In the world of content creators, social media brands, and influencers there are close to an infinite number of ways you can monetize your personal brand on social media. 

Every one of us can offer a fresh and unique perspective on just about any topic, skill, or experience that can bring value and insight to others.

Building your personal brand on social media provides you with the platform to become a thought leader by sharing your thoughts, content, and ideas with a community of people who share similar values and interests as you. 

Here are seven ways to monetize your personal brand on social media.

Sponsored posts and brand partnerships  

A sponsored post is when you create a deal or agree on a collaboration with a brand you know and share similar values with. 

If you are just starting off with your personal brand, one way of making money on social media is pitching yourself or your personal brand to a business you are interested in working with. 

With pitching you will need to have a clear idea of the types of brands or businesses you want to work with.

If you’re an entrepreneur ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package is an amazing opportunity for this. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand. It’ll showcase your work and get you ahead of the competition!

Additionally, some questions you should consider before sending out a pitch include: 

• Does this brand share the same or similar core values as your personal brand? 
• Do you align with and believe in the product and/or service you will be promoting or creating content for?
• How does this sponsorship or brand collaboration drive you closer to your why and help evolve your personal brand?

Depending on the answers to these questions, you might find that you’ll need to be selective and driven by your brand’s purpose—your WHY—when working towards monetizing your personal brand. 

Alternatively, you can use Instagram to look up people/brands who are in a similar niche as you to connect and build a relationship with. 

The goal here is to collaborate with someone you’ve genuinely connected with and create value-driven content that will reach both your audience and theirs.

As you consistently start sharing content and value on social media you might find that a brand reaches out to you with a collaboration opportunity.

This could include creating content for their social media channels or website in turn you would get paid for this work. 

Payments can range anywhere from $50 to $3,000+ depending on the industry, skillset, and your ability to communicate the value you bring to the table. 

If done strategically and with purpose, there is a lot of money to be made here through your personal brand and online content. 

Affiliate links 

Affiliate links are a way to earn money through commissions off a sale of a product or service that you generated for a company. This is usually a percentage of 5-20%. 

With affiliate links, just like brand partnerships and collaborations you need to decide whether the products and/or services you will be promoting align with your personal brand. 

To get affiliate links, you can reach out directly to brands that you align with and ask to promote their product or service using an affiliate link.

If your personal brand is centered around branding and design tips for running a successful online business, it makes sense to promote an app to create amazing graphics and visuals, like Canva, for example.

This ensures that you actually convert sales because your audience will be interested in what you are promoting and will eventually sign up using your link. 

The higher the value of what you are selling, the bigger your earnings!

But remember, authenticity with your audience is key when working to monetize your personal brand. 

Essentially, affiliate links give you the ability to introduce and sell a product to your audience.

Selling advertisement space 

For many, monetizing your personal brand through ads on YouTube, Google, blogs, and customized ads is another great way to generate some money through social media.

Although this method isn’t currently available for Instagram we might not be too far from it in the future. 

One of the great benefits of utilizing ads is the ease of getting it setup on your website, blog, or YouTube channel. 

However, keep in mind you will not be making an entire year’s salary through selling ads on your blog or website but, you can earn up to $1,000 with a little catch…

Your personal brand needs to have a high level of traffic and audience reach to see any sort of high-level revenue from ads. 

To keep it transparent and real, you will be looking at earning $10 or less through selling advertising space if the traffic and audience reach isn’t quite there for your personal brand. 

Don’t let this dishearten you because this is still a great incentive to monetize your content online in the future by building a powerful personal brand that focuses on serving people and providing value first.

One-on-one coaching or similar services 

This is one of the more popular personal brand monetization methods for individuals who have a valuable skill set and experience to offer.

I truly believe that everyone can do this to make money on social media!

Do you have a skill or a story that can help others? If so, then you are ready to start earning money from your content by promoting a service. 

Once you have identified your skills, your passion, and the types of services you want to offer to your ideal client you are ready to monetize on social media. 

The options here are limitless! 

Examples of services are virtual assistance, life coaching, branding, graphic design, writing blogs for other entrepreneurs…and the list goes on and on.

With that being said, the only limit here is that you have to build an authentic audience and attract your ideal client through your social media. 

You need to develop a plan to curate your own content and strategy in order to find the people that want to hire you. OR you can always go out there and pitch yourself!

Creating digital products 

Did someone say PASSIVE INCOME?!?!

This is the best way to make it! 

By developing and creating digital products unique to your personal brand to earn a passive income via social media.

Digital products can be anything from ebooks, presets for photographs, and graphic templates like these customizable branded Canva templates!

Another, great example of a digital product is an online course (like my brand development coaching program, which gives you hands-on experience creating your brand from scratch, including messaging and social media strategy). Did you know that you can teach just about anything in the world to an unlimited number of niche markets. 

If you have the knowledge and skills on a particular topic why not bundle it up into a digital course and use your personal brand to make some money on Instagram?

As you can see, digital products are a great way to make money while you sleep and it really can add up over time as you build your audience and make connections on social media. 

Speaking engagements or live workshops 

For many people, their ultimate goal and dream is to be booked for speaking gigs or live workshops to share their voice, values, and story to anyone willing to pay and listen. 

As you build your personal brand, start to hone in on core your message and what you want to stand for.

Once you complete this step, start to craft your message in a way that resonates with people emotionally. Create content on social media platforms around your message. 

Live your life true to this message. 

The key here is to position yourself as a thought leader who inspires others to take action.

Make people want to listen to you speak! 

Be engaging, authentic, and relatable. 

Overtime, you will be seen as an “expert” in your field and within your online community. 

Realistically, not many people build an entire career off being a speaker but it is definitely something that you can monetize on through your personal brand in addition to various other income-generating sources. 

Speaking opportunities won’t magically be knocking on your door one day but, position yourself as someone who has a truly inspirational message that stands apart from everyone else. 

In-person or virtual retreats 

Retreats both in-person and virtually have been popping up a lot in the past couple of years.

There is a good reason for that—people want to learn and build relationships with other like-minded people!

You can find, attend, or organize a retreat for just about anything you like! 

Travelling, knitting, coding, or spirituality.  

Through your community on Instagram you can conduct market research to learn about what types of topics your audience is interested in, budget, and the pain points you can solve through hosting a retreat. 

Ultimately, if done correctly your mission and message will resonate with your community and audience and they will pay money to learn from you personally and to spend time with you.

Bonus Tip: Buy Me a Coffee

Buy Me a Coffee is a simple, meaningful, yet effective platform to monetize on your personal brand.

Your community can support you through monthly membership options or simply buy you a coffee or two to support the creation of your valuable content.

This is the perfect way to build a loyal community of engaged followers and space for you to be a thought leader and share your expertise.

Does this all feel overwhelming? 

Starting a business is a journey, and it can be a challenging transition. However, with the right mindset, resources, and support, you can absolutely build a successful and fulfilling business that supports your true-to-self life. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your existing business to the next level, embrace the process and take the first steps towards building the business and life of your dreams.

If you’re an entrepreneur ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package may be just what you need. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand. 

If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.