10 Incredible Ways to Make Money on Social Media

A few years ago I decided that I wanted to dive into the online world and thought to myself, “How can I make money from Social Media?”. I was hooked on the idea of leaving a job working for someone else and to start working for myself and making money on social media really peaked my interest.

So I researched ways that you can make money on social media whilst being able to travel the world. You would not believe the results. There are literally hundreds of ways you can make money online.

So I started improving my photography, learnt a tonne of new skills and built my portfolio. I am happy to say that I have worked with some of the biggest names in the travel industry (Four Seasons and Hard Rock Hotel to name a few). I’ve worked with tourism boards and been invited on press trips. I’ve sold my photography to brands, created a passive income and now I want to share with you how to do it.

How to Make Money on Social Media

I compiled a list of 10 incredible ways that you can make money on social media and I guarantee that you can do at least one of them right now.

1. Working With Brands

So you probably have seen #AD or Paid Partnership with “brand” pop up on instagram. Basically anytime that you create content to post on your account in exchange for money for a brand – this is an AD. Leveraging your audience to brands is a great way to make money. Not only can you do this with a large audience but you can also do it with a small one. Brands love micro influencers for their highly engaged audiences and it has become big business in the social media world.

Social Media Agencies

There are a tonne of 3rd party agencies out there that you can join who help facilitate the marketing campaigns between influencers and brands. A few that you can join I have listed below:

• Tribe – focusses on micro influencers and has offices in the USA, Australia and the UK. Some fantastic brands work with Tribe and it is a great way to earn an income from your content. You search through their latest campaigns, submit content for approval and if chosen you get paid the fee that you pitch them. If you have a larger audience this isn’t the best place as their fees are more focussed for small audiences.
• Vamp – Similar to Tribe except you submit to a brief without providing content first. They have set fees so there is no room to negotiate.
• The Blogger Programme – They post a variety of different gifted and paid campaigns.

Reach Out To Brands

The alternative to working through a 3rd party agency is to reach out to brands directly. This not only cuts out the middle man (the agency) but will often lead to getting paid more. Influencer marketing agencies get paid for campaigns by brands, the agencies then search for influencers to participate in the campaign. The fee is split between agency and influencer, however if you reach out directly – you alone get the fee which will be much higher because your fee isn’t getting split.

If you want to learn how to pitch to a brand check out my blog post – “THE 5 TIPS YOU NEED TO PITCH BRAND COLLABORATIONS” here.

2. Create an E-Book

Why not look into selling what you know and create an E-book. Everyone has something that they can teach someone else whether that’s how to make incredible caramel apples or how to train dogs. Along as you know more about your topic than someone else then you are good to go. You can create E-books super easily on places like Canva and can sell them easily through websites like Etsy.

3. Sell Presets

Once you have learnt how to edit photographs and found a stella editing technique, why not sell these preset edits to customers. Making money on social media has never been so easy. Presets are filters you create on Lightroom and you can create them for mobile phones or cameras. They are such a great asset to sell because it enables people to instantly transform their photographs. Don’t let all those hours spent learning to edit go to waste – share your work with others and make money at the same time.

If you want to learn how to edit in Lightroom – check out my blog post “How to edit in Lightroom” here.

I sell my own presets that I use on my instagram account @everthewanderer – you can check those out here. It helps me create an aesthetic throughout my feed in seconds instead of hours individually editing each photo.

4. Create an Online Course

If you are knowledgable in a topic, then you could look at creating an online course. You don’t need to be an expert to do this, you just need to know more than somebody else.

Online courses are a great way for people to learn new skills in the comfort of their own home. What’s great is that once you have created your course, you can turn it evergreen which then creates a residual income. Imagine receiving money monthly from a course you created just once!

If you think that there isn’t a course topic out there for you then think again, you can even find courses on how to make toffee apples and they made over $60K on their first launch!

5. Make Printables

We all know that being organised is super handy and printables are a great way of helping you. Whether that is a printable content calendar, meal schedule, art work or check list. Printable products like these are super popular and if you create them you can make money selling them. A great place to make these are on the free graphic design website, Canva and you can sell them on Etsy. Not only are these great products to make but they create a passive income as you only need to create them once and will last forever as a digital product. You don’t even need to print them yourself as the customer does this. This means there is 0% investment – pretty awesome hey!

6. Social Media Manager

Have you got the knack for creating engaging captions that convert, or know how to find followers on social media and can make them part of your community. Then becoming a Social Media Manager may be just right for you.

Many companies are beginning to realise that social media is a huge part of their business and it may be untapped potential. They might not have the skills needed to improve their social media presence and will hire a Social Media Manager to look after all of their needs.

What does a Social Media Manager do?

Social Media Managers are in charge of representing a company across their social channels as the sole voice of the brand. They respond to comments, compile campaigns and create content. These experts provide organizations with the guidance needed to enhance their online presence.

How to do it?

If you have experience in managing your own social media account then that is a great start. Show how you grew your account, increased engagement, came up with strategies to improve. Start with a small business on a trial basis and go from there. There are even courses you can take to upskill and learn how to become one.

Or if you have more professional experiences you can search for jobs on these platforms:

• Upwork – search for freelance jobs on here and take on new clients
• Fiverr – similar to Upwork where you can search for freelance jobs listed.
• LinkedIn – They list jobs daily from companies all over the world.

7. Online Coach

Another great way to make money on social media after you have built an audience of dedicated fans, you might want to look at becoming an online coach. This is where you would be providing your clients with personalised virtual coaching.

There are so many topics that you can do this for – health, business, social media etc. It might take a while to reach a point where the is something that you can create, but once you have valuable skills to share online coaching might be perfect for you.

8. Create an E-commerce Business

Have you ever had an idea for a product and wanted to sell it online? Creating an E-Commerce business could be your answer to travelling the world. When it comes to E-Commerce businesses, it has never been easier to set them up than now.

Creating websites to host your stores are super easy and fairly cheap to run meaning that your start up costs are incredibly low. In terms of products to sell, that is really up to you but I would suggest investing in something that has little to no start up costs – Digital Products.

Digital products (just like an online course) can be created just once, cost nothing to create and can make you residual income on a regular basis. Provided you pick a topic that people are interested in and need help with.

• E-books
• Online Courses
• Photography
• Nutrition, Workout and Meal Prep Plans
• Videos
• Printables

Much like creating an online course, if you are well read in a particular topic or are very creative then selling your digital products online can be a good income revenue.

How to do it?

Once you have done your consumer research and created your product there are several platforms that you can use to sell it:

• WordPress
• Teachables
• Etsy
• Shopify

Once your products are loaded into your shop, you need to advertise them. Create regular advertisements whether they are paid or not. That could be blog posts you create that mention your products, Instagram stories with swipe ups, Facebook ads or targeted marketing.

9. Create and Sell Content

If you are a dab hand at photography or digital art work then you can create content to sell to brands. Often there are a lot of brands that need content for their social channels, websites, newsletters etc.

In the past the only way to create content was from hiring whole teams of photographers, models, make up artists, hair stylists etc. This cost brands a lot of money , but now there is a whole market of content creators that are self taught photographers willing to create content for brands at the fraction of the cost. More often than not you are the photographer, director, stylist and model which saves the brand so much money.

10. Affiliate Links

ffiliate marketing is where you receive a small percentage of the sales from products that you recommend on your social platforms.

You will advertise these products on your Instagram, Facebook or Blog and use a link for customers to follow to the products page. Once a customer clicks through and purchases the product you recommended through your link you receive a kick back.

The revenue streams for this can be small but if you sign up to enough affiliate marketing programmes and have an avid and engaged audience who love the products you recommend then it can be a great residual income.

How to do it?

Firstly you want to figure out which products you love and want other people to have. You can then find out what schemes there are for you to earn some money from advertising them. There might even be a brand you absolutely love that doesn’t have a scheme and you could reach out to them.

Here are some examples of prominent programmes:

• Amazon Associates – for literally anything
• Bluehost – website hosting
• Reward Style – fashion/lifestyle
• Ebay – anything
• Shopify – e-commerce
• Tripadvisor – Travel

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