In the 2020s, content creation has become a trendy way for people to make money. People are not only making side hustle money with content creation but enough money to replace their 9-5s!
Dare I say content creation is the new sexy career people are looking to achieve? In this blog post I will go over several ways you can make money as a content creator in 2023. The best part? All the ways we will discuss have the potential to earn you over $10,000 a month which will quickly replace your nine to five.
So continue reading to understand how to make money as a content creator!
What is a Content Creator?
As a content creator, your role involves creating engaging and valuable content that resonates with your target audience. Doing so can build a personal brand and establish yourself as an expert in your niche.
Once you are able to establish yourself, no matter how big your audience is, you are able to start monetizing, no matter your niche!
How to create an audience?
To be a content creator, you need an audience. By collaborating with brands and other content creators is a great way to expand your reach and grow your audience.
You can easily do this by utilizing different social media platforms until you find the ones that stick. This includes YouTube videos, podcasts, newsletters, webinars, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. The list goes on and on.
You will also need to test and create a content strategy that works for your chosen platforms. You must stay relevant to meet the changing needs of your audience and to grow continuously.
Creating original content in various formats like blog posts, eBooks, videos, and podcast episodes will ensure that you are in the right place at the right time for monetization opportunities like social media advertising, brand sponsorships, and online learning.
Ways to Make Money as a Content Creator
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to make money as a content creator. It is also the most common, where almost always content creators will have some sort of affiliate marketing to contribute to their income streams.
Affiliate marketing is where you essentially refer customers to a product or a service and earn a little commission off their sales. This works by getting a unique code or link that you share with your audience. You make a set commission rate when they purchase the product or service through your link.
Great Affiliate Programs to Get Started
Amazon Associates - Once you get accepted, you will have your own link to your storefront, which links across endless numbers of products. Every time a purchase is made having clicked through your link, you will earn a commission!
RewardsStyle: Another great affiliate marketing program. Once you get accepted, you can generate affiliate links for numerous stores across the web, which opens the commission-earning potential!
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money as a content creator. You can make a lot of money from this; you just need to be consistent in growing your audience so you have a higher reach of people to click through your links!
Digital Products
Another lucrative way to make money as a content creator is to sell digital products. Unlike selling physical products, digital products have meager overhead costs. This means the price you sell them at is almost all profit. Cha-Ching!
So, what is a digital product? A digital product is anything your audience can purchase and immediately download.
Digital Products Ideas
- E-books
- Videos
- Notion templates
- Lightroom presets
- Courses
You are already creating content for a particular person when you create content. So if you are in a niche, you can easily make a digital product to cater to whatever you produce content on.
Remember, you want to create a helpful product. As in, you want to create something that will help your ideal targeted person figure out how to do something, how to do something better, or aide them in what they are already doing.
Here are some examples:
- Artist: sell printable files of your art or even coloring pages
- Productivity Person: sell notion templates on how to stay organized or Google Docs spreadsheets
- Video Editor: Sell presets, such as Lightroom presets, that people can easily duplicate
- Vlogger: Sell journals, planners, etc, to help people map out their lives
No matter what digital product you ultimately decide to create, if you have an engaged following, it would be hard not to have success in making money as a content creator with this strategy.
Google Adsense
Ad revenue is a staple way to make money as a content creator. Ad services like Google Adsense allow you to place ads on a website or YouTube. Since you already have a niche audience, the idea is that ads placed on your content will reach the intended target audience.
Therefore, you get paid a set amount for each view you receive on the content that displays the ads. This can truly add up quickly. On my YouTube, I have made several thousands of dollars monthly on ad revenue.
The catch is it is not passive at first. You need to create the content that will ultimately be where ads are placed. But ultimately, once you post something, it is evergreen. people will keep finding them in the future, which will get you ad views. So, once you can develop the content after it is created and published, it is passive from there on out!
Money Tip: Sometimes, you can cut the middle man and straight to a business for ad placement. By directly selling ad space on your platform, you CAN set your rates and keep 100% of the profit.
Other Ad Media Platforms
Ad revenue is a great way to make money as a content creator. So, if you have the platform and an audience, it is a no-brainer to join an ad agency!
Sponsorships and Brand Deals
The bread and butter of making money as a content creator is collaborating with sponsorships and brand deals to generate money for yourself.
Let me explain. Previously, brands had to advertise on television and search engine platforms. But now, they can reach their consumers through various social media platforms. Although they are closer than ever to their target audience, to niche down, brands find value in connecting content creators with an engaged audience that fits their ideal consumer.
Therefore, it is highly beneficial for these brands to use the content creator’s platform for their advertising plan. They can generate more sales by getting their niche target audience, and often, it is cheaper to advertise this way.
By creating your brand deal rate structure, it is easy to generate over 10 thousand monthly using this strategy. Even if you are a small content creator, this is still an extremely lucrative way to make money as a content creator.
Paid by the Platforms you create on
One of the easiest ways to make money as a content creator is to get paid by the platforms on which you are creating content. Almost every social media platform has some creator fund, so it makes sense to sign up for it.
For example, on YouTube, once you hit a thousand subscribers and four thousand watch time hours within a year, you can join the YouTube Partner program. Being in this program allows you a higher ad revenue share, as YouTube will give you a 55% share of views on your videos. More or less, this adds up!
Some other creator funds include:
Instagram: You can join the creator fund once you have 1000 followers or 1000 reel views.
TikTok: You can join the creator fund once you have ten thousand followers and one hundred thousand video views.
The unfortunate truth is that besides YouTube, many creator fund programs do not make you an insane amount of money. However, when it comes to making money as a content creator, every penny counts.
Joining creator fund programs with the platforms you post content on is a straightforward way to make some extra cash.
How to make money as a content creator FAQs
How do content creators get money?
There are numerous ways to make money as a content creator. Most content creators do so by having large followings, getting brand deals, having multiple social media platforms, etc.
Can you make good money as a content creator?
Absolutely! A lot of content creators can do it for their full-time income. All you need to do is create a strategy and stick with it.
What platform pays content creators the most?
YouTube and TikTok pay the most for content creators. However, the average YouTuber can reach six figures a year!
How do I start creating content?
- Decide what you want to create.
- Research what you want to create.
- Develop content ideas and strategies.
- Make the content!
Wrapping it Up!
There are numerous ways for content creators to make money. From ad share to digital products and affiliate marketing, there is no reason you should not be bringing in the dough if you are creating content online. So keep working at it; you will be a full-time content creator in no time!
