Introduction To Monetization For Creators
Monetization is complex because it’s nontraditional. It’s usually not priority 1 for creators when they first start. It becomes important when they realize how much time they spend every week being a creator and how much money they’re leaving on the table.
We all begin with a free pricing model. We create or curate, and share for $0. As our following grows, positive affirmation is a powerful motivator. There are other motivations like attracting professional opportunities or altruistically giving back.
I started creating in 2014 for those two reasons. The recognition was an amazing side effect that increased my motivation to keep going. Between 2014 and now, all my clients have discovered me on social media, in conference talks, on podcasts, or by reading my content.
Referrals are a significant source of new clients, but my work as a creator brings in twice as many prospects. They are prequalified and already sold on my value proposition. As a result, my sales cycles are one or two meetings plus a proposal or capabilities sheet. I close just under one-third of all sales meetings.
Social media gives me access to distribution for products and services. Getting those in front of customers is a signification challenge for small businesses. Instead of spending a large amount on marketing, I spend 16 hours a week as a creator building distribution channels.
My social media presence brings me opportunities to speak at conferences, hold seminars, be on podcasts, and contribute quotes to articles published on major news sites. It’s a virtuous cycle.
I create and share content.
People follow me.
Followers bring opportunities to create more content in different forums.
That content brings new followers to my main content outlets.
What I call opportunity monetization models are the most common for creators at the beginning of their journey. They create similar virtuous cycles, and those benefits alone are enough to justify the work.
Realizing How Much Money Creators Leave On The Table
I spent 4-8 hours creating content, and the quality was much lower. In 2017, I increased the amount of time I spent on content and social media. I had acquired a level of fame in the data science field and did not want to lose it.
Some weeks, I spent 20+ hours creating content for LinkedIn, Twitter, and blog posts. It became unsustainable. Working 60 hours per week as a consultant and another 20 as a creator left too few hours for family and hobbies. I burnt out and felt like I was being taken advantage of by community members.
In reality, I was not monetizing correctly and left a lot of money on the table. At the end of every podcast or conference talk I did for free, I had the opportunity to pitch a product or service. Hundreds of thousands of people saw my content each week, and I had the chance to pitch a product or service. I had nothing to fill that ad space except my consulting business.
Few people in my audience were my customers. The content I created for people working to break into data science appealed to customer segments I did not sell to. My social media following from 2014-2016 was over 30% VPs and higher. By the end of 2017, those numbers had dropped massively, but I had gone from just over 30K followers to over 100K. I was getting 3X the number of monthly views.
I was a successful creator but failed at monetization. From 2018 to 2019, I changed that because I realized how much money I was leaving on the table.
Monetization Channels
There are more ways to make money as a creator than most people realize. Opportunity monetization models and selling posts on social media are the two most visible strategies. Creators get paid to post third-party marketing content on their social channels or in their blog posts
Most creators don’t realize how much money they can charge, even with a small following. At about 10K followers on social media, creators get approached for partnerships. Companies offer to feature the creator’s content on their site or share it through social media in exchange for a promotional post. Companies will also sign creators up as affiliates and give them a commission on every sale with their link or discount code.
Free work for exposure or small commissions is a high effort and a meager return. It’s easy to think that’s all the available opportunities and forget about this monetization model. Companies offer to pay for marketing at 25K social media followers and 1000-2000 newsletter subscribers. It can become a significant side income stream.
A creator with that size following can get $300-$500 per social media marketing post. Blog posts that mention a brand can earn $500-$600. A large YouTube subscriber base can generate even more depending upon the channel’s viewer composition.
At my sized following, the going rate is $800 - $1200 per post. At the 500K – 1M follower level, $2000-$2500 is typical. 1M+ gets crazy depending upon the creator’s area of influence. Three monthly posts are my vacation fund and a good side income stream.
But it’s not my only one. Finding monetization channels starts with an inventory of the creator’s monetizable assets.
Discovering Your Monetizable Assets
Creators have more assets to sell than they realize. As I said, monetization is complex because our assets are nontraditional. Let me teach you the first rule of monetizing creator assets.