Have you ever wondered about the money-making strategies of Facebook, Google, YouTube or any internet platform providing free services? If yes, then you are in the right place because today we are going to discuss some of the most common methods these companies use to make money without charging anything to customers.

1. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is not a new thing in the Internet world. It involves writing about brands and directing the audience to links of products and services these companies provide. These companies offer commissions for helping them get new customers.

2. Freemium strategy

This involves providing a free product for some time to customers so that they can get used to it and for some extra features, companies ask them to buy complete versions and make money. Also, other paid products can be advertised on free services to make money.

Also Read: How Inshorts Is Making Money Without Charging Anything To Users?

3. Zynga model

In this model, companies sell products through in-app purchases or to get forward in the game.

4. Open Source Model

Selling products for free and making money on support, customization and installation. This is a very common strategy used by software companies.

5. Sponsorship model

In this companies indirectly or directly benefit companies by marketing their business. Sponsored articles on media websites is a good example for this.

6. Gillette model

This one is very interesting as companies sell the main product without any cost to the customers and make money from the complimentary products needed to use the service. A cloud-based spreadsheet that is free to edit/create documents but charges money for exporting it as a file to the computer is an apt example.

7. Donation

Some companies believe in customer satisfaction so they never ask money for the services they provide. Instead, they ask for a donation, Wikipedia follows this model to make money.

8. Showing ads

One of the most common money making strategy web-based companies use is showing ads to viewers on their platforms. Google Adsense is the best option for making money using this model.

9. Seeling the business to big names

This model has become popular in the last few years. Companies provide free services to users on the Internet which helps that build a large user base. After this, they either look for investors or sell the complete business to big names like Google, Facebook and work on new projects.

10. Credit card model

Credit card companies make money from the banks associated with them and they don’t charge anything from users. Similarly, companies associate other brands which provide some services on their platform and they charge those companies to earn profits.