on top of the original 1 billion content support fund, providing a total of 2 billion in pure cash support to creators, further encouraging outstanding original authors and short video creation output.

6. Big Fish Partners. The incentive model of the Dayu platform. This is mainly an incentive model for MCN agencies . If the annual playback volume reaches the agreed value , a reward of 1 million can be obtained.

7. Big fish mission. This is a product service that the Dayuhao platform enables creators to connect with the needs of Alibaba's massive merchants/brand merchants. By creating, producing, and delivering works that meet the needs of merchants, you can not only receive substantial returns in the form of royalties for your creations, but also receive commissions on commodity transactions, and have the opportunity to receive rebates on the traffic fees purchased by merchants.

4. Penguin

On November 8, Penguin announced a new upgrade in Chengdu . Along with the debut of a new image, Penguin launched a new round of platform policies. This time, Penguin will fully empower content creators through the "10 Billion Plan", which is to connect the tens of billions of traffic dividends brought by all platforms within Tencent, the tens of billions of industrial resources throughout the entire growth process of content creators, and the tens of billions of financial subsidies. Through the "10 Billion Plan", we support content entrepreneurs at every stage from incubation to growth to take-off. Therefore, this upgrade of Penguin will be another benefit for content creators.

However, the current monetization method of Penguin is still mainly concentrated on traffic masters, so you have to pile up the volume first. After opening the traffic master, make your field vertical, and monetization will come naturally. But we need to look further ahead. The current Penguin account has been renamed "Tencent Content Open Platform". If nothing unexpected happens, Tencent will have a series of actions in the future, and of course the profits will not be small.

5. Baijiahao

1. Baidu advertising revenue sharing and subsidies. The first type: native advertising revenue sharing. Currently, there are many native advertisements in the Baidu mobile information flow and Baijiahao content pages. The content produced by Baijiahao authors will obtain native advertising revenue sharing based on traffic data such as its distribution volume and reading volume; the second type: alliance advertising revenue sharing. This advertising model is also a very mature monetization model of Baidu. After the author publishes an article on Baijiahao, Baidu will import traffic and introduce Baidu Alliance advertisers and brand customers to the page, and 100% of the revenue generated by the advertising will be returned to the author. The more your articles are read, the more points you will get.

2. Content e-commerce . Baijiahao authors can recommend and add products in their articles. The content of the products can be in the form of pictures, texts, photo albums, and videos. The launch of the Baijiahao content e-commerce function not only expands the monetization model for original authors and encourages the output of original content, but also improves the user experience of Baidu's mobile news flow. That is, Baijiahao authors can insert product cards that match the content when writing content. Authors can directly enter product keywords to search for products in the search box in the article editing background, add product cards to the article, and users can obtain relevant information in the Baidu information flow on their mobile phones.

3. Self-operated advertising. Self-operated advertising is advertising that the author attracts through his own connections. Baijiahao provides you with advertising space .

4. Hundred+ Plan. As an important part of Baidu's content ecosystem, Baijiahao has maintained rapid and steady development since its official launch in September last year. It attracts many authors to join and continuously outputs rich and diverse high-quality content. In order to further encourage authors who insist on originality and focus on producing high-quality content, Baijiahao has specially launched the "Bai+ Plan", which empowers high-quality original authors with the dual energy of cash incentives + customized rights and interests, allowing original authors to benefit from high-quality content and injecting "source energy" into their continued production of more high-quality content.

6. NetEase

NetEase’s self-media monetization method is mainly to obtain different levels of income through star ratings.

NetEase's operations team has developed a unique five-star rating standard: comprehensive assessment of self-media based on five dimensions, including reading volume, new subscriptions, number of shares, number of comments, and number of original articles. Once you reach three stars , you can share the bonuses in the NetEase's billion-yuan self-media reward plan bonus pool, and the higher the star rating, the higher the bonus.

In addition to being able to share bonuses, star ratings can also gain greater benefits on the NetEase platform. NetEase accounts that reach three stars can enjoy the privilege of having their articles recommended to the homepage of NetEase and the homepage of the NetEase channel, greatly expanding the dissemination range of NetEase articles and enabling NetEase content to reach a wider audience; and NetEase accounts that reach four stars can not only enjoy the homepage recommendation function, but can also open the live broadcast function, providing self-media authors with a new way to output content. With the help of the platform, the reading volume of star accounts can easily reach "100,000+".

7. One-point

While the income from content monetization of Toutiao, Penguin, Dayu, and Baijiahao has long been stable, it is very difficult to generate income from opening Yidianhao. To obtain the benefits of opening a Yidianhao account, you need to apply for the Dianjin Plan function. After self-media people join "Yidianhao", they will start to accumulate points based on their behavior on the platform ; and accounts that have already joined before the level points are launched will be given initial points based on previous data performance and article quality. Among them, those who have made special contributions to the platform will be rewarded with certain points according to the specific circumstances; 30 points will be given for completing the information, daily posting, the cumulative number of posts in the month, and the exponential growth of article readings, comments, reposts, subscriptions, and other dimensions that can reflect the operation effect will also give points. The low threshold and easy acquisition of points also provide more opportunities for new accounts and more encouragement and support for high-quality content creators.

By displaying, clicking, sharing, commenting, collecting, searching, and subscribing to environmental data in multiple dimensions, self-media professionals can further understand and grasp their own operating conditions and control the direction of operations. At the same time, the platform will open up income sources to self-media people based on the influence of the creative content. In addition to fixed income, they can also obtain income support in multiple dimensions such as data income, ranking rewards and crowdfunding rewards.

Here are 5 suggestions for those who are running their own media!

1. Different self-media platforms have different preferences for different types of articles. For example, Toutiao and Yidianhao prefer entertainment and sports articles, information and videos, while Dayuhao prefers serious and in-depth analysis articles. So don't post the same draft multiple times, and don't think that more is better. You should focus on your own field, and then investigate and test which platforms are suitable for the content you produce, and then focus on these platforms, and you will definitely reap rewards.

2. The content needs to be vertical. Don’t write content that you are not good at or that is a bit inconsistent with your own positioning just to catch the hot spots or one-sidedly pursue high readership. Every platform will like you to be consistent. For example, if I run a public account in the field of sports, then my articles are all about sports, which is one degree of verticality. If my public account publishes all about football in the sports field, this is considered two degrees of verticality. If the articles I publish are all about a certain club in the football field, or all about a certain football league, this is considered three degrees of verticality. Generally speaking, it is very good to achieve three degrees of verticality, and the verticality is very high.

3. The content of the articles is mostly about life, entertainment and sports. This can also be reflected in a technology account. The first thing ranked first is celebrity gossip. After all, the user groups in these categories are huge, and these are indispensable news points in people’s daily lives, or the common points of many people. Therefore, if a novice wants to enter the industry, these contents are the best entry points.

4. The article combines hot topics, and topics with their own IP will definitely become popular. Many people and things have their own traffic. If your article contains this information, then at least you will be one step ahead in terms of the starting point of reading volume. However, once a hot topic comes, all media outlets are chasing after it. At this time, if there are similar articles on the headlines. The headlines will gradually reduce the recommendation amount from the beginning to the end based on the order of the articles. Therefore, we need to find another way at this time. For example, last year’s Wang Baoqiang divorce incident, this year’s Xue Zhiqian quarrel incident, and so on.

5. The last point, and also a very important one, is spiritual persistence. Don’t just see the glorious side of today’s big names; you don’t know how helpless they were when they were just starting out. Any grassroots self-media person has no performance when they first start out. They can only achieve today’s results by persisting step by step, so you must also know how to persist.