15 Ways To Make Money As A Content Creator

We live in a new era—a historic time. It’s a place where every human is now connected. It’s a period of real-time communications. Instant on-demand everything. We no longer worry about the distance that separates us all. Because in the digital world we are just a moment away from each other. It’s a turning point. A revolution of sorts. And it’s all thanks to the power of social media.

Social media has brought us together. And we are now a society bound by the digital oneness that connects us all. In this new age, we connect instantly. We can speak to loved ones via video in real-time halfway across the earth. We share our lives with others through pictures and videos. And we can consume content on the fly. Yes, we are content consumers. But we are also content creators.

But not all content creators are made equally. Some struggle to make money. They find it hard to turn their following into cold hard cash. Others find it easy to make money as a content creator. Almost effortless. Money flows to them unabatedly. It almost seems like second nature to them. How is it that some content creators can make so much money so quickly while others struggle?

Some people think that just having a big audience is enough. If you have hundreds of thousands of followers you should be making money with ease, right? Millions of followers? That seems obvious. But not all content creators make much money. Many of them don’t make any money at all. So the question is this. How do you turn your passion for creating content into a full-time career where you no longer have to worry about making enough money to survive?

How To Make Money As A Content Creator

Money can seem elusive to most content creators. Especially those who’ve lived their entire lives as employees. An employee mindset holds us back from making real money. We think of money in terms of hourly wages. Not in terms of results. But to make real money as a content creator you have to transcend the employee mindset. It’s not about time spent making content. It’s about results.

If you have an active and engaged audience, you should be making good money as a content creator. Even with tens of thousands of authentic followers, you can make more than enough money to get by. And when you have a 6-figure following or more? You should be raking it in. But some don’t. Even when they have a large following. Why is that?

If you’re a content creator and you feel stuck, please listen up. It doesn’t matter if you have a small audience or a large one. People pay for results. If you have an engaged following that is devoted to you then you can deliver results. When that’s the case you shouldn’t shy away from charging what you’re worth. After all, you’re delivering real results.

1—User Generated Content (UGC)

The most common way you can make money as a content creator is to make User Generated Content (UGC). UGC is designed to help brands promote their products and services. Many platforms exist that help content creators make money by making UGC. The best way to do this is to reach out to brands and offer to create content for them.

You must choose brands that align with your audience. If you’re in the fitness space, choose supplements or gyms you can help. Meal delivery kits. Fitness coaches. Brands that align with your audience. That’s important because you want engagement for the brand. And the more engagement the brand gets, the more value you deliver and the more money you can make as a creator.

2—Hero Funnel

Every content creator must have a link for people to learn more about that person. And that link shouldn’t go to a random website. Look at it this way. People who visit your profile on social media do it randomly. You have no control over that. What you do want to do is convert those people who randomly visit your profile and click on the link into contacts on your email list. People you can communicate with. And you do that with a hero funnel.

A hero funnel (or a hero page) is a simple funnel that collects a person’s contact information in exchange for some value. Maybe you create a lead magnet or share a video with them on the step after they fill in their details. After all, these people want to know more about you. That’s why they should be funneled onto your email list. Your entire focus should be to grow that list. Because social media followers come and go but your email list is there to stay.

3—Paid Sponsorships

Paid sponsorships or brand deals can be made to make money on multiple platforms. TikTok makes it easy with its TikTok Creator Marketplace. You can use it to hunt for brand deals and paid sponsorships. You can also make deals with brands on other platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and more. Make sure that you have an email address in your profile and a link to a hero funnel.

The hero funnel allows brands to connect with you via email. They can propose brand deals and other paid sponsorships for you to consider. How much should you charge? That all depends. But it’s best to aim higher than lower. Then, you can always negotiate. But if you have a large following don’t be afraid to ask for a lot of money. Brands will gladly pay it as long as you can get them results.

4—Online Courses

Many content creators choose online courses as their method for making money on social media. An online course works well if you’re a creator in a specific niche. Maybe you’re in real estate and want to create an online course teaching people how to wholesale properties. Or you’re in fitness and want to create an online course teaching people how to get in shape. Maybe you’re in the wealth space and want to teach people how to make money using a specific method.

It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in. What matters is that you get as specific as possible with your online course. You can build your course easily on numerous platforms. And you can also build the course on a custom domain using an online course builder like this one. It makes it easy to launch an online course using premade templates and a drag-and-drop editor. Just connect your payment gateway and build out the content. You don’t need any coding or web development skills at all.

5—Ad Revenue

An obvious way to earn money as a creator is through ad revenue. Many platforms allow you to earn based on views and engagement. YouTube is the obvious platform. You can earn some of the best per-view ad revenue on YouTube. Expect to earn anywhere from $5 to $15 per thousand views. That might not sound like much. But when you have millions of views it is a lot of money.

Other platforms also pay you for views. The most popular is TikTok. TikTok creators can make money by making engaging content that people want to watch. To do that you need a good hook for your videos and you need to be consistent. Post 20 times per day and go all out. If you’re serious about this, then you really do have to put out a lot of content.

6—Print-On-Demand

Many content creators turn to Print-on-Demand (POD) to make money. POD platforms allow you to create merchandise and sell it without ever having to do any of the grunt work. You never have to embroider a hat yourself. And you never have to store a sweatshirt in a warehouse or ship out a t-shirt. You don’t have inventory issues or customer service problems. None of that.

However, to succeed with POD you need a following willing to purchase your merchandise. All you need to do is create the designs and get your followers to buy what you’re peddling. You can use your social media posts to promote your merchandise and get followers to buy it. This is a low-cost way to make money in the merchandise business. You can use platforms like Printful and Printify to do this.

7—Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a popular way to make money for many content creators. If you have an engaged audience, they are willing to buy what you’re promoting. But you must approach with caution. Do not recommend products or services that you haven’t tried and don’t believe in. Because it will backfire on you. Make sure they are trusted brands with a good track record.

You can make money in affiliate marketing many ways. It’s not about spamming your link to followers. The best way is to build out a hero funnel or a lead generation funnel that’s linked to your profile. Once people join your list, you can then communicate with them and use that time to share your affiliate links. You can also promote your affiliate links on platforms that allow you to do so. But be careful because some links on some platforms can get you banned.

8—Membership Sites

You can build a membership site that shares valuable information and content with your followers. Membership sites can take on many forms and you can build them simply by using our membership site builder. You don’t need any web development skills to build them. But you will need to create valuable content that’s worth paying for.

What type of membership site should you create? It all depends on the niche that you’re in. You can do exclusive newsletters, or access to tutorial videos, and much more. You can also have free trials to give people a taste of your content for a brief period. It takes time to create content consistently but it is well worth it since people are paying for continued access.

9—Consulting

You can consult with other brands and creators to make money as well. Consulting is a popular niche and a good way to make money if you’re good at what you do. Companies will gladly pay you for guidance and wisdom, especially when you have a large following in their industry. It also opens up other opportunities when you do consulting.

Finding consulting clients as a creator isn’t too difficult. Always have a hero funnel set up and your contact information in your profile. This way, companies and brands can reach out to you if they want your help. This isn’t just for consulting. You can also do coaching and more. Many creators take this route to monetize their following.

10—Subscriptions

Many platforms now offer subscription-based content for followers. For example, Twitter/X introduced subscriptions to allow creators to charge people money for exclusive access to content that isn’t publicly available. You can create public content separate from your subscription content. And you can offer subscriptions on many platforms today. You just have to pick the one that’s right for you.

You can also build subscription content that’s gated on a blog for instance. Plus, you can also provide partial viewing and gate the remainder of the content. This only works if you have a large following or audience somewhere on some platform. Otherwise, it’s hard to get people to pay for subscriptions. Make sure that you deliver real value to your subscribers to keep growing your revenue and sales.

11—Patreon

One of the most popular ways to monetize your followers is by using Patreon. Patreon allows you to accept money and donations from the public. Sometimes, you can give something in exchange for a donation on Patreon. Other times, they can just make simple donations to you. You should always have a link to your Patreon somewhere to allow people to donate.

You can even ask for as little as one dollar on your Patreon. The point is to get enough people to donate to you for it to make sense. You can provide different levels with different perks at each level. It’s entirely up to you how you prefer to structure it. Patreon will take a small percentage but they do all the legwork with processing payments and managing everything on their platform.

12—Live Stream Gifts

Livestreaming has taken off recently. You can livestream on many platforms today across both social media and general streaming apps. You can stream on platforms like Kick, Twitch, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and more. Some platforms allow people to give you gifts during your livestreams. Those gifts can be redeemed for money.

If you have an engaged audience of raving fans they will happily give you gifts during your livestreams. Some people are making more money on a single livestream than typical people make working an entire month at a regular 9-to-5 job. Yes, it is that much. Don’t rule this out. It’ll take time to gain traction but keep at it.

13—Digital Products

You can sell digital products to your audience. Digital products are not difficult to create and you can sell them using simple sales funnels. If you don’t want to create a digital product, you can always purchase a PLR product. PLR stands for private-label rights. That gives you the right to sell a certain product to your audience without infringing on copyright. This is a quick way to bring a digital product to market.

Create or buy the rights to a digital product in your niche. And the more specific that digital product is the more likely you’ll make money with it. Avoid peddling broad digital products that cover generic information. The riches are always in the niches. So you must niche down to solve a specific problem for a specific person.

14—Podcast Appearances

You can get paid to appear on podcasts. Many creators charge podcasts to appear on their shows. It typically doesn’t work with a smaller following. But it does with a larger following. Make sure that you have your contact details in your profile. And that you conceptualize prices for an appearance on a podcast.

Podcasts will pay you to appear and pay you to travel to their studio, covering your expenses along the way. How much money can you make for podcast appearances? It varies on your following. You can also hire a PR company to pitch your appearance on podcasts if you have a large enough following. And you can make a deal with the PR company to take a percentage of that income to avoid paying them a monthly retainer.

15—Email Marketing

Email marketing is the most powerful method for turning your following into an actual income. Many creators don’t properly monetize their following because they never turn their followers into email subscribers. This is important to do. Why? Because when they’re on your email list, you own those contacts and you won’t rely on a platform to connect you. And you can pitch whatever product or service you choose to those people.

Email is a powerful way to make money because it allows you to form a bond with the prospect. You can build rapport. Share stories. And sell whatever it is that you’re selling. Why? Because it’s a far more intimate environment. People think that email doesn’t work. But they’re wrong. Email offers the highest return on investment of any marketing activity. Hands down.