A simple guide to making money as a content creator
Storyteller series EP2
It’s an attractive idea. Making money by just seemingly documenting your daily life. Being paid the big bucks or getting free products from brands. Making money in your sleep. Being ‘famous’.
There are lots of ideals about what its like to be an influencer or, my preferred term, content creator. Its often sold as a very shiny lifestyle, where you get paid lots for apparently not doing much. Its the new kind of celebrity.
This idea has prompted more and more people to give this content creation a go. Starting blogs, YouTube channels or social media accounts. Eagerly anticipating the fame and fortune they’ve seen others build.
As you may expect, this is not the full picture. It can take a long time to start making money as a content creator. Building a real audience takes work and dedication. Most people can spend months or even years building their brands before making any money.
Thats why I always say that you shouldn’t get into this creative space purely to make money. You should do it because you love it.
However, if you do want to make some money in the future, it can be useful to have a clear idea about your options. I’ve listed some of the most common money-making options below, so you can feel prepared and have no misconceptions about where this career can really take you.
Sell your skills
I’ve deliberately included this as my first option as I think its often overlooked and underrated when it comes to making money as a content creator. It is also a way of making money right away, without needing an audience first, which the following options do require to some extent.
If you’ve already built a skill set in creating content, you can offer this as a paid service, such as picking up some freelance writing work or producing promotional videos or social media content for brands.
You can search for opportunities like this online (e.g., sites like ProBlogger) or go to brands directly. Make sure you have some sort of online presence (e.g., website or LinkedIn) and CV/portfolio of works, where you can demonstrate your skills, to make it more likely that a client will hire you.
Make money with ADs
This is an attractive prospect for new content creators. It involves being paid for the content you create, by including ads within your content e.g., on your website or in your YouTube videos.
These days, one of the most well-known examples is making money via Google AdSense. This involves including ads in your YouTube videos and can be a great form of passive income and a way to directly get paid for the content you produce.
However, there are a lot of caveats with this type of income. For YouTube, you need to be monetized, which means having 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time (within the last 12 months), before you can start earning money. This means you need to be prepared to post a lot of content for free.
Even then, the amount of money you get from AdSense isn’t huge and it can fluctuate widely between creators and over time. That’s why its unwise to solely rely on this income, but it can be a useful way to get a little extra cash every month, whilst combining it with some other money-making options covered in this article.
Brand deals
Working with brands to help sell their products/services can be a really good source of income. This describes a brand paying a creator to include information on their products/services within their content, as a way of increasing their exposure and, ultimately, sales.
One of the main barriers to this income is you need an audience first. This doesn’t have to be crazy numbers. There is a lot of value placed on ‘micro-influencers’ (10,000 to 100,000 followers) as they can have a more engaged audience than larger accounts.
You may want to start working with brands for free or on a gifted basis, to start building your portfolio. However, remember not to sell yourself short. Its important to recognize the value of both your time/skills and your audience.
It goes without saying that, if you do work with brands, its important that this genuinely aligns with your own content and will add value to your audience. If this isn’t authentic, you may end up losing your audience’s trust, which could really compromise your career in this space.
Affiliate marketing
This one confused me a little when I started. Essentially, affiliate marketing describes you getting a commission by referring your audience to a product/service that leads to sales.
This is something you can pretty much start with right away as a content creator, although clearly you will make more money with a larger audience i.e., more opportunity for people to click on your links. You can sign up to affiliate marketing networks, which are third parties that link creators with brands (e.g., Awin), or you can work with a brand directly, as many have affiliate marking information on their websites.
You can include these affiliate links in your YouTube descriptions, blogs and social media as a way of making passive income. Again, make sure this is genuine and you are only promoting products/services that you really find value in yourself.
The amount of money you can make with affiliate marketing varies widely, and its something you need to remember to keep promoting regularly, but it’s one to start with early so it can grow alongside your audience.
Selling products
Once you have an audience established, you can start thinking about creating some products to sell. This isn’t something to start too early. You want to build trust with your audience and already have a good amount of content available for free that demonstrates the value you can offer.
There are a whole range of products that you could sell to your audience. This could include merchandise, which are physical products that relate to your brand. I’ve started my own sustainable clothing line by setting up a Teemill store with clothing designs inspired by my brand values.
Digital products are a common option, as they don’t usually require upfront costs. There are lots of types of digital products, such as eBooks, courses, printables, social media templates etc. YouTube has some great videos if you want to search ‘digital product ideas’ to get you started.
Subscriptions
This is similar to selling products, but it essentially means people signing up to give money on a regular basis, generally for exclusive content or for a service you offer. A common one is Patreon, which is often used by YouTubers, or, if you’re a writer, you could set up an account with sites like Substack.
Again, this isn’t something to start too soon, as you want to provide a good amount of content for free, before you can entice people to sign up for extra content. However, once established, this can be a useful form or regular income.
Final thoughts
The reality of being a content creator means that you are likely going to need to have multiple sources of income, especially when starting out, if you want to make this your full time job.
If you are dedicated and willing to spending time learning, adapting and producing free high value content, you will undoubtedly get to the point where you can earn some money. Just remember to have fun along the way!
Let me know in the comments if there is anything else you would like me to cover about making content creation your career. I’d be happy to share what 'I’ve learnt.
Until next week,
Molly xxx
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Good summary. Thanks.