(upbeat music)
- Hey guys, my name is Nina Zadeh.
I'm Director of Partnerships at Sidewalker Daily.
And today, I kinda wanted to talk to my community
a little bit more about creative ways
to monetize your social media influence,
to monetize, to make money on the side to make a living.
And the reason I called it creative ways
is because being an influencer is freaking hard work.
Now I am not a travel blogger or influencer,
while I have a travel Instagram account
that has 70,000 plus followers, I focus more
on the brand side.
I work with brands and I do their influencer marketing.
But the reason, because I'm kind of in the middle,
I feel like I can hop back and forth,
and I wanted to talk about creative ways
because I get that a lot of you are trying to
ride the influencer wave or are trying to leave your jobs
and you guys hae an influence but you don't really know
how to monetize.
You don't really know how much to charge this at the other
and to those that are looking to live
a more nomadic lifestyle, to be able to travel,
this video is gonna give you some ideas on ways to monetize
that are little bit out of the box.
So let's jump in.
(keyboard clicking)
So if you're a travel blogger that's going on press trips,
you've probably have already realized that a lot of them
do not pay.
And the reason is is because on press trips,
you're getting everything covered for you.
Flights, transfers, meals, accommodations, activities.
I mean they can be really expensive.
Anywhere from like four to 6,000, $7,000 per person.
So yes, you may not be able to get monetized
on the press trip portion,
but you may bill, blah, you may be able to monetize
for on the brand side.
So let's just say you know you're going to the Bahamas.
And you're going with their tourism board
and their not paying.
But their gonna give you this full amazing experience.
If you can then go to other brands that would make sense
what the destination that you're visiting
and pitch to them.
Be like, "Hey, I'm gonna be traveling to the Bahamas.
"You're a swim wear company.
"I would love to pitch like to create a look book for you
"while I'm on destination.
"I can provide these images
"with five, six, different bikinis.
"I can provide you X, Y, Z."
You know come up with all that on your own
but that's a way to monetize this free trip.
So the tourism board is getting you the content
and then the way that you're monetizing is
by going to brands that makes sense with that destination
and ask to work with them.
I mean a lot of times, brands, let's just say
a swim wear brands can't afford to be going to all these
tropical destinations, right.
They can't be doing these full scale photoshoots.
But they may be able to pay you for a few photos
that show their swimsuit in the Bahamas with the pigs
and the whole little situation.
You guys know what I talking about.
But that's like a creative way, right.
So you're figuring out a third party to pay you
for something that you may have gotten for free.
(keyboard clicking)
The other way to work
or to monetize your social media influence is
once you give the brand that you're working with
the required photos, so let's just say they said,
I had an influencer go on a press trip,
and she was required, or actually it was a couple,
they were required to do five photos each
on their Instagram, which they did.
But the client loved their work so much
that they were like, can they send us a contact sheet
of other photos that they took on property,
even if they're not in it
and we'd be willing to pay for those.
So though they went on this press trip for free,
they went back to the client and upsold them
or upsell, upsold, whatever.
They were able to show, hey, monetize on something
that they already went to and get paid for their contact.
So they delivered on what they were said
they were gonna deliver but they sold after the fact,
all this extra content that was available.
And sometimes that's when you need to get creative
when you're on trips and on locations.
Don't just take photos maybe of yourself.
If you're in a hotel lobby that's really beautiful,
like photograph it.
Make video reels that aren't necessarily about you
but more about them and then go back to them
and see if they'd be willing to purchase it from you.
(keyboard clicking)
Another idea on how you can monetize
your social media influence,
even if you're a micro influencer
and you don't have like tons of followers,
you still know a thing or two about social media
and that could be a lot more
than a local mom and pop shops in your town.
If you can pitch yourself as a social media consultant,
I can't tell you how many people including myself
started this way.
I was doing social media for other brands
and they wanted to work with me
'cause at the time, Sidewalker was I don't know,
maybe had a smaller following.
Now we're at 70,000 but you know we had to get there.
But people were like, "Oh you clearly know about social."
I'm like, "Yeah, I do and I know how to grow the account
"because I know how to provide good, valuable content.
"And I know how to connect with my community.
"And I can teach you brand how to do the same thing."
And that's like again, you
you're now becoming a social media consultant
to potentially the places that you are working with.
So again, if you did a press trip,
you could now go back to them and be like
"Hey I'd like to work with you on your social.
"Who's managing it?"
And this is something you could do remotely.
And it pays pretty well.
I mean any, of course it's gonna range,
but let's make an easy number.
Let's just say each account that you're managing
pays you $1500 a month.
And you have four accounts that you're managing.
That's already three, three, $6000 a month
that you're making being a social media consultant.
And now you can travel.
You're getting money.
You're getting paid.
You're working with
people in the industry, ideally.
But maybe their not in your industry.
You're still just doing social media.
You're in it.
And it gives you flexibility.
So don't sleep on positioning yourself
as a social media consultant.
(keyboard clicking)
Another thing that you can do to monetize
your social media is sell a service.
Are you a really good photo editor?
Do you have, you know I know I've seen micro influencers too
that have presets and they're selling,
they know how to edit a photo.
People on the brand side are willing
to pay for those services.
So maybe we're not gonna pay for you to go on a trip
but maybe you could sell just your,
you know your graphic design skills.
Maybe they, if you like okay this is a really good example.
Let's just say a hotel that you have your eyes on
posted a flyer for a event that they wanted people
to come to, I have seen like big name hotels
and their flyers can be so scary looking.
You're just like this is insane.
I could do way better and on camera.
You can then now go to them with that same flyer,
recreate it, send them the virgin,
the version (laughs) sorry about that
that you created yourself and now show them, for free.
There's no money behind it.
It's just opening the door, the conversation.
"Hey I noticed that you guys did this flyer.
"I have a skill in graphic design.
"I am super passionate about your brand and graphic design,
"I went and made one for you.
"I just wanted to submit it for your
"you know I'd love to talk to you guys more."
This that.
But keep it simple.
Don't go hard in for the sell.
Open the conversation.
Show them your skill set.
Include a link to your portfolio and that's another way
that you can now monetize your skill or service
that you can provide them.
(keyboard clicking)
Another way that you can consider monetizing
if you're traveling a lot and you have your home
or a place that you're renting, you may wanna list it.
Obviously, make sure it's approved with your landlord
and all that good stuff, if you're not an owner.
But that's again, you're getting creative.
You're putting your money hat on
and you're like, "Okay I'm not gonna be in this apartment
"I am going to spend a little bit of extra time
"to make a little bit more so that I can
"fund this nomadic life."
Put your apartment on rent.
Or put the place that you're staying, you know, list it.
(keyboard clicking)
Another idea is you can also
whether it's maybe teaching English
English aborad, I mean I'm English.
I should be able to say the word.
Teaching English abroad.
I've seen a lot of travel bloggers do things
that hook up with a local agency where they can teach.
This gives them the ability to travel as well as teach.
(keyboard clicking)
Now these are just some ideas that we came up with.
It's ultimately up to you to get creative.
You can do one of them.
You can mix them and you may even find out
like hey, I don't even wanna be an influencer
or a travel blogger.
I found something else that I'm really passionate about.
You know you
you want to live a nomadic life.
You don't want to be working your nine to five.
So you need to get creative and figure out ways
that you can monetize.
The time is now.
It is super easy to sell yourself
and be able to work remotely
because there's so many things that you can self teach,
even doing website.
Like I build that Sidewalker Daily website.
This is your idea of a build it.
But then I went to a client and was like
hey this is what I did for my site.
Do you like it?
'Cause I can do it for you and I can charge for that.
So don't be shy to sell these services.
You just need to show proof of what you can do,
like I said with the flyer or the website.
Get creative and find ways to monetize
while you're building your empire.
So if you liked this video and you thought it was helpful,
useful, smart, something, give it a like.
Give it a comment.
Tell me what you liked about it.
Tell me if you've used any of these ideas.
I'd love to hear if they worked out for you.
And make sure you subscribe to our channel
and I will see guys in the next video.
(upbeat music)