You set up your social media accounts, your blog, your podcast, whatever platform you’re using to get your content out there. Started to post content consistently and even grew a following. What now? Well, now it’s time to monetize your social media and get paid to create content. It can be confusing to get started, specially if you’re not familiar with the content creation industry. But don’t worry, we got you.
One of our founders, Sofia Solis, has actually been creating content for over 4 years. So, we’ll be covering the ins and outs of being a content creator. Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter straight to your inbox and sign up for Klaia if you haven’t already to get started on the right foot.
Partnering with brands for posts on different platforms can be a great way to make money. People want recommendations from people they trust. And that is something brands pay for.
A common misconception is that you need to have thousands of followers to start working with brands. But truth is, you can start getting paid even at 1,000 followers. Brands care more about your engagement and personal brand than the number of followers. Think about it this way: brands pay tens of thousands of dollars on TV ads, magazine ads, and billboards. These ads could be reaching thousands, even millions of people, however, they could still be targeting the wrong audience. They have higher chances of targeting the right audiences by working with content creators.
Your personal opinion and reviews are important to your audience. There’s many influencer platforms you can join where you can find paid partnerships.
It can be hard to keep track of the brand opportunities influencer platforms have available. So, we took the matter into our hands and released Klaia’s Brand Deals Directory – browse over 100 brand deals opportunities updated every week.
Related: Invoicing Brands as a Content Creator + Free Templates
Affiliate links are an easy way for brands to know how many people you’re driving to their site or page. When your personal link is used, it’s specifically connected to you. The brand or company may even compensate you for the amount of people that are using your link to make a purchase.
This is a more passive form of partnering with a brand but can be an easy way to work with brands and encourage engagement for people that don’t normally see your content.
This can also be in the form of promo codes, which are more specific as the brands can only see how many people actually make a purchase using your code. A code that can look like “Sofia15”, where the 15 is the percentage of discount people get when using your promo code. Sometimes brands will give you a promo code and they won’t mention anything about commission. Make sure you are always getting a small percentage of every sale. Businesses will be profiting from the purchases people made after seeing your content, so why not at least ask.
Get paid to create user-generated-content for brands – photos, videos, captions, stories. This is content they can post on their own social media accounts or use in ads. This way, you’d be producing the content, but you don’t have to post it on your social media at all. If you normally try to have a certain style or format for your own content, this is a great way to branch out into different styles and forms of expression!
This is pretty similar to commission work for a brand for certain campaigns. It can also include photo editing, video production, and graphic design, depending on what skills you can offer to the brand. You’d be able to make money as a content creator without the content specifically being on your page.
This is a good area to explore specially if you have any experience taking professional photos or in video editing. In this occasion, the brand would not be paying to reach your audience, it would solely be paying for the content. However, that does not mean you need to lower your rates. If you think about it, brands hire models, photographers, video editors, rent photo studios, and cover other expenses to create content to use on ads and their own social media accounts. They are in fact saving money by hiring creators to make content for them – know your worth!
Creating and selling your own personal merchandise is another great way to make money as a content creator, but can take some extra time and dedication. This is more of an individual business venture, so it’s important to do your research on different companies. Releasing your own merchandise can also take a while, with the research, going through the design process back-and-forth, and then choosing the right item for you to sell, and then advertising before the launch.
Of course, it’s still a great source of revenue, but it may take longer than expected. It can be a complicated and drawn-out process to make it what you want it to be, but selling merchandise is also very rewarding.
There is a platform called Pietra that helps creators launch product lines.
You can make content on Patreon or OnlyFans that is exclusive to those that pay for the subscription. This could be bonus podcast episodes, some behind-the-scenes insight, sneak peaks at upcoming projects, extra videos or posts, and so much more!
Exclusive content can be anything, and it might surprise you how many of the people that follow you would be interested in paying a little extra for special content. A small monthly charge can add up, and you’d be offering exclusive content for those supporting you.
Rather than creating your own class to share what you know, you can be a sort of private tutor for different brands, business owners or even influencers! They’ll be able to receive more specific help and insight from you where they have questions or are looking to improve. With your own experience with brands, you can teach them how they can run a successful influencer campaign, which will also allow you to be an advocate for other content creators!
You could also help other influencers to grow their online presence! With the knowledge that is so personal to you and your experiences, you can provide insight that will benefit other content creators.
To learn more about more ways to make money as a content creator, make sure to subscribe to Klaia to receive helpful tips like these right in your inbox!
Consider selling your photos or videos for people to use for their websites and projects. Many companies have started to outsource their media content, and you can sell what you already have to a variety of places.
This could even lead to creating an established relationship with a certain company that uses your media, which could become a steady source of income for you!
If you’re a photographer, there’s multiple platforms where you can sell the usage rights to your content.
Another way to get paid to create content is by selling your own digital products. So many people are already learning online – college classes, cooking, new skills – and you could create your own courses on websites like MasterClass, SkillShare, Teachable and Udemy! You can teach any kind of skill that you’re knowledgeable about and make money as a content creator.
Besides online courses, you could sell your own downloadable art or planners, which means you wouldn’t have to handle any kind of packaging or shipping – it’s immediately available for the consumer! In fact, Canva just rolled out their business hub for creatives. So, if graphic design is your thing, it might be worth it checking it out!
On buy me a coffee, your audience can easily send you tips and donations by “buying you a coffee”. On top of that you can sell other kinds of services that you probably wouldn’t open an online store for, like one-on-one conversations, advice and more. It also makes it super simple to create your own page for free and be paid in 30 days or less. Your followers can decide to send you a tip, without even needing to make an account!
