Wanna turn your content into income? Here's how I did it...

If you’re one of the many people who have asked how to make some money off your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel, here’s (almost) everything I’ve learned from 15 or so years of “professional content creation.”

And for those of you who are asking “who the eff are you and why should I care what you have to say about this,” here’s my best answer: I started blogging around 2005 and wrote somewhere around 2500 blog posts, I've written for national print magazines and digital outlets including Virgin, Inc and Entrepreneur, and I've built a YouTube channel from scratch to nearly 200k subscribers and 15 million views.

I don't know everything, but I would like to think I've learned a thing or two - and in this article I'll lay out three ways that you can monetize your content, speaking from personal experience.

Note that any and all of these approaches are viable: the right combination for YOU depends on your strengths and the specific nature of your content and audience.

OPTION 1: ADVERTISING

This is the most straightforward option: just sign up for Google Adsense on your website or YouTube channel, they handle the rest, and you get paid.

However, because the rates for this kind of advertising are fairly low, you'll need a pretty big audience for this to add up to real money -- roughly speaking, hundreds of thousands of visitors/viewers per month.

As a rough example, most YouTubers can expect to make $2-5 per 1,000 views - probably closer to $2 than $5. Podcast ads can be much higher than that, but download numbers are much smaller than YouTube so it's a bit of a wash.

In practice, building a YouTube channel or blog to the point where you are getting hundreds of thousands or millions of visitors per month is pretty damn hard, so if you're thinking of monetizing via ads, be prepared to put in a few years of work to get there, without making much along the way.

Should you have ads, if they're easy to implement? Sure, why not?

But IMO, unless you have a realistic line of sight on building a seriously large audience, most creators would be smart to think of advertising revenue as a nice bonus, and look elsewhere for the real money.

The key is to think of content as a bridge to other opportunities:

I don't make a ton from my channel's merch, but it's purely passive income - hard to complain about that!

OPTION 2: SELL A PRODUCT

In this scenario, you use your content to build an audience which you then monetize by selling them other things: a book, merch, affiliate products, etc.

My friend Graham Cochrane of The Recording Revolution is a particularly inspiring and successful example:

“In January of 2010, he rebranded that blog The Recording Revolution, and he remembers it made hardly any money at all in its first two years.

Today, nearly six years after he made it his primary focus, the site earns between $35,000 and $75,000 a month.

Aside from the free content he’s always offered, Cochrane added in-depth video courses on different aspects of sound recording and mixing that cost between $39 and $897, and a monthly membership for $27 a month that provides access to supplementary content. He estimates between 6,000 and 7,000 people have taken his courses so far.”

(Yahoo Finance)

That's somewhere around $500K a year in courses! And yes, he has a big audience and maybe you don't - but for many of us, even making 10% of that would be a huge win, right?

Monetizing your audience like this is a great option, but be aware that it's not as simple as it may appear at first glance.

What I mean is, this option requires you to be good a lot of other things in addition to making content: building a marketing funnel, customer support, and of course creating the product itself. 

And while all those things can certainly be learned, they're not what a lot of creators excel at, or want to sign up for (spending 10 hours a week on customer support isn't most people's idea of fun, but it's part of the job when you make a course).

Which brings me to the last option, which I actually think is the best fit for most people…

I've used my channel to meet tons of people I admire, such as Randall Pich of Live Fit

OPTION 3: USE IT TO BUILD A NETWORK

Probably the most valuable part of creating content is that it’s a great way of building your network. And you've probably heard the saying "your network is your net worth" - it's 100% true!

As part of setting up interviews, collabs, etc you’ll get access to tons of busy, important people – influencers, founders, etc. These are all people who would probably ignore you if you were a "civilian," but will probably talk to you if you’re a blogger, podcaster or YouTuber.

And you’ll end up building real, lasting relationships with some of them – a 2 hour conversation for a podcast could turn into all kinds of opportunities!

I know because this has played out in my career more times than I could begin to list – in fact, I can confidently say that a huge chunk of my network goes back to the blogging I did back in 2008-2016. As one specific example, it's how I met the guys in Periphery, which is how I ended up getting consulting gigs that paid off my student loans and car.

The best part is, this option does NOT require you to have a big audience! Of course that's always helpful, but even the smallest podcast or YouTube channel can be a super effective way of building your network - you would be surprised who will say yes to an interview if you just ask.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Advertising is a great way to monetize your content, but don't stop there: use it as a springboard to market a product or service, a way to build your network and a chance to learn new skills. And remember that you do NOT need a huge audience to turn your content into lifechanging opportunities!

Yes, the world of content creators is crowded, and getting increasingly crowded - but that only means that the sooner you start, the better... so what are you waiting for? Start today!v