3 ways to monetize influence

Last week I talked about the rise in influencer marketing and how to be a good influencer. Given this knowledge, the question then becomes what strategies can a creator use to monetize influence? For creators who are just starting out or those with inquiring minds who just want to know, I figured I share some of the ways to monetize influence. Here are three strategies on how influencers can generate income: affiliate links, placing advertisements and brand collaborations.

Affiliate links

An affiliate link is a link used by the influencer to direct readers/followers to a brand, product or service. If a purchase is made, the influencer gets a commission. What’s nice is the links can be adjusted to a multitude of social media platforms. There are several ways to generate these links. The first is to negotiate with a brand directly. They give you a personalized link to use for your content creation. The second method is through affiliate marketing programs like Rakuten Marketing or CJ Affiliate. Through these groups, you can apply to be an affiliate marketer with a variety of brands and stores. Typically you’ll have to connect your social media accounts so potential companies can see your metrics. Based on these numbers you can be accepted into a variety of programs. Once accepted you gain access to the company links and media assets to be used in your social media accounts. A more syndicated approach is to use companies like ShopStyle or RewardStyle. With these programs, you don’t apply for every brands. With these programs, you have access to all the brands and stores these companies have a relationship with. Simply find the store or product you want to feature and grab the links.

Advertising links

A more passive way to earn income is to essentially rent space on your blog for advertising. If you run a blog, there is often the ability to run ads on your site. Most blogging templates have space for ads in various sizes. The easiest way to utilize tis space is to generate ads automatically. Using Google Adsense, an influencer can place ads in multiple points throughout a blog. When a visitor comes to the site they are shown ads that are targeted for them. The influencer does have the ability to select the types of ads that are seen on their site so it’s possible to have ad content that’s somewhat related to the site itself.

Another way to earn income through advertising is to have brands rent ad space directly. Under this method the influencer can set ad rates based on such things like ad size, blog site location and duration of ad run. The brand provides the ad coding and the influencers adds it to his/her site. Affiliate links can also be used in advertising spaces. As I mentioned earlier, the affiliate marketing companies also have media assets that can be converted into ads for blog sites. A savvy influencer will often use several of these methods on their site. In addition, they have the ability to rotate how often ads are seen and can change them up frequently

 

Brand collaborations

For an influencer, brand collaborations are one of the best ways to monetize influence. With this method, a brand or an agency representative contracts with the influencer to produce content on its behalf. This content can come in a multitude of forms such as Instagram post, or stories, Twitter tweets and sponsored blog posts or YouTube videos.

Just like with the other ways to monetize influence, collaborations can come from a variety of sources. Collaborations typically develop through four methods: cold calling, referrals or social media discovery, influencer platforms or agency representation

Cold calling involves reaching out to a potential brand partner and pitching collaboration. This is probably one of the hardest ways to gain collaboration but done correctly it can be one of the most rewarding. With the cold call, the influencer solicits a brand and offers up solutions on why working with them would be beneficial. Don’t know how to pitch? Check out “How to Pitch a Collaboration with Brands” by Elaine Rau.

 

Sometimes the brand may reach out to you. Someone who’s worked with you in the past or who knows your work may have referred them. Or, they may have simply discovered you through your social media presence. Here they are pitching you with an idea and it’s up to you to accept the collaboration.

 

The important thing under both of these methods is to KNOW YOUR WORTH. After all it’s you that’s creating the content and there is a value to what you’re doing. Develop a media kit and set your rates so you’ll know how much you should ask for. Sites like Social Bluebook and Fohr can give you help with your insights to create a media kit as well as give you an estimate on your rates.

There are a variety of influencer platforms that you can join to help you gain collaborations. Once you join brands can find you for potential opportunities. Once you join, you connect your social media platforms and brands can reach out to you for collaborations. By connecting your platforms, brands can see your metrics. Many of the platforms allow you to tweak your profile by addition press or awards that you’ve received. A couple of platforms to check out would be Social Native and Find Your Influence.

For more established creators, collaborations can be obtained by working directly with agencies. The influencer gets representation and the agency manages obtaining the deals. Think of it as a casting agency for actors or a modeling agency for models.