💌 luv's letter #13 - earning money as a creator
$10k month.
Today, I am switching up the content and doing a deep dive on how content creator’s can make money outside of brand deals.
I hope you enjoy, please comment below if you have any feedback.
Realistic Path to $10,000 A Month
Stop chasing followers.
Social media is all about community and not followers.
Before earning $10,000 a month, focus on building your personal brand.
When creating content stop trying build a following. That is the worst thing you can do.
A following is just number on your social media app. If you post a story or even release a product, will your following always engage with it?
Probably not.
But if you have community, most of the members will support you. No matter what you do, what you say or what you sell…they will always love you.
A big mistake I made when first creating content was being too too focused on:
Going viral
Trying to please everyone
Copying other creators
I started to make content that was not part of my identity and eventually all of my content was a reflection of current trends or someone else.
It is important to remember that you are the niche.
Focus on what excites you the most and share those interests to your community.
Knowing who you are and what you want to post is actually the easiest part. The hardest part is deciding where to post.
Understand Your Marketing Tools
In today’s social media landscape you can post on:
TikTok
Instagram
Twitter (I am not calling it X)
YouTube
Snapchat
The easiest way to summarize all these platforms is with a marketing funnel.
Think of each platform as a marketing tool.
Every time someone passes one of your TikTok videos this is a way to generate awareness to your page. But when you generate this awareness with your TikTok videos, you need your community to do more than follow you.
There needs to be an opportunity for you to re-direct them somewhere.
There needs to be a Call To Action (CTA).
Always ask your self the following question -
“After they watch my video what do I want the viewer to do next?”
Do you want them click the link in your bio?
Do you want them follow your YouTube page for long form content?
Do you want them to comment a specific word?
Each video should be used as a marketing tool and include a CTA to another part of your business.
Create community. Create CTA. Create a business.
Turning CTAs Into A Money Machine
Everyone can make money online. Everyone.
Wether you have 500 or 50,000 followers - everyone can make money online.
Digital Products
You can start earning passive income through digital products.
Digital products consist of:
Wallpaper Packs
Notion Templates
Excel/Sheets Templates
Expert Guides
Discord Channel
The best part about digital products is the low effort required. With all of your products being online:
Ship and manage physical inventory
Send to anyone with internet access
Easily update
Automate entire process from order to delivery
Here is a brief example on how I can leverage digital products.
Lets think about me for a second. I make personal finance content and I can easily create budgeting templates on excel, motivational money wallpapers, or even make a guide to building your credit.
All I have to do is commit a weekend or even a week of my life to creating this digital product and then it can live online forever.
Speaking Engagements
Celebrities and well known experts get paid all the time for public speaking events.
Well guess what? You are also an expert.
Not only are you an expert in your niche but if you make content online, then you have experience being a content creator.
Share your experience.
There are plenty of of young individuals and students that are interested in becoming content creators.
Wether it explaining how to film, write a script, or even send an invoice → you have a lot of knowledge that any young person can find valuable.
You are an expert of your own niche.
Leverage your knowledge and use it as a selling point for potential speaking engagements.
Social Media ADs
Earn money from social media platforms.
TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat all pay for likes.
Today all social media platforms will pay you to post content.
Do not just create a community, also grow it.
After one of my videos went viral on TikTok I was able to earn an extra $500.
Imagine you earn an extra $500 a month.
$500 x 12 = $6,000
An extra $6,000 in one year.
Pay for a trip, finish your student loans, or save for a future house.
When growing your community, always stay true to your content.
To accelerate the growth, dose in a couple of trendy video formats with the hopes of going viral.
For any given week you plan to post 5 videos. Maybe 3 or 4 videos will be your normal content and then 1-2 videos will be “experimental” where you try a new video format with the hopes of going viral and getting more attention to your profile.
The majority of your content will be your normal videos and then sprinkle in some newness each week.
Affiliate Links
Actually be an influencer.
A true testament to if you are really an influencer is how well your affiliate links do. The whole point of being an influencers is to influence people to buy into the things or the lifestyle you show on your social media page.
Simply link different products or services on your website with the hopes of your community clicking on those links.
If they purchase a product or service from using your affiliate link then you get a kickback back on that amount.
Affiliate links are rewarding but at times challenging.
You have constantly remind your audience of different products and services without it feeling like an advertisement.
How do you overcome this?
Integrate different products and services into your content by running micro campaigns.
If you had an affiliate link for stock a trading platform like Robinhood or Webull, then you might spend the entire month creating content talking about:
Importance of investing
How to pick the right investment
Avoid wrong investments
Investing like the 1%
Again, integrate the product across different talking points.
Another idea is just to integrate products into your everyday life, and creating an amazon store.
Closing Thoughts
Here is a bonus tip.
Check out this video form Jay Clouse how he was able to generate over $300,000 with ONLY 3,00 followers.
Trust me you’re gonna want to watch it as it is a testament to the fact that you do not need millions of followers to make money.
Create value. Build a community. Generate money.
The process is simple. Not easy, but simple.
If people love you and your content, then they will have no issue with buying your products or services.
Luv,
Luv