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So you wanna make money on social media. Welcome to the Muthership Creator Strategy. That is the topic for today, and I am gonna break it down in great detail. So buckle up. But before we get started, I need to give a quick shout out to our studio creator of the week, Sandy at posh lady seven seven seven, who has, since she started in the studio, has been working hard.
Helen:She participates in the challenges. She is present in the community chat. She is there if someone asks a question, and she loves to help. She's also really joyful in her content, and I like how she's stepping into transitions, and she's doing them well. So congrats to her.
Helen:She has earned the title for the week, creator of the week. Now let's get into monetization. And what I've decided to do here is give it to you from a lens of three lanes on a highway, and then each thing in the lane, you can consider a car if you want to. A different car you can drive. But and you can drive multiple cars because people, you know, some people own multiple cars.
Helen:So you don't have to just stay in one lane and in one car. But that's how I'm gonna present it so that you can figure out, which car do I wanna drive? What is my account suited for? And how do I wanna proceed? Because I think a lot of us hear a lot of things where affiliate, digital products, courses, and you've got UGC.
Helen:You've got brand collabs. It it just comes at you from all directions and how to know what is right for you. So that's what I'm gonna help you do by breaking it down and seeing I think this will help you maybe look at the lanes, pick a lane, and then pick a car, and then figure out if if that's something you wanna dive into. I I like presenting it this way because I need to for my own self, I need clarity on, well, what am I actually doing? Because I start to I start to go in too many directions myself.
Helen:And I think we all get hit with so many things. Like, we're listening to people talk about digital products and courses, and then we have offers in UGC and then brand collabs and reach out to brands and do a media kit and just gets really overwhelming. And if you're new to the space and you wanna dive in, sometimes you put yourself in too many directions and you really never get focus. So this may help you get some focus on what you wanna do. Alright?
Helen:So let's let's start with I'm gonna define the three lanes. I'm gonna tell you what the three lanes are, and then I'm gonna describe the things in each one. So lane one is audience income. That means you are actually using your audience to generate the income, and there's multiple things within that. Lane two is an offer, so an offer type of income.
Helen:And then I'll break down what that is. And then lane three is expertise income. Okay. Now let's go to each lane and I'm going to explain what things are in each lane. It's probably even more than what I came up with, but you'll start to your brain will start to stretch a little bit when you hear all the things because I think a lot of people, they come into my TikTok comments, they're like, I have 10 k.
Helen:I can how do I monetize? Or I wanna get to $10,000 so I can and 10,000 followers so I want so I can monetize. But you don't have to have 10,000 followers to monetize. There are so many ways to do it. So, hopefully, this is gonna present some clarity to the people who just think that followers equals money because I'm here to tell you it does not unless you take a step in some direction.
Helen:Alright. So number one, audience income. So this breaks down into the obvious, brand deals. So this is where your audience has value to a brand. They want you to post on your page, and then they're gonna compensate you depending on the engagement or the followers or whatever arrangement you make.
Helen:Okay? So that is brand deals, brand collabs. The next one is affiliate income. And this is what it sounds like. You're presenting things, and then if someone purchases from what you shared, you use an affiliate link, and they and you will get a percentage.
Helen:Okay? So that's, again, using your audience to convince them of something that you are then having a specific link, and you're gonna make money from The obvious one now, platform payouts and bonuses and stuff like that. Now that is directly from inside TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or YouTube. That is when the platform pays you for views. And we've talked about this a lot in the studio, what, the difference in payments are, how TikTok payments are so low.
Helen:Some people are doing well with Facebook, but YouTube payments seem to be the best for for the most most for the most part, for the most people. And then the final thing that I have under audience income is tips, gifts, subscriptions. Basically, that is where usually, it's done through the platform itself. So the there's on TikTok, you can have subscription followers, and then TikTok takes a portion of it. Same thing on Instagram.
Helen:You can have, you have a group that you're posting to, and it's like bonus content. So it's like your your subscription people. And but that again, you're sharing that income with the platform. So that's part of the the thing there. And then when you're on a live, you're getting tips and you're getting gifts.
Helen:And then you could be participating in many of the platform things. I think TikTok one is one of them. When you're promoting music on TikTok, that's another one. So there are platform bonus things where you can make money. So all of these things go under the umbrella of audience income because they are all using your audience that you have built to make that money.
Helen:The tips are coming from your followers when you're live or people who are watching your lives, audience related. The platform payouts are for views. When you get make videos over a minute, then you get paid, etcetera. Okay. So those things are all coming because of your audience.
Helen:Now lane two. This is different because it's offers you're going to make. And by the way, this still somewhat depends on your audience, but it's separate because you are creating a product almost. And then you're using your platform to offer that out, but it's like, it's a different way of get getting the money. So you're this is still somewhat audience related.
Helen:However, it is what you use your audience to build it, but you don't necessarily need your audience for actually making the money. Alright? Digital products, when you're gonna sell a template, a guide, a preset, something, when you're gonna sell a course or a workshop. So you're gonna use your audience, but you could have 500 followers and make money from that. The difference is audience income requires you to have a larger audience to make the money because in in that case, the size of your audience is more directly related to the payouts you're receiving.
Helen:But when it comes to digital products and courses and memberships, you could have a very small audience, and you could really be making money the same amount as as an audience income person. Because your product has value, and so you're selling the item. Your course has value. Your membership is paid, that kind of thing. And then the final thing under offer income is actual physical products.
Helen:So you maybe you're selling merchandise. Maybe you're you're making pottery, and you're selling pottery, hint hint to my one of my studio members. Makeup. Hi, Tina. So if you're selling your own products, that you're falling under offer income.
Helen:Alright? And so there's a lot of different things within it. They don't have to be physical things. They could be your services, your course, your your products, your digital products. And then the third lane is expertise income.
Helen:Now this is where it gets a little there's a lot of things in this area, in my opinion. The first one I'm gonna lead with is user generated content. This means that if you are good at making content and you have 10 followers, the brand might still hire you. Because if you're posting on a platform where you are posting that you create UGC content, that doesn't mean it's content they're not judging your TikTok account or your Instagram account or your YouTube account. They're not judging that.
Helen:They're judging your resume that you put on that platform. That is when you create content for a brand that doesn't get posted on your page. So if you can prove that you have, and so this is your, when you post on these UGC platforms, you're basically posting your resume and your resume doesn't necessarily have to correlate with what you're posting on your platform. And I think that is the big thing people don't understand. They think that, oh, I have to if I'm in this space, if I'm in the makeup space, I can only get do UGC for makeup brands.
Helen:Absolutely not true. If you have set up on example, we're gonna use for now is Fiverr. If you've set up your portfolio on Fiverr and you have specifically, you're doing kitchen products, you're gonna be getting brands that are going to approach you to do that content. But the first step to that, I have to go and say, is that they have to believe you can do it. So you have to be able to make the content and shoot the shots and give them the content if they're gonna edit or if you're gonna edit.
Helen:So you have to know how to make good content even if you don't have to edit the content for them because a lot of them will say just send us the raw footage. You still have to know what to shoot and make sure you provide all the shots for them to edit. So you still have to know how it would edit together. You can't get away from editing, people. I would love to say you can.
Helen:You have to understand it. Even if you can't or don't want to physically do it yourself, you just have to understand it because understanding it will help you be better at providing the footage that they need. So I'm getting into the weeds a little bit, but UGC means you are creating content for brands that you're being paid to make videos. Think of it as if you're hired like a little producer, and you're gonna make the content for and you're you're gonna be the star of your your content if your face is in it or your hands are in it or your house is in it or however you're filming your content. But that is your content that you're giving to them only.
Helen:That's not you posting on your page. That's what I need to make very clear. So UGC is a big one that requires your expertise. But the problem is people think, oh, I have 5,000 followers. I'm gonna do UGC.
Helen:But they don't know how to make a flippin' video. They don't know how to edit. They don't know how to put together good content. You're not going to get UGC gigs if you don't know how to make good content. We'll come back to that.
Helen:The second thing I have under expertise income is when you are doing consulting. You're doing audits. You're doing, things where you're helping people like you're and and not necessarily social media consulting. I have to be clear about that. Maybe you do relationship coach consulting.
Helen:Maybe you're a fitness coach, a wellness nutritionist, whatever. Consulting business. So you're using your audience to bring in work to your to your business, but you it doesn't require you to have 5,000 followers. You can have 500. You can have you can have 50 followers, and three of them could be customers.
Helen:So this doesn't require a massive audience. This requires good content to explain what you do to those 50 people. It's always going to come down to, do you know how to make good content? I'm sorry. All of it comes down to that.
Helen:So that's one. And then the third under there is speaking gigs and training. So maybe you're really good at, let's talk about my dear friend Grace. Grace for personality hires. She is constantly hired by corporate clients because she teaches soft skills, and she teaches, like, how to how to motivate your your employees and and things like that.
Helen:I mean, she's all she's got a whole corporate skill set. And she doesn't necessarily say, oh, I'm gonna make money on, my followers. She's just make putting awareness out there, and she's teaching the things so that those corporate people that hear her go, oh, that woman knows what she's talking about. We're gonna hire her. And she does speaking gigs.
Helen:She's traveling all over. She's doing consulting. I mean okay? So for example, you can use your expertise to become a visible expert online that then gets hired. And they're going to find you a lot easier than they're going to find somebody who's maybe just got an obscure website somewhere.
Helen:How are going to find that person? Put yourself out there on social media. You have an opportunity to find someone who could not find you. As I always say, your social media is not for your friends and family. It's so that people who need you can find you.
Helen:So in her case, it's corporate clients that need they have a need. They're gonna find her. In my case, it's people who don't know how to do content. They will wanna join my studio, or it's maybe a brand that knows that I direct content and they wanna hire me for that. They say, oh, she's the expert.
Helen:Okay? So you use your expertise to get work, and the work isn't necessarily being paid by TikTok. You're not getting paid by Instagram. In this case, you are getting paid by the gigs that you that come your way because of your expertise. So you see, there are different ways to monetize in these different lanes or umbrellas.
Helen:So there are a lot of different ways you can monetize depending on what feels right to you. What are what is your interest? What is your expertise? What appeals to you? So you can look at these things and choose your lane.
Helen:So take a minute and say, alright, if I hate selling, maybe lane three is for me because then I don't have to sell to my followers. I don't have to sell to my audience. So hopefully this gives you some food for thought. And what I'm focused heavily on, especially in the month of March, is breaking down all of these things further and really helping creators understand how to make the content that will actually get them to the goal that they're looking to achieve here. Because each one of these is very, very different, but they all do require content in the end.
Helen:Like, there has to be good content that leads your customer to your consulting gigs or your your brands to wanna work with you. So no matter what lane you're in, it all comes back to how good is your content. So if you wanna drive that car in whatever direction, the content needs to really be at the forefront. And that is what we're focusing on in the studio. So I am really gonna be giving you the specific help you need for whichever lane it is you wanna be in and whichever car it is you wanna drive.
Helen:Alright. I'll see you next week or I'll see you in the studio.