Today, we are going to be talking about the eleven ways you can monetize a personal brand. The seven that I currently have going on, and my strategy for adding streams of revenue to your personal brand over time. Because if you try to add four or five all at once, you are going to drive yourself nuts. Go ahead, grab a pencil or a pen to jot down these ideas; things that you would love to add to diversify your own brand income streams in the next months and years.
After I go through this list of eleven ways that you can monetize your influence, I am going to tell you what my current seven are. As I am going through these eleven, I would really love you to jot down what you would really enjoy doing to monetize your influence in the next year. And then also in the longer term, say five years from now. Dream big, take notes, and let us figure out the way to monetize your personal brand. That is going to feel good, really aligned and fun for you., let us start with number one.
1. Advertising
The first is advertising. Now this one would need a blog. If you have a blog, you can run ads for companies, or go through third party agencies like media, vine, or Google ads. Now this only makes sense if you have a lot of page views. When you open a website and you just see ad after ad after ad, it really does mess with the visual aesthetic of a website, unless you are getting mass amounts of traffic to make it worth that compromise of your site, I would not necessarily recommend that, but it is a way to advertise. If you have a website and you have done a job with SEO, like I teach in the academy, and you are getting a lot of traffic and then it would make sense.
2. Sponsored Posts
Second – you could have a blog or not for this one. And that sponsored post being you are getting paid by a brand or an agency to be a creator of content for, you would be paid by post by blog post by social media posts. The way you would go about getting these sponsored brand posts would be either to pitch brands yourself, or brands may approach you to create content in exchange for product and compensation. There are also affiliate networks you can go through to apply for campaigns or jobs.
Also, there are companies that function as a go between you and the brand. They connect creators with brands. Now, if you are just getting started and you are just building up influence, you will do this for product alone. As you build up influence, and you build up a little bit of a portfolio of what you can do as far as content creation. If you have great content, you have great photos. Brands will notice that. If you can apply to sponsored post campaigns, you may just get paid right out the gate. It just all depends. I started out monetizing my original brand, Taylor-Made Mama: a motherhood and lifestyle blog, through sponsored posts and affiliate marketing.
There is a market, particularly in the coming five to 10 years, but you need to get started before it is too late. The time is now to begin building your brand and adding these streams of revenue; to really get seen and picked up by these brands that would love to collaborate and have you as a content creator. Sponsored posts are a wonderful way to monetize influence, whether you have a blog or not.
3. Coaching or Consulting
The third is selling your coaching or consultation services. If you have an area of expertise, and by expertise, you have made it from point A to point C through a journey successfully. You have a method or framework for taking someone else through that same process to get through that journey successfully. You do not necessarily have to be an absolute expert with your PhD in a topic, supply coaching and consultation services, but you do have to have a method that you guide clients through to bring them a result that they are looking for. The third way is by selling coaching or consultation services.
4. A Membership Community
The fourth is by having a membership community. Membership communities can look any number of ways. There are a hundred of diverse ways to have a membership community. I have a membership it is called intentional influencer society. It is a coaching membership. It is a very low-cost way to get access to my coaching and have opportunities to ask questions twice a month. We have it in a Facebook group. I have a vault of content, and many courses and other items that I have added to that community within the Facebook group. And then also housed in Kajabi, which is the course platform I use.
But you can do a membership many different ways. It can be just a content membership, a recipe membership or a life organizer. The model is your members pay you monthly to be a part of this membership in exchange for highly valuable content or access. And that is recurring. They can cancel any time typically. You are taking them through a process as a group. This is a more long-term goal, but authoring a book, is another way that you can monetize influence. You need to get that on a website that people can find you.
5. Become an Author
Authoring a book is a wonderful way to expand your impact for sure. That is another way that you can monetize influence over time if the that is a desire of your heart. And that is a goal that you have.
6. Speaking Engagements
Number six is speaking engagements. I have friends who are absolutely gifted and should be on age, reaching hearts and minds across the world. And, speaking engagements can be and live events that can be very, very lucrative and obviously create a heck of a lot of impact.
7. Selling an Info Product
Which brings us to number seven – selling an info product. This can be a digital course. It can be an eBook. Although the eBooks are not, not as consumable. Now, most people are busy and distracted. They do not want to sit down and read an eBook. They want to have something short and consumable. This is a wonderful way for existing influencers and bloggers to create some passive income through their influence and through their blogs, by creating things like a passive course based on their area of expertise.
You may have more content if you are a blogger than you think you do. All that information could be packaged into a course. Now do not worry if you are not a blogger, but you have an idea in a way that you would like to package up the knowledge and ability that you must create a product. If you have questions that people constantly come to you and ask, how did you do X? You may have a course sitting right there on your lap that you could offer to people. Then you have a link to share with them.
It could be simple as that, and courses do not have to be these crazy techno savvy sales page. Go ahead and get started selling an info product, like a digital course. it is a wonderful way to add revenue to your brand and be able to help one-to- many versus one-to-one, as it would be with coaching or consultation. I am all about the courses.
8. A Physical or Downloadable Product
Number eight is creating a physical or downloadable product. I have a client who is wanting to create eight monthly membership boxes – a physical product where she is curating a box for mothers. If they are paying her to put together this box for them, one of them is an alpha on the shelf box. She is highly creative; she is highly organized. And that is something that she wants to do to, first, it will make her happy to do.
Creating a physical product is one way a downloadable product. I will tell you about one that I have in just a minute, but downloadable products can be things as simple. If you’ve been on Etsy before, you may have seen different templates. It could be anything from a motivational quote that you could frame or home cleaning schedules for moms.
9. Referral Or Product Credits
Let me explain number is referral credits or product credits or free product. One way that you can receive income by way of not having to spend your own money is to promote for brands and companies that will either send you free product in exchange for posts.
You can even collaborate with companies who have referral programs in which you earn store credit in return for referring a friend., I am sure you have seen things like stitch fix, where you refer a friend, you give them $25 off their first order and you get $25 in stitch fix credit. And that can add up, you could have your monthly or bimonthly clothing box paid for which you would normally pay for anyway. This is a source of income without actual dollars hitting your bank account, but really it saves you that money.
It is also a wonderful way to connect with your audience because you are supplying something for them. Usually there is a discount code attached, or there is a credit that you are giving them, before you share something on social media, always check to see if they have a referral program.
10. Affiliate Marketing
This is my favorite revenue stream. If you have a network marketing business, social selling, direct sales or however you want to say it, you should be considering yourself an affiliate marketer. You will have more streams of income if you are able to be an affiliate for lots of companies. I do not mean a lot of network marketing companies. I mean, treat products as affiliate products.
There are lots of ways in alternate channels to market aside from posting before and after and DMing people, first sales and all of that. For example, one of the most lucrative streams of income I have is promoting a liquid collagen, which I absolutely love. I started out as a customer, but I make a few thousand dollars typically per month in commission off collagen sales, which is incredible. It is a product that I market through these alternate channels based on search engine optimization.
If you do not have affiliate marketing as a stream of revenue, the first thing you need to do is join some affiliate programs such as Amazon. That is a great one to start out with. Amazon also has an influencer program. If you have a larger following or website, I would apply to both at the same time to just see what they say. It’s just wise to go ahead and apply.
11. Network Marketing
I am just not about that life. It is not worth it, which brings me to the 11th way that you can monetize a personal brand. And this is, I feel like I am always like, oh, tread lightly because people get all crazy about it, but network marketing income is amazing. You have to decide how you want to build within network marketing, where you feel comfortable in promoting products, because typically they do have a higher percent commission. However, if you’re able to meet those sales thresholds, you just want to make sure you’re at asking the right questions to make sure that they have a product you can market in the way that you want to. You can also incorporate the products within blog posts.
Now, if you already have a network marketing business and are looking at ways you can streamline it, automate it or pull yourself back from that while still having your hand in it, I am your person. There are wonderful things about network marketing, but there are also things that are difficult for me to be aligned with. For me, I must build in a certain way to feel good about it.
Adding Income Streams
Hopefully by this point you have jotted down a couple of ideas for income streams you would like to add on to what you’re already doing that is in alignment with your message and mission. The question then is ‘Can or should you build multiple streams of income at one time?’ No, you do not want to build multiple streams at one time unless you are out outsourcing. If you are outsourcing, you are paying someone else to create what it is that you want to create. Do not try to build multiple streams at one time. You are going to drive yourself insane and it will feel too overwhelming. Create a plan and then get your blinders on to anything outside of what you have already predetermined to be in alignment with your goals.
It’s In The Numbers
Looking at my numbers for my business within this year has been amazing. I had a very tough, personal year, but it was also the best year of my life in other ways. I did take a lot of downtime to heal, grow, realign, and readjust my whole life. Even so, I was still able to generate over six figures for my business. Is that the highest coaching income ever? No, but, to me, that is more than enough. It also reflects the lifestyle that I want to be able to lead.
I was able to be there for my daughter, spend time with friends and slow down while still making that same income and impact. That does not happen overnight. You want to build intentionally. It’s helpful to have a plan for the skill sets you need to build a new stream of income or outsource. You really want to be intentional about that. It’s not really about an income goal. It is more of a business alignment goal.
Let’s Wrap It Up
If you are in my Facebook group, Elevate Academy, hop in there and share your goals. Let me know if I can help you get there. I would really love to hear from you. I hope this was helpful and got you dreaming about all the possibilities for your brand!
Want to take a deeper look at each of these 11 ways and more? Check out the full episode on the Maverick Momprenuer podcast HERE.
Ready to connect with other women who are on a journey to make an income and impact? Join Elevate Academy For Brand-Building Marketers & Maverick Mompreneurs™.
