The 3 Main Ways a Content Creator Can Make Money

I have received comments, DMs, and emails numerous times with the question, “but how do you make money?” I figured the easiest way to answer that would be to break down the main 3 ways that I make money as a content creator/blogger.

When I started this journey six years ago, I never would have imagined that I would one day match and exceed my salary as a professional with 2 degrees (Psychology + Social Work). I was so curious about how to turn my hobby of sharing my life with others, motivating them, and sharing products I care about into a career.
At that time there were very few guides or courses that taught that so I dove in head first and along the way became 100% self taught.

I’ve had hundreds of learning moments during this journey and at one point even did a full rebrand, originally this was The Chic Babe Blog. When I first started I was so stuck on the mentality that all this would ever be is a hobby. I legitimately thought there was no way that I could make money off of it. A big mindset shift happened when a brand reached out to me with an affiliate opportunity. At the time I didn’t even know what that meant. As soon as I had what I call my AH HA moment, things quickly became to change.

So let’s go over the top 3 ways that I bring home the bacon!

1. Affiliate Partnerships: A huge way that content creators can make money is by sharing products or services that we truly love. Brands will give me a percentage of each sale or some will give me a set amount. This is one of the simplest partnerships that you can do because you have items that you use every day that you love and that are easy for you to talk about. For example, most of you know that Choc Zero is an affiliate of mine. I believe I have only been as successful as I have with them due to the fact that I genuinely love their chocolate. I would be a life long customer regardless if we were working together or not. If you have brands that you use daily or that you would love to work with, reach out and ask if they have an affiliate program. Most brands do, but if you come across one that doesn’t you might just give them the idea to start one.
2. Brand Partnerships: Brands hire me to produce photo and video content for them for numerous reasons. Some brands do this because they want to gain access to my audience but other brands do this simply to have content for their ads, website, and social channels. Some of the brands that I work with require me to post the content that I create, other brands don’t require me to post it as they just want to use it as their content. It is very beneficial for a brand to hire a content creator versus creating the content themselves. A company can hire a content creator at a fraction of the cost that it would take them to; rent a shoot location, hire a photographer, a videographer, a model, a stylist, etc. A brand also gets to repurpose that content over and over. I used to think that I would need to be a macro-influencer in order to make money through this route. But the truth of the matter is that you can make money through this with any audience size (nano-influencer: under 10K, micro-influencer: between 10K-100K, macro-influencer: 100K+).
3. Products: This can be a digital product like an online course or a physical product like a book. This can be done through the content creator’s private website or a site like Etsy. Making a digital product is something I am currently working on and I can’t wait to share more about it soon. My goal with making a digital product is to educate, inform and inspire each of you without having to break your bank! There are dozens of products that you could create and sell. Take some time to figure out your goals and purpose and then get to creating!

There are several other ways that content creators and influencers can make money but for the purposes of this article I wanted to share the main ones that I utilize. In the future I will write a full blog post on all the different ways you can monetize your blog and social channels.

As always, remember that it will take time in the beginning to cultivate a voice, purpose and at times the courage to ask brands for money. Do not be discouraged if you’re not making as much as you think you should be making. In time, you will!

I hope that this gives you a little bit of insight on how I make money online and if you have any questions at all put them in the comments, DM me on Insta or email me at hello@fashionablyizzy.com!

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