How do content creators make money? It’s one of my top questions on TikTok (just behind how do you shower?). The conversation always starts… what do you do for work? When I say I’m a full time content creator, people either nod cautiously while thinking, “ok… whatever that means” or they ask me how I make money. This is a unique profession because there are so many different ways to make an income as a content creator, and it’s usually impossible to do them all.
Here are 10 ways content creators make money:
- Paid by social platform directly
- Affiliate marketing
- Brand deals
- User generated content
- Selling their own products or services
- Ad space on their website
- Freelance work
- Long-term brand partnerships
- Courses and programs
- Subscriptions and memberships
1. Paid by social platform directly
Yes, content creators actually get paid by YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. This is often the least lucrative when first starting out but can pay a significant amount as you continue to grow.
Do content creators get paid enough compared to how much content they provide the platforms? No, not really. But this is still a great income stream for creators.
Each social platform has its own requirements for monetization. Here’s a quick overview on the different monetization requirements for each social platform:
- YouTube Partner Program
- 1,000 subscribers
- 4,000 public watch hours (as of now, shorts do not count towards YouTube Partner Program’s watch hour requirement)
- 0 active community guidelines strikes
- TikTok Creator Fund
- 10,000 authentic followers
- 100,000 total video views in the last 30 days
- Active and good standing account in compliance with TikTok’s policies
- Instagram Bonuses
- Business or creator account
- Invite only and will receive a notification in your account
- Meta is working on improving their creator payout on both Instagram and Facebook
Of these, TikTok is known for paying the least amount compared to the effort put into content creation. For example, on my best paying day on TikTok, I had over 500k video views, 400+ comments, 100+ shares, and 1.5k new followers. I made $6 that day. At 22k followers, we make about $30/month off the TikTok creator fund. But don’t worry, you can make money from TikTok in other ways too!
YouTube is known as being the most consistent and highest payout, but it’s one of the hardest to break into their Partner Program. When you hear creators asking you to check out their YouTube channels, this is partly why! It also gives creators an opportunity to share truly valuable or entertaining videos while building an audience that really cares compared to short-form only videos.
Instagram and the Meta verse are very much up in the air about how they plan on paying creators and what creators need to do to get into their program. However, when creators are in the Reels bonus program, it’s a big opportunity to make an income stream.
2. Affiliate marketing
If you’re a content creator and you don’t use affiliate marketing, you should start. As a consumer, you’d recognize affiliate marketing when a content creator provides a specific link or code where you can buy a recommended product or service. This does not cost consumers more money; it actually usually provides them with a discount most of the time. The creator then receives a small commission based on your sale.
Each brand and affiliate program is a little different. Most pay 3-15% commission on sales, but there are some that pay out flat fees to creators. Some brands have their own affiliate programs like Bluehost (our website provider). Most brands use affiliate networks to manage and find content creators for their program.
If you’re getting into affiliate marketing as a personal brand, make sure to only partner with brands you truly recommend. People will lose trust in you if you recommend products and services that don’t meet their expectations.
Affiliate marketing is a great long-term income stream for creators. You can create a blog, YouTube, and social content sharing a specific affiliate program product and people will continue reading that blog or watching that YouTube overtime, giving you a consistent income stream.
For example, our Gift Ideas for RVers blog contains several affiliate links to products we truly love. While I didn’t get much traction on these affiliate links at first, I now get a steady stream of buyers of these products.
Getting into affiliate marketing as a content creator is exciting, but remember to mix up your content so you’re not only pushing products to your audience. Only recommend products and services you trust. And, keep in mind that it takes time and strategy to build up affiliate marketing as a consistent income stream.
Some affiliate networks and programs we find friendly to content creators are:
Two affiliate programs that are good when starting out because they have a high acceptance rate (but have lower commission) are Amazon Associates and CJ Affiliate.
3. Brand deals
Ahhh the elusive brand deals… this is often the goal for content creators, especially when starting out. There’s a common misconception that only big content creators can get brand deals, and that simply is not the case. Big content creators usually get paid more, but that doesn’t mean a new account can’t get one too!
This blog originally started as a way to get free experiences and hotel rooms in Vegas. The very first blog highlighted how to stay in Vegas on the strip for $100. I reached out to promoters, clubs, and hotels via email about working out an exchange – free admission for a mention in our blog and social media. We had a group of 9 that needed to be comped, and it actually worked! Almost everything we did was free (including a Lil Jon concert) and those things that weren’t free were heavily discounted.
I rarely do content creation in exchange for free products now, but it was a great way to start and build a portfolio. Keep in mind that when I was doing free exchanges, I had fewer than 1,000 followers on Instagram, a blog, a Facebook page, and a Google Workspace account. Check out our content creator tools to see how to make professional content even as a new creator.
I reached out to all brands that I was interested in working with, and a couple replied. A big part of that was being able to offer them a package of blog + social posts. Without the underlying blog, brand deals would be much more difficult.
Now, I offer packages to brands that include different levels of content creation, from photos only to the complete package to one-off UGC deals. Brands choose more comprehensive packages every time.
Example of a paid YouTube video as part of a bigger package with Unbound Merino (which we wear almost every day by the way!)
4. User generated content (UGC)
These are usually the types of social media ads that you see where it looks like just everyday people trying out a product. This type of content usually has lower video quality than a typical ad, the people are very relatable and authentic, and highlights the benefits of the product in real time.
User generated content by bigger creators has also become more popular in TikTok recently. You might see a creator you recognize talking about a product or service and then notice it isn’t on their account, but it’s on the brand’s account.
The great thing about UGC is that for most brands, they do not care about your own social media following. They’re looking for someone relatable to their audience that can highlight the product or service in under a minute.
The thing to watch out for with UGC is usage rights. Most of the time, brands require 100% usage rights for an unlimited amount of time from content submitted as user generated content. Why could this be a bad thing for you as a content creator?
You get paid one time and one time only. The brand could potentially make $1,000s+ off of your content over the next several years.
That being said, this is a great way for new content creators to make an income while just starting out. How much you charge can range significantly with UGC because of the usage rights. Established creators often charge more for UGC than other types of content creation because of these rights.
Start making user generated content today on billo with code G1W2J, an app that makes it super easy to connect with brands. Most payouts are around $30 + free product, so choose some high-ticket products or services that you really want and wait until you get a match! It’s kind of like a dating app for brands and content creators.
5. Selling their own products and services
Content creators often have something you can buy on their website. Whether it’s swag designed by them, stickers with their logo, or a full program you can buy, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Most creators use this as one of many income streams.
There are some content creators like Savannah from Trippy Draws who started out using social media to showcase their products and now are big-time social media creators (she now has 7.5 million followers on TikTok).
6. Ad space on your website
We’ve all seen an ad-ridden website and just wonder WHY?!?!? Well, those ads are how content creators pay the bills. Ad space on a website either really works well or isn’t worth the trickle of income to slow down a site.
Ad space can actually pay really well if you have the website traffic and audience for it. Generally, the more site visitors and lower bounce rate, the higher ad income you can make on your site.
Anyone can get started with ad space through Google AdSense and work up to bigger ad providers like Mediavine, which requires 50,000 sessions in a month.
7. Freelance work
Content creators don’t only make money from their personal brand. Many are successful in their freelance work like writing, graphic design, marketing, and consulting. As I’ve shared multiple times, I make significantly more per hour doing freelance legal writing than I did as a full time lawyer.
Freelance work is great if you have a specific skill set that you can easily apply to several different companies. I am a licensed attorney, so I use that background combined with content creation to do freelance legal blog writing. This was also a really easy segway because I have a large attorney network I could reach out to about working together.
There are several places where you can list your freelance services like Fiverr.com, upwork, peopleperhour, etc. But, you could also search specifically for freelance work. If you’re a content creator, there are so many different opportunities in this space.
Many companies need someone to produce weekly blogs for their site or create copy for push notifications or even come in for a one-off project where they just need extra support for a short time. Check out our Job Search Resource Guide for more places to look for freelance work.
8. Long-term brand partnerships
This income stream is kind of like brand deals but on a more long-term basis. This happens when you work closely with one specific brand to produce content for them over a long period of time. These partnerships can be extremely lucrative because they provide consistent income to content creators while establishing your authority on the subject matter.
One of these success stories comes from my mom, Heather Schlueter at The Spicy Apron. She started working with InstantPot when it first came out. InstantPot noticed her content performed extremely well and that she knew all the ins and outs of the appliance. She started working with them on making some how-to videos on her channel and a 10-recipe booklet insert for their products.
Fast forward a little bit, she now has two InstantPot-authorized cookbooks, an InstantPot course, and tons of InstantPot content out there. While she no longer works with them on a long-term basis, this established her as an authority in the innovative kitchen appliance industry. She now works with some of the most unique tech-forward companies out there.
The key to starting these longer-term partnerships is to really know your stuff. Oftentimes, these partnerships start off as an affiliate program or basic brand deal. The content produced from the affiliate program or brand deal far outperformed other creators. Brands notice this. They see on their metrics who the top performers are, and they usually want to do more with them. If you love the brand and want to do more with them, just ask!
9. Courses & Programs
Courses and programs are a big income stream for content creators and for good reason. There are several content creators that use social platforms primarily as lead generators. They make more money on programs and courses than they ever would on social media alone.
This model of content creation is common in the fitness industry. Fitness content creators will make content that teases their workout or nutrition plans. They can show testimonials, educational videos, and inspirational posts on their social media to build trust with their audience, ultimately leading back to purchasing their program.
Courses and programs truly are a great income source for a creator of any size in any industry though. Think of how long it took you to learn how to do what you do. Are other people trying to learn it too? What if you could save them time and money by giving them everything they need to know in one space while guiding them through the process of getting started?
That’s when a course or program is beneficial. You take all that time and energy you spent honing your craft to help others do the same in a fraction of the time.
Courses and programs can be sold on sites like Skillshare, Kajabi, Thinkific, and several more. We use Thinkific for our course creation because we sell the courses and programs through our site directly (you can get a free month here). Sites like Skillshare are more of a set it and forget it option for self-led classes that people can buy at any time.
10. Subscription or membership model
Subscribing to exclusive content from content creators has boomed over the last few years. This is a sustainable, consistent way for creators to make an income while giving exclusive access to the audience that supports them.
There are several ways you can create a subscription model as a content creator – here are some of the most popular:
- Patreon
- Membersful
- Ko-Fi
- Substack
- Circle (one of my favorite memberships is hosted through this, Consciously Creative for creative women entrepreneurs)
- Uscreen (for video creators)
- OnlyFans (it’s not just for *spicy* accountants)
- Memberpress (for WordPress users)
This top 10 how do content creators make money list doesn’t include every single way they possibly make an income, but it does include the most common.
Most creators have a combination of income streams to come up with a financial plan to support themselves. I currently do all except memberships and ad space. But who knows? Maybe there’s a fun membership is around the corner.
For now, check out our YouTube for full time travel and remote income content and subscribe to our newsletter for more info like this!
