Woo so my next YouTube video is posted and live, but I wanted to have a bit more in depth of a post here on the blog as I could talk FOREVER about this topic, and I still feel like I barely scraped the surface in my video. There is a lot involved in making money online with a small following, as it doesn’t come as easily as someone with a big following.
Adjust your expectations
Firstly, as stated in the video I have shared on this blog post, coming into wanting to monetise your content, it’s important to adjust your expectations. There are a lot of people online making video’s with claims to have built a huge following and huge income online within a short period of time. Whilst yes it is possible, it’s not going to happen for everyone. Even now for me returning to YouTube, I’m in the low view camp. I’ve had a few new people subscribing to my channel but overall, monetising YouTube will be difficult and will be a mission and a half to get to where I want it to be. It’s not instantaneous.
Here in Australia, monetising content across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook can be extremely difficult, which leaves most opportunities to realistically be centred around working and collaborating with companies, YouTube monetisation, or Adsense on Blogs.
Affiliate Marketing
At the current point in time, I earn about $200 from Affiliate marketing in different ways. You’re reading my blog in which I will routinely have Affiliate Links dotted throughout my posts like this.
Thankyou to everyone who uses my links, as it put money back in our pockets to support the journey we are on and bring even more amazing content to you!
The links like that above that I include in my posts earn me a % of commission when someone makes a purchase using my links. I have family and friends who also see my content I post, who use my links when something catches their eye. This also helps with bringing a little more consistency to my income streams. I will share these links on my link in bio, Facebook Posts, Instagram stories and in my Benable Storefront as well.
Benable Storefront
As I do not have a very strong following as of yet and I am still building my follower base, I am not eligible for an Amazon Storefront. So I did opt for using Benable. To be very blunt here, I have been on Benable for 2 years and earnt approx. $200. It’s not a profitable strategy, commissions are low, and there isn’t too much clarification on how their cashback systems are working. Benable definitely won’t be in my long term strategy.
The reason I still actively choose to use Benable is mostly because I can put everything in one place, which makes it a lot more user friendly for, not only myself, but also the people who view my content and want to explore the products I have shared. It’s almost like Pinterest and Amazon Storefront had a baby together in regards to the useability of the platform.
At the current point in time, I am mostly still continuing to use it as it’s building trust online with brands and content consumers. I am more than happy to do an in depth guide to how to use Benable to get the most bang for your buck.
Gifted Collaborations
Gifted Collaborations are honestly my money maker, and per month is honestly where majority of my online money is made. Yes it’s a physical item and not straight up cash, but here in Australia, gifted items value are seen as income and need to be reported in your tax return (very important). So being business minded about my income and what I earn online in a month, this needs to be taken into consideration.
Knowing that gifted collaborations are technically income and I need to pay tax on gifted items, this has made me a lot more picky about what I choose to accept as a gifted item. I make this decision very harshly as companies I chose to collaborate with may not be best for the relationship I am building with my community. I only chose to collaborate with brands that fit my content strategies and my business plan, or items that I already use every day and are more than happy to show as I already love the item. Gifted collaborations are now met with the upmost amount of diligence now on my end.
How to find brands to collaborate with
When you are working online with a low amount of followers, in a lot of instances big companies won’t actively opt to collaborate and partner with you. Yes, it’s still worth an attempt to email their Marketing or PR departments, but it’s also worth it to proceed with a bit of care and mix the variety of business sizes you engage with.
For example, I am a Mum who is making Mum life content, and low-tox household content. Brands I want to partner with will be brands that align to that. But I email a variety of big business and small Australian Businesses. With the type of content I am currently circling on the internet, small Australian Business is my priority over big companies and are my personal preference, as they tend to be more innovative in the low-tox niche and more wholesome and true to my own personal values.
Whilst yes, I am met with a lot of “no’s” sometimes those no’s will also come with a “would you like to join our Affiliate program if you purchase our product in the future and love it?”. Even if I don’t get the offer to affiliate market their brand, I have had some amazing conversations along the way and really started to build a relationship with them for a potential in the future.
Just start posting
The thing is, you will see a lot of “how to make money online with no content posted and no social presence,” but in all reality, brands want to see how you engage with viewers, how you are personally viewed by people on the internet and how well you are able to capture the attention with your structure of your content. Whether it’s a blog, or video format, or posts on Instagram or Facebook. Let me be clear here, it’s hard to build monetised content being faceless, and there is also a reason that UGC creators have channels dedicated to “how to be a UGC creator” as it’s how they put themselves out there to get deals and prove their personal mission. Whether they realise that or not, that is what is actually happening. They are starting the conversation with this style of content they are putting out into the world, and picking up paid jobs supported by that an a bit of extra hard work cold canvassing.
It’s genuinely not because they want to teach you how to do it (not all of them, obviously, some purely want to teach), but they do it because they are trying to show how they capture an audiences attention, pitch themselves to brands without needing to email, and also because a lot of UGC platforms won’t accept creators without a strong platform like influee. It also helps them to practice how to make content as well ready to make content for brands.
Genuinely, just start posting and don’t follow trends, be yourself, be different, and prove your place and value point in the world.
Adsense on Blog
I do run ads on my blogs (not this one yet, I’m an author of a few other blogs) but I also make money from that online. Adsense is pretty easy to set up and establish onto your blog. A lot of it is automated in terms of placement on your website or blog. I make approx. $200 per month from Adsense ads, so it’s definitely worth visiting that idea if you write a blog.
Amazon Wishlist
Lastly, the people I engage with online who are my followers that are there for every single post I make, and engaging with all of my content, they love to share the love with me. Sometimes they will send monetary gifts on my posts, but for the most part, they love buying me a surprise from my Amazon Wishlist. I make sure to include things on my Amazon Wishlist that I want to make content about in the near future (I also share it with my partner as gift idea’s) so it’s well worth it to have an Amazon Wishlist for your regular followers to share the love with you from ♥
I really hope that this has given you a few handy tips and tricks for the early stages of your journey to making passive income online as well as some guidance on realistic expectations to have for yourself.
Happy content creating everyone ♥
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