From meta ending, their Instagram reels play bonuses to the
potential of TikTok getting banned.
There's been no shortage of content creation, monetization, drama on the
internet these past couple weeks.
And regardless of when you're tuning into this episode, I want you to know that it's
totally possible to make a good living doing what you love and creating content.
So let's talk about five different paths to six figure.
As a content creator, the first method that I wanna talk about
is selling digital products.
Now, digital products can refer to a number of different things.
Probably the most common in the thing that we're all the most used
to is an online course, but you could also create something like an
ebook or a challenge or community.
Or if you're maybe an artist, maybe you're selling prints of your art, printables,
downloads, worksheets, things like that.
Basically, a digital product is just a product that lives on the internet.
It's not something that you'll actually be shipping and fulfilling.
It's not a physical.
Products, and this is a really cool thing to think about because, well,
your audience is already super online.
If you are a content creator, if you have built up a community, you're
talking to people who know how to use the internet, who've probably purchased
digital products from other creators before, so this won't be this completely
new foreign confusing process for them.
To start with.
The other reason I really like digital products is because it
doesn't require you to have a ton of space in your home or office.
You don't need to house any inventory like you might for t-shirts or books
if you're manually shipping them out.
And they're also relatively low lift and sometimes passive.
Now, I think it's really important to note that I say sometimes passive.
They're certainly not always passive.
There are courses that are totally evergreen and passive for me, but I.
Courses that I'm live teaching and live coaching, and also just what
goes into marketing and selling a course or a digital product is a lot.
So I don't wanna say it's fully passive, but it certainly does not
require the same level of, you know, touchpoints as you might have with Ace.
Service, like serving a social media management client, for example, where
you're posting daily, you're getting on meetings with your clients, you're going
out and pitching for clients and so on.
For me, digital products have been a growing part of my business
really since I've had a business.
I created my first course, I think it was about.
Six years ago, and I started that course just because a lot
of my audience, they were asking me, you know, for more details.
Really, really in depth, screen shares, demos, all the secrets, all the T
basically, and I was happy to share it.
But some of the videos and some of the, you know, details that I had to
go over didn't really make quite as much sense to post on YouTube, so I
decided to put them on a course website.
I personally used Think Effect, uploaded my videos there and
charged a small fee for that.
Now, over the years, that income stream has grown and really
snowballed to the point where digital products make up the, actually the
largest percentage of my income.
today, which has been really cool because it's enabled me to be able to
spend more time creating content for my audience, which really works on this,
you know, cyclical pattern in that if I create more content, I give more value,
I impact more lives, I build a bigger following, well then in turn my services
and my products sell better as well.
So that is definitely something that you can do and I recommend
starting, you know, starting to think about sooner rather than.
Even if you don't feel like you have a huge audience to start with, when you do
find those people who really love what you're saying and really just want to pay
you, you know they want to work with you in some way, you're gonna have in that
description box or in that Lincoln bio, something that they can purchase from you.
If you are.
Not sure where you wanna start, but you are interested in digital products.
I do actually have a free class that's all about getting
started with digital products.
It'll help you understand what type of digital product you should create in those
first beginning steps to actually getting a digital product created and launch.
So I will be sure to leave that.
In the show notes for you all, if you wanna check that out.
But just to paint a picture of how you could actually make this six
figure income with digital products.
Let's say that you choose to launch a $50 course, a $50 course I did.
The math would mean that you would need to make about 167 sales per month,
which we could do the math on that per.
Per week, which would be about 41 sales, 42 sales per week.
So you have to take a look at your numbers in terms of views and all of that and
see if you think that would be realistic, because of course we know that a hundred
percent of our audience isn't gonna buy.
Everything that we create.
So take a look at your averages and see if maybe, you know, could you convert
5% or 10% of your audience every month or every week to reach that goal.
Now, if you launched a course or sold a a product, some type of digital
product at a hundred dollars, well then you would only need to make
84 sales per month, which is about.
21 sales per week.
So when you break it down like that, it seems a lot more realistic.
And of course this is just assuming that you're only relying on digital
products to make your income.
So in most cases it is totally doable and I think it's a great,
a great option to try at least.
The second way that you can make a six figure income from your content creation
business is by offering a service.
So if you are already building.
In authority in your space, meaning that people come to you for advice.
They are, you know, respecting your opinion on things.
They're asking you for help with things.
There's a good chance, depending on what it is, there's a good chance
that you can actually do some work for them and be paid for it.
So, number one, consulting or coaching, those.
two slightly different things, but they are very much things
that you can be paid for.
And if your inbox, your Instagram dms or your email inbox, or TikTok dms
or whatever are constantly full and you are sitting there and responding
to those questions, uh, you know, when you're building a community.
Respond, build those relationships, but it's gonna, there's gonna come
a certain point where you do need to be paid for that expertise.
So something that you could easily start doing is just offering consulting
calls and say, Hey, I'd be happy to answer these questions for you.
Hop on a quick zoom call.
Here's my booking link, and send over an invoice for whatever
number feels right to you.
A lot of people charge, you know, to start out, they might charge
a hundred dollars for a coaching.
Maybe $50 if you're really, really new and you're not that confident in doing
it yet, but consultants can charge up to, you know, a thousand dollars a
coaching call just depending on how high level your expertise is, how experienced
you are, and all of those things.
I personally started offering coaching calls in a, in a similar way in that I
was just getting way too many questions.
You know, I don't know, probably about 50 questions a day if I had to guess
between my inboxes on social and email.
And unfortunately I just don't have the time in the day to respond to all of them.
I try to respond to some, but especially when they are very
specific to that person's.
Unique situation.
I just, I can't get that deep, you know, just by texting back.
So that's really how I started offering coaching calls.
That's definitely something that you can do as well.
Another thing of course, that you could do is what I call done
for you work or freelance work.
So this is really where I got my business started.
I started as a freelance social media manager and a lot of my clients really my.
High quality long-term clients came to me through YouTube.
So create content, you know, around the topic that you wanna offer a service in.
Or if you're already a content creator and you're doing it the
reverse, think about what service you could offer that's related to
the topic that you're talking about.
So if you talk about, you know, graphic design trends or building
a brandand, maybe you can actually offer graphic design services or
consultations or critiques or even something that's in an aligning
space like social media management.
Once they've gotten their brand built, maybe you offer to come
in and do their social media.
I've got a ton of resources all about social media management
on my YouTube channel, so I'll be sure to link some really.
Starting points for you in the resources as well, if that's something that
you think you might be interested in, and the magic number for services.
If you wanna hit that six figure mark.
Is 8,333 or 34 if we wanna round up dollars.
So you can break that down.
Packages of course, are gonna vary widely depending on exactly what
it is that you're offering, but make sure to keep that number in
the back of your head if that six figure number is indeed your goal.
. Okay.
Now another thing that you can think about doing this one is one that I have
only slightly dabbled in, but you could consider selling physical products.
We talked about digital products.
Of course, those are products that live online.
Well, as you can imagine, physical products are those that.
Are tangible that live in the real world.
Like I said, I have only dabbled in physical products.
I created a coloring book with my mom, which was really just
a passion project for fun.
And I also created a journal.
It's for coaches.
Those are both sold through Amazon, K d P, so this is something that I can speak
to if you're looking to create something.
It doesn't take up a huge space in your home that doesn't
require you to get a warehouse.
Self-publishing books is a way to sell a physical product without
having to physically ship them out or hold them in your home.
So I actually have a YouTube video all about the process of how I
got my first journal published.
I'll link that for you as well as a starting point.
Now, I will just freely admit that I have not made six figures
from my self-published books.
They were really just things I wanted to do and just passion projects.
I don't really talk about them much or promote them, but I could
absolutely see you scaling this.
if I was, you know, publishing multiple books a year and if I was actively
promoting it through my content, I could absolutely see how you could
make a full-time income from it.
Now with that said, the self-publishing stuff in general can
be a little tricky cause you only get a percentage of what is sold.
So I think my books are, you know, $15 or something like that.
Well, I only get, you know, I think maybe $5.
Uh, don't quote me on that, but it's not a lot because the
rest is gonna go to Amazon and.
For them to publish it and of course their profit on it as well.
So do keep that in mind.
But there are lots of other types of physical products that you could create.
We can look to creators who have done it successfully.
One of my favorite creators that I've been watching for years, her name is Estee
Leland, and she has a really successful kind of skincare, self-care, bath and
body kind of line, which is fascinating.
I have no.
How she went about getting that created.
But absolutely, if that's something you're passionate about, cosmetics,
beauty, skincare, that's something that a lot of creators in the
beauty space, the lifestyle space, have done and done successfully.
So these are all things that you can keep in mind just depending on
who your target audience is, who watches you, and what they would
like to own and purchase from you.
I feel like this one just isn't talked about enough.
It's affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing, sometimes.
Come across as like a little bit spammy or scammy, and I think sometimes
that's why I hesitate to talk about it, but you certainly can make a
good chunk of change from doing this.
So let me explain how it works.
Essentially, you work with a brand.
You find a brand that you like.
You see if they offer an affiliate program, you get a custom link,
or sometimes it's a custom code that basically indicates.
You know where that sale originated from.
And if I say, Hey everyone, go check out this product, this course, you
know, anything like that, and you use my link or my code, I'll get
a little percentage of that sale.
And the cool thing is it doesn't charge my audience any extra.
It is charging the brand.
The brand is picking up the cost of that because they're
basically saying thank you.
Cause I'm essentially acting as a salesperson for the brand.
This can be a great way to work with brands and sell things if you
haven't had the time to, you know, develop a skincare line or put
together a course or create some type of service that you're gonna sell.
I mean, that does take work and time and effort and energy,
expertise, all the things.
So in that, in between time where if you just don't feel like doing, Affiliate
marketing can be a great way to be able to sell things that are gonna
be beneficial to your viewers without having to actually make anything,
store anything, ship anything yourself.
As with any brand work though, you do wanna make sure that you are
choosing your affiliates carefully.
I would never.
Never, ever, ever recommend something to my audience that I don't love,
that I don't believe in, and that I do not regularly use myself Sometimes
this can be a tough pill to swallow if affiliate commissions are high.
I mean, I have been offered so many different.
AI tool affiliate programs, and I just haven't had the experience, haven't had
the time to look into them deeply enough and really vet them to see if I think
they're ethical or if they really work.
So I, even if they're gonna be offering me 50 or a hundred
dollars per signup, I'm saying no.
At least no for now, but probably no.
In general, like I said, the brands that I'm an affiliate for
are ones that I use every day, at least every week, like HoneyBook.
HoneyBook has a great affiliate program, and I have.
Quite a bit actually, because I have showed you all, many of you, the power of
HoneyBook and a lot of you use it and love it, and that makes me super happy that
you found something that works for you.
And of course, it's great that it does get me paid a little bit.
I also have a Flow desk affiliate link, so Flow Desk is my email platform of choice.
Same deal there.
I've made a good chunk of change from that and have just been, you know,
able to tell you freely, Hey, here's what I do for my email platform.
Here's why you should try it.
No pressure.
But if you use this link, I'll get a little, a little cut for that.
Another big one is the Amazon affiliate program.
I know a lot of lifestyle creators in particular.
Even like niche creators, like um, food creators, you know,
recipes, things like that.
Beauty, fashion that use Amazon affiliate links and make a whole lot.
I mean, a, that is where all of their income comes from.
I don't link a ton of Amazon products personally.
I do have an affiliate account and I do make a little bit from it, but
it's definitely not six figures there, but it's, it's certainly possible.
Okay.
And then speaking of brands, working with brands, Partners as sponsors is another
great way to make that six figure income.
Now I'm putting it last just because I think it is one of the more
challenging ways to get started.
If you are a smaller creator.
These first four ways don't really have a requirement in terms of audience size.
In most cases, you can kind of get started whenever.
Of course, if you're reaching less people, the chances of, you know, selling.
A hundred digital products a month might be a little bit lower, but you certainly
have the ability to start whenever.
Working with brands does require you to have something of a following.
Now, I will say that follower count is one of the least important numbers these days.
It used to be that it was everything.
If you had a hundred thousand subscribers or a million subscribers, you were
royalty in the content creation.
But what we're seeing now is that brands are actually paying a lot more attention
to numbers like engagement rate to see how much of your audience is actually there.
Like, is anybody home?
Is anybody responding to what you're putting out?
Instead of just clicking subscribe and and abandoning you, essentially.
So you wanna make sure that you are keeping your audience engaged
if you wanna work with brands, and that you are pulling data.
For that meaning that, you know, if you're sending out an email
newsletter that you know what your average open and click rate is.
So when a brand asks you about that, you can easily give that to them.
For platforms like YouTube, even just using tracking links in your description
box, we'll be able to give you a little bit more of an accurate view of.
How much of your audience actually clicks in that description box, even if it's just
for something free, like a free webinar or a newsletter sign up that you have,
you'll be able to have that information.
So when you have those conversations with brands, you can let them know, Hey, I get
like a hundred clicks average per video, or whatever that number might be for you.
And there are a lot of different ways that you can get started working with brands.
If you want to take the outreach method and introduce yourself
to brands, you absolutely.
Pitch them.
You're gonna need what's called a media kit, which is basically a resume for
content creators that has a little snapshot of who your audience is.
And again, some of those numbers like engagement rate and
email, open rate, if you have a newsletter, things of that nature.
You'll just need to find the right contact, reach out to them and say,
Hey, I am a creator in your niche and I would love to collaborate.
And learn more about any opportunities that you have coming up.
But you can also do things to make yourself more approachable
as a creator, like having an email address in your Instagram bio so
that it's easy for them to tap.
Same thing.
I have an email address listed in my description box always so that
brands can contact me that way.
On YouTube, there's also kind of an about section.
It's like your bio, basically YouTube's equivalent of that.
I make sure that my email address is in there.
Another thing, if you are open to doing local partnerships, having
your location readily available for people is helpful too.
When I was more.
into that world doing like events and things like that.
I had just that I was a Michigan creator listed in my Instagram bio.
It made it really easy for events people and PR companies to find me.
So lots of things that you can do to make yourself more approachable.
And of course, just be professional.
It doesn't mean that you can't be yourself.
That is why brands wanna work with you is for your personality
and your unique spin on things.
But of course, like you don't wanna be trashing brands or just
being super inappropriate unless like you wanna work with super.
, I don't know, uh, risque brands, I suppose.
Oh, and if you wanna learn more about influencer marketing, I will list a
video and podcast interview that I did with my friend Nina, who actually has
a course all about pitching to brands.
And we have a discount link and stuff like that for you in that video as
well, so you can learn more there.
All right, so those are five different ways that you can make six figures.
As a content creator, I'm curious.
Which of these methods are you currently using or are you thinking about using?
I'd love to know, and again, I will leave all of those resources in the show notes.
I've got a ton for you on really each of these topics, so be sure to check that
out and I really hope this was helpful.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'll talk to you in the next one.
Bye.