Charging for admission is the most obvious way to make money from your virtual event. However, they are many unique ways to profit from your virtual event that go beyond charging at the virtual door.

Here are a few ideas on how to make money from your virtual event:

Offer Various Packages to Attendees – This helps you to meet every budget. You can offer a cheap package that offers the basics, a middle-of-the-road package that offers more and an expensive VIP package that offers the bells and whistles. Check out the payments plans offered by the Social Media Telesummit.

Seek Exhibitors & Sponsors – There are companies who desperately want to reach a niche, targeted audience and will pay for that access. As a virtual event host, you can offer these companies exclusive access to your attendees for a specific fee.

Speaker Upsells – At the end of each session, speakers should have a quick opportunity to promote a product or service that relates to the content they just presented. As a virtual event host, you should use a system (like Cartville) that allows you to track the number of sales made so you can get a commission for each item sold.

Offer a Buddy Price – You can make alot of quick sales this way. After the attendee signs up, you can offer a discounted rate if they’d like a colleague, business partner or employee to attend your virtual event as well.

Affiliate Sales – To encourage more people to sign up and to provide an incentive for exhibitors, sponsors, attendees and other joint venture to promote your virtual event, have them sign up for your affiliate program. That way, they can use a unique affiliate link to promote your virtual event and get commissions for every referral. I suggest you use Cartville to help track affiliate clicks.

What other monetization strategies can you think of for virtual events that go beyond charging admission? Leave it in the comment section below.