Top 5 Ways to Make Money as a Content Creator

As a content creator, it’s important to find ways to reliably make money to support doing what you love. We put together a list of active and passive ways to build income streams while making content full-time:

Affiliate Marketing

You’ve probably seen other creators include links to products in their captions or link-in-bio pages. This is called affiliate marketing: every time someone uses their link to buy one of those products, they get a cut! There are two ways to set these links up: reach out to companies that make products you support, or wait until someone reaches out to you. It’s important to enjoy the product yourself so that it’s something you’re comfortable promoting.

Brand Deals

One-off brand deals can be extremely lucrative. They come in many different shapes and sizes, but will always involve a company paying you for a one-time promotion of their product or service. You may need to send them the post beforehand for approval, or they may supply you with a script to read. As with affiliate marketing, these work best with companies that you can get behind, and feel confident promoting to your audience. As your social media presence grows, you will increasingly see these offers in your inbox.

One piece of advice: negotiate the rates! Companies will often first offer a fraction of what they’re ultimately willing to pay.

Brand Ambassadorships

If a brand deal does really well, a company may ask you become an ambassador. An ambassadorship is similar to an ongoing sponsorship. As an ambassador, you may be asked to keep the company’s URL in your bio permanently, publish one sponsored post a month, or include their logo in your stream. What sets this type of work apart from a one-off “brand deal” is the consistency: the relationship you’ve established with the company allows for a more passive, consistent income. Although you may be paid less per post than with deals, having the guarantee of one or many months of sponsorship can provide peace of mind.

Selling Physical or Digital Products

Beyond advertising other people’s products, you can make and sell your own! There are plenty of companies and services that can help you pick and make physical or digital products. Merchandise could include tee-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, and pins. These can be sold on websites like Shopify, where you can create a custom link for your shop and put it in your bio. You could also create digital goods, such as online classes, virtual coaching, newsletters and e-books.

Membership Platforms

The fifth and final addition to this list doesn’t involve the promotion or selling of any products.

Instead, we recommend joining a membership platform: the best way to create stable, recurring revenue in exchange for getting to spend time connecting with your fans! Platforms like Fanhouse and Patreon allow you to set a monthly subscription price that your fans can pay. This money supports your creative work while allowing your fans a sneak peak into your everyday life. While Patreon is more geared towards the exchange of additional, premium content for a fee, Fanhouse simply seeks to deepen the connection between you and your fans. Click here to learn more about the differences between Patreon and Fanhouse.

Having a balance of active and passive income streams can create a well-rounded system to support yourself as a creator. Use this list as a starting off point, but know that we couldn’t include every method of making money here. If you’re interested in creating a Fanhouse, reach out to business@fanhouse.app — we would love to give you a demo of our platform!

Questions? Comments? Let us know at hello@fanhouse.app.