With all the social media outlets out there, a lot of money-making
opportunities have arisen for people with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Many of them don’t even require you to go to an office. Here are 10 ways
to make money off of social money from home.
1. Coach someone remotely
You can help other people achieve their dreams without even leaving
home. Whether you’re a physical therapist or a life coach or a financial
advisor, you can do a lot of what you’d normally do in-person over
social media. Whatever your expertise, you can coach people over email
and Skype. To attract customers, first promote yourself on social media.
Once you’ve impressed your followers with your knowledge, start a
coaching service. This could turn into a sizable income if you already
have a semi-lucrative professional, since it typically requires less of a
time commitment than in-person coaching. One field that’s proven
especially popular is personal training, with companies like
FitOrbit offering a number of jobs that probably pay pretty well.
2. Become an Amazon affiliate
You can buy almost anything on Amazon, which means you can earn a
commission off of almost any product if you’re an Amazon Affiliate.
After signing up for the affiliate program you can give readers of your
blog, Twitter feed, etc. special links to Amazon products. If they click
on the link and buy that product
or anything else on the site during that visit, you receive a small commission that can really add up over time.
Pickmyshaver.com,
which reviews shaving devices with links to the Amazon listings, is a
prime example of a successful affiliate website. It sold for over
$60,000 to Flippa just eight months after it debuted. Your chances of
reaping similar rewards are reasonably good if your reviews attract a
lot of attention, so write them well and and convincingly so they’ll
read the review and then buy the product.
3. Monetize your YouTube channel
Are you a popular vlogger? Do you post a lot of funny animal videos
that go viral? You might be able to make some income by joining the
YouTube Partner Program, in which you allow Google to place ads at the beginning of your videos. You then share in that ad revenue.
Grace Helbig
is a prominent example of someone who’s made a living off of creating
fun YouTube videos and promoting herself on other social media outlets.
Admittedly, your chances of becoming a YouTube star
and getting
rich off it are low, but if you’ve got an engaging personality, sense
of humor or a unique perspective than the YouTube Partner Program may be
an avenue worth exploring.
4. Sell stock photos
Use a service like Flickr to get people acquainted with your work,
offering photos they can use on their website for free under the
Creative Commons license.
Once you’ve built up a following, join another stock photography site
like Shutterstock or iStockphoto where users will pay for the
opportunity to use your pictures on their blogs. You can
make up to $120 off of one paid download of your photo. Even if you get compensated at a lower level, the money can really add up if you take a lot of quality photographs.
5. Sell an e-book
Once you’ve built up a following and proven yourself to be
knowledgeable about a certain subject, write and publish an e-book that
your consistent social media presence will have persuaded your fans to
buy. You can release it simply as a PDF or through services like
Amazon’s Kindle program.
Carol Tice demonstrated her expertise in the topics of freelance writing on social media, which she translated into
major e-book sales. Some people
make
up to $100,000 a month off of the Kindle program alone, but that’s an
example of extreme success. The average e-book brings in about $423 per
year. But if your book is better written, better designed and better
marketed than 90% of your competitors’, you will probably make more
than that.
6. Sell handcrafted items on Instagram
With inSelly you can quickly turn simple photos on Instagram into images of products you have for sale. Read
this how-to about setting up an online shop
with one of the biggest social media outlets out there. Some of the
most popular things to sell are things that are made by hand, so if
you’re crafty consider putting your artistic skills to good (and
profitable) use. Chances of making a huge sum of money off this aren’t
high, but it’s not uncommon for someone to make a living off the
combined totals of Instagram and similar services like
Etsy.
7. Tantalize users with your product on Pinterest
Pinterest is a perfect platform for selling products. As a virtual
pin-board, the social media service is commonly used by potential
customers to “pin” items of interest that they might buy later. If you
created a product or are in charge of marketing one, throw some photos
of it on Pinterest to shine a spotlight on it. Look at great examples of
companies that utilize Pinterest to its fullest potential like TODAY,
Whole Foods Market and the Travel Channel
here.
If you can land a freelance job doing something similar you can hit it
pretty big, but you probably need the right experience to be in the
running. However, small businesses also want to promote on Pinterest,
and they’re more likely to hire based on enthusiasm and a go-getter
attitude, so maybe start making some cold calls and emails.
8. Sponsor products and services
This is probably the most direct way to make money off social media.
You utilize your (hopefully sizable) list of followers by selling to
companies the rights to promote their products or services as a post on
your social media account. Check out
this site
to learn more. The chances of making a lot of money this way is high if
your number of followers is in the six figures, but rather low if you
have less than a thousand followers.
9. Manage social media
Managing social media isn’t a particularly lucrative profession yet,
but it does serve a growing need for a lot of businesses. If you keep an
eye out for job postings you might be able to nab a job promoting a
company or brand on various social media services. A lot of those jobs
are independent contractor positions, many of which you can work
remotely. If you’ve got a lot of experience with social media beyond
just being a user, though, you may be able to get hired to develop
social media strategy. Telling businesses how specifically to approach
their social media presence would very likely net you a nice income.
10. Use social media to network
You can increase your income simply by using social media to take
your current career to the next level. Obviously LinkedIn is a place to
network and find job opportunities, but other social networks can
achieve similar results. If a business is more casual, try friending
your dream employer on Facebook. If you’re an expert on some topic,
create a Twitter account to expound on that topic. There really isn’t a
career that wouldn’t benefit at least a little from a social media
presence.
