If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that the internet is full of opportunities. So many people use social media to connect and share, but if you take a step out of the box, you’ll see that you can use social media to generate income.
And if you’re anyone like me who’s interested in all (legit) ways to make money online, then you’ll surely be interested to know how to make money on social media.
But before that, do you realize how attached we are to social media?
According to The University of Maine, almost 93% of all internet users use social media and the average time on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes. This could be more – if you’re seriously devoted.
But what if you turn those endless hours scrolling through feeds, leaving comments, and liking posts into cash?
Yes, you can make money on social media, and there are several ways to do this. So if you’re looking for a nice-paying side hustle or make serious full-time income from your favorite social media channels, then you should keep reading.
9 Best Ways to Make Money on Social Media
Table of Contents
It’s time to turn your aimless social media scrolling into an income-generating machine. Here are the nine most realistic ways to make money on social media.
1. Affiliate Marketing
One of my favorite ways to make money online, and almost passively, is through affiliate marketing. An affiliate marketer promotes products or services online and earns a commission from each successful sale or transaction.
As an affiliate marketer, it is important to keep in mind that your followers trust your recommendations, so only promote products that you truly use and believe in. It also helps to pick a niche that you’re most passionate about, so that your sincerity shines through and convince your audience to give those products a try.
For example, if you love creating parenting content on social media, you can be an affiliate partner for baby or home products, parenting books and apps, etc. If you love physical fitness, you can affiliate with energy bars and protein snacks, meal plan programs, workout videos and apps, workout outfits and home gym equipment. The possibilities are almost endless!
So once you’ve narrowed down on a niche, you can join affiliate marketing programs and pick the appropriate products or services to promote. Use your unique affiliate link when posting on Social media, whether you’re posting on your Facebook feed, Instagram Stories, TikTok or uploading videos on YouTube. When your audience clicks on those links and makes a purchase, you’ll earn money.
Related: How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing
2. Become an influencer
You might think that you need a massive amount of followers to be able to call yourself “an influencer.” But the truth is, those with little but targeted following can also make a good amount of money on social media.
Influencer marketing is an effective and booming business model that’s perfect for making money on social media. As an influencer, you get to team up with brands and promote their products and services on social media. From the word itself “influencer,” you will try to influence your audience buying decisions through your social media posts.
Like I said, you can become a “micro-influencer” even with just a few thousand followers. Micro-influencers can charge between $25 to $125 per post, and the costs go up as you gain more followers. But we all need a starting point, right? You can get paid per post or from affiliate sales.
Want to learn more? Check out these affordable courses at Udemy!
Marketing Influencer with Dekker: Be Famous in 2 Months
Be a Full-Time Influencer: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram
3. Content creation
Creating content on social media takes time and effort, and if you do it right, you can get paid lucratively. Think of all the people who share their recipes, daily lives, personal thoughts on issues, and dance covers on social media. They don’t merely do it to have fun and entertain others (although that’s part of it), but it’s also because they get paid for posting such content.
As a content creator, you can make money through various streams. Companies may be willing to sponsor your content (in which you feature their products or services in exchange of monetary or in kind compensation), ad revenue, affiliate sales, selling your own products or services, and even getting your audience to pay for subscription or membership to your channel.
There are a couple more ways to make money as a content creator on social media. Plus, there’s no barrier to content creation. You can be just who you are, share your passion and interest, offer valuable and relatable content, and eventually earn your first income from content creation.
4. Selling products and services
Have you got products or services to sell? Social media is such a versatile platform you can use for selling products and services. And if you come to think of it: social media is free, there’s a ready-made audience, and all you have to do is come up with an appealing selling strategy to utilize the utmost potential of these platforms.
Take for example, Dasha Derkach, owner of a small business called “Enchanted Scrunch.” She sells the iconic hair accessory, the scrunchie, primarily on TikTok, and is now living her dream life as an entrepreneur. According to Dasha, one of her videos went viral, and that helped accelerate her sales. Now she’s selling over 40,000 scrunchies.
Mind you, social media is not only for selling products. You can sell services here as well. Whether you’re a freelance writer, graphic designer, real estate agent, a plumber, a DJ, makeup artist, landscaper or pet sitter – there’s no limit to the services that can sell on social media (as long as it’s legal, that is). It’s all about using social media to reach out to your potential customers and standing out from competition.
5. Sell digital products
One of my favorite ways to make money online is selling digital products, and social media is one of the best platforms for these.
Selling digital products on social media provides an extra passive income stream. The bulk of the work goes toward the production process, but once everything is done and ready to hit the market, you can sit back and relax.
So how do you use social media to sell digital products? You can leverage your social media accounts to showcase your digital products and how these can address the pain points of your audience. For example, you can show how to use a budgeting template, a meal planning worksheet or how relaxing it is to do adult coloring.
You can use your social media to funnel customers to your website or online store, or sell your digital products directly from there.
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6. Sell Online Courses
Selling online courses is an incredible way to monetize social media. You can create an online course on anything that you’re passionate about or an expert in – as long as it’s helpful, valuable and addresses the pain points of your target audience.
Building and selling online courses may take more effort upfront, but it also requires little capital, which means anybody can explore this money-making opportunity.
If it’s your first time creating an online course, I suggest checking out platforms like Teachable or Thinkific to streamline your course production.
When your course is ready, market it on social media. Create posts and stories about your course, who you are, behind the scenes, and what this course aims to deliver. You can even explore running social media ads if you have the budget for it.
Importantly, remember that social media is all about community, so reply to messages and comments, answer questions and be present for your audience. This helps establish your expertise and build trust with your audience, enticing them to check out your online course.
7. Coaching and mentorship services
So, you’ve published your course, sold your digital products – but somehow your audience wants more. They want to learn directly from you.
In this case, you should consider offering coaching and mentorship services on social media. Thankfully, this is easier than you probably think. After all, you’ll share your knowledge and expertise with another person, so you’re literally banking on what you already have.
Being that “go-to-person” for specific needs put you at an advantage in making money in social media. For instance, if you’re an expert at weight loss for people with PCOS, a specific computer language, or parenting kids with special needs, people will see you as someone worth investing in. They know they need specific solutions, not general advice, and they’re confident that they can get it from you.
So if you think of yourself as an expert at a specific field, it’s about time you get yourself out there, land your first few clients, and start making money doing something you love and are great at!
8. Memberships and Subscriptions
I know I’ve said that social media is all about online community building, but what if you can make that community a little bit “more exclusive?” This is where memberships and subscriptions come into play.
Your general audience would have access to your public content, but did you know that you can offer “exclusive content” to paying members and subscribers on social media? Yes, you can do that! And while this could mean more work on your part, as you need to create and publish fresh, engaging and comprehensive content regularly, you also create an extra income stream from these memberships and subscriptions.
There are several content types you can offer to your members and subscribers: Behind-the-scenes exclusives, Q&A, downloadable templates and worksheets, private community to one-on-one sessions. It should just boil down to them getting “more” than your public audience, so make sure your content is valuable and serves the needs of your paying members.
9. Social Media Manager
Last but not the least, you can try being a social media manager and make money online.
Brands, companies and solopreneurs understand the extent of effort they need to put to maintain social media presence. They need to come up with fresh, relatable content, engage with the community, answer questions and comments, and so on. It’s a wide-spanning job that takes so much time!
But since you love social media, you can do this for them! Being a social media manager, you’re expected to brainstorm content topics, map out your client’s social media content calendar, and execute the content in a timely manner. You must know how to create catchy social media graphics, edit videos for reels and stories, and devote some time engaging with the audience.
It’s a challenging but fun job for the right person. According to ZipRecruiter, social media managers in the US make an average of $31 per hour. As you grow your clientele and portfolio, gain more skills and experience, you can charge more!
You can land your first social media management client by approaching a friend or family’s business, or scouring job sites like UpWork or FlexJobs.
Key Takeaways
If you don’t watch yourself, social media can be a rabbit hole. You scroll through feeds and stories, and not even realize you’ve already spent so much time there!
But with the nine ways to make money on social media presented above, you’ll find yourself being financially rewarded for spending time on social media. Whether you choose to be an influencer or content creator, an affiliate marketer, a coach, or even sell your own products, it’s good to know that there are so many ways to monetize social media.
How about you? Which of these opportunities appeal to you the most? Let’s connect in the comments.
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