How To Monetize Your IP Addresses

The monetization of an IP address is a unique and new concept. However, the underlying principle has not changed since the commercialization of the internet began to explode a few decades ago. So, here are a few tips to monetize your IP addresses.

The nature of IP addresses.

An IP address is simply the pathway that another device takes to reach your site or piece of hardware. There are two types of IPs, one being a locally assigned name from a router, and the other being the internet directory name of a website. This is the IPv4 address that can potentially be monetized. IP addresses are essentially like the given names of devices and pages, whereas the name you might type into your browser (www.google.com, for instance) acts as a nickname of sorts — an easy pathway for you to remember, unlike the true name of the page made up of numbers. Both pathways direct you to the same location, the same object.

With this being said, an IP address is an interesting commodity in that it acts both as the map to an object of prospective value, and as the name of that object simultaneously. Monetizing your IP address, therefore, is all about monetizing the thing it represents.

Create value on the internet.

Internet value relies on a user’s ability to get what they want out of the site. This draws users back to content, which signals a site’s value to the indexing algorithms produced by Google or Bing, to name a few. As you add content and draw in more users, your site builds in potential value. A webpage, much like its IPv4 address represents two things at the same time. The value of your site acts as a billboard on a highway. The more traffic that drives by a billboard the more cash value it has as a piece of real estate for a marketing campaign. Someone wishing to place an ad on a billboard with one million daily viewers will pay more than someone buying ad space that faces half a million daily commuters, it’s simple economics. The same goes for your digital space, the more traffic your site gets, the more valuable the sidelines and insert spaces are in ad revenue.

Much like a physical storefront, the services and goods sold on your site are more valuable if more people are buying them. The more customers you have, the more reputable your service becomes. This allows you to charge more.

Part of the value of your IP address, if and when you choose to sell IPv4 rights to your site, is baked into the traffic you drive through the pages it encompasses. So creating value on your website is all about generating fantastic content and products that people come back to read about or browse through. This is why so many sites include a blog. Blogging allows a business or individual to create content that is interesting to them and within their niche in order to balloon the value of the internet space that their ideas occupy — both the pathway to it and the thing itself. Selling an IPv4 domain is actually fairly easily done as well, so for those considering the building of a number of digital “storefronts” in order to create readership in anticipation of a sale can rest assured that all it entails is a standard exchange and then the reregistration with the Regional Internet Registry to signify the transfer of a domain from one individual or company to another.

The “internet of things” (IoT) that has ballooned the number of IP addresses requiring devices has made for an interesting new utility in the pathways leading to content that has never existed before. Take advantage of this new opportunity for revenue generation by monetizing your IP address.