Have you been creating content for some time now and have built a loyal following?

‍Your besties are your number one fans, but there are more people out there, loyal followers who wait for your next creation. They like what you do and what you stand for, and they have more than likely engaged with you at some stage, asking for more.

What if we told you that, as a regular content creator, you could turn this into some serious money?

“Businesses are finding the most success with smaller, niche content creators,” according to HubSpot. Their research shows that 47 percent of marketers report successful microinfluencer partnerships.

There are so many opportunities out there for content creators, but it can also be an absolute minefield knowing where to start, or where to focus your efforts.

At Kliq we believe that every creator should have the power to monetise.

So we’ve created this guide aimed at giving you all the information you need to help make a decision about where you will monetise your audience.

What exactly is content monetization?

Content monetization for online creators, in its simplest and purest definition, involves making money via the content that you create.

These content pieces can have various formats, such as blogs, videos, podcasts & even live classes.

‍Essentially, content monetisation revolves around your expertise.

‍In a world of ever-changing technology, people value the expertise of creators more than ever.

What are the methods of creator monetization?

There are various ways how your creation of content and the audience with it can bring in cash for you, such as the following.

Through sponsorships

Approach big corporates to sponsor you and offer something in return. This could include top billing for a major event, inclusion in your ad campaigns, free products, memberships, or services.

Paid subscriptions

Offer your audience a subscription option for exclusive access to your material.

Exclusive members only content

Audiences gain exclusive content with their monthly subscription.

Monthly subscriptions for articles and blogs (such as those where you cannot read full pieces without paying a certain amount).

Selling one-on-one coaching

Coaching that is provided by yourself at a time that is suitable to both you and your followers.

Selling courses

This can take the form of videos, e-books or live courses.

Live streaming sessions and virtual experiences

Include your product advertisements with click options to take your audience to your website.

E-Commerce sales of exclusive merchandise and digital products

Include a click through option to your website or an e-commerce platform.

Social media platforms and their monetization options

Social media platform users

Social media is the largest advertising medium in today’s world  of e-commerce marketing, with user statistics reaching staggering figures upon last reliable data in July 2023:

Facebook - 188,050,000
Instagram - 161,700,000
TikTok - 150,000,000

Let's go through some of the social media platforms that pay content creators.

The good news is that some of your followers may have linked their social media profiles, which means that you can get extra mileage out of one follower.

Facebook & Instagram Advertisers

Let’s begin with Facebook. You get paid on a CPM basis (cost per mile), which works out to roughly 1000 views. Roughly, because it depends on the kind of content you create and who your target audience is.

To find out whether you are eligible for Facebook monetization, head over to the Facebook Creator Studio, and on the home page, click on ‘Monetization’ on the right. The ‘Overview’ section will indicate what kind of content you qualify for. Fill in your details and click on ‘Set up Monetization’. It’s that easy. However, there are requirements and limitations.

Facebook options include Brand Collabs, In Stream Ads, Subscriptions, and Reels. Monetization of any of these options includes specific numbers of followers or views, or both. You can sell stars, and you can get involved in their affiliate marketing program as well, if you like. If you have hard products to sell you can get access to Facebook Shops with features like product demos, tutorials, customer testimonials, and product videos.

‍Instagram is owned by Meta, and as such, is very similar to Facebook in its offerings.

X (Twitter)

X/Twitter, on the other hand, is quite new at this game, and quite different. You can monetize on X/Twitter through subscriptions and ads revenue sharing, and the threshold is not quite as strict as other social media sites.. Head to the ‘Monetization’ button, on the side menu if you’re on mobile, otherwise you’ll find it on the overflow menu.

Click on ‘Join and set up payouts’, create a Stripe account,  and enter your banking details.

To qualify for monetization, you need to be an X Premium subscriber or a verified organization, and an active member for at least three months with at least 500 active followers, as well as 5 million impressions on your posts over the last three months. Complete your profile, and read and accept the terms, standards, and user agreement, and you’re good to go.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is known as a professional platform; however, there are still monetizing opportunities for digital content creators. If you have a skill that you can share, consider putting together an online course and advertising it on the LinkedIn Learning platform.

Turn your content skills into e-books, videos, and podcasts that showcase your expertise. Find someone who has already succeeded in this area and learn how to do it. You can offer consulting services to individuals or businesses looking for guidance in your niche.

Affiliate marketing is an option for blog creators

If you’re a blogger, you may already have a website that showcases your work. Affiliate marketing is possibly the best way to start out on your monetizing journey, as it doesn’t take much to set up a successful blog site, and you can start placing ads as soon as you start getting visitors to your site.

Starting from scratch? Take a look at the free website options and keep it simple. Write, write, write, and watch your articles daily until you start getting some hits. Then advertise.

The tricky part of this, usually, is finding the right products to market. Look at products that fit into your blogging niche and do your homework. Are they profitable? Should you change your niche slightly to accommodate products that would bring in more money?

There are other ways of doing it. Display and video advertisements or sponsored content can be placed directly on platforms like Google AdSense, Media.net, and Facebook Audience Network. You don’t need your own site for this type of direct advertising, but your ads must still be fluent and SEO-friendly for you to attract business.

What is sponsored content, you ask? Brands often pay social media influencers or website owners with a good following to create and share content that promotes their products.

When sharing content with your followers, however, remember to let them know that they are viewing sponsored content and that you might profit from the proceeds of sales generated as a result thereof.

Run your own subscription service on a monetization platform

Which platforms provide subscriptions and membership options?

Wordpress is your go-to for website creation, but it doesn’t stop there. Hundreds of themes help you design a professional website with e-commerce plugins that make it possible for you to sell products, services, and your digital content on your website. You can start off with a free website; however, not all plugins are free, and you will have to pay an annual fee for a domain name that is unique to you—free domain names contain ‘wordpress’ in the URL.

Platforms like Patreon and Substack provide content creators with the business tools needed to offer subscription- or membership-based content. You set up a paywall so your followers can buy your exclusive, top-quality content.

‍Patreon is free to begin with, and you can add in a membership and various commerce tools as your business progresses. Followers can become a member of your Patreon community, and you decide what they receive for their participation. You could offer them your best artwork or collection of articles, or a mentorship. Alternatively, your followers may elect to pay a monthly subscription fee. In this case there needs to be a clear benefit that they receive monthly, and it depends on the level of subscription as to how much you offer in terms of your content or training. Or you can ask for support in the way of making donations. In this case you needn’t commit to providing any ongoing benefit or services.

With a Substack subscription, you publish your work and, when you have a suitable following, make an informed decision to ‘go paid’, and turn on paid subscriptions. You determine the subscription amount for your followers. If you have a steady base of 1,000 subscribers who pay $5 per month, your annual earnings will be $60,00, but bear in mind that Substack gets a percentage of your earnings. You can open discussion threads if you like, offer free articles that are not exclusive to members They also offer a mobile app for accessing content.. You can leave Substack at any point in time and take your followers with you. This keeps Substack on their toes and working towards improving their offerings on a continual basis.

Not to be left out, Instagram and Facebook now offer subscription services too. This means that you can offer exclusive content to your most ardent followers for a fee, all managed from your Instagram or Facebook app. This not only gives you a predictable income, but it also allows you to personalize your content for specific followers. Remember to post often, and let your non-subscribing followers know about the other side of your sharing, caring profile so that they, too, can subscribe. Monetization on Facebook comes with a whole list of rules and regulations that you need to familiarize yourself with.

‍Medium is a platform for writers and has a subscriber community, meaning that when they publish your writing, you have a ready-made audience. Your writing has to be of a good standard, and you get paid according to how the subscribers engage with your article. Just to give you an idea, you can earn between $10 and $98 per 1000 views, depending on which advertisers decide to bid on your work.

How about your visual content? Video-sharing apps such as Tik Tok and YouTube will get your visual creations out there, rest assured! There’s more about monetizing video content further down.

Selling course material

Add a professional touch to your educational material by becoming a Udemy instructor and marketing your course content on their platform. Earnings on Udemy vary according to how many courses you do, the quality of your course content, how many people buy your course, and how long you remain on the platform.Skillshare works along the same lines as Udemy. You create your course content and upload it onto their platform with some additional information regarding the course.

If you already have a website you can access a learning management system (LMS) plugin module, but do your homework first as not all plugins are compatible.

Another great e-learning platform is LearnWorlds. An easy web builder tutorial helps you to set up your online course. With features like an assessment builder, interactive video, and live sessions you can build your very own online academy. Name your price per course, and offer subscriptions and bundles to increase your revenue stream. You have access to marketing tools, a mobile app builder, analytics, payment technology, and more.

Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram all enable you to sell your e-learning material.  It’s hard to put a price to it though, as there are many factors that apply: course length, subject, content, and quality all play a role. On many sites you set your own price. You research how many course are out there, try and evaluate the course content, and the length of the course.

Monetizing visual & video content

Videos and other visuals are in a class of their own. We have briefly discussed TikTok and YouTube, but how much do video content creators make?

You can sell your prints to sites like Shutterstock and Getty Images, or have them printed on media such as t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, hoodies, and calendars. These methods are also not going to make you rich in a hurry, but they will supply you with an alternate source if things go wrong.

Some sites allow you to upload your images and will pay you according to the number of views. You may want to take a look at Img.Wallet, Img.Taxi, and Img.Rock. They also pay a fixed amount for every person you refer.

Here are some tips for getting your visuals out there and making money:
Decide on a niche
Create high-quality visuals.
These can be animations, images, graphics, or videos.
Choose your platform based on who your target audience is
Always be relevant and consistent, as this builds credibility
Diversify by using different platforms and different methods, such as merchandising, sponsorships, and subscriptions
Collaborate with various brands and influencers
Don’t allow yourself to stagnate. Keep up with the trends, explore new methods, and change your strategies accordingly

Monetizing YouTube Videos

YouTube offers a partnership program with multiple sources of income generation. Earn revenue from display, overlay, and video ads, and YouTube Premium will pay you a portion of a subscriber’s fee when they view your material.The average earnings on YouTube can be estimated at $0.018 per ad view, according to Influencer Market Hub. So, a video that has 1,000 ad views you will earn $18. This all depends on the number of views on your video and the number of clicks on your ad, as well as the quality of your ad and the length of your video.

Super Chat and Super Stickers are a fun way for followers to connect with you during live streams and Premieres.

YouTube Shopping provides an enhanced shopping experience for your viewers as they buy your products directly from your content.

Channel membership gives your dedicated followers the option of a paid, monthly subscription with your choice of exclusive benefits such as loyalty badges, emojis, and membership content.

BrandConnect helps you with your campaign management by linking you up with a choice of brands on the channel that match your audience.

Super Thanks animations: when your fans buy a fun, clapping animation shown only to them, YouTube’s Super Thanks sends them a colorful message in the comments section so that you can interact with them, and a portion of the proceeds end up in your YouTube account.

Tik Tok Monetization

Tik Tok is a social media platform that empowers users to create, edit, share, and watch short video clips.

Tik Tok lets you customize your videos before sharing them with the community. Viewers can like, comment, share, and download the video. Here are the steps:
- You choose your video and specify a run time.
- Choose your music by clicking on a track link and searching for music available on other clips. By adding a popular song from another clip to your video will increase your hits.
- You can choose a duet by splitting the screen in half to share with another creator’s content. Use this in comedy, or for corresponding dance moves.
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According to statistics, Tik Tok has been downloaded over 4.7 billion times, and that number is steadily increasing.So, how much does Tik Tok pay its creators? It all depends, but you can work on a figure of between $0.02 and $0.04 for every 1,000 views.

Are you a creator with a special mission in life?

Whether it’s a social community in need that you would like to support, a specific creative project that needs funding, or a new product that needs launching, crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter, GoFundMe, or IndieGoGo facilitate the raising of funds by posting your search for funding on their websites. Offer them some content work in return or some sample products.

Project creators specify their funding requirements and set a deadline for project completion.

Kickstarter is strong in the creative space, offering a multitude of genres to choose from. You are under no obligation to refund anything at the end of the project, but you do need to give your backer regular progress updates.

The GoFundMe platform is an easy way to ask for and receive donations, post progress updates, and engage your community. A meter on your campaign will show when your goal has been reached, but you can continue receiving funds indefinitely.

Of course, as a creator, you should have no trouble posting a request that is creative, appealing, and likely to grab their attention. Good luck!

Think about collaborating with other influencers

You have the traffic, but things are moving a little too slowly for your liking. Well, we didn’t promise overnight success, but we did undertake to help you along the way.

Teaming up with an influencer or another content creator in your niche is a good way to double up on your traffic. Possibly even more than double.

Instagram even offers a collaboration tool called Instagram Collabs, allowing you to co-author posts and reels and opening up paths to reach new audiences.

Before you rush into a collaborative relationship, take note of the following:

- First, set your goals, as this will help you define your strategies and find the right influencer.
- Find an influencer who aligns with your strategies, who targets the same audiences, and who reflects the same brand values as you. It doesn’t have to be the person with the biggest following. More important is their belief in your product and their willingness to team up with you.
- Build strong relationships. When approaching your potential influencer, be professional and polite. Let them know why you chose them, cite examples from their work, and discuss the value you think they can add to your business and what you can offer them in return.
- You can tell whether an influencer shares the same goals and passions as you by their willingness to work with you, rather than it just being about the money.
- Set goals and metrics, and evaluate your results. Use polls or surveys to get feedback from your followers, and use analytics to measure your impact.

Collaboration is a long-term strategy: find the right person and look after them.

Truly own your monetisation platform

We hope this guide has given you a better idea of the options for monetisation as a creator.

According to DataReportal, mobile devices account for 53 percent of the world’s web traffic.

‍96 percent of Facebook users access the platform via their mobile phones, and over 70 percent of YouTube material is viewed on mobile devices.

This means that whatever your content is, you need to make sure that it’s mobile-friendly too.

At Kliq we are on a mission to help you as a creator turn your audience into a business with your own app - and step away from relying on social media or other platforms that set the rules.

You pay a monthly subscription fee, and we provide you with the tools to do everything else.

With your very own app you can sell courses and programs, host live streams, post directly to subscribers’ feeds and inboxes, keep your fans engaged with push notifications, use built-in analytics tools to make decisions and grow your audience. Get ready to start!

Common Questions on Creator Monetisation

How long does it take to make money as a content creator?

The process of monetization can take time, which is why it is important to know your audience and focus on creating content that they would be interested in. Have a strategy in place for how you would like to monetize your content or channel, and be consistent through it all.  Also, if you are able to, diversify your content and be present on more than one channel (for instance, if you have a fitness blog as well as an app, you can work in affiliate marketing as well as additional paid-for content on your app).

Which social media platform is easiest to monetize?

Currently, Instagram and YouTube are among the top platforms for making money. Instagram is great for showcasing visual content and building a solid personal brand. You can collaborate with brands, promote products, and even become influencer.

Is Facebook content monetized?

You can earn money through your Facebook profile if you have professional mode turned on and comply with Facebook’s Partner Monetization policies. To find out, turn professional mode on, go to the professional dashboard on your mobile device, and go into tools to give it a try.

What does monetization mean?

It means that websites, social media platforms and brands pay you when your content or advertisements generate enough attention on their platforms, or your material generates sales.

Can I get paid from website views?

It depends on the option you select when setting up your advertisement. Your choices are Pay Per Click (PPC), or Pay per Mile (PPM). With PPC you only get paid if someone clicks on your advertisement, whereas with PPM you get paid for every 1,000 users who see your advertisement.

How do I monetize my Facebook profile?

You can earn money through your Facebook profile if you have professional mode turned on and if you comply with Facebook’s Partner Monetization policies. To find out, turn professional mode on, go to the professional dashboard on your mobile device, and go into tools to give it a try.

How many hours of content do you need to monetize YouTube?

To apply to make money on YouTube you must have at least 1,000 subscribers and have 4000 accumulated watch hours in the past year. Depending on the quality of your content, you may be able to negotiate the rate, which is currently $20 per video if you have 1,000 subscribers.

Do YouTube content creators get paid per view?

No, YouTube video creators only get paid if viewers click on their ads. You need to be eligible for the YouTube Partner Program to advertise on YouTube.

Which social media platform pays the most?

TikTok is without a doubt the best paying platform in 2024, followed by YouTube.

How much does TikTok pay?

According to reports from top influencers, TikTok Creator Rewards Program formerly Creativity Program payouts earnings range from $4.00 to $8.00 per 1,000 views. This is a substantial uplift from the Creator Fund's payments, which generally ranged between $0.20 to $0.40 per 1,000 views​​. These are reports based on payments received through the TikTok Creativity Program introduced in 2022.
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We hope you enjoyed our guide on content creation monetization – be sure to check out our articles about how much to charge as an online coach and how to build an online community.

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